aggression in housemates

Question
Hi,
My question relates to aggressive behavior.  I have three cats, the mother and two of her offspring, a male and a female.  All three have been fixed.  The mother was fixed immediately a few weeks after giving birth, and the offspring were fixed at a few months of age.  The mother cat is now 4 years old and the offspring are 3 years old.

About a year or two ago, the mother cat started treating the male offspring differently...sometimes she would clean him and other times, she would hiss and scratch at him.  She continues to this day to be very loving to the female offspring.  These three cats generally have been very loving toward each other, usually sleeping together in a big pile on my bed.

Last night, in the middle of the night, I was awakened by horrible gutteral howling (sort of like the sounds of being in heat), followed by hissing and a major fight between the mother and the male offspring.  I separated the offspring from the mother by putting them in the other room. The mother seemed fine and let me pet her.  The offspring also let me pet them when she wasn't around.  After a while, the offspring were scratching and trying to get back into my bedroom, so I let them in.  Mother cat ran into the living room and hid behind the chair.  The offspring also went into the living room, but stayed their distance.  Whenever the male cat would move closer to the mother cat, the howling and hissing would start again.

This whole ordeal scared the heck out of me, as I have never seem them be aggressive, other than play aggression, which has never gotten out of hand.

Can you give me any insight into what may be going on?

Thanks for your help,
Pam


Answer
All they are doing is fighting to be the head of the house. There is always one cat that is the leader of the other cats. As the male is getting older, he wants to be in control so thats causing a problem with the mother cat, the current leader. It will just take time and they will work it out. If you catch them fighting or growling at each other just get on to them so they will know that if they do that they will get in trouble for it.