Is my kitten KILLING my older Cat??!!??

This is a place to gain some understanding of cat behavior and to assist people in training their cats and dealing with common behavior problems, regardless of the method(s) used. Keep in mind that you may be receiving advice from other cat owners and lovers...not professionals. If you have a major problem, always seek the advice of a trainer or behaviorist!

MoonStar

1009423

Purred: Sun Nov 8, '09 4:01am PST


	MoonStar & Zen's Mommy says: My kitten, Zen, has been playing in the water bowl. First we had a gravity-fed water bowl with a 20 Oz. bottle, & the bubbles just COMPELLED him to chase them - therefore dumping the waterer. We got a bigger gravity-fed one 1.5 L (Van Ness) with the squared bottle - it's even BIGGER than the first one and Zen DRAGS IT ACROSS THE FLOOR!! My baseboards are starting to rot because they're constantly WET. I come home to 1 Litre of water on the floor and the waterer 6 feet from where it belongs. Poor MoonStar has been dehydrated a number of times since we got Zen. She isn't getting enough water now because Zen monopolizes, dumps & GUARDS the water. I think he's also being extremely territorial and MoonStar doesn't know how to fend for herself. She's been an only cat for 11 years. Now she's getting skinny of a sudden and refuses to eat or potty if she can SEE Zen. He'll chase her out of the potty while shes halfway thru a poo. 2 rooms later I have to track her down with a tissue to pick her bum clean of hanger-ons. She's taken to peeing on the bathroom floor and hiding away from Zen. I LOVE Zenners to bits, but I feel like he's killing my baby girl. tears I don't know what to do for them. Please, someone help!

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Hobert von- Kingston III

Is it Caturday- yet?

Purred: Sun Nov 8, '09 10:33am PST


	I can certainly see your concern. We had a similar problem with our "watering hole," but because of our puppy, not the cats. My advice is to put water bowls all over the house where your older cat can get to them. I'd drop the gravity waterers until Zen is mature enough to handle them. Most kittens go through a playing with water phase. We have no less than three heavy ceramic water bowls in three different rooms. This gives your older kitty a fair chance to drink and a heavier bowl with less water might deter Zen. As for the litter box, how many do you have? The rule of thumb is one box per cat plus an extra box. Zen can't guard three boxes at once. As hard as it sounds, I'd also try and discipline him a bit when he scares your girl away. Try and tell him "no" and get him away from guarding, show your older girl that you'll protect her and keep her safe. You might also want to get her a high cat tree where she'll feel safer, and put a bell on Zen so she can try and avoid him. Good luck! P.S. Could you feed MoonStar wet food to help her get more moisture? Edited by author Sun Nov 8, '09 10:35am PST

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Ben

I fetch,- therefore I am.

moderator

Purred: Mon Nov 9, '09 10:37am PST


	Can you supply the kitties with more than one source of water? We have bowls in the kitchen, living room and bedroom. It probably wouldn't hurt to have extra food dishes and meals in separate rooms, too. How many litter boxes to the have? Experts say you should have one per cat plus one, so ideally you should have at least 3.

Macie

Little- Miss-cheif!

Purred: Tue Nov 10, '09 10:29am PST


	Yeah, several bowls seems like a good idea for your problems. Also, maybe you can try to pull interest away from playing in the water? Oh! You can try to have a bowl of ice cubes, too. It's been suggested on a Victoria Stillwell It's Me or the Dog show that when you're not able to take your dog out for a fair amount of hours (like when you're sleeping at night or something) and need your dog to drink water but don't want it to drink too much (so that it pees in the house) you can have a bowl of ice cubes out for the dog to lick. The ice cubes are sufficient enough to hydrate the animal but they won't drink so quickly that they'll need to eliminate. Macie likes to play with the ice cubes (if you put them in water, she'll bat at them and when they melt and she can't see them, she tries to dig them up out of the bowl- resulting in a watery floor- she'll also bat them across the kitchen floor) but she will lick them to drink. So, I know... with dogs being a larger animal, this should also work for cats.

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