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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Cat fights - is it serious?

6 replies

RubyDarke · 10/05/2024 22:25

Our rescue cats have been with us 3 weeks now. There have been a couple of stressful days this week - visitor presence distressed our timid girl and our bolder girl had to go to vet.

They generally share space fine and were asleep together this afternoon quite happily.

This evening they have been very unsettled and
their usual zoomies - chasing round room - has become what I think is real fighting. Bolder girl has had 3 real attempts at flattening timid girl who was very scared - not seen body language like that before. On the other hand timid girl then leapt on bolder girl from top of sofa. There has been some noise but we've not sure which is vocalising.

So is this something to worry about? Should we be separating them overnight and longer? Online info is too vague to help.

OP posts:
Beamur · 10/05/2024 22:40

I'd seperate them. Your timid cat is at risk of injury.
Go back to scent swapping, eating alongside etc. maybe you might need to pre-empt this zoomy/aggressive behaviour by separating them in the evening.
My 3 cats tolerate each other well during the day but in the evening at the first sign of anti social behaviour, I send the culprit upstairs (it's always the same cat that starts it) and shut the door.

Beamur · 10/05/2024 22:41

I seperate mine every night. Two have the run of the lounge and bedrooms and the other has kitchen and dining room (and outdoors)

Allergictoironing · 11/05/2024 08:57

I think it depends on a few factors, including whether they knew each other before you brought them home, whether there's a large size difference between them etc.

They may have settled with you enough to do stuff with gay abandon, rather than an eye out for other things.
It could be them deciding on the pecking order
It could be deflected aggression caused by something outside, though that seems unlikely

I tend to go on the theory that if there's no blood, no tufts of fur, and the vocalisations aren't like screaming, then they are playing or at least not trying to cause real harm.

Boycat (may he rest well over the Rainbow Bridge) and Girlcat would be completely silent when they played, both exceptionally quiet cats and Girlcat still is now. It would look really aggressive, until you realised that there were no claws, they would only partly close their jaws and only on areas with thicker fur, and there were never any tufts of fur afterwards. They would take turns, then curl up on my bed together when they were worn out.

Tobias is very vocal and announces to the world every single thing he does. He yells, makes growling noises (not real growls, sort of like puppy growls), makes a noise like a crow on 40 fags a day sometimes.

I had an interesting few months when he came home while Girlcat put him firmly in his place - she was the incumbent, older than him & most importantly female so she made sure he knew his place. But the one time she actually hurt him was definitely a mistake on her part, and SHE ran away crying (she'd caught him on his face with a claw tip, & there was the teensiest spot of blood). The still play fight now, her silent and him grunting & growling away in exactly the same tone he uses when he is killing a toy.

fieldsofbutterflies · 11/05/2024 09:12

What you describe doesn't sound like genuine fighting to me, but it's hard to tell from a description.

Was there growling, hissing or spitting?
Were their ears pinned back?
Did anyone come away with injuries or was there any fur flying around?

The fact that your timid girl reciprocated and dive-bombed the other makes me think it was probably rough play. It can get noisy!

Toddlerteaplease · 11/05/2024 10:59

I had this with Cheddar and Penelope. Only in the evening, at usual zoomie time. There was never any actual fighting. No claws. I got some feliway friends and it really helped.

RubyDarke · 13/05/2024 21:52

Bit of an update
They are still having the occasional swipe at each other during their evening zoomies, but it seems to be quite evenly matched. We have separated them if it starts getting noisy however we watch them both carefully and they settle down quite quickly, and go to sleep happily in the same room. They are also still napping together during the day. We are also making sure that younger girl - who is slower to eat - is fed away from her sister to ensure she isn't being pushed out.

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