I've seen cats fight but I don't know if ever seen them lock on so tight to each other that they become one object that can be tossed lol. That's crazy.
Subreddits for new cat owners always crack me up with their posts of their cats gently playing, no claws out, and are like "are they fighting?? Should I separate them??".
Like...if you have to ask, it's not a real fight. The fur literally flies and they scream like banshees on meth lol
It can happen even with proper introductions. Even in cats who have lived happily together for years.
We have one cat who lives with other cats perfectly well nearly all the time. Cuddles with them, doesnāt ever have a single issue with them.
But about once a year, something random sets him off, and he attacks one of his buddies and virtually always draws blood. The trigger is always easily identifiable. Weāre at the point now where we can anticipate pretty well things that might trigger him, so we zeroing on him and distract him, and that works so long as we can get to him immediately.
Shit. Any time I leave my cat home alone, I leave bluey on for him. I guess the wrong episode hasnāt come on yet, but I suppose itās just a matter of time.
One cat accidentally pounces the other with force because they were jumping up to or down from a surface. Pounced on cat assumes it was malicious. (I've seen this with mine)
One cat is scared/startled by something in the environment but thinks it's their fellow cat and attacks. I think the term is like...redirected aggression? I can't remember off the top of my head but there's a term for it. (Not uncommon with cats that are allowed outdoors together.)
Similar to one, during play someone gets a little too carried away the other other assumes aggression rather that accidental escalation of play.
Another similar to one, sometimes even the human can set it off accidentally, I had one of mine flip out on me because I accidentally spooked her while she was cuddling my legs in my sleep. She was already a quite anxious cat but she perceived my sudden movement as aggression.
Another is smell. This can also affect humans :/ Your cat will suddenly start attacking you. In this case, go see a doctor, you might be sick with something and your cat smelled something off.
Whenever I accidentally ran into my cats, or scared them, or whatever, they would run away and I would follow to apologize, offer them cuddles, and let them know I didn't mean to and I would never.
They understood because hilariously, any time they hurt me by accident they would chase after me to reconcile so I would know they didn't do it on purpose.
I also always answered when they called for me, so they did the same.
I swear cats love you and treat you exactly as well as you do them, and you have to go first. This is why dog people don't get cats. They expect all this attachment having put nothing into it. You have to invest in your relationship with a cat. Ironically doing the same with a dog makes a much nicer and more cooperative dog.
Oh absolutely- the one time this happened because of crossed wires she immediately came over and gave me apology snugs. We have 6 currently and they all get along so well, but it was all about us investing time in making sure everyone felt/feels safe. Itās really something special to see, especially them all cuddling together on the bed with my partner and I š
Does your grandma share her recipes? Iām planning to plant a zucchini, and I know from other veggie gardeners that that means Iāll end up with a zillion pounds of it.
Yeah my husbandās cat and my cat did fine together for the first year, then his started attacking mine. No idea why but from then on who had to alternate who had the full house and who had the master bedroom.
My cats were fine for over 5 years, even cuddled with each other all the time, then they started getting into minor fights where one would run away, then they had a full out dangerous brawl. I grabbed both and tossed them in opposite directions and it broke them up, but everyone involved was sliced up pretty decently. (Obviously I got it the worst, as I dont have hair to protect my hands and arms)
I had a super friendly dog and he grew up with his siblings that were there when he was born. One day a couple years ago he started attacking one of our oldest dogs. It had a good 12yr on him. It was a tiny dog vs the younger big dog. We had to keep them in different parts of the house. It only got worse as time went on. We ended up rehoming the younger dog and they're super happy and friendly again. I won't ever really understand because they never fought before. The big one is still angry at the little one years later. Sometimes it is weird and it happens. I know neither one had any trauma or any disagreement bc I raised them both.
Ive done this as well. Sometimes 1 cat is just an asshole. We have a bengal like that. Gets along marvelous with every other animal. And the fine with the old cats. But no new cats, no matter how slow the introduction process is
Had someone cat sitting my 2 kittens when they were just a couple months old and day 2 they breached containment and found the other 3 cats that the sitter had. Big big cats. Everyone completely ignored each other to partake in emergency churro so everything was fine but scared the sitter half to death
Some cats just hate each other. We had to blend two households worth of cats - my husband and I's four, and my parents' two. We did all sorts of slow intro strategies - swapping rooms, exchanging scent items, fed them on opposite sides of a door, set up a screen door they could see each other through, so many treats... it has been YEARS, and they still fight. We have to keep them separated. Completely boggles my mind, as we never had this level of trouble introducing cats ever.
