Matt was living at his home with his full blood brother, James. They had lived in harmony for 2 years growing up together and enjoying the full house together. However, in 2021, Matt started to show aggressive behaviour towards his brother and this was causing distress to his family. His owners contact us at Forrest Animal Behaviour for help to learn how to manage them and help to re-build their relationship.

During the assessment, it was found a new cat had moved in two doors down, who Matt was also starting to fight with. This new cat was also found in the kitchen on one occasion. This would mean Matt wound return from outside, very stressed out and frustrated from interactions with this new cat, and when James was in the house, after his return, poor James got attacked out of redirected frustration.

For his treatment plan we introduced environmental management. This included, more escape areas in their garden, allowing Matt to meet the new cat outside. And also providing higher areas in the house for James to retreat to away from Matt if needed, this also meant more escape routes in narrow passageways. The cat flap was changed to Microchip, to stop the new cat coming in the kitchen and pheromones that are specific to feline relationship building was introduced.
These changes really helped Matt to feel more secure at home and importantly protect James from injury or further breakdown of relationship. Over a few months the attacks, from Matt to James, has stopped. Their relationship has not yet returned to previous years and might not. However, they are both happy in their home and are able to be in the same room resting and able to easily pass each other regularly in the house, without conflict.