Watching your cats interact with each other can be a lot of fun. Yet, if your cats do not get along, life can be miserable for the cats as well as for the owner. To provide the best conditions for a good relationship between cats there are three things you should do –
- Introduce the cats properly (see our article about introducing cats).
- Create the right environment for them to live together.
- Deal with their confrontations in an appropriate manner.
The focus of this article is on the second item: how to set the stage so that your cats can live together with the minimum amount of friction.
Setting the Expectations for Life in a Multi-Cat Household
Before we address the issue of resources allocation – let’s put things in perspective. When you have more than one cat, you will probably witness an occasional cat spat from time to time. Our aim is not to prevent cat confrontations altogether, but rather decrease the frequency and the intensity of hostilities so that the cats enjoy a better quality of life.
Don’t expect all of your cats to necessarily adore each other. You may see Ying-and-Yang cuddling among your cats, especially if the cats have been brought up together since kittenhood. Then again, you may not. The cats are more likely to just co-exist peacefully in the same territory. Whichever the case, even in the best of circumstances the occasional hiss is perfectly normal and appropriate. Your cats are just being cats. Just think – don’t you ever hiss or spit at the humans who share your territory?
Manage Your Cat-Resources Wisely
If you want to have several cats living under your roof in relative peace, you need to make sure that there’s enough of everything to go around. Never make your cats compete for resources, whether that be food, litter pans, water bowls, toys it is this type of competition that is usually the cause of many cat fights. And this can and should be avoided.
Living Space in a multicat household
Make sure your cats have plenty of room. Overcrowding will stress them. It is a sure-fire recipe for hostility among your cats.
The big question would be “how crowded is too crowded?” There is no simple answer. Some situations can be overly-crowded. If you’re keeping ten cats per room then that is probably too much. However, throwing a figure of cats per room or per square feet can oftentimes be misleading.
A lot depends on the cats themselves. Some cats require more personal space, while others are relatively immobile and don’t mind other cats bouncing around them.
Another factor to consider is vertical space. If the cats are allowed and encouraged to utilize the upper level of the room, than they have more space than the sum of the square feet of floor tiles. Try adding cat furniture, shelves and climbing ramps that will make their territory larger without adding a new room to your house.
Litter boxes in a multicat household
Make sure you have at least one litter box per cat. Then add another litterbox.
This doesn’t mean that each litter box is used by one specific cat. On the contrary, the cats will probably share. It does mean that no cat should have to wait in line to use the litter box. If your cat needs to go and finds that the litter box is occupied, she may have to resort to your carpet instead. And who knows? If she likes it, she might just keep going there.
While you may be lucky enough to have your cats share a smaller number of litter boxes, unless you have enough litter boxes, you are risking litter box avoidance down the road. The rule for calculating the number of litter boxes is: the number of cats plus one.
Food & Water in a multicat household
Make sure your cats never have to compete for food or water. Have enough food and water dishes for all. Depending on the number of your cats, you may want to consider setting up several feeding locations. Preventing the cats from crowding around the dishes will help to minimize mealtime aggression, and will also relieve stress. Be sure and feed the most dominant cat first. That will also go a long way in easing tensions that sometimes result during feeding time.
Attention and TLC
The golden rule for cat care is: “to each by her or his needs”. Make sure you spend quality time with all of your cats both individually and collectively, while being sensitive to their specific requirements. There is no need to divide your TLC equally. Fulfilling each individual needs will depend on what the cat desires, not what you want. Some cats may crave attention and petting, while others may be shyer and prefer a more distant interaction. You should become the expert on the different needs of your cats.
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