What is normal?
Cats often behave very differently to dogs and humans. Some normal behaviour that your cat may exhibit are stalking, pouncing, or exploring their surroundings. In order to understand cats, you should learn normal cat behaviour. Cats hate their routine being changed and can act out or misbehave, which drive us humans crazy. When their environment is to their liking, they coexist with humans very well.
When cats exhibit bad behaviour it is typically due to owners not being aware of cues sent by the cat beforehand. For example if your cat nips or bites you. Your first response would be to punish or shout at the cat for being bad or aggressive. Usually what happened was the cat gave you a warning sign when you where over stimulating him with petting and you didn’t recognize this as a cue to stop.
A few to the warning signs a cat may exhibit are:
- The cat’s body may tense up
- The tail starts to quiver or twitch
- The ears become pinned back
When you observe any of these signs while petting or interacting with a cat it would be wise to stop. These are signals in his body language that he has had enough petting. If you don’t stop and continue to pet the cat even though the cat is trying to communicate with you, his only recourse is to bite or nip your hand to get your attention. That usually gets you to immediately stop petting him!
Cats are natural-born hunters. Their stalking and pouncing behaviour comes from this and it is something that you are not going to get your cat to stop. Younger cats are especially fond of stalking any prey they can find even if it larger than them. This includes their owners who find the cat attacking their ankles or feet without warning. When they are in the mood for hunting it is better to distract them with another form of play activity.
Though dogs are usually known for their digging activity, cats also have an instinctive need to dig. Litter boxes and house plants are common victims to this digging behaviour. Cats hate the smell of citrus so one way of keeping them from digging is to spray a citrus (orange, lemon or lime) product on or around areas that are off limits.
Cats are very territorial and will claw to mark their territory, visually and by leaving their scent. This behaviour can be distressful when it involves furniture or that expensive oriental rug! Clawing increases when there are other cats in the house. The best way to discourage this is to provide plenty of scratching posts or boards scented with catnip. This gives the cat an appropriate avenue for clawing without destroying valuable property.
Aggression with other animals
Cats can sometimes show aggression to other animals that live in the same household. This is commonly a dog or another cat. Cat versus cat aggression is the hardest to treat as most dogs will submit to the more dominant cat. The first step when multiple cats are in a household is to identify the cats that do not get along.
Cats that get along well together groom each other, sleep together and approach each other with a relaxed elevated tail. However, not all cats live together amicably and it is possible to have varying levels of tension ranging from avoidance to overt aggression. Recognizing and dealing with some of the early warning signs may help to prevent further break down of the relationship or higher levels of aggression. People often interpret the lack of overt fighting as evidence that the cats are still getting along normally when that may not be the case.
Early warning signs may be as subtle as a lack of direct interaction between the cats and this may go unnoticed. In more obvious cases, you may see the cats avoiding each other or spending more time in parts of the home away from the other cat. In some cases, you may also see active displacement of one cat from a favourite resting locations by the other, or one of the cats resting in such a way that they block the other cat’s access to food, water or litter box locations. There may also be periods of tension after situations such as one of the cats being reintroduced after being absent (e.g. returning from a veterinary appointment) or after seeing an outdoor cat through one of the home windows.
Normal play in cats includes mutual interaction from each of the cats and can be very active with intense physical contact. However, if all of the physical interactions are characterized by one cat chasing or stalking the other or if the “target” shows frequent hissing, swatting or avoidance behaviours, the relationship may not be as friendly as it first appeared. In many cases there may not be a clear aggressor and victim. Being able to identify signs of a fearful cat is crucial. You could video what your cats are doing and what they look like in various situations to work out who is the aggressor and who is the victim.
Treatment of cat -to-cat aggression
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Cat shelves should be placed around the home to offer an elevated escape location for the victim or offer the aggressor a location where he is less motivated to control the other cats. By increasing vertical space in the home, the owners are effectively increasing the living space for the feline companions.
Placing various hide spaces such as tunnels, cardboard boxes etc. around the house provides opportunities for a fearful cat to eliminate a visual source of fear/anxiety.
Although we want cats to be able to hide when they are fearful, the intention is that this serves as a temporary respite. If a cat is choosing to hide the majority of the time, this is a red flag that the environment is not conducive to a state of good welfare and the cat is likely experiencing generalized anxiety.
In addition, an owner can place a cat door within the home that only the resident cat/s can access (via electronic tags).
In all cases, the aggressor should also wear a collar with bell which may provide the other cat with an advance warning, allowing for easier conflict avoidance.
Providing cats with increased availability of resources such as food stations (not necessarily more food), water sources, and litter boxes (one for each cat, plus one, distributed throughout the living space) all help to decrease the social pressure and decrease resource based competition between the cats.
In households where the tension between the cats is already intense, it will be necessary to physically separate the cats until they can be gradually reintroduced to each other with rotational access to a shared living space, scent transfer, and behaviour modification sessions. You should be aware of the physical and emotional damage that could be caused by constant exposure to an aggressor without a way to alleviate that stress. Attempts at behaviour modifications may be unsuccessful or at least less successful without segregation.
ENRICHMENT
It is also important to be sure that young, active cats have access to appropriate outlets for predatory and play behaviours so he is less likely to strike out at the other cat(s). Using active toys, clicker training, increasing the number of owner-initiated play sessions, feeding with food dispensing toys, providing supervised outdoor access can all help to lessen tension between the cats.
PHEROMONES
Pheromones are naturally produced by cats and can bias their behavioural responses. Feliway may be useful in cases of mild to moderate inter-cat aggression to help decrease anxiety. Both cats (both the aggressor and the victim) should have a Feliway diffuser in their space while separated.
BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATIONS
The cornerstone of a behavioural program is to help change the cats’ perception of one another. In short, we want the cats not only to be exposed to one another in a very minimal manner and to less anxious or scared (desensitization), but we also want them to associate the other cat with very positive things. If this is done successfully, the cats underlying emotional state about the other cat will change followed by their behaviour.
MEDICATIONS
Medications are commonly used for the aggressor to calm them. One should consider medicating the victim as well if he/she is experiencing considerable anxiety. Once the decision is made to start medication, there is often a lag time of 2 weeks and the individual usually has to stay on medication for at least three months. The cats will be reassessed at that time, and if successful the doses can be reduced or we may attempt to wean them off, but some cats may need to remain on meds for life.
However, you should be aware that medication alone is not a cure; you must still put in the hard work on behaviour modification in order to have a successful outcome.
By: Michelle Grayson – Animal Care Australia Cat Representative – Originally published: June 2022 ACE Newsletter.
