cat question?

[commander bunnypants]

Is this just a dominance thing?

MOCatt is a male and Squeaky girl is a female. MO probably weighs twice as much. Sometimes he will really take her out. Basically bites the back of the neck and dig his claws into her. She is currently wearing a necklace of scabs. It does not seem to bother her but....

They are both fixed


CB

[AllyCat]

1. Um...that's hormone behavior

despite the missing parts. Feline sexual display is pretty normal even in fixed animals.

[Ready4Change]

5. Especially when neutered later in life.

The older the cat is when neutered, the more it will express non-neutered behavior.

[flamingyouth]

6. Yes - utterly and completely

My cat Papa (neutered at age 2, when he was rescued) does this to my young female Winky. I play Alpha cat with him when I catch him, grabbing his ruff gently but firmly and telling him "no." He seems to catch on, and the episodes have been less frequent.

Good luck.:hi:

[Sanity Claws]

2. A necklace of scabs?

The poor little girl. This sounds awful. I have two neutered boys and they fight with each other but not like that. I'm no expert on how to handle this but it sounds like it should not be ignored. Try going to allexperts.com and see if you can someone to help you and your little girl.

[CO Liberal]

3. Cat Answer

Meow.

:-)

[mike_c]

4. yep, that's what it sounds like....

I don't know whether there's anything you can do about it unless Squeaky gives some back. Have they been together for long? My cats have aways gotten through the overt dominance establishment phase pretty quickly, with the alphas hardly ever having to do much more than growl and occasionally bat to keep up impressions.

on edit: #1 is right-- males grab females by the neck when they mount, but there's usually a stimulus, which gives you a behavior mod angle. If he's doing a sexual display you can probably discourage him by making a loud noise whenever he does it. That will startle Squeaky, too, but might make her less compliant.

[demnan]

7. It might be as much dominance as it is hormones

My male cat tries to do that to my female cat but she is a fighter. She will growl, claw and carry on if he tries anything.

Since you really can't change this kind of cat behavior, I suggest that you keep their nails trimmed. This will lessen the injuries. And watch her neck to make sure she doesn't get an infection.

[commander bunnypants]

8. Squirt gun in his future

I should call the vet but she is out on medical till 1-05..

CB

She is just not big enough to give it back

CB

[demnan]

9. Yeah that will help too

but even a small female cat can be fierce when she wants to be. The reason I have Lily is that her mother, a pure-bred Ayssinian, refused to be bred with another Abyssinian cat even though they were enclosed together for a week. She wouldn't let him near her, and he was twice her size. I think Lily inherited that fierceness.

The mother cat preferred to mate with "the boy next door" - a handsome brown tabby and thus Lily and her sisters were born.