Managing Aggression in the Multi-Cat Home

Posted on December 17, 2023December 17, 2023 by felinepurrspective_u3q4o6

Cats staring — The direct stare is not a friendly behavior.

It is increasingly common for people to own more than one cat. With more than one cat in the home, conflict between cats of the same household is also increasing.

managing aggression in the multi-cat home

It can be challenging to identify aggressive behavior. Cats play roughly and what looks like play might be a fight in progress. Subtle signs like staring and tail twitching are hard to recognize from across the room – overt behaviors such as chasing, wrestling and vocalizing are more likely to catch our eye and ear and alert us to trouble. [Reference 1]

Things to keep an eye/ear out for:

aggression

vocalizing: growling, hissing, long drawn out meowing
chasing where one cat is the “chaser”
offensive postures: stiffened legs, stiff tail
defensive postures: crouching, tucked head [References 1, 2]

play

Frequent and long-lasting wrestling/chasing
You may hear occasional short, soft meows or chirrups [Reference 2]
Reciprocity – cats take turns being on top or chasing

things in-between

There are interactions that combine both play and aggression but do not result in a fight [Reference 1].

One cat wants to play and the other does not, responding with a swat and hiss to end the play sequence.
Cats of different social groups may need to pass each other. There may be some hissing but body postures are not stiff nor crouching.

interventions – Managing Aggression in the multi-cat home

When you hear yowling/hissing/growling or see stiff or crouching postures, it is time to investigate. Intervention may just consist of opening a door wider so that both cats can pass through. If things are a bit more serious, separate the participants using noise or a barrier. See Managing the Indoor Cat Fight.

It is important to identify the social groups in the house. A few aggressive interactions between cats who sleep snuggled together, groom each other and share resources most likely will not require intervention [Reference 1].

Gus and Marley tolerate each other with the occasional spat.

PLAY can become AGGRESSION

A cat becomes too exuberant and begins to scratch and bite harder.
Reciprocity stops – cats are no longer taking turns.
Hissing, growling increases as the other cat tries to end the play sequence.

Decreasing aggressive play towards other cats

By reducing the desire to play, cats will play less, decreasing the chance that aggressive play happens [Reference 2].

Provide play-time for the whole group at predictable times: scatter toys around the room for the group to interact with; play with the aggressive/energetic cats with a wand toy or other interactive toys.
These more active cats can also benefit from play time away from the other cats in a separate room [Reference 2].

non-play aggression

Play aggression starts with positive, friendly emotions, whereas non-play aggression arises from fear, anxiety, and frustration [Reference 2].

Common scenarios include cats blocking other cats from accessing resources, or trapping another cat in a place that has no escape route. And there are those “bully” cats that “pick on” timid or shy cats, who respond with crouching down and scooting away.

Have plenty of resources spread out through the house (a cat can’t block two places at once).
Have multiple, separated play/resting/observation areas.
Monitor “bottlenecks”: provide places for cats to avoid each other, e.g. a high cat tree near a doorway, offering an escape from another cat passing through.
Enrich the “bully” cat: give him time away from cats not of his social group with access to food puzzles and novel toys.
Enrich the “victim”cat: give him or her time away from the bully and his buddies.
Put a collar with a bell on the “bully” so that other cats know he or she is coming. [Reference 2]

redirected aggression

Something happens that frustrates or frightens a cat, and the cat strikes out at whomever is closest. The cat cannot strike out at the cause of the arousal – it may be out of reach or too risky to confront.

A frequent scenario is a strange cat appearing at a window. The cat indoors cannot engage the stranger and redirects her frustration and anger at another cat nearby. Other triggers include high-pitched or loud noises, unusual odors, or visitors in the house.

