Do You Know Why Cats Fight?
You’ve certainly seen cat fights on the street a few times. Or even, if you have more than one cat at home, you may have experienced these fights in your own home and you should know that the best thing to do is to stay away. But why do cats fight?
cats fight for what reasons
Cats fight for a variety of reasons, which usually boil down to two: turf fights and fights over a female. Cats are highly territorial and have a great fighting instinct.
If the cats that fight are yours, try to avoid territorial fights by putting a litter box and feeders separate and in different places in the house for them, and make sure you give them the same care.
Fighting between your cats should stop as soon as you use prizes to reinforce good behavior. If the fight is on the street, they usually happen between unneutered cats, which can have or contract infectious diseases, which can aggravate the fights even more.
What types of aggressive behavior can be exhibited by cats?
Cats can show different types of aggressive behavior.
If the aggression is territorial, the cat may be aggressive towards certain cats but tolerant of others. Typical behavior of this type of aggression includes hunting, chasing, ambushes, grunting, loud meowing, and even the aggressor cat may try to prevent the other from accessing places like your litter box or your bed.
While it may seem that males are the most aggressive, females can be as aggressive as males when it comes to land disputes.
However, males can fight each other simply because they are male, for a female, for example, for a higher place in the hierarchy or even to defend their territory.
The fact that one cat is threatening another can be seen by the offending cat’s chase towards the other, the stare, the arched back and the goose bumps. If the other cat doesn’t turn around, a fight will break out.
A third form of aggression is defensive aggression. This occurs when a cat tries to protect itself from another animal or human that it thinks it cannot escape. It could be due to a punishment or threat of punishment by the owner, an attack or intention to attack by another cat, or any incident that makes the cat feel threatened or frightened.
The defensive posture a cat adopts in these circumstances is to crouch with its tail and paws under its body, crush its ears against its skull, and turn slightly to one side. Trying to approach a cat in this position can make it feel even more threatened and can provoke an attack.
Cats can redirect their aggression against another animal or person, even though they didn’t provoke the attack, simply because they feel threatened or nervous.
Although your intention is to comfort the cat, he may attack you because he is nervous about something else.
If your cat frequently abuses others, consult a veterinarian, as it is possible that your cat is sick and paying for stress with others.
How to separate when cats fight?
Don’t try to put yourself in the middle of a fight or touch them while they’re fighting, as you might get hurt. To separate fighting cats, you need to scream or slap very hard, as close as possible to the fight, or use a water jet against the cats.
It is necessary, in some way, to distract their attention. In no way should objects be used or thrown at the cats or they will think you want to join the fight. Once separated, you should try to let them relax, then comfort them separately.
Don’t expect your cats to solve your problems on their own. You should be responsible for intermediating between them, looking for the cause of the problem and proposing solutions to prevent it from happening again.
In particular, do not touch them or punish cats that fight, this will only make the situation worse. And, by no means introduce more cats into your home.
