In an ideal world, your household pets would automatically embrace each other's presence and live in harmony without any need for intervention on your part. Unfortunately, cats can and do get into conflicts with each other for many reasons, from territorial disputes to fights over food or perceived threats to a mother's kittens.
As a loving cat owner who wants nothing but peace among your furry family members, you can benefit from learning why these feline issues occur, how to recognize and respond to aggressive behavior, and when you might want to seek a veterinarian's guidance. Take the following four key points under consideration.
1. Why Cats Fight
Cats may display aggression toward each other for a variety of reasons. In some cases, innocent roughhouse play between an older cat and a younger one will turn into outright aggression if one or both cats grow overstimulated. In others, a mother cat may show aggression toward other cats as a means of protecting her litter.
The introduction of a new cat in the home can often trigger aggression in the current feline resident. As highly territorial creatures, cats can feel angry, afraid, or anxious about another cat intruding on their space. Even when young cats start out as friends, they can develop territorial conflicts as they become socially mature.
Feedings and litter box use can both fuel conflicts among cats. Your cats may fight over a particular food bowl or litter box. Territorial conflicts can extend to other resources as well. For instance, cats may fight over the right to sit in a particular window or bed or to monopolize a particular toy or scratching post.
2. How to Recognize Feline Aggression
Owners need to recognize the trouble signs that indicate a potential conflict among cats. Look for physical or postural changes such as dilated pupils, ears pinned back against the head, a tail tucked between a cat's legs or twitching in nervous agitation, and the arched back and raised fur that cats use to intimidate potential enemies.
Inappropriate elimination can have medical causes, from urinary system problems and loss of mobility to dementia. However, it also occurs when a cat feels anxious or disturbed about a change in the household, including the addition of another cat. Your cat may spray urine to mark its territory as off-limits to another cat.
3. What You Can Do to Ease Tensions Between Cats
If you have brought a new cat into your home, your other cat or cats may need time to overcome their initial fear of this unfamiliar animal. You can use the principle of desensitization to help this process along. Physically separate your cats by keeping them in different rooms, gradually increasing their exposure to each other.
If your cats compete over resources, you can ease this mutual anxiety simply by duplicating those resources. Provide each cat in your home with its own food bowl, water dish, bed, and litter box, ideally in separate parts of the house. Eventually, your cats may feel comfortable enough to share toys or other amenities.
4. When to Consult Your Veterinarian
Even cats who don't like each other can ease into a comfortable, conflict-free relationship. However, if your own measures have failed to stop the aggressive behavior, you may need to seek help from your veterinarian, not only for socialization advice but also to check for any underlying medical issue that might contribute to misbehavior.
In some cases, veterinarians may prescribe medication or nutritional supplementation to stabilize cats struggling with unnatural fear, anxiety, and aggression. However, the behavioral problem may return once you stop giving your cat these products. Your most successful strategy may combine medication with behavioral modification.
Pet Medical Center of Vero Beach knows why cats and other animals misbehave and how to help owners restore harmony among their pets.
Contact our clinic today with any questions or to schedule a consultation.