Dealing With Redirected Aggression [Reference 2]

Separate the cats and reintroduce gradually.
Desensitize the aggressor cat to whatever stimulated the aggression: if it was a noise – play this sound (or something like it) when the cat is around. Start with a low volume and gradually increase to full volume while offering high value treats.
Visitors in the house: train the cat to go to a safe place when visitors come in.
For more information, see Redirected Aggression in Your Cat – When It Becomes a Problem.

other interventions – managing aggression in the multi-cat home

Medication may be helpful for very timid cats, highly aggressive cats, or to manage redirected aggression where the cat will continue to be exposed to the trigger [Reference 2]. See Dealing with Anxiety and Misbehavior in Your Cat.
If conflict continues, you may need to set up a time-sharing plan and have different social groups use critical areas in shifts. See How Cats Get Along – Timesharing.
Rehoming the aggressor cat with his social group or the victim cat with her social group may be viable alternatives [Reference 2].

Managing aggression in the multi-cat home requires careful observation of how the resident cats interact with each other. Knowledge of the social groups in the home can help in deciding whether intervention is needed. The cat owner must also be willing to respond to problems by adapting the environment, providing opportunities for cognitive enrichment, such as group and individual play time, and separating and reintroducing cats, when necessary.

Managing aggression in the multi-cat home is essential for the health and happiness of the feline and human occupants.

references

Gajdoš-Kmecová, N., Peťková, B., Kottferová, J. et al. An ethological analysis of close-contact inter-cat interactions determining if cats are playing, fighting, or something in between. Sci Rep 13, 92 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26121-1
Ramos D. Common feline problem behaviors: Aggression in multi-cat households. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. 2019;21(3):221-233. doi:10.1177/1098612X19831204

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How Cats Get Along with Other Species

Posted on December 18, 2022 by felinepurrspective_u3q4o6

In this post, we look at how cats get along with other species – are their behaviors affiliative or is there conflict?

How cats get along with other species

How Cats Get Along with People: Signs of Affiliation

In an interview with Terry Gross of the NPR show, “Fresh Air”, the well-known anthrozoologist, John Bradshaw, noted that cats view their owners as cats, specifically cats they are affiliated or friendly with. Cats greet us as they would an affiliated cat, rubbing up against us, touching their noses to our hands, licking our hands and faces, snuggling next to us in bed at night.

Cats use the same friendly behaviors when interacting with people as they do with other cats.

nearness
rubbing up a person’s legs (allorubbing)
bunting against our hands (nose touching)
licking hands (allogrooming)
approaching with tail up

How Cats Get along with people: Signs of Conflict

Cats show similar conflict behaviors when interacting with humans that they would use with other cats.

staring
stalking and pouncing
running away
biting, swatting and swiping
arched back and hair standing on end

Young cats in particular can be guilty of stalking and pouncing on owners as they round a corner in the house. Some of these behaviors can be the result of playing with the cat inappropriately or redirected aggression, where the cat associates the owner with a fearful experience.

A petting session sometimes comes to an end when the cat bites or swats the person petting him, then jumps down and runs away. It is important to add to the list above some “pre-conflict” behaviors that we must watch for:

flattened ears
fur on the cat’s back ripples
the cat turns to face you with a stare

How Cats Get along with Children

Cats showed no preference to gender or age when meeting volunteers in a shelter for the first time. The volunteers did not interact with the cats but instead read an age-appropriate book. [Turner, The Mechanics of Social Interactions Between Cats and Their Owners]

After 5 minutes, the volunteers were allowed to interact as they pleased with the cats. The cats reacted strongly to the differences in behavior between men, women and children. Women and girls tended to move onto the floor with the cat and speak quietly; men remained seated, and boys approached the cats immediately, causing them to run away. [See below Turner].

Children, being more active, and less attentive to the body language of cats, tend to elicit more conflict behaviors from cats then adults. Children playing with cats must be supervised by adults as young children, in an excess of enthusiasm, may hit the cat with a toy or chase them.

A cat’s impulse is to flee when chased by a child but if cornered, he may bite or scratch. It is important to allow cats avenues to escape the attention of boisterous youngsters – high cat trees or closets with latches that allow the cat access but not the child.

How Cats Get Along: Cats and Dogs

Although cartoons and films may show cats and dogs as mortal enemies, many co-exist peacefully in human homes.

