Never had many Male cats

I am so confused!!

I got these 2 new beautiful boys in the last week or so.
They are both brothers, 3 yrs. old.
I found hair from an apparent confrontation a couple of days ago.
Thinking it was one of my regulars, I thought it would work itself out.
I was replying to another thread and the Sh** hit the fan!
I heard @#$%&* that wrestled all the way from this room to the next.
When I found them it was my new 2 boys!
Neither one has been neutered, but have lived together in the other home for 3 yrs. together.
Unless there is something she did not purposely tell me, I do not understand.
I have made it a habit of usually having females, I seem to understand their characteristics a little better. Now these 2 males are fiercely fighting, tumbling and a good handful of hair flying most of which is Smokey's.
What do I do?????
The obvious thing is to keep them separated, but they are both now hiding and I have to go to bed before too much longer, its 1:40 am
I probably will go to bed here soon, but check for suggestions when I get up as to what to do with them.
Right now I am seriously considering taking Harley and telling my vet he needs to be neutered asap. He is very talkative as "Iceberg" was, for those of you who remember him. He is the one I got before KoKo who attacked Molly. She is very docile and for anyone/thing to attack her is totally uncalled for. I sent him back to the lady who did the rescue and she gave me KoKo instead.
Not sure if I should just find him another single cat home.
I was currently looking for a home for Smokey thinking he was unhappy here but it looks like I know why now.

Are they really fighting or just rough-housing? It can be hard to tell with male cats. Like with men, some cats are more physical than others. But if they're really fighting then you need to separate them.

They tumbled from the bedroom through the small hallway into the middle of the living room with a tone that was screeching.
I think it was serious.

its probably a combination of the stress of re-homing and a dominance thing - men!

get them neutered asap then maybe get some feliway spray?

theres loads of posts about using vanilla essence to help them feel more familiar with each other.

ask yor vet for some advice when you get them neutered. hopeflly it'll work itself out.

I had a neutered male, Red Cat, several years ago when I brought in a stray, Purdy, another neutered male. I didn't know much about cats then. We have an open plan house, but I managed to keep them away from each other that first afternoon and evening. Had intended to put Purdy in the garage that first night, but since he was sleeping in a corner downstairs laying on his back, feet up, there was no way I was going to try to pick him up and try to carry him to the garage. It looked too dangerous to me. But since he had made no effort to leave that room and since Red Cat normally slept with us upstairs, I decided it would probably be okay. WRONG! At 1 am Purdy decided to join us in bed. We had a cat fight in bed right over the top of us! Seems funny now, but it was not funny at the time!

Anyway, those two continued to fight for about three months before it was accepted that Red Cat was dominant. I can only imagine it would have been worse had they not both been neutered. They still have spats occasionally, but I found the Feliway Comfort Zone diffuser to calm things down a lot. When they have their arguments, I just set my limits on how rough I allow them to play like I would children, and give the aggressor a brief time out in the furnace room when necessary to calm things down. Mostly, they just tolerate each other now; occasionally they are buddies playing tag or hide and seek.

I'd keep the boys separated until after they are both neutered, then re-introduce them just as though they were strangers. Expect territorial disputes, but supervise them. In a new home, the whole territorial thing starts all over again as to who gets the preferred spots at what time of day.

I've never had two males at the same time, only Mac and the girls. But I would hazzard a guess that neutering will calm the situation greatly. As was said before they're probably trying to re-claim positions since the move. Good luck!

i would neuter them asap.. before they start spraying and make your house smell really bad!
Ive had lots of male cats together and they never had such a bad fight.
but i would just go along with the others with the reintroducing part

I'll move this to Behavior, Patty.

I got some of the Feliway spray today.
Those plug-in things are $35.00!!

That will have to wait.
I don't have the $$ to have any of them neutered just yet.
Hopefully this Feliway spray will help until then.

Originally Posted by pjk5900

... I don't have the $$ to have any of them neutered just yet.
Hopefully this Feliway spray will help until then ...

