Kitty power trips

[veggiegirl]

Does anyone have kitties with dominance issues?

I have three neutered indoor male kitties and it seems like there is always a fight/rough playing? going on that I have to break up. Two of my kitties are brothers and things are better with them, but even they have their issues. My newest kitty Oliver, who is the youngest, tends to beat up on Tiger, who is the largest. Tiger doesn't fight back either, he just backs into a corner and screams. To me it seems like its a play fight mixed with real aggression. Sometimes Tiger smacks Oliver a couple of times but it doesn't usually make him back down. Are these "power struggles" normal among male kitties?

Most of the time they all get along fine. They wash each other and play together. They even eat out of the same dish at the same time. But I have to pull Oliver off Tiger quite a few times a day. Its very annoying and I feel sorry for Tiger.

[Pure14K]

Nope, thankfully I have to say no. When I lived with my parents (5 years ago) we had 3 cats too and they ALWAYS used to have dominance issues... That's why we only have 1 cat.

[elfomatic]

I know my cats have formed a hierarchy ... but I don't think I've seen any power struggles since the last cat was introduced. I have 5 females though so that may have something to do with it.

Mine have an established alpha female ... and you can pretty much guess from watching them where everyone else falls in down the line.

I'm sure it is normal to see this ... especially with boys.

[BrendaLynn]

I haven't experienced that yet because I too have only had one cat at a time and right now I have my sister-in-laws cat and Angel is too young to be a bother to him. But then theya re a boy and girl also. I have read articles about that though and they sound pretty normal to be having issues. They said (this was in Cat Fancy) that they are constantly having social hierarchy issues but that they will eventually mellow out and seem less noticable.

[PaBabyBlue]

I do Steph. I have two male cats one is 13yrs old and one is 12yrs old. You would think by now that there wouldn't be any dominance issue but I still have them. The older cat loves to clean the younger cat. The younger cat likes to clean himself. They always fight about that. They sometimes fuss about the spot they like to lay in during the day. My older cat, if he isn't laying in his own pet bed, has a certain spot he likes to lay at under the dining room table. Well, the younger cat likes to lay there too (because it's out of the way, no dogs can whiz by them, etc). If the younger cat gets there first, and then the older cat comes trotting over and wants to lay there...they will start fussing and meowing and batting each other....When I hear them I have to break it up every time. The older cat likes to clean himself too, he won't let the younger cat clean him, but he wants to clean the younger cat. He will actually hold his head still to clean him. The younger cat gets mad too. This morning they must have really had some kind of tussle, because under the dining rom table there was some small pieces (clumps) of white cat hair. It does no good to separate them either, because they go right back at each other, unless I raise my voice and say a really firm "NO" or use a spray bottle. That sometimes helps.

[veggiegirl]

LOL Mary. Looks like I'm just going to have to get used to it!

[PaBabyBlue]

Steph, I just got used to it after a while too. Then the firm "No" wasn't cutting it anymore. It became "knock it off" then it became "dont' make me come over there" They would stop and look at me too, because they knew what they were doing was bad.....They like to curl up and sleep together too and until they get comfortable and in the right spot/position I here a lot of fussing/tussling/meowing. Mostly from the older cat too, he does all of the the meowing, because he wants his own way all of the time. Then, I physically have to get up and separate them if I think it's getting really bad. If they're just playing, it's one thing, but when they are at each other you can tell. So, males do tend to have dominance issues. To answer your question, YES! YES! YES!