Aggressive Males

Over the past few months I've noticed lots of people on the forums dispensing advice about getting male cats neutered for all the normal reasons, but also because they are so likely to become aggressive as intact adult males.
Now, I've been breeding bengals for 7 years and been involved in the cat fancy for nearly 25 years, having also bred oriental shorthairs many years ago. I've just never run across this "aggressive male" syndrome.
All the stud cats we've ever had have been sweet loving affectionate boys. Sure, they will be nasty to each other if allowed to get close, but never to us, anyone who came to visit or any of our females.

Have I been just incredibily lucky or is this a myth? I'd like to hear from the rest of the breeders on the forum, what your experience is with this.

I think it was more of aggressive as in them being tempermental when a queen is in heat and they want at her.

I do know of a British SH breeder who had a male who was pretty aggressive. One time (it was a walk in cage) the owner had the male and a breeding female in the same cage. He had to go in the stud's cage to get something and crossed between the male and the female - the male grabbed ahold of the owner's leg and really bit and scratched him hard!

If there was no female in the cage with him, he was easy to handle.

Some males do get agressive around females in heat.

I have to agree that some males do get aggressive around females in estrus. I know for a fact that my own stud does. If Lex so much as trills like she does when she is in estrus, Tonka's behavior changes. I have often said that the best indicator of estrus in my queen is my stud. He knows before I do and I can always tell by his behavior.

I guess what I'm trying to discover is why there's a thought on the boards that intact males are just plain aggressive in general. Once again, in my experience this is far from true.
I'm aware that intact males can be overly enthusiastic in the pressence of a female in heat.

I'm not a breeder, but I'd like to poke my nose into this if I may

The only cats I saw brought into the clinic for rabies quarantine (biting people) were intact males (domestics) - the owners would always say they didn't know what came over Fluffy, he was always so sweet. And the only times I've been bitten without provocation were by intact males - one moment they're sweet as pie, and the next they'll lash out fast as lightning. So in my experience with the general population of domestics, the intact males have been more unpredictably aggressive. Most other cats give warning that they're stressed or annoyed.

I wonder if your good results with intact males are at least partially due to responsible breeders selecting for the best possible adult temperament? I've only been to a few cat shows, but the cats I've seen shown were amazingly tolerant of all sorts of intrusive handling by all sorts of strangers.

I'd assume most of that is due to good socialization, but isn't at least part of it selective breeding? Do you breed specifically for appearance, or is temperament considered too?

Originally Posted by tuxedokitties

I wonder if your good results with intact males are at least partially due to responsible breeders selecting for the best possible temperament? I've only been to a few cat shows, but the cats I've seen shown were amazingly tolerant of all sorts of intrusive handling by all sorts of strangers.

I'd assume most of that is due to good socialization, but isn't at least part of it selective breeding? Do you breed specifically for appearance, or is temperament considered too?

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Yes and this is probably particularly true for bengals. Bengals got some bad press early in the development of this breed, for being difficult, shy and aggressive in general, regardless of gender. A lot of that was due to the fact that Asian Leopard Cats are reclusive, nocturnal, solitary and dislike human beings. So early bengal generations had some issues with this and everyone endevoured to breed for sweet temperament in future generations.
Now, about 30 years later, bengals are very docile, owner oriented and affectionate cats. But, still not the right cat for everybody, because they need and crave so much attention.
I don't have much experience with domestics, and can only speak in regards to breed cats, so I guess I didn't take into consideration what random breeding of domestics could cause in regards to temperament. But it's definitely a good point.

Thank you - I've just been off on a train of thought about that...Purebred cats are chosen for certain traits, and then bred selectively, while domestics are usually bred accidentally or in the wild, so perhaps with domestics it's the less-handled or even feral males who are most likely to breed (with females who are either pets allowed to roam or who are feral), resulting in male cats who tend to be more aggressive if they're allowed to mature sexually?

Hmmm

All my male cat have been fisxed but they were sweeter than my females...

Originally Posted by tuxedokitties

Thank you - I've just been off on a train of thought about that...Purebred cats are chosen for certain traits, and then bred selectively, while domestics are usually bred accidentally or in the wild, so perhaps with domestics it's the less-handled or even feral males who are most likely to breed (with females who are either pets allowed to roam or who are feral), resulting in male cats who tend to be more aggressive if they're allowed to mature sexually?

Hmmm

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That sounds about right. I would imagine a Tomcat would have to be pretty rough and tumble, to survive, stake out a territory and defend it against other Toms.