Cross Breeds

How can you tell if cats are fighting?

I've been trying for a month to have my new cat get along with my first (and actually younger) cat. Both are male. After 4 weeks, they're still attacking one another, and the fur is flying. Normally one cat will tackle the other to the ground, and they'll wrestle while they bite each others heads and faces. They'll scratch each other in the face with their back feet, and my younger one will let out a few "meows" when he's getting his ear bitten or something. Both have their mouths open when they take a pause in between each fight, and oftentimes their ears are back against their head. There's not much running. Just a lot of staring down, tacking, and wrestling on the ground with claws. Is this how cats play, or are they fighting? I also wanted to mention that they're normally quiet when they do this. I've never heard a yowl or anything like that.

Public Comments

1. They are fighting.sorry
2. this is fighting, with the fur flying and staring usually gives it away. I have a year old cat now that is playing really hard with his brothers and making them run from him, but he is just playing hard. With your situation, it looks like they are having issues like males usually do.
3. Since both are male, they might be fighting because they want to "own"the place where they live. My friend has three male cats and they used to fight a lot. He put each one in a different room and didn't really lock them there but he gave them each of their own place. After awhile he let them out and it minimized the fighting. Hope this helps! :]
4. Good question. If they MEANT IT there would be tufts of fur everywhere, blood, and at least one cat screaming extremely loud. There'd be actual deep bites and a rolling ball of cats trying to kill each other. If you have none of these things happening, they're doiing rough play that lets them size each other up and they figure out where each stands in the pecking order.
5. They are fighting. You need to describe how you introduced them to each other and then I can tell you what went wrong and, possibly, how to correct things. If you simply put them together and expected them to become best friends, that was a big mistake. Give more details or look at my profile (jue7rc) in partiular "How to introduce my kitten to my mean cat" posted 3 weeks ago which should tell you how to introduce cats. Edit - I would love to know who is giving all the thumbs down to people who actually know their subject. The fact that your cats' mouths are open when they stop the fighting is due to the fact that they are hyperventilating because of fear and/or aggression - now someone give me a thumbs down for saying they are fighting.
6. A cat fight! I love it. They want their own territory. I like the suggestion of polish_niki. That should work, they will at least have a place to get away from each other. Eventually, they will get used to each other. They never will be friendly towards each other, but will share common (the water bowl, food dish, etc, territory in peace. You might have to give each his own litter box. They may not like the smell of each other, and one will avoid the litter box that the other uses.
7. When cats are play fighting, their tails are in the air and their ears are up. But if their ears are back, and their tails swish, they're fighting. Maybe they're not trying to kill each other, but they're definitely trying to figure out who owns the place. My two cats did this alot too, we usually just scolded them when they fought. Now they dont fight at all. I'd say just give it time, but supervise and if they start fighting let them know that it isn't okay. In time they'll have to accept that they're living under the same roof.
8. Everything you've said leads me to think they are simply playing very hard. If hard play gets too rough for one of the cats, they will disengage and run away - at least far enough away that the other cat can't get at them. When they kick each other with their back paws, they will have their claws retracted, otherwise there would be blood being drawn. A real cat fight does not last very long - one cat will run off. Hard wrestling and play fighting will last quite a while with one cat backing off a bit and then charging in again. This is what you are describing. I think they are simply playing very roughly. My source - 25 cats over the past 23 years and watching our 8 month old feral kitten, named Cece, tackling adult cats who outweigh her 2 to 1 and even more. She is about 4.8 pounds and will tackle, and knock down, cats weighing up to 14 pounds. Last night I watched her and Murphy wrestle for about 10 minutes. Murphy weighs around 12 pounds. Cece would run at him and knock him over. They would wrestle really roughly for a few minutes and then Murphy might nip Cece and Cece would retreat - for a while. The nip was Morphy's way of saying "Hey, that's too rough, cut it out." Cece would retreat a few feet and then do what I call "winding up for an attack" and charge right back in to knock Murphy down again or jump on top of him if Murphy has not gotten up. They would wrestle really hard for a few minutes and then take a brake and start all over again. Just like your cats, Cece and Murphy were playing, not fighting.