2 very different cats

Question
I have 2 cats.  Thomas is about 9.  I adopted him when he was around 5 and he came from a 2 cat household.  Less than a year later I took in a stray that the vet stated was about 4.  The 1st time I introduced Riley, the stray, to Thomas, Riley attacked him and it became a short fur flying fight.  I was able to quickly grab Riley.  Riley was not neutered at the time but is now.  Thomas is a timid and somewhat nervous cat.  He hates the dogs too and primarily stays in my bedroom.  I have a gate up in my bedroom doorway to keep the dogs out and Riley and Thomas will paw at each other through the gate.  It seems playful, but I will sometimes hear a hiss out of Thomas, but not very often.  When I bring Thomas out of my room, he hates for Riley to get to close to him.  He crouches down as close as possible to the ground, his ears are back and he growls.  If he tries to escape Riley will pounce on him.  I have a feeling that Riley is feeding off of Thomas' nervous energy and maybe if I can get Thomas to stop being so scared they might actually get along.  Any suggestions?

I also have another question about Riley that is unrelated to the above.  He just had the remainder of his teeth pulled out a couple of weeks ago so I have switched him to canned food.  I have noticed since the change he tries to cover the left over food in his bowl.  I am not concerned w/ stopping this behavior, just curious as to why he does it.

Answer
Hi Tracie,

First of all kudos to you for rescuing a poor (now) toothless stray cat! For the fighting situation, I think you need to go back to square one and take things slowly. It can take a few months for the hormones to level out when an adult male is neutered, it would be a good idea to let Riley's testosterone level come down before introducing them again. Separate the cats again as if they had never met, and follow the steps outlined in this article:

http://catnet.stanford.edu/articles/introducing_cats.html

However before starting the introductions again, try keeping them apart for several weeks and rub a towel on one cat and then rub it on the other cat, back and forth to mingle their scents. Make sure you do this right before you try the first steps of introduction.

I think you should also try using the Feliway plug-in diffuser and/or spray. Feliway helps reduce anxiety and aggression in cats, it mimics relaxing pheromones that cats exude from their cheek glands. Spraying doorways and furniture with Feliway can reduce territorial aggression and calm nervous cats. The plug-in diffuser creates a constant release of Feliway, the spray is best for local and immediate but short-term effect (like the doorway around where they will meet for the first time again). It is not detectable by humans at all (the spray smells like rubbing alcohol when you first use it, but that quickly evaporates). It is sold in most pet stores and online, for example at www.drsfostersmith.com.

There are also several herbal calming and anti-depressant supplements or medications you can try. A good one to try is NutriCalm, it can be mixed in canned food or a little tuna and cats will eat it. It has calming herbs that can help anxious cats, as your Thomas is.

Try to prevent any aggressive situations from happening before they start, by taking things very slow and easy.

About the food behavior - this is commonly observed. Canned food smells stronger and is usually considered "yummier" by the cat (more meat percentage wise) so it is to be guarded. If the cat can't finish the meal in one sitting, he wants to make sure that 1. no bigger predator will smell his lunch and be attracted to it and 2. other cats know it is "his" and he will be coming back for it. So cats often "bury" their food for these reasons, and they have scent pads in their paws as they do in their cheeks, pawing things leaves a strong scent detectable to other cats (but not to humans) identifying the "kill" as theirs.