1 year old Tabby

Question
Hi there! I have two rescued cats. One is a spayed female Snowshoe. We have been together for five years now. She is sweet, gentle, loving, and amazing. I had adopted another cat in December. He is a fixed, short haired orange tabby. They hit it off together from the start however I have a few issues with him. See, he is VERY jealous of my Showshoe. He must eat her food when she try's to eat out of her dish. He always rams her when she is getting petted so she will scamper away. He is always jumping on her, play fighting with her, and overall annoying her and the rest of our family. They are both indoor cats and get plenty of play time, toys, and engaging activities. I know he is only a year old but why is he so jealous of her when both get equal amount of love an attention. They both even sleep with my boyfriend and I on my side and I woke up to them fighting, at 3am, yet again!   Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer
Erin,

It sounds to me as if it is a normal relationship between the two of them.

Having a cat eat everyone's food as well as his own is perfectly normal.  This is how cats are.  You probably do not really know his history, so, it is likely he did not know when and where his next meal was coming from????  Even so, when our cats eat, they move to everyone else's plate when they eat.

When cats play, they play very roughly.  If you would watch little kittens play together, they are awful, "fighting", biting, scratching!!!!! This is normal cat play.  It seems to me that their behavior is perfectly normal.

I would be very careful about ascribing jealousy to the tabby.  There may be some of that, but he probably has become the dominant cat and is asserting himself.  I would venture a guess that as the boy gets older, he will calm down.

I have two rules when dealing with cat inter-relationships:  (1)  No human interference (it is always counter productive). and (2)  We mere humans do not understand the rules of how cats relate to one another.  I would not worry about the two of them and be happy that they are getting along so well.


Best regards... Norm.