A recent survey based study by Thomsen et al. (cited below), indicated that the success of the relationship depends on the age of the cat (preferably around 6 months) when introduced to the dog. Ideally, good experiences with friendly, well-behaved dogs during the cat’s “sensitive” period will predispose the cat to forming relationships with dogs. Slow, gradual introductions between cat and dog (similar to Introducing Cats) have the best chance at success

Just like with humans, cats tend to show the same behaviors to dogs they are friendly with that they would show to other cats.

sleep in the same room as the dog, sometimes touching
rub against the dog when greeting
approach with tail up

Although a dog may be affiliated with the cat in his house, this does not mean he will not chase or bark at a strange cat. A cat who has been raised with dogs may still turn and flee from dogs he does not know. Affiliation exists between individual animals, not a whole species.

Dogs also have a set of affiliative behaviors. The hallmarks of a well-socialized dog include:

relaxed body
rapid tail wag
no staring
indirect approach, looking and sniffing at the ground

Canine conflict behaviors include:

backing away or trying to escape
submissive behaviors: flattened ears, tail tucked, looking away
staring, growling, snapping, erect posture
tail held vertically or arched over the back

Another survey-based study (Menchetti et al. cited below) compared owners’ perceptions of how dogs and cats living in their homes get along. Owners felt that:

Dogs are more social than cats towards strange animals and humans
Dogs are more playful than cats with their owners
More dogs lick the cat than vice versa
More cats ignore the dog than vice versa
Most dogs and cats in the same household will sleep together and play together at least occasionally
Although cats and dogs have different body languages, they still manage to understand each other

A Tale of Tails

Both cats and dogs use their tails to communicate.

	Cats	Dogs
Friendly Gesture	Tail up	Tail wagging
Conflict	Tail twitching	Tail up

Somehow, cat-dog pairs translate each other’s language. The cat approaches the dog for a nose-to-nose greeting with tail up and lies down beside him. The dog recognizes the cat’s behaviors as positive signals and he wags his tail.

When the dog approaches the cat with the tail up, the cat recognizes the conflict/aggressive signal, arches his back, twitches his tail and backs slowly away.

Cats will use the same visual signals that they use with other cats when interacting with other species, such as humans and dogs. It is important that we, as pet guardians, know and understand the affiliative and conflict behaviors of each species residing in our homes to prevent altercations and promote peaceful coexistence.

CITATIONS:

Menchetti L, Calipari S, Mariti C, Gazzano A, Diverio S. Cats and dogs: Best friends or deadly enemies? What the owners of cats and dogs living in the same household think about their relationship with people and other pets. PLoS One. 2020 Aug 26;15(8):e0237822. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237822. PMID: 32845923; PMCID: PMC7449504

Jessica E. Thomson, Sophie S. Hall, Daniel S. Mills, Evaluation of the relationship between cats and dogs living in the same home, Journal of Veterinary Behavior, vol 27 2018, Volume 35-40 ISSN 1558-7878, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2018.06.043.

Turner DC (2021) The Mechanics of Social Interactions Between Cats and Their Owners Front. Vet. Sci. 8:650143 doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.65014

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Purrsonality and How Cats Get Along

Posted on December 4, 2022 by felinepurrspective_u3q4o6

Do cats have personalities? If you define personality as “the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time” – yes, cats and other animals have personalities. How do describe your cat’s personality? How does personality affect how cats get along?

Studies (see Litchfield et al., cited below) of captive wild cats such as Scottish wild cats and cheetahs have suggested using personality assessments

to house socially compatible animals together
to tailor the environment to an individual animal’s needs – for example, provide more hiding places for a fearful cheetah

Can personality assessment improve the welfare of our domestic cats?

In 2017, Carla Litchfield and her research team published a study on personalities in pet cats. Litchfield’s team conducted a survey of 2,082 cats in New Zealand and Australia. The survey consisted of 52 personality items. Statistical analysis of the data found five reliable personality traits – “The Feline Five”: (citation below)

Neuroticism
Extraversion
Dominance
Impulsiveness
Agreeableness

“The Feline Five” is similar to the Five Factor Method (FFM) used in human personality research. The FFM describes a person’s personality using five factors. An individual’s personality will have varying amounts of each factor. These five factors are: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience.

