Are my cats fighting or playing?

I have a 4 and a half year old female cat and a 3 years old male cat.

They have grown up together and the male one was introduced at 6 weeks to my female one who continued to nurse him for another week (She had kittens just before he arrived that were ready to leave home. Never again will I promised would I ever have to deal with those little runts They were all over the place.

Anyway now she is sprayed and male is fixed too I am happy to have them play together, but when they do I have to tell my male cat off all the time.

Just to make things easier, I'll tell their names. Male is Stimpy and female is Alanta.

Anyway, when Stimpy was a kitten my female cat used to pin him down after he used hit and run tactics on her while bashing her face and legs.

When she caught him he rolled over on his back with his ears back and she put her paws on his belly to hold him down for about a minute.

But years down the road it seems she is doing the rolling now.......

When Stimpy chases her around the house he will not stop until he catches her and she rolls over, hissing, screaming and trying to get free. I have seen him and he puts his paws on her belly after she rolls over and actually bites right into the belly with his teeth and that's what makes her scream in pain and hiss.

What is he doing and what is she doing?!

Why does she roll over all the time if she knows he's going to bite into her and why is he so rough. Is this playing or just damn right bullying on his side? Is he trying to get revenge earlier for her trying to keep him in order? It was got to the point where whenever I see him chasing her I will tell him "NO" and he doesn't listen to me. He will not stop unless he gets his bite......

So I have to go up and manually stop him. This isn't so easy when I am living on my own and had broken my leg in an accident a while ago. I can't just get up and run over instantly and he won't even listen to me in the first place.

What can I do and what is going on.

MadCat,

From what you describe, these two cats need to be separated for a bit until you can determine why the attacks are happening. If could be anything really, it could be not enough litter pans, not enough space for the cats to be able to get along. Do they have cat condos, tall and sturdy and maybe more than one? Places where they can get away from each other safely? A cleared shelf -anything?

You can do several things. You can invest in several Comfort Zone Room Diffusers by Farnum Pet http://www.farnampet.com/

You can keep a dark heavy blanket around, and when they start chasing each other, toss the blanket over them quickly to stop the fight. Yelling at them just increases their stress level (and yours) so that won't work, but the blanket is useful to startle them out of the behavior.

You can redirect them in play therapy. If they do not get aggressive with catnip, you can use catnip as a sort of behavior modification drug. If they get aggressive, then try honeysuckle. Our sponsor for our Caption This Forum Plain Brown Tabby Toys and Treats carries a wide variety of honeysuckle toys, they can be very calming to cats and work out excess energy nicely with no bloodshed. You also might think of getting a few kick bags for your cats. Toys large enough and stuffed with catnip that the cats can actually grab on with their feet and kick at it.

Check in the Bach flower remedies as well- Chicory, or Vine would be good to give to Stimpy to take the edge down.

Good luck!

Thank you both. I have been thinking back now and I think I know what the problem may be. I think there may be some sort of jealousy going on between the male cat. He's always been a bit on the rough side with me and now that I can't move around and play with him so much (Like chasing and other similiar activities) he seems to be taking his frustration out maybe? They have enough litter boxes, I have 3 scattered around and always easily accessed by them.

I have always tried to balance the time I spend with them but most of the day I find myself sitting on the computer as there isn't much else I can really do at the moment.

What happens though is Alanta (Nothing related to Atlanta state) comes up and loves to snuggle on my lap, but Stimpy never goes on my lap because he isn't that type of cat. But when he comes along for a play I feel bad to remove Alanta and Stimpy chooses his own times to play. I have tried to make a routine of play time with him because I can't seem to let play together anymore.

It may be important to note that I can't have Stimpy sleep in the bedroom with me as he is a really loud talking cat. I can't even do anything without him looking at me and talking and during the night he always wakes me up at random times. He doesn't do this by just sounds but he actually physically wakes me up by bashing me in the face with his paw.

In the bedroom door there is access to the litter box in the other room so it's not a litter issue.

Anyway Alanta sleeps with me every night on the bed and perhaps this is the cause of all these attacks?

It is very hard because one of them demands play and the other demands love. I can't help but think this is my fault as I can't deliver the play to Stimpy all the time and thus he won't play with Alanta. Bit of a horrible situation I think

Regards,

Dimitri

PS. They both have places they use to get away from each other. Funny thing is, Alanta goes up and smashes him in the legs (Not a hard one just a playful one) and Stimpy turns this into a deathmatch.

Talk about overreacting

PS 2: Oh and Stimpy loves catnip but not sure how to explain him. When I give him some catnip he'll attack me if I go to take it away from him but after it is gone he then goes into a frenzy and runs up to the scratch post and rips at it almost pulling it to the floor. It's attached just at height level for him to scratch and stretch his back at the same time and is even hard for a human to pull it off I would imagine, but......He almost ripped it off the wall when I took his catnip away from him once.

Now that I think even more carefully, do you think he has an attitude problem? Nothing seems to please him except playing with him and if I can't play actively he doesn't want to play at all (Like with string or throwing toys to him).

He does play on his own with his mice sometimes and is very dominating over them, but Alanta has all the big toys. Whenever I get a new toy for Stimpy he doesn't want it unless it's his small mice, so I give them to Alanta and she plays with them. So now I just buy mice for stimpy and big fluffy toys for Alanta.

Bit of a long PS I know

Have you talked to a vet about Stimpy's behavior? It does sound aggressive in general. One of our kitties really doesn't like playing by himself either. But he won't play much when the other cats are around. Making alone play-time did help in our situation, but it sounds like it's not helping here.

This does not sound like normal aggressive play. Like Katie, our cats get into fights occassionally, but there is very very rarely hissing, and ears back almost never happens. Ears back is not good, and to answer your question about why Atlanta now rolls over - when he puts his paws on her belly and bites her, does she kick him with her back feet? On their back is a defensive position for cats, not a position of submission (according to our vet).

Hissy is VERY experienced when it comes to cats. Since Stimpy gets so aggessive with the catnip, I'd try her suggestion for the honeysuckle toys.

Have you tried playing with Stimpy when he wants to? I know you don't want to move Atlanta if she's on your lap - but since she sounds more like she's doing OK now, and she gets to sleep with you, maybe it makes sense to remove her from your lap and then play with Stimpy when he's asking for it?

Please try some of these things, perhaps consider a trip to the vet for Stimpy, and please keep us posted!

If you cannot move around so much with your broken leg, you might consider playing with Stimpy with a laser pen. You can sit comfortably and let him chase the red dot. My cats love this game. If you start and end the game with the red dot on you foot or hand, he will know that you are running the show.