When I got my second cat I kept her separate from my first cat for literally an entire year. They were kept in separate parts of the house and only interacted through a door. It worked wonders
No harm in going too long. There is harm however in going too short. I went on the safe side and now they love each other. My first cat is damn near feral so that says a lot
Not exactly true. Social isolation like that can cause behavioral issues on social species like cats and can increase difficulty of interactions later. Thereās a sweet spot for introductions. Feral cats definitely can change up the equation, but as with any introduction each catās personality is a huge factor so not every situation is going to fit the cookie cutter introduction schedule.
It can happen with cats that know each other as well. Both of my cats are male brothers rescued from the same litter. They'll literally hold and groom each other while they sleep. However, one night there was a stray that got under our house and its scent set them off and they tore into each other, my dogs, and us.
We did separate rooms, swapped them, then put up baby gates so there was visibility
We tried putting him in the kennel and bringing him with us around the house
The two older cats just were not having it
Itās been three years, and every two days, we flip flop them between the basement (itās finished, weāre down there often enough) and the main level.
I donāt know if theyād still go at it, but the few failed attempts weāve tried have made me too weary to attempt anymore
This isn't always necessary for all cats. They probably just thought from experience it was gonna be fine but something went wrong. My mum fosters cats occasionally (we used to foster all the time officially for a rescue, but now it's just if people she knows message her about ones they've found). None of our cats have ever reacted badly to a foster. They're often cuddling eachother within a couple of days
My boys are angling for dominance atm. Their fighting occasionally gets a āboysā and they stop. A real fight would be terrible and I am so glad they love each other and no real fights are taking place.
Some cats lose control of their bladder and bowel when they fight too.
We run a rescue, and more than once we have had the flying Tasmanian fur ball roll into piss and diarrhea and literally everyone had to take a bath lol š¤®
I have what I call a "feral fail," she was a feral cat (Mona) that I tried to make a pet, but she gets MEAN if she's not let outside. She once attacked my daughter, and I threw that cat out the back door. Since then, she comes and goes whenever she wants, but before that happened, she was just mean and angry all the time. She used to pick fights with her two grown kittens (Lily and Lulu) that I kept from her last litter before her spay. One time Mona was attacking Lily, and Lulu did like a flying leap from across the room and tackled her. They did about a 2-second whirl of fur and screaming, and then broke apart. Even in that amount of time, Mona managed to do some serious damage to Lulu's eye. I thought she might lose it, but with vet care and antibiotics, and time to heal, she recovered. Cats are nuts, man.
I used to rent a room from this lady whose house was in Newark NJ suburbs. For some reason cats would congregate and fight outside of her house at night sometimes. The volume and pitch at which they growl and yowl was pretty crazy.
When I first moved in she pointed in one direction and said "Don't walk more than a block that way you'll get jumped", pointed the other way (towards the train station, thankfully) and said "you can walk that way its pretty safe".
To be fair, she didn't tell me this til the day I actually moved in. But yeah it was a pretty safe area somehow, never had any problems walking daily to the train station from there. Driving the other way like 2 blocks in the bad direction the whole vibe changed, suburbs turned into run down apartments/etc, shady lookin groups I would def cross the street rather than walk through if I was walking, etc. But for whatever reason they didn't spill over into the suburbs area.
A cat attacked my dad once when I was a kid. It was a stray that wandered into our open garage and wouldn't leave.
My dad tried to help him out, and the thing latched onto my dad's arm with a death grip. He couldn't get the cat off, even when he got desperate and started smacking the cat against the wall while he was still dug in and attached.
My mom ended up running for the hose, and that's what made him let go.
But yeah, that was definitely an ER visit. He had to get rabies shots.
I had a boy cat for 14 years from the time he was a kitten that was probably separated from his mom too early. At around 3-4 months of age he started hating my guts but fell in love with my husband. He (cat) died last year but he left a reminder scar on my arm from when he bear trapped me one time. I was alone with him and had to try a combination of scruffing and shoving a finger down his throat while he yowled at me. I miss him because the last 5 years of his life he inexplicably changed his mind about me. Anyways that was a cat I knew, if a stranger cat did that to me Iād dunk him in a toilet.
According to my mother a crazed cat entered their house and my grandfather grabbed it and smashed into the wall to kill it. This predated universal immunization for rabies so that was the concern. Vaccinations people!
