TopCat

[3bunnies]

How does dominance work in cats? We have a brother and sister. When they moved in with us the girl was v skinny and malnourished. The boy was much bigger (nearly twice the weight). She has gained a fair bit of weight but still considerably lighter than him. He generally initiates play fighting but she always seems to win when they wrestle and he slinks off. They never hurt each other it just seems to be play. We had them spayed and neutered about 6 weeks ago. She has always been the more confident one with us. She likes being at home, he climbs trees but she doesn't want to, she just wants to sleep on someone's lap. If not weight or physical fitness, as he seems stronger and fitter, then how do they work out who is dominant?

They just DO. My pair (also brother and sister) are just coming up for 6 months. Obie (boy) is a LOT bigger and heavier, and spends part of his day pouncing on his sister Ophie, and battering her. However she always goes back for more, and is often found pinning him down to wash him!

Then we have our old lady who is 14.. she was terrifiedof the kittens at first, but now slaps them into shape whenever necessary ..even Obie has learned that if she is at a food bowl he fancies.. he has to wait!

Unless they are seriously hurting each other, (ie blood shed) , let them get on with it.. cats have a logic which is impenetrable to humans!!

We added a kitten to our household in June. He follows MCat about, generally being a bit of an idiot. In spite of this, MCat knows he's boss. He demonstrates this by a certain amount of slapping, or pinning MKitten down to groom him.

I reckon females are usually dominant over the males, who are more silly easygoing.

I had two alpha females when I was little, mum and daughter. Mom was in charge and in hindsight the dd would have been better as a lone cat.

I've seen the mother cat across the road biff her huge son when their hunting, she leaves the fighting to him though when my cats out there. So she has the best of both worlds really.

cat society is matriarchial so the girl cat will always be the top cat in a male female sibling pair and generally speaking boys are bigger than girls

i have three boys 1 is 6kgs, 1is 5kgs and her brother is dainty like jo jo she wheighs about three pounds but is definitely the boss in this house even the hound is scared of her