Tammie's Take~

Help! My Cats Keep Fighting!

Reviews · March 30, 2020

This is every pet owner’s nightmare. You got yourself a pet, enjoyed the experience, and then started to feel guilty about your pet being alone in the house when you’re not there. Because of that, you decided that the best thing for you to do would be to get them some company. If you’re a dog owner, this probably went quite well. Dogs will probably have a few territorial growls at each other, but they’ll quickly adjust to their new scenario and accept it. Cats, on the other hand, might need a little more persuasion – and if you think that persuading cats to do anything is easy, you’ve obviously never had a cat before.

Cats, as has been established several times in the past, are not herd animals. They don’t require – or necessarily even desire – the company of another cat in order for them to live happy, contented lives. They’re more than content to be on their own. They might not even appreciate being interrupted by you very much – some arguments say that cats aren’t really domesticated at all, and only accept food, attention, and love from you because it’s convenient, and it suits them. They’re sassy animals, but that’s why we love them so much.

The other thing about cats is that – perhaps even more so than dogs – they have strong personalities. Putting two cats together is no more a guarantee that they’ll get on than putting two humans together in a room and then locking the door. You have about the same chance of success with randomly putting cats together as you do with trying to persuade matching cat symbols to land in the right sequence in the ‘Kitty Payout’ game that’s popular at so many new website. In fact, if you’re considering disrupting the peace of your existing cat by adding a new one, we’ll guess that you know a thing or two about online slots because you’re clearly a gambler! We’ll try to help you, though. There’s nothing you can do to make success with an online slots game more likely to happen. There are a few ways you might be able to persuade cats to tolerate each other – even if they never fall in love.

Be Sure They’re Actually Fighting

If you’re very lucky, you might not need to take any action at all. What cat owners sometimes perceive to be aggressive behavior is actually play fighting, and it’s a perfectly normal social interaction for cats. There are a few signs you can watch for to determine whether your cats are really trying to take lumps out of each other, or whether they’re just engaging in a little harmless fun. The giveaway is their ears. If the ears are facing forward, your cats are not angry with each other. If they’re pinned back and flat against their head, they’re feeling aggressive. The other obvious ‘tell’ is that when cats are fighting for real, they adopt a defensive stance, like two boxers circling each other. If they’re leaning forward, they’re probably just blowing off steam.

If they are fighting for real, though, then you’re going to need to take action. Here are a few ideas you might want to try.

Trick Them With Tuna Juice

You can bribe a cat to do almost anything. Most of the time, it’s the only way you can get them to obey your instructions at all! Fortunately, bribing them also helps to bring them together. Get both of your cats in the same room and lock the doors, and then put a few drops of tuna juice on their heads, and a few more on their bodies. Your cats will instinctively start trying to lick it off because they love the taste. They won’t be able to lick their own heads, though, and so they’ll have to do each other’s. Not only will they do this willingly (tuna juice is much more important than whatever their petty feud is about), but the grooming process will bring them closer together. Cats that groom together form a bond, and the violence should cease.

Give Them Separate ‘Belongings’

Cats are very territorial. If your first cat has become used to having its own feeding bowl, toys, and litter tray, it won’t take kindly to being asked to share those things with a new cat. In your cat’s mind, those things are his or her own private property, and it doesn’t want to share. Getting them their own cat trees with the assistance of kittycattree.com will help prevent fights over belongings. Get all-new equipment for your new cat, and put it all in a different part of the house. You should find that your first cat carries on using the older things, and your newer cat automatically gravitates toward the newer things because they’re not marked with your first cat’s scent. That should bring the territorial dispute to an end, and peace should break out.

Get Cat Leashes

We may not take cats out for walks in the same way that we take dogs out for walks – a cat can handle a walk all on its own – but you can still buy a leash for your cat. In this case, you’ll want two. If your cats can’t be trusted to be in the same room without starting a fight with each other, you can keep them apart using leashes. Maybe even tie the leashes to furniture at each side of the room, give them both a food bowl and leave them there for a while. They might snarl and hiss at each other, but they’re slowly becoming accustomed to the other cat’s scent and presence. Over time, whether they want to or not, they’ll begin to accept it. You might have to carry on doing this for a while, but it works in the end.

We really hope this article has been useful to you. We know that living in a house with fighting animals is stressful, and it’s not a situation that any of us relish. With a bit of luck, the advice we’ve outlined above will help you to restore law and order in your home sooner rather than later, and your cats will soon become friends!