Feline Aggression Towards Other Cats in the Neighbourhood

Key Points

Neuter both male and female cats. Consider time-sharing outdoor access: stagger the times when cats are allowed outside, using electronic cat flaps attached to a timer. Increase resources in the home and garden: indoor and outdoor latrines, more resting places, feeding and drinking sites. Introduce activity feeding. Schedule time for interactive play to coincide with peak periods when cats would otherwise be active outside.

Introduction

The feline territory is divided into three zones. The central core territory, needs to be safe and secure, but the home range may be traversed by other cats as they go between different parts of their own territory. The larger hunting range is also shared by larger numbers of cats in the local vicinity. The sharing of access to territory means that time share systems are important in avoiding conflict. Conflict is most likely in the home range when cat densities are high. Dawn and dusk are high risk times in terms of aggression and this may be due to the fact that prey is most active at these times, and there is increased competition for this important resource, or simply a consequence of the increased chance of feline encounters because many cats are out and about at these times.

Invasion of core territories and threat to resources within homes increases competition within the home and can increase the risk of conflict. When a feline despot is present within a neighbourhood, aggressive encounters between cats increase significantly. These despotic cats not only show intensely territorial behaviour but also make regular and repeated attempts to take over the territory of other cats, including their core territory or home range. They may enter the homes of other cats to attack or intimidate them, or to leave urine marks, leading to misdiagnosis of inter-cat aggression or indoor marking problems within the homes they are targeting. Entire male cats are more likely to be despotic, which is why stray males should be caught and neutered. However, there is no exclusive correlation between reproductive status and despotism, and other cats can behave in this way. Despotic cats are often most active at dawn and dusk and their behaviour is often a source of tension between human and feline neighbours throughout the potentially very large area that the despot attempts to control.

Investigation

Aggression within a local cat population may be obvious to those who own cats that are the repeated victims of cat bite injuries. Sometimes injuries are mistakenly attributed to foxes or other wildlife, but this is much less common. Inter-cat aggression in the neighbourhood is also an important underlying factor in house-soiling and spraying problems, as well as inter-cat aggression within the household. This is because the activities of local despots, or a very high feline population density may cause cats to stay indoors, where they then conflict with each other.

Aggression to other cats in the neighbourhood is more likely when the local population is destabilised by introduction of a newcomer, when there is one or more entire tomcat in the local population or when a feline despot is resident in the neighbourhood. Despotism is seen when a cat is actively displacing others from their territory or monopolising resources. Conflict is also at a peak when queens are beginning to call and territorial areas are disputed.

Territorial area closely corresponds to the survival resources it provides. The defence of territory is therefore linked to the defence of resources so that there is a reduction in territorial behaviour and aggression when there is a surfeit of resources within the neighbourhood.

Treatment

The majority of domestic cats are neutered and inter-cat aggression within neighbourhoods is consequently reduced but, in situations where two entire males live in close proximity, the risk of overt aggression is greatly increased. In such situations the aggression can be very serious since reproductive, and hence genetic and evolutionary, success is at stake. Neutering before 12 months of age has been shown to decrease fighting by as much as 88%, which suggests that in the case of male to male inter-cat aggression, hormonal influences are perhaps more significant than learning.

Intact male cats that are the cause of aggression should be neutered. If these cats are feral they will need to be trapped and relocated. Some make good pets once they have been castrated. If that intact male belongs to a local resident they must be contacted for permission to have the animal neutered. The surgery may be sponsored by a local charity or shelter organisation if the owner is unable to pay. In a minority of cases, the owner may be unwilling to have the cat neutered.

Aggression between entire males and females is rare, although it may occur if the female is not ready or willing to mate. The mating process is a very noisy event and it is not uncommon for inexperienced owners to misinterpret this as an episode of aggression. When owners report that entire cats of different sexes are acting in a hostile manner toward one another it is therefore important to consider the differential of normal mating behaviour.

Another hormonally-related aggressive behaviour relates to the change in behaviour of lactating queens who can become increasingly aggressive toward other cats when they have a litter to protect. Such aggression may occur within the neighbourhood or inside the household and whilst hostility toward other cats can be considered normal at this point, aggression toward owners in a domestic situation should not be accepted as part of normal “maternal aggression”. Prospective owners should therefore resist the temptation to purchase kittens from a queen that is overtly hostile to them. Cats showing maternal aggression of this kind should be neutered so that further breeding cannot occur. If aggression is directed only at other cats then the owner has a responsibility to house the cat securely to prevent this occurring.

In some cases the general feline population is so large that resource density and individual territorial space are insufficient to prevent aggression. In these cases neighbours may have to make a concerted attempt to improve the local environment so that cats may coexist. The temptation to introduce more cats should be resisted. Timesharing access to the garden may effectively reduce the population density that each cat experiences, but this must be combined with improved resource access and environmental enrichment in the home.

Prognosis

The prognosis is guarded, because in many cases new residents will introduce new cats. Every change or increase in population brings further competition and instability. Successful management of a local overpopulation problem depends upon active participation by all cat owners.

Prevention

• Neuter male and female cats.
• Do not introduce cats that have a history of despotism to already highly-populated neighbourhoods.
• Be aware of local feline population density before introducing more cats to an area.
• Provide places in the garden for resident cats to claw mark, so they can define the territory boundary.
• Provide outdoor latrines (sand pits) at the edge of the garden.
• Increase the cat’s access to height in the garden by creating perches in trees and on walls/fences that look away from the house. This gives cats a chance to defend their own territory whilst preventing other cats from using the perches to spy on the cat’s house.
• Encourage local cat owners to adopt activity feeding and other environmental enrichments that are known to encourage cats to live in harmony.
• Consider persuading cat owners to set up a local ‘cat club’ of people living in the neighbourhood so that they can swap ideas about improving gardens and homes to suit the cats better.