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Cats are very territorial, so its not a surprise there are fights among cats when there is more than one in a home. There is usually one cat that achieves the status of top cat in a territory. What I didn’t know when I first added more cats to the house is that the top cat can change depending on what room they are in. There is a top cat at the food bowls; there is a top cat for each cat tree, a top cat for sleeping on my bed.
Different Cats Mean Different Fight Personalities
Cat fights inside the house can be very terrifying. Most of the time, its mainly a lot of noise rather than truly violent interactions. An important first step to diffusing cat fights is to understand the triggers for these fights. Of our seven cats we have identified a few different fight personalities, but almost always there is usually one perpetrator and one victim involved. While there are some common threads to cat fight triggers, many times we don’t understand the purpose or the cause of the fight and often we wonder if it’s just one cat in the wrong place at the wrong time. Here are a few of the fight categories.
- The sneak attack. I don’t know why a cat might decide this is a good idea. The scene plays out like this. Cat 1 is peacefully grooming themselves or seeking a place to settle. Cat 2, stalks them and leaps out to slap them in the backside. Maybe Cat 2 runs off after this, which might be a sign they want to play. But sometimes the perpetrator will crouch down and hiss when Cat 1 flips around to see what happened. If this happens, a fight might ensue depending on whether Cat 1 seeks retribution for the assault.
- The food king. This reasons for this kind of fight are a little more obvious. One cat doesn’t want another cat to be near it’s food. This cat stands guard around where the food bowls live and will swipe, growl, and hiss at any other cat that comes near. Most of the time, the other cats accept this. Once they are fed, the territorial display is no longer and issue.
- The bully. Three of our cats have been bullies. Patty, who was the top cat for about 10 years, bullied one of our new kittens, Froggy. She would wait around corners, or stalk from under tables, and back Froggy into corners. Many times, she would scare him bad enough he would lose the contents of his bladder. Sometimes, he’d come away with a bit less fur and sometimes a scratch on his nose. Ironically, after Patty went to the rainbow bridge and we added Millie and Jewelly, Froggy became the new bully, for a while anyway.
So why do cats fight?
Sometimes even cats who are bonded pairs or have been living together a long time start getting into fights. More than likely they need more attention or something else to relieve the boredom. When cats lack an enriched environment, they start looking for other outlets. Read more about how to stop fights and start working towards preventing them.
Once you can identify the various fight personalities in your house, you can start to make changes. Here are some of our approaches
Stop the Sneak with Bells
RC Pet Products 1/2″ Primary Collection Kitty Breakaway Collar
If you have a bully or a sneak attacker, more than likely there are simply too many cats without a place to call their own in the current space. For us, the bullying between Froggy and Jewelly always occurred at the bottom of the stairs. It was a blind corner which gave Jewelly the chance to stay out of sight and then attack once Froggy rounded the corner. After a while, Froggy became terrified to come down the steps.
What helped with this situation was to put a collar with a bell on Jewelly. With the bell on Jewelly, Froggy had the chance to plan a mad dash to a perch or decide to turn around. It’s a very simple and inexpensive thing to try. There are hundreds of collars and bells to choose from, but make sure to always use a breakaway collar on cats. Here is a great article on training cats to wear a collar and why breakaway collars are so important.
Use Cat Calming Diffusers
Feliway MultiCat Calming Diffuser Kit (30 Day Starter Kit)
To help prevent Jewelly from stalking at the bottom of the stairs, we also tried a Feliway diffuser. These diffusers release chemical that kittens associate with their mothers. It’s calming to them and can take the edge off of a tense situation. We have these running at several key locations throughout the house and believe they do help, though I don’t think it is enough by itself as the cats can still get into some pretty good brawls right next to one from time-to-time..
Give Each Cat It's Own Territory
TINWEI Cat Tree Scratching Toy Activity Centre Cat Tower Furniture Scratching Posts
Making sure all the cats have a place they can claim is really important to ending fights. While humans and dogs live in the lower half of a room, cats prefer higher locations. This is the reason cat trees are so popular. All of our cats particularly like the very top platform on a cat tree and can fight over this spot. As such its a good idea to have a cat tree in each main living area to give them all the chance to have “ownership” of one of these. Rather than spending top dollar on one fancy tree, we purchased 3 of these to place in different rooms. We usually find one cat on each at any given time.
Ruby Road Cat Hammock
For smaller spaces, consider adding some cat platforms to make a cat wall. There are simple sisel-covered posts that can attach to wall studs to make a fun place to climb nearly as high as they want. Place a few platforms or hammocks near the top and your cats will be in kitty heaven. We have a few of these which are easy to place over windows where it can blend into your decor better and won’t interfere with artwork
It’s very important to try everything possible to prevent cat fights. Our cat fight problems had escalated to where one of our cats developed a stress-related disease known as feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD). His urinary tract became so inflamed from the stress that it resulted in complete blockage and a $2,500 vet bill. But that’s a whole other topic.
