How to Help Cats in a Multiple Cat Household Get Along

When you have more than one cat in your home, things can start to get a little testy. Of course, it depends on the cats, and some get along great. But the more cats you have, the more likely there is to be some trouble.

The most common thing that happens when there are multiple cats in a home is that one or more will urinate in inappropriate spots outside the litter box. Scratching unsuitable items is also common when cats in a home aren't getting along.

Luckily, there are some ways to help your cats tolerate one another better and decrease the chances of inappropriate behavior related to the stress of multi-cat households.

What Causes Strife in Multi-Cat Households?

Before you can help your cats get along better, it's necessary to understand what causes issues in multi-cat households in the first place.

Most of the time, when cats don't get along, it's because one or more of them feel like they aren't getting their fair share of the home's resources or that they need to guard those resources against the other cats. In kitty terms, resources are;

• Clean litter boxes
• Food
• Water
• Cozy cat beds
• Scratching posts
• Time with favored humans
• 
  Interactive playtime
• Territory

Most of the time, multi-cat trouble can be staved off by making sure there are enough cat-friendly resources to go around.

How to Ensure Your House Has Enough Cat Resources

Here are some ways to make sure you have enough resources, so your cats won't need to compete.

First, have enough litter boxes and keep them clean. In general, you should have as many boxes as you have cats plus one extra. They should be scooped twice a day and emptied and cleaned out weekly.

Multiple cats need more than one food and water station. In fact, water should be kept in a different area from food because most cats don't like to drink near where they eat.

Provide lots of cozy cat beds in a variety of styles so your cats can always find one to curl up in. If one bed seems coveted by multiples, get duplicates of that style. Get a few Cat Caves too because cats love to hide and watch others go past.

Cats need to scratch to stay healthy and happy. Providing a variety of good quality scratching posts that they like to scratch not only fulfills their resource requirements but also helps them release stress.

Also, cats need territory. That means they all need to feel like they own something. The more cats you have, the less territory there is so they may fight over it. You can help alleviate that by creating more real estate upwards. Give them sturdy catwalks up high or tall scratching posts. Cats also use height to relieve stress, so this one is another twofer. Try a catio to add real estate.

Make sure you are taking time to interact with and play with each of your cats. That will go a long way toward both alleviating stress and making each cat feel less driven to protect that resource—you and their playtime with you.

Use General Feline Stress-Relief Techniques

We've already touched on a few ways to relieve cats' stress that overlap with resources:

• Interactive playtime
• Scratching posts
• High territory

In addition to that, you can also try Feliway. It's a substance that mimics the calming pheromone cats give off. It comes in a spray or diffuser and can be a massive help in multi-cat households. In fact, there's a variety specifically made for it: Feliway Multi-Cat.

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