another old cat vs. new cat question

[sherryah9]

ok, so i've done this before but never ran into this for such a prolonged period of time, so i'm wondering about your opinions. neko and nermal are still developing their heirarchy and comfort level with each other. nermal is still establishing her dominance and letting niko know that she is queen bee. that's all well and good, no surprises there. but it's been like two weeks or a little more? and nermal is still hissing and spatting at niko even when he's not that close to her or even coming close to her. i know she'll hiss when he gets in her face, or when she doesn't want him to interrput her when eating, etc. but if he even walks past say, 3-4 feet away, she'll hiss. he's not doing anything to her that should make her feel violated or challenged. so i know when they get into their small play fights to establish dominance you are NOT to interupt them (as long as it's not too serious and neither cat is in danger of really being hurt badly) BUT...is it okay to say 'no nermal', or 'be nice'? in a way that you would normally correct a bad behavior? not harshly, but with that tone that tells them you're serious. is this okay, or is simply saying 'no' something that is not recommended. i'm not getting near them when she's doing this or making any body movements, just telling her 'no' or to knock it off. what do you think? i know they have to work it out on their own terms in their own ways, but would doing this be interfering too much? or is this reasonable after a couple weeks of this from her? thanks.

[creativz]

Try clapping your hands, distract them, always works for me when my 2 are a little TOO feisty !

[luvsallanimals]

you could try that or you could keep a spray bottle handy. Sabbath and Pinky are 4 years apart and for a 4 year old Alpha female to let in a 6 week old kitten was hard for Sabbath. They still go at it 4 years later, BUT when they would get into there dominance spats I'd tell Sabbath to be nice, and shake the water bottle. If she still attacked Pinky I'd spray her with the water. Now she learnd that they need to live in the same house together. They don't need to like each other, they just need to live together.

If nothing works talk to your vet about it. My vet gives free advice over the phone if my cats have a problem or any of my other creatures. I say this because your Vet knows you, your situation and your animals. We can only give you advice on your question and the information you provide.

Every cat has there own personality and tick offs. Your vet will know them if you bring your cats in for yearly visits and can help you better :)

But any advice helps if your vet isn't as nice as mine:) Wishing you luck.

[sherryah9]

thanks, i do ask my vet, but where i go there are 3 vets in the office, they are all good, but only one is really open about behavior type questions, the rest will answer but not in any detail or not really put much into their answer that really helps me. let's face it, these are rural vets so their big money and therefore big interests lie in farm animals and people with large lots of livestock. they do pets too of course, but they really specialize more so in the care of farm animals and livestock since that is the main type of business around here. they just see more of that than they do house pets. i read alot of books on the subject and do alot of research on my own, from cat clubs or reputable internet sites, but so far i'm only reading to let them work it out, not to interfere unless one animal is being really hurt. so i wasn't sure if just saying 'no!no!' would be too much interference. i know they have to work it out on their own, but sometimes i just think nermal is too worked up about it, especially when he's not challenging her or coming that close to her, she just needs to chill out a little bit. she still gets her love and attention, he's not taking anything away from her and he's not trying to challenger her or her place in the home. he knows that nermal is top cat and he's fine with it. for some reason though, she must not know that he realizes this yet, and she just keeps pushing her point.