Although more detailed information about integrating cats into a household is beyond the scope of this blog article, it is worth mentioning the importance of slow integration of new cats into a home where another cat or cats resides.
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Dale Rubenstein The following post was originally written by fellow cat veterinarian Dr. Subscribe to our Blog First name or full name. By continuing, you accept the privacy policy. Search for:.
Territory: Cats are territorial animals and they will often fight to defend what they believe is their territory. This is most common with cat fights that happen outside the house, where your cat believes another cat has encroached on their land. Alternately, a feral cat could believe your cat should not be here. But such fighting is also common among cats who live together. Cats mark their territories with scent, and your house is no exception. If you have more than one cat living at home, they will often fight about this issue.
Aggression: Some cats can be aggressive by nature. Male cats are especially aggressive and these cats keep fighting. Sometimes, they also dominate female cats. Your cat may need to act out their aggression by picking fights with their brothers and sisters or by causing a fight with a strange cat. Rough play: Sometimes cats can be playing and it can get rough.
Cats are rough when they play — this may look like aggression and fighting, but it is not. Still, such play could escalate into a fight or cause harm to both or one of the cats. In such cases, it is best to separate your cats if you can do so safely. Using cat-appeasing pheromone products either sprays to use on furniture around the home or plug into diffusers can help to reduce feeling s of stress and therefore reduce aggressive behaviour.
These techniques will help with the introduction of a new cat or to reduce any signs of aggression in household that already has multiple cats. Watching your cats fighting can be heart-breaking; here are two animals that you adore and they are hurting each other!
While your first instinct might be to jump in and separate them, do be careful. Aggressive responses seen in pet cats are closely related to the natural behaviour of the species and are a normal part of predation, play and social conflict. As a self-reliant species and solitary hunter, the cat avoids physical conflict as a threat to survival, as any overt fighting could cause injury, inability to hunt and consequently death. There are a number of reasons why aggression will take place between cats, either within the home or in territory outside.
Most cats will attempt to defend their home range, or at the very least the area they consider most significant to them, against invasion by others. Assertive cats in the neighbourhood may actively seek out opportunities to extend their territory and less confident cats represent easy targets. If cats are unable to or unsuccessful in the defence of their range then they could potentially become housebound as their boundaries have been pushed back so significantly that trips outdoors become too dangerous.
The cat flap or even an open door or window could potentially allow strange cats to invade the home and this can lead to aggressive behaviour from both parties.
Surprisingly there are occasions when the invading force gets no opposition from the resident cat, but this is probably largely down to fear rather than a positive acceptance of the encounter. Any such invasions can also cause friction between members of the same cat household as it raises their anxiety and may potentially exacerbate rumbling tensions that have previously been maintained at a tolerable level.
The sheer volume of cats in the neighbourhood can also have a similar effect as their presence becomes a pressure that they are powerless to overcome. In disputes between incompatible cats within a multi-cat household kept indoors the same type of antagonistic interaction may take place and individuals become reluctant to venture out of one room except at very specific times as their territory becomes subdivided by the more confident cats.
Active aggression fighting will occur if escape and avoidance opportunities are limited or absent. Some cats resort to active aggression quicker than others, dependent on their genetics, sex and early experiences. Any household with breeding females may also experience episodes of aggression, particularly when queens are protecting their kittens. These environments can be hotbeds of tension, often displayed passively, as there is frequently a mix of entire and neutered cats.
Females coming in and out of season within the group can put further strain on relationships. Certainly some cats may be more likely to be aggressive under challenging circumstances than others. Cats are very adaptable and they can share space in a home without having that important mutual bond.
This is when a cat may well employ passive bullying as a highly effective tactic of psychological rather than physical warfare. Within any multi-cat group, there will be potential bullies; all they need is a victim. Some of the more determined types do not stop short of driving their victim from the home. These victims are the cats that develop stress-related illness as a result of the constant, unavoidable threat that the bully represents.
This can often be very subtle as the cat only needs to position itself somewhere between the other cat and the resource to block access; to the casual observer, this just looks like a cat having a rest in a perfectly harmless location. Many bonded cats enjoy play fighting and will chase each other, roll around and bat each other with their paws. Play fighting is often silent, with plenty of gaps in between as each cat repositions itself.
While a small amount of noise is to be expected from playful pets, very loud interactions are an indicator of a fight. Intimidating noises are common between disagreeing kitties, so listen out for vocal pets - particularly if one cat yelps in pain. Fighting cats will often have their claws out, ready to swipe or defend themselves - unlike playful kitties who more often have their claws retracted. Ears and eyes are other key body language indicators that can tell you if your cats are happy or not!
Happy, playful cats will often have their ears forward, upright or slightly back. However, fighting kitties may have their ears turned back, often against their head. Aggressive kitties will often also stare at each other intensely, ready to jump into a scrap!
So if your pets are causing harm to one another, or leaving each other shaken, nervous and tense after interacting, you likely have fighting kitties! Never physically intervene here, as you or your pets may be hurt.
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