Kitty Issues-Feliway Comfort Diffuser

[malibu]

Hi. I have three cats (and a hamster, and a fish - we have a small zoo at our house). We got the first two in 2008 and 2009, and the third kitty came home with me a few months ago. Daisy and Sunny (older cats - Daisy is 8 or 9, Sunny is 5 or 6 - since they were strays, no one was quite sure how old they were) get along just fine, always have. New kitty (my daughter calls her Baby Kitteh and it kind of stuck) is 2, and I brought her home when someone told me about a Craigslist posting about a family a few blocks away from me saying they'd just 'let her go' if no one wanted to come get her, because they were moving and didn't have time to drop her at a shelter (but they'd had time two days before to get her spayed - so they planned to just let this poor kitty go outside fresh out of surgery - nice). So I brought her home because, well, I'm kind of a crazy cat person.

Things have gone OK, but the older two dislike the new kitty. Sunny just started coming upstairs and staying upstairs for the first time about two weeks ago. Both Daisy and Sunny will tolerate the new kitty, usually from separate rooms, but if she walks past them, it's like cat WW3 and there's hissing and growling. New kitty recently started peeing and pooping on beds, floors, etc., so I took her in to find she has roundworms. She's since been treated for that and those accidents are minimal, although this week she peed on my DD's bed literally while I was putting on fresh sheets. I've since bought Cat Attract litter additive, and I've been spraying DD's room with one of the 'go away' type sprays (I'm not at home to see what brand it is).

So, very, very long background info aside, I'm curious if the Feliway Comfort Diffuser works. I'm hoping it would calm all THREE down, and I've heard they may help with litterbox issues. Do they really work? I hate to drop that amount of money on what essentially looks like a Glade plug-in without knowing if it truly helps.

[niemand88f]

It definitely does work in many situations, and does help keep my 4 cats calm - but not all the time. How did you introduce the cats? They need a slow introduction, and you could try restarting the introduction process if they're still acting like she's brand new. Also make sure they each get some individual attention every day, whether play time and/or petting time. My kitten needs a lot of exercise to keep his attention off the older cats and I can tell when he needs more because he starts stalking our 2nd cat.

But sometimes they'll just never get along. I've had my 3rd cat for a year, and she and my 1st cat still avoid each other (but they rarely hiss anymore).

[katietornado]

How long have you had the new cat? It took our two boys about six months to really accept our female when she showed up. There was a lot of hissing and poor behavior til then though.

[malibu]

New kitty came to live with us June 29th of this year. I'm just kind of surprised, the older two had no issues with each other when I brought Sunny home a year after Daisy. In fact, I've never had cats that didn't get along, so this is kind of new for me (having cats that don't get along).