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- Apr 7, 2008
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Glitch's post about dominance issues raises a couple questions that I'd like to address to this wise forum.
- What are the signs of a serious problem between them - i.e. warning signs of a serious cat fight? Do you guys normally have to take your cats to the vet over injuries arising from dominance struggles??
- In the event of a serious catfight: how do you separate the two cats?
- How does one cat establish dominance over the other, in your experience?
- If the younger / new cat does establish dominance over the resident / older cat, can emotional problems arise with the resident cat as a result? (i.e. depression, anxiety etc?) What should I look out for?
The following incident is what prompted my concerns:
I have a 6 year old spayed female who has never been a stray, and has not been around other cats since she was small.
We took in a 6 month old male stray, whom we neutered immediately and relieved of other medical problems.
Lucky (the male) accidentally went toe-to-toe with my resident cat a few weeks ago. He got the door open to the room where we had put her. It was **scary**. They both crouched, were moving side to side, he advance slowly on her, crouching. He then started yowling really loudly, hisses on both sides. My father happened to be visiting at the time, and he was able to separate them by coaxing him away out with a sweeping motion of a broom. (He insisted that I go into another room, just in case something horrible was going to happen.) Just the sounds alone were terrifying.
As soon as we closed the door, and thus ended the standoff they both relaxed immediately and acted like nothing happened. It makes me nervous about the eventual introductions. (We're going to start next weekend.)
My husband, who has always had cats, said that it was just posturing. They were both asking: "Who the heck are you and what are you doing in *my* house?" He said that it would have been a while before one went at the other, and it ends when one backs off and dominance is established. But how far would they go against each other? Especially considering our 6 month old has been in fights before. (He had an abscess on his back when we found him, due, as the vet said, to a fight.) From your collective experience, do you guys think they could learn to co-exist? (DH said that if they can't we'll keep them separate and time-share the living room.)
- What are the signs of a serious problem between them - i.e. warning signs of a serious cat fight? Do you guys normally have to take your cats to the vet over injuries arising from dominance struggles??
- In the event of a serious catfight: how do you separate the two cats?
- How does one cat establish dominance over the other, in your experience?
- If the younger / new cat does establish dominance over the resident / older cat, can emotional problems arise with the resident cat as a result? (i.e. depression, anxiety etc?) What should I look out for?
The following incident is what prompted my concerns:
I have a 6 year old spayed female who has never been a stray, and has not been around other cats since she was small.
We took in a 6 month old male stray, whom we neutered immediately and relieved of other medical problems.
Lucky (the male) accidentally went toe-to-toe with my resident cat a few weeks ago. He got the door open to the room where we had put her. It was **scary**. They both crouched, were moving side to side, he advance slowly on her, crouching. He then started yowling really loudly, hisses on both sides. My father happened to be visiting at the time, and he was able to separate them by coaxing him away out with a sweeping motion of a broom. (He insisted that I go into another room, just in case something horrible was going to happen.) Just the sounds alone were terrifying.
As soon as we closed the door, and thus ended the standoff they both relaxed immediately and acted like nothing happened. It makes me nervous about the eventual introductions. (We're going to start next weekend.)
My husband, who has always had cats, said that it was just posturing. They were both asking: "Who the heck are you and what are you doing in *my* house?" He said that it would have been a while before one went at the other, and it ends when one backs off and dominance is established. But how far would they go against each other? Especially considering our 6 month old has been in fights before. (He had an abscess on his back when we found him, due, as the vet said, to a fight.) From your collective experience, do you guys think they could learn to co-exist? (DH said that if they can't we'll keep them separate and time-share the living room.)