male neutered cat agressive with older spayed female

Question
We have an 8 year old spayed female of a docile character.  She has lived with two different female cats in the past. Although they hissed and fought a little, they eventually left each other alone. Neither of these cats lives with us anymore.  We introduced a 2 year old neutered male cat into the house and he spends all of his time looking for the female cat and chasing her.  Last week he found her while she was in her covered litter box and they were rolling around on the floor in a terrible fight.  We leave them separated now and put the male cat outside at night.  Both cats were pretty much confined indoors while we were dog sitting for about 3 weeks.  We have had the new cat for about 4 months and he has mostly stayed indoors while he adjusted.  Is he destined to be in a one-cat household?

Answer
Debbie,

I have a few questions about what type of fighting you are actually seeing...If there is a lot of hissing, growling, caterwauling or if someone is left bleeding (you may need to check under the fur for evidence of this, I usually try to massage gently through the fur to the skin to find scabs which will usually feel irregular and hard, different from the skin). If your cats are just chasing each other around and rolling each other over the floor you may just be seeing play fighting which is normal behavior in most multi cat households. If you think that you are seeing real and serious fighting I have a few suggestions. First of all make sure that both cats have a recent clean bill of health, if someone is sick or in pain they can become crankier than they normally would.  Once the cats have both been checked over thoroughly by your vet you can look at other issues such as vying for dominance. I usually suggest in multi cat households that you have one food bowl, water bowl and litter box per cat plus one, this eliminates the possibility of "resource guarding", which means that one cat isn't trying to claim possession of the necessities of life in your home. You could try playing with both cats using toys like teases and kitten mittens so that they don't bug each other out of sheer boredom. There is a signifigant age difference in the cats in your household, in human terms your eight year old is approximately 48 years old, while your 2 year old is about 24 years old, so when compared to humans you are aware that 24 and 48 year old humans tend to have different energy levels and interests. You need to account for that, there are many things that can help to burn off excess energy that won't bother your older cat and will keep your younger cat busy. I have seen some beautiful floor to ceiling scratch posts made to look like trees with little platforms and treehouses at certain levels. It is worth your while if you are on a budget to look at saving up for the sturdier models because if you have an unstable scratch post and your cat falls or the post tips you will have wasted the money on such a big purchase. In my experience the better elaborate floor to ceiling posts are worth about 400$ Canadian funds. The good thing about these posts is that they are often offered in a variety of color choices to blend in with your decor and they will keep your kitties occupied for everything from food hide and seek to catnip cuddles in the noon sun. A laser toy is also a good investment, I bought one not too long ago that takes 2 AAA batteries, the good thing about that is replacing the batteries is more economical than the laser toys with specialty batteries so that you don't spend more than the toy is worth every time you change the batteries. There are even Catsitter Dvds available to entertain your cats while you are at work or out doing other things and not available to play with them...In my experience these dvds are just awesome, my cats love them, I usually set up a chair in front of the TV big enough for my 3 resident cats and they get up and watch their movie together. The Catsitter Dvd is well thought out, it appeals to cats and the complex prey drives that they have and I paid roughly 20$ Canadian for my copy. All in all stopping the younger kitty from bothering your older one is all about keeping him entertained, in a few years he will settle down a bit more, but you will find that if you provide the means for cats to entertain themselves they will be happy and healthy for life. If you are going to purchase toys that they can bat around or pick up and carry think about how they will sound at 3am, if they are noisy skip them because cats do like to play at night. I hope that these suggestions are useful. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me again.