Playing? Fighting? Dominance? Both?

[hilgenep]

Hi guys,

Finn likes to travel with me to my S/O's parents' house, which is great because he has a loving home to go to when I travel instead of having to do drop-in visits from a sitter. They have an adult female cat, Luna, who Finn seems to love to antagonize.

Finn gets along great with the dog. With Luna, they are very neutral about 90% of the time. They can play, eat, and nap around each other just fine. They will even occasionally lay next to each other. They have occasional staring contests, but Finn typically backs down and gives her space. However, when Finn gets in one of his wild moods, I feel like he sometimes picks on her. I don't know a whole lot about cat social behavior, but it seems like he is playing but just doesn't have great manners. He does not ever pester or pounce on her when he is calm. When he is feeling wild, he will pounce or charge at her and when she gives CLEAR signals to back off (hissing, growling, ears flat) he will continue to chase her around the house. It doesn't seem like aggressive behavior, as Finn never returns the hissing/growling and only antagonizes her when he's feeling frisky. It reminds me of a kid on the playground who just doesn't know when to stop, but sometimes Luna gets very upset.

Is this normal behavior for an adolescent male? And should I be doing anything to intervene? I don't want to add stress to the situation, but I usually just scoop him up and put him in another room to cool off. Any advice on how to deal with this behavior would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Mamanyt1953]

There is an old saying, "No blood, no foul." This is very true in cats. And yes, it is very typical for adolescent males, both four-footed and two-footed. They outgrow most of it, but Luna may have to pop him once or twice before he really catches on (again, like both four-footed and two-footed adolescent males). If there is no fur literally flying, and no blood on the floor, then this is just "a cat's gotta say what a cat's gotta say," and they will, in all probability, work this out just fine. Time-outs don't generally work for cats, as they don't get the concept, but as you are using this as a way to allow him to decompress, if it works, use it.

SHOULD it ever come down (God forbid) to an actual fight, this article shows how to deal with that:
How To Safely Break Up A Cat Fight

 

[danteshuman]

I think it also depends on how they fight. My punk (grey) does the dominance thing where he tries to jump my peach guy and bite him between his shoulder blades. So if your guy is doing that, it is at least partially dominance. I think it is like getting a nuggie. Annoying and slightly painful. How did I stop it? When my punk gets all hyper I don't let him within 4 feet of Salem (peach) if Salem is near me or one of his beds. Then a few minutes later I redirect my punk (Dante/grey) with toys. It is easier to just play with him daily to get his energy out, then to play referee I'm not sure if he will outgrow it completely. It took my punk until he was 8 years old to calm down a bit ... he is now 10 and still a pest

 

[caitini]

A couple days ago Fuzzy and one of my fosters, Tyler, had an interaction that ended with a howl from one of them the likes of which I'd never heard before. I was greatly concerned that I might have to start separating them. But a few hours later I caught them doing this



Conclusion: they're probably fine.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

And I conclude that your conclusion is probably exactly right!

 

[elliesvictim]

No blood, no howling no growling....a ok.
My cat as a kitten would play fight and play with a feral I was feeding. They would chase each other around, wrestle grab each other and kick the bejesus out of each other.
Everytime I intervened they would stop and look at me like "what?"
Eventually I stopped intervening.
If it's not ok you'll know.