THE FELINE FIVE AND HOW CATS GET ALONG

Anxious or calm? (neuroticism)

Cats that score high on this factor are typically shy, fearful of people, insecure and anxious. On the other hand, calm cats don’t get as stressed when faced with changes in environment and exposure to other animals and people.

It is worth observing how the anxious cat gets along with other cats in the household. Timid, anxious cats can become the targets of more dominant cats who may stalk and chase them and prevent them from accessing resources such as food and litter boxes.

Providing more resources and hiding areas will improve the welfare of anxious cats.
It may be necessary to provide dedicated areas that only these cats can access.

The anxious cat will also benefit from consistent and regular interaction with humans following the CAT guidelines (See Touch not the cat: interacting with cats).

extroverted or introverted?

Extroverted cats are out-going and inclined to interact with people and other pets. They are sociable and curious. Introverted cats spend more time alone and are more quiet and reserved.

Extroverted cats can be energetic and prone to boredom. This can result in interact conflict – for example, a younger active cat may pick on a senior cat for entertainment. Extroverted cats can benefit from more play (hunting), foraging (food puzzles), and supervised outdoor access via leash walks or a catio.

dominant or Meek?

The dominant cat will stalk and chase other cats and sometimes humans. They displace other pets from favored positions and will steal their food. “Meek” cats are more tolerant of other cats and are willing to time-share places; they don’t exhibit the bullying behavior of a dominant cat.

Dominance behaviors are thought to occur more frequently in captive populations of cats. In the colonies of wild cats, the females raise the kittens co-operatively. There is competition between some male cats but there are also the “family toms”, unrelated male cats that affiliate themselves with the colony and have been known to protect and participate in rearing the kittens. [I. Rochlitz(ed.), The Welfare of Cats, 1-22 © 2007 Springer]

The popular “pack hierarchy” theory of wolves has been abandoned. Observation of non-captive populations of wolves show that they group together in family units, where the parents guide the activities of the group.

In the instance of a dominant cat “bullying” a more timid cat, the welfare of both the bully and the victim must be considered.

Enrich the “bully” – give him or her more opportunities to play (hunt) and forage (food puzzles). If possible, offer supervised outdoor access via leash walks or a catio
Provide the victim with ready access to resources and safe places. This may require separation when the two cats are not supervised.

impulsive or cautious?

Impulsive cats tend to be unpredictable and may react differently to the same thing at different times. Cautious cats are not so easily stimulated by their environment and keep to a smaller set of activities that they are comfortable with. Impulsive behavior is thought to be a response to environmental stress. [Litchfield et. al]

Agreeable or unfriendly?

Agreeable cats are well-adjusted cats that are friendly toward people and other pets. Low scores of agreeableness (irritable, aggressive toward people) may be due to poor socialization, frustration, pain or illness. [Litchfield et al.]

The agreeable cat is thought to be a source of enrichment for other cats in the household.

Personality and How Cats Get Along

Recognizing different personalities in our cats can help us manage how cats get along in our multi-cat homes. Whereas two timid/shy cats may get along, two dominant cats can clash. A dominant cat and timid cat may suffer from a bully-victim relationship.

What are the personalities of your cats? Take the online test based on the “Feline Five” at https://www.idrlabs.com. (Search for “feline five”).

Citation: Litchfield CA, Quinton G, Tindle H, Chiera B, Kikillus KH, Roetman P (2017) The ‘Feline Five’: An exploration of personality in pet cats (Felis catus). PLoS ONE 12(8): e0183455. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183455

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How Do Your Cats Get Along – Conflict Behaviors

Posted on November 27, 2022 by felinepurrspective_u3q4o6

If your cats get along well, they will share sleeping areas, engage in some allogrooming, and greet each other on occasion by touching noses. Well, you say, my cats aren’t very good friends but they aren’t trying to kill each other, either. What are the signs of conflict? What should we look for to avoid getting to the point “they want to kill each other”?

