Feral Cats Attacking

[dashy1]

Hi we have a family of 4 feral cats who live in our apartment building grounds.They are all very friendly towards us and trust us as we feed them daily & they have areas where they can shelter from the cold here too.

About a week ago 4 very large male cats we had never seen before, (think they are feral too although look extremely well fed & overweight), appeared and were being aggressive towards the family of 4 'residential' cats. Particularly towards a young male (he's around 12 months old), the other male cats bite him & mount him! Is this normal for males to mount males?

I've seen these 'new' cats 3 times this week. How can we deter these cats from coming into the grounds? If we don't leave food out then the cat family who live here will suffer.

 

[talkingpeanut]

Have you spayed and neutered the cat family you care for?

 

[dashy1]

We have spayed one of the girls and neutered one of the male cats. Will be doing same to the other girl and young male next week.

 

[StefanZ]

YOUR cat family knows you. And they arent stupid, they recognize the aggression and threat from the outsides. Its my guess, if you try to give them food in a more controlled form, they will understand what you are trying to do.

Yes, its not that unusual for males to mount other males. HERE I think its mostly a dominance thing. Which is lucky for this young tom, the alternative would be to beat him up and chase him away, if they saw him as a real rivalcy. As its now, they tolerate him as long as he is submissive.

The best is probably you make sure to neuter also these newcomers. This will solve several problems at once. This will NOT solve your problem at hand immediately, but in one or two months perspective.

 

[StefanZ]

ps. If you had ANY thoughs on perhaps taking them inside as your inside only cats, THIS here now is the moment. Where an unpleasant outer threat has popped up. And being taking inside is their salvation, quite literally...

 

[dashy1]

ps. If you had ANY thoughs on perhaps taking them inside as your inside only cats, THIS here now is the moment. Where an unpleasant outer threat has popped up. And being taking inside is their salvation, quite literally...

Hi thanks for the info re the cat behaviour. I would love to take them in but I have a pet cat who won't accept other cats unfortunately & the other animal lovers here already have pets at home too. Local animal charities have posted info on their facebook pages to see if we can get them adopted but to no avail. So many strays here the charities are happy for us to have the cats neutered / spayed & look after them this way.

I've contacted one of the charities & they are coming over tomorrow to see how they can help. Hopefully we can get something sorted out soon.

 

[StefanZ]

Yes, I understand. Yet, YOU adopting them is almost quaranteed success. If someone else adopts them, it will be a more difficult process. Still, if the adopter understands they are shy and need quite a some fostering, it should go OK.

You had already opened the gate. And the intruders widened it quite some more... With a fosterer ready to do her best, it should go OK.
A friendly resident is often to a good help, if the fosterer isnt very experienced.