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You have two intact males in a new environment. They are going to fight with each other to establish dominance in that new environment. Not only are they going to fight with each other, they are going to start spraying your house with urine to mark that new environment if they haven't already. They will continue to engage each other in combat - don't mistake what they are doing for play - it is NOT play behavior. And as time goes on, they will fight to the point of seriously or even mortally wounding each other in order to establish that dominance. You have to neuter them now, BOTH of them, whether you can afford it or not. Find the money to do it now and save yourself a LOT of expense at the vet's and for cleaning products later.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I am truly only trying to understand, not confront ... but why did you take 2 intact males into your home when you did not have the money to give them the appropriate care by neutering them? I feel relatively certain you must have seen a lot of the threads here dealing with intact males who are confrontational and aggressive and/or who spray. It just seems to me that you are borrowing trouble here. My question to you is why?

I feel certain you are a person with only the best interests of cats at heart. I am certain you are a person who only wants to help and give a better life to cats that may not have had such a chance before. I know all of these things, but please ... if you cannot afford to do what needs to be done, then don't take on the responsibility.

My best to you,

~gf~

I think gaye's answer was a little harsh. I'm sure you didn't know how aggressive these guys would be. Maybe have one neutered now and the other neutered later. You don't want them to start spraying... you'll have to move!!!!

Not harsh, just realistic. You also have to understand that they probably are confronted with other pet smells in that room and they are responding in an aggressive fashion- They are also more than likely already spraying in that room at night because that is the nature of the intact males and what they do.

Not only do you not have money to neuter them, but you don't have money to purchase what you need to in order to calm down the situation. The comfort zone room diffusers are available just about anywhere, so you can shop around. I have seen them as low as $15.00 and they really do work. The refills are only $7.00

You can contact this organization and they will direct you to the proper place near you where you can neuter at a low cost


http://www.spayusa.org/

Until then, you would be wise to separate these two before they really go at it and cost you another emergency vet bill that will be hard to cover-

Originally Posted by mandini

I think gaye's answer was a little harsh. I'm sure you didn't know how aggressive these guys would be. Maybe have one neutered now and the other neutered later. You don't want them to start spraying... you'll have to move!!!!

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Mandini, I am sorry if you found my answer to be harsh - it wasn't intended to be. As Hissy stated, it was realistic.

As to whether or not pjk5900 knew these boys would be aggressive, I will go so far as to say it is a possibility that she did not know. However, I know she knows her way around this site and she could have easily asked any number of people here about their experiences with male cats ... I think I am safe in saying that ALL of us with such experience would have been more than happy to relate those experiences to her.

I appreciate that you offered a suggestion you thought might be of assistance, however, your suggestion of having one neutered now and the other later won't work and I'll tell you why. You see, after a male is neutered, it takes some time for the testosterone to exit the system - in some cats, this can take several weeks into a month or sometimes even longer depending on the cat. So, what you have suggested will not accomplish the desired end-result immediately. They will continue to fight - only now, if your suggestion is followed, you have one cat that is weakened by the after-effects of the anesthesia and sore from the surgery. He will already be at a disadvantage and can be seriously hurt by the cat which remains intact. The intact guy won't turn the neutered guy around, take a quick look-see and say to himself, "Oh wait - this guy is no real threat! His danglies are gone!" Nope. Won't happen. He'll sniff, he'll designate the neutered guy as a threat because even though he doesn't have those danglies anymore, he still smells male because of the still-present hormones and then he'll attack anyway - very possibly seriously injuring the neutered guy and making for even MORE unaffordable vet bills that this person has already said she cannot pay.

Take my word for it when I tell you that it is never my heart's desire to be harsh or hurtful. But when I see someone making mistakes that will inevitably cost them more in the long term than what taking care of the immediate needs now would cost, I have to speak out - especially when I already know that financial resources for these purposes are at best, limited. It is now and always has been my objective to be honest, helpful and informative. But I also am very strong on placing the needs of the cats over and above the convenience of the owner.

I just think it needs to be said again - taking in an animal, ANY animal, when you do not possess the resources to give it the appropriate care is NOT the responsible thing to do. It doesn't help the animal. And it doesn't save money because when you neglect the things you need to do, it usually ends up costing twice as much and being twice as big a problem than what you originally started with.

My best to you,

~gf~