The 2020 survey referred to in last week’s post not only assessed affiliative behaviors, they also polled respondents on conflict behaviors. They chose seven behaviors associated with conflict. These are listed below with the frequency reported by the participants of the survey. (Elzerman AL, DePorter TL, Beck A, Collin JF. Conflict and affiliative behavior frequency between cats in multi-cat households: a survey-based study. J Feline Med Surg. 2020 Aug;22(8):705-717. doi: 10.1177/1098612X19877988)

Behavior	Frequency	Rank
Stare	daily	7 – Most frequent
Stalking	daily	6
Chasing	daily	5
Running away	weekly	4
Twitching Tail	weekly	3
Hissing	monthly to never	2
Wail/Scream	monthly to never	1 – Least frequent

How do your Cats Get Along?

Let’s take a closer look at these conflict behaviors.

THE STARE

A cat will stare without blinking:

at prey while hunting – he is aware of where that animal is and what it is doing, otherwise he may miss out on dinner!
during a cat fight. Fighting cats must be able to rapidly respond if the other launches an attack.
to discourage another cat from accessing a resource.

Cat blocking other cat — Zelda looks innocent but she is keeping another cat from going through the door.

If you see one of your cats fixing an unblinking stare on another, take note of the circumstances and see what happens if you intervene. For example, if one cat is staring at another cat and is sitting in a doorway, she may be blocking the other from resources through that doorway.

Interrupt the stare by opening the door wider, throwing a treat away from the doorway, or redirecting the “door-blocker” with a toy. Does this give the other cat a chance to get through the doorway? If this is successful, you may want to look more closely at how these two cats get along.

Avoid handling the cats in this situation in case they are more aroused than they appear.

Stalking, Chasing and Running Away

These behaviors may be associated with:

hunting
fighting
cats playing together

When hunting, the cat is targeting a toy or prey. It is object play. But how do we know whether two cats are fighting or playing? After all, many of the same moves in a cat fight are seen when cats play together.

Just like a football game, play between cats has distinct rules. And, like football, tempers may flare when a player challenges the rules. What starts as play can escalate into a cat fight.

invitation to play

play sequence

end of play

Are these cats playing?

Social play consists of an invitation to play, the play sequence, and the end of play. The rules are:

Claws are not extended
Biting is gentle without intent to injure
The invitation to play is often repeated by one or the other of the cats throughout the interaction.
If one cat declines play (there may be some hissing and growling here), the game ends.

If you see that the “rules” are not being followed, it is time to shake a bag of treats or can of coins and redirect or separate the participants. [see Managing the Indoor Cat Fight].

Check all your cats regularly for wounds from bites and scratches. If you notice your cats having a lot of wounds from scratches or bites and they “play” together, this may not be play. It may be conflict and it is time to observe the cats, assess their environment and social status.

Twitching Tail

A twitching tail indicates that a cat is focusing on something. The tail is for balance and changing direction – the tail often twitches before the cat pounces.

The twitching tail + stare > pounce: Is this play? conflict?
Are the rules of play being followed?
A map of the social groups in the house can help with deciding whether this is play or conflict.

Vocalizations – Hissing

The hiss is that snake-like sound. Cats may hiss when they are:

afraid
startled
frustrated
displeased
You will hear it in a cat fight, often from the cat on the defensive.

Vocalizations – Wailing/Screaming

Cats will wail or scream:

if they are fearful
if they are hurt and in pain
if they are fighting

You must decide from the circumstances and the body language of the cat or cats if these vocalizations are meaningful. If it is a cat fight, the combatants must be separated [managing the indoor cat fight]; if a cat is hurt, you must get the cat in a box or carrier for a trip to the vet.

Don’t wait for a fight to break out. Take a few moments to determine if your cats get along and if there is anything you can do to improve things.

Map social groups [Social Groups of Cats]
Draw a house map of resources (litter boxes, food stations, water, scratchers). Draw paths showing how cats reach these resources.
Move furniture if necessary to make accessing resources easier for all cats.
Make sure there sufficient resources for the number of cats.

Next week, we’ll take a look at describing individual cats’ personalities. How does this affect how cats get along?

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