tomcats..?

Hi i'm abit freaked as there were allways cats in our garden but today there were three and they always just stare at each other and me and my dad just thought it was just some weird relationship going on. my mum came home and becuase the people at her work know alot about animals and my mum said that they're tomcats that are just one day gonna really get into a fight wth my cat. and i'm really scared becuase he's very young only 10 months and i don't know what's actullay happening and what i should do but those cats are always there now! what should i do?

If your cat is outdoors, and especially if he is an intact male as well, there most likely will be fights.

Has your cat been vaccinated? The other tomcats could be carrying diseases that they could spread to your cat.

The only way to truly prevent it is to keep your cat indoors. And get him neutered ASAP if he is not already.

Yes hes been vaccinated and everything, but apparently once they've been castrated they loose their defending instinct (if you could call it that ) is that true? and waht should i do to protect him? becuase the tomcats even come on our balcony aswell should i scare them off? are they trying to take over his teritory? how will he be able to fight against three cats that are much older than him?

one of the tomcats is the neighbours who lives upstairs and is very nice cat and always used to come into our house before we got our cat Mika. he's also been castrated do you think he would get into a fight with Mika?

The only thing you can really do to insure that he is safe and protected is to keep him indoors and to neuter him. He could be seriously injured or even killed in a fight with another male. They will fight over territory, over food, and over females in heat.

we have neutured him but what will that do?

( sorry about all these questions i am just very worried)

Originally Posted by TheRandomSpaz

we have neutured him but what will that do?

( sorry about all these questions i am just very worried)

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Glad to hear he's neutered! Neutering will help reduce the urge to fight, especially over females. But, the other tom cats that are not neutered may still fight your kitty for being in their territory. It doesn't matter to them that technically your house is your cats territory. Cats don't really see it that way.

Do the other cats belong to someone or are they strays?

they do belong to other people they are not strays but what would Mika do to protect himself if the others are fighting him but he does not have the urge to or he doesn't really know what to do or does he still have those instincts?

You keep asking what to do as if you have no control - the answer is to not let him out. Period. Ever.

Originally Posted by Larke

You keep asking what to do as if you have no control - the answer is to not let him out. Period. Ever.

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look mate, yes i have alot of questions but does it matter? i mean i'm worried there's know way my cat will want to stay indoors it was hard enough for a week let alone forever.

Well if your boy is not neutered, then yes they may be in for a battle in your backyard. And even if he is neutered, the unneutered males WILL fight him anyway.

Is there anyway you can keep these other cats out of your backyard? Do they belong to neighbors?

Sounds like you are not in the US. Most of us here advocate indoor only but we do understand you all let yours out a lot more. This is one of the biggest reasons I go for indoor only - you don't have to put up with other cats fighting your cat, etc. You can train your cat to walk on a harness/leash or give him supervised time outside and build a safe cat enclosure instead of allowing him direct contact with these other cats.

Yes they all do belong to the neighbours , i mean i could scare them off when they come so atleast my cat will be able to go into our garden without feeling threatened by the others. And do Cats actually make friends with neighbours cats?

Our adult boy goes outside (not our kittens we will never let them out), but he is fenced in and can't climb out. Unfortunately that doesn't stop other cats coming into our backyard (they often get stuck in until we get home because our yard is kitty escape proof). Our boy Miles is neutered and it doesn't stop him from beating the snot out of other kitties. Even though he is neutered he is territorial. I would assume it depends on the cats but neutering a cat won't stop their ability to defend themselves, however neutered cats typically do not get as big as tomcats (no one told our cat that I suppose). But if you don't want your kitty to get into fights, it's best to keep him indoors to be perfectly honest.

With that said, I know that many of us feel its best to keep cats indoors, which is my personal belief as well, however for our Miles keeping him solely indoors was not an option, he was used to having access to the outdoors as a kitten and we couldn't break him of his desire and became depressed and listless when we did. So we made sure we made it as safe as we possibly could for him at least.

I really love this board, in the short time I have been here I have noticed that people here are very passionate about the well being of their kitties, which is totally awesome. However, I think its too easy to forget that some people, especially in other countries, do not have the same pet taboos that we do. My mother's family would call most of us unloving and cruel for keeping our pets indoors. It's just a different mindset and we should be careful not to be jumping on others for what they might feel is the more loving decision for their animals.

Thanks!! you've been very helpful. And yes i do feel it abit cruel to keep cats indoors their whole life and my cat's used to going outside every day for hours so he would hate being kept indoors. When he had his vaccinations done he'd always find some way of escaping

I have noticed on other sites and books that people in Europe believe it's strange to keep a cat exclusively indoors, and call it 'confinement.'

yes it may seem strange that we let them roam outside because it's your pet who should stay indoors but you see cats walking around allot and in people's garden and so on. i let my cat go outside everyday basically when he wants but not in the midle of the night. If i was to stop now he'd go mad he got abit depressed when he wasn't allowed to go outside once.

Sometimes it doesn't matter about the country but about the cat. Our RIP Brownie was a stray and adopted us. He walked on to our deck, meowed and I fed him. The rest is history.
I got him fixed but he always wanted to be out more than in and I let Brownie be himself. For 11 wonderful years.
As for the males getting into hissy fits in my experience and neighborhood, they will regardless of that operation. Brownie had a feud going on with a male orange tabby. He would always have a standoff with the tabby in front of my bedroom window when I was in the bedroom. Coincidence? Don't think so. I broke up the standoff every time. I know the tabby was fixed, too, because he had a collar and in my neighborhood, if the cat has a collar, the cat has been fixed.
Unfortunately, these 2 outdoor cats (and 1 other) disappeared last spring. I believe that it would have been the time that momma coyotes would be raising pups and healthy, well-fed tomcats would be, well I can't say the rest.
We adopted Butzie, a 2-year old girl from the shelter, in June. We knew she was "on the street" because she was in the shelter. We got a cat screen door and have let her make her own decisions about going out. Lately, she just stares at what may be out the door and just stays in.
Sorry, this is way too long a post.

so he never came back then?

i'm sorry to hear

well good to hear you're ok with your new cat

Originally Posted by Red Scathach

I would assume it depends on the cats but neutering a cat won't stop their ability to defend themselves, however neutered cats typically do not get as big as tomcats

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I'm surprised no one has commented on this yet! As I'm sure many other people on this forum can back up, this is a myth.
Breeding, nutrition while growing, and just general care can ensure that a cat gets as big as is genetics intend it to be. Aside from a cat that belongs to one of the neighbors - my Sho is larger then any of the intact males living around this area (note - male cats belong to several neighbors and are not ferals or strays), all the neutered male cats I grew up with were normal sized or larger as well.

thanks!

but is neutering necessary? if there was a cat not neutured he would still want to fight. The nueterd cat would still have to try and defend himself.

IMO neutering IS necessary to: (1) eliminate cancers in the male (2) stop unwanted kittens (3) stop spraying and (4) deminish fighting.

However, neutered males will STILL fight if necessary - just that they usually do not seek out fights like an unneutered male over territory. I've known some pretty big boys (neutered) that would win in a fight against an unneutered tom