I’ve got two very handsome male cats, Khan and Sirius. Khan is six years old, Sirius just over a year. Both are fixed, have had their shots, yadda yadda yadda. Most of the time they’re friends, occasionally they studiously ignore each other in the manner of cats.
Lately, Sirius has been chasing Khan down as often as possible, and more or less attacking. Neither of them have front claws (please don’t give me the cruel punishment stuff, they’ll never have to fend for themselves, and they’re both afraid of the sky), and I’m not terribly worried about them hurting each other. I’m just sick of the random sneak attacks, and I feel bad for poor Khan, who’s usually just hanging out on the arm of the couch, snoozing and watching TV with me when he’s unjustly accosted.
Should I have Sirius checked for some extra-agression-forming condition, or is it likely he’s just young and wants to be alpha male?
From my experience, it sounds like he’s a typical one-year-old cat. Not quite a kitten, not quite a grown-up cat … we’ll call them teenagers. Sounds like he just wants big brother to pay attention to him and play with him. He should grow out of it, eventually. I’ve gone one that’s five and one that’s two and the youngest still likes to chase/attack his big brother every now and then. If you want to wear him out, try playing with him with one of those toys on a string (the ones I buy have catnip and are usually under $2) or a laser (who needs catnip with one of those!). Both my cats love that, and it might be a good group activity for your two without one attacking the other just to get attention.
I have three cats. Two are 1 year old brothers, and the third is a 6 year old fixed male. They live outside, get to hunt all the time and they still take turns attacking each other. It happens so much that we named the brothers, Beowulf and Grendal.
I would be concerned if male cats didn’t exhibit that behaviour, it would be so unpredatory of them.
He’s just young. And yes, it’s likely that he understands that Kahn is alpha, and wants to test the boundaries. It will die down, but it won’t ever stop completely. Cats like attacking each other sometimes. My two boys, who are 5.5-year-old littermates, fight every now and then and it sounds like a furry tornado. Then it’s over. They also go through phases where one is the attacker for a while, and then it changes to the other one being more likely to attack. They’ve never really hurt each other and get along very well.
We had a 22 year old male and a 5 year old male. The 5 year old would attack the 22 year old in a play on alpha. If the 22 year old got fed up, the 5 year old would be seen heading for the hills with the old fart closing in.
Trust me. If the alpha male thinks he needs to take care of business, he will, regardless of his age.
Thanks, everybody! I’ve never had two male cats before, and they’re starting to drive me nuts with the chasing. But now that I know it’s normal feline behavior (if any of it can be considered normal), I’ll just zap 'em with the water gun when they get too loud.
My older cat is constantly attacked by the younger. No one has ever drawn blood or been hurt in any way (except us when we intervene and get scratched inadvertantly).
The problem we have is when the younger (male, year and a half) wants to cuddle with the older (female, 9) and licks her ears and face to make friends then tries to lay down next to her when he’s cold. She goes insane, smacking him (again, no claws used, though neither are declawed) and crying until she gets to me or Ardred for protection.
We’ve had the boy for just over a year and earlier this week they layed with in six inches of each other for several minutes with no fighting, smacking or growling.
I will just agree with everyone else, it’s probably a little bit young cat exurberance and a little trying to go for the alpha spot. I think if Khan gets really tired of it he will react and put the kid in his place, otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it unless they are having knock down drag out fights all the time or Khan starts hiding and acting strange.
I have a 13 year old male, a 4 year old, a 3 year old and a 1 year old. The younger ones try to challenge the oldest every so often but mostly they take out their piss and vinegar on each other, and then they all cuddle.
I think it’s a male thing, more than an age thing.
I grew up with two female cats. They played with each other on occasion, but I really don’t remember anything close to what I could call a fight–mostly just tag and chase.
We now have a male and a female cat. Both are fixed, declawed, indoor cats. The male is a couple of years older and significantly heavier than the female, and tends to be a lot more sendentary than the female, who is petite and only about a year old.
It happens occasionally that the female will jump the male, but then she runs away again immediately–kind of a feline version of tag. (She also plays tag with our 13yo daughter in the same way. She runs in, swats DD, then runs away. DD chases her until she can tag the cat, then the roles switch and the cat starts chasing DD.)
However, the male will–for no apparent reason–attack the female by trying to pin her down and bite her on the back of the neck. It happens a couple of times a week that we are aware of–more often if he’s had even a whiff of catnip. Most of the time, he is extremely nice to her, by licking her and trying to sleep next to her. The aggressive moments pretty much catch everyone by surprise.
That may be a little dominance behavior but it’s more a form of sex play. Since he’s neutered though he really doesn’t know what to do with her once he gets her pinned down.
I may be the only person in the world with a cat who is actually afraid of William Shatner. I have to fast forward through that part to keep the cat from freaking out.
