I didn’t know cats did that! I’ve got three cats who have been living together for, I don’t know, two years since the latest one? And it was rocky at the start, but since I got the dog a year ago they’ve presented a united front against the interloper, you know?
So a couple days ago Himself told me that when he was up late, Stokie, the newest and youngest and heaviest cat, was making a ton of noise behind the coffee table (he’s a pretty noisy cat in general) and when he looked, Stokie was humping poor small shy Dewey and proclaiming his manhood at the top of his lungs.
Sure, I’ve seen neutered dogs hump legs and couch cushions, but I didn’t know cats did that! I figured Himself had misinterpreted a bout of kitty wrestling and forgot about it… until the same thing interrupted the X-Files tonight. And yeah, it was kind of disturbing. And yeah, Dewey did not care for it.
So, is it just a dominance thing? Why now, when it’s never happened before? Is it the humidiy? Change of seasons? What the hell has gotten into Stokie, and why is he embarrassing us?
Um … spray bottle? Sounds kind of inadequate, all things considered, but there isn’t a whole lot you can do. Could say “No! Bad!”, or just lift up and toss Stokie when he starts doing his thing.
However, cats also use mounting behavior as a way to reinforce social ranking. Cats reach social maturity between the ages of two and four years of age. Prior to that time, they may get along famously, and then suddenly the cats’ social standing starts to matter.
However per both columns, he may just be getting his rocks off ;). But the timing does seem suspiciously like it may be a change in social status issue.
Yeah, I have two cats, neutered male, spayed female. We got the male when he was about 1. A couple of years later they were frisking in the yard and suddenly…it looked like they were fucking. Just for a couple of seconds. (But I think it doesn’t take cats long.)
My husband and I were looking at each other and saying, “Hmmm. Are we sure about that neuter thing?” Yeah. We’re sure.
The thing is that he is a mellow guy, and she is kind of prickly. For instance he will chase her into a corner when they’re playing, but then he’ll back off. If she’s the one chasing, she’ll jump him, no problem. Fur will fly. Literally.
Sometimes if there’s a big change in the environment, the cats might freak out and instinctively try and create a new social order. I remember once when I moved into an apartment with 3 cats, soon after I moved in one of the cats kept mounting another one. Apparently they hadn’t done this before I moved in. I’m guessing in the chaos of me moving in, one took the opportunity to assert its dominance in this strange new situation.
My friend in Idaho has a male neutered cat- he has three plush pink frogs as his “teddy babes” which my friend swears he will gather together & hump one at a time, very carefully giving each one equal time.
Apparently cats and dogs aren’t alone; rabbits - even female ones - will hump as a social dominance thing. Fortunately our ‘top dog’ male bunny reduced his humping of his male buddy from several times a day to maybe once a month after the neutering.
I’ve got two neutered male cats and Oliver occasionally holds Joey down and asserts his dominance by making Joey his bitch. It isn’t a sex thing, and I know because when it is a sex thing he sits on the couch and touches himself with his paw and yowls. Then he apparently taught Joey to masturbate too so occasionally I will come home and find one or the other of them in the recliner touching themselves inappropriately.
At least Stokie stayed in-species. Many years ago I awoke one night to find my neutered-boy cat having sex with my arm.
We’d moved in to a new apartment, so maybe he was just adjusting the herd, as suggested upthread.
Our only boy cat, Hermes, tries to do this. He’s been fixed, but doesn’t seem to really know it. Hestia won’t let him get away with it, but our oldest tries to run away.
Not a cat thing, but we once had a female (intact) dog and a male (neutured) one. On more than one occaision, when in heat, SHE “raped” HIM. She didn’t hump him, she would growl at him, corner him, and demand that HE mount HER, and actually “perform”! :eek:
Which, we were shocked to observe, he DID (had no idea that Amazing Mr. No-nuts as we sometimes called him, was physically capable of the act.
He certainly was NOT happy about it, looking terribly distressed and terrified of her (yes, we broke it up whenever we witnessed it) but at least once, the act was actually completed (to the getting stuck butt to butt for the duration part).
He never did impregnate her (so I guess the operation “took” in that respect) and we ended up getting rid of the crazy bitch.
Dominance was definately one aspect of it…he did what she demanded, and she was by far the dominant one in all things, but she also just, apparently, wanted some dick.
ETA that this male had been “fixed” for at least a few yrs by then and at an early age, having been a pound puppy, and never humped or showed any sexual behaviors aside from his victimization by his “rapist”.