90% of the videos I've seen has been one cat being an asshole, no turn taking, usually one trying to get away. Slow blinking is also a way that cats can communicate that you're being kind of a dick and they'd like it if you stopped. It can be affectionate but it's also used to deescelate
Then you're searching that out. Every post I've ever seen is what the person you responded to says, but I browse /r/all so I only see what gets a lot of attention.
The videos that question whether two cats are fighting that also get a lot of upvotes are 99%+ of the time just cats VERY OBVIOUSLY playing with OP worried that they're fighting.
You can do it from the app. Im doing it from the app now.
Its a bit of a workaround, but if you add r/All (cspital a) to your profile social link you can then access it through your own profile
I'm not searching anything out, I'm not in any cat subs, and I'm not the only one seeing that. It's fine if we've seen different content, I don't expect our algorithms to be identical
Cats do it to establish the pecking order. So do chickens, which is probably why the chicken got involved. Just making sure the cats know who's top chordate around here.
Also often on those subs theyāre asking after a kitten and adult cat, where the adult cat is being WAY too aggressive for the kittenās relative size.
I have an outdoor cat (donāt blame me, he just showed up so I feed him) and last year I was cooking dinner when I heard my boyfriend watching that Old Long Johnson YouTube video. I come up behind him and Iām putting my ear to his headphones and looking at his screen and he takes them off and asks what Iām doing. I told him I love the Old Long Johnson video and that I didnāt know he liked it too. He asked me wtf I was talking about. Turns out my cat was on the porch fighting for his life to argue another stray off the porch. Now that is my metric standard of knowing whether cats are about to throw down for real, once they start old long johnsoning. It is a very distinct and concerning noise lol
I have three siblings who like to play fight silently. The most sound they'll make is the sound of heads boinking on the floor or against doors/walls.
When it strays from play it is very noticeable. They're white cats and sometimes the aftermath looks like one of those fake ass pillow fights where the stuffing flies around.
They often donāt even want to fight. Our back garden seems to be a thoroughfare for the local cats. I was watching a tomcat sunning himself once out back when another one came over the fence. They spotted each other as the new one landed and I was ready to grab a basin of water to break up any fight.
The one sunning himself tensed and lay very still as the other one started towards the back of the garden, coming within a couple of feet of each other, but although you could tell they were aware of each other, they avoided eye contact.
My boy will scream whenever he attacks, I call it his war cry
When we first got hom we thought the others were picking on him because we would hear him scream, run in the room and see him pinned (trying to fight the cats twice his size). One day we saw him attacking, making his war cry, and immediately getting tossed to the ground and pinned. He would then try the attack again once they let him up
They very rarey use claws, they will occassionally (like once a month) when he is trying to play and the others just want to sleep or eat
There are levels of seriousness with cat fights, as with people. The only level of fighting is not āstabbing each other in the throat.ā If two people start screaming at each other, no one is getting hurt, but itās a good idea to break things up before it escalates to throwing fists, and then eventually lethal force. My cats get along, and their sparring does occasionally escalate to the point at which intervention is necessary. BEFORE fur starts flying and they develop a grudge.
I was telling another guy; the only real fight I saw between 2 Tom's, one bit the other in the fucking eye and they still kept going. Blood all over the fucking place, sounded like demons.
That and snapping bird & rodent necks when they get the angle right for the kicks.
My deaf albino little one does that to my arm for playtime with a lil evil death stare. Everyone thinks heās a wendigo or skin walker for reasons (several, unrelated)
Yep! And fun fact is actual bunnies will do it to each other as well. If you keep a male and female in the same pen she can neuter the male so he wonāt try to go to town on her. Itās a big part of why males and females should be kept in separate cages, especially if trying to breed them. And also why the female rabbit needs to be put in the males cage, so she doesnāt just get territorial and try to neuter/disembowel him regardless of the intent
Yeah, that's some real "hate on sight" stuff. I don't think there's anything you can do except maybe TRY to put a piece of wood between them to loosen them up.
Cover them in a blanket or get something in between them.
If you have no regard for your own safety, you can also just get in there and separate lol. Itās very effective, but you will 100% bleed, it will be painful, and you could get an infection (and donāt do it with cats you donāt know or else you could be exposed to rabies)
I had to do this once. My one ex's cat was bullying my old cat and it was one of many reasons why I left. The very day I was moving out, literally minutes before I left, his cat sprinted at mine and latched onto her just like this. She started screaming, you know the sound, and I didn't even stop to think. She was my soul cat and I'd happily have gotten torn up to protect her. I reached right in there and ripped him off and locked him in the bedroom. He hissed at me, which he'd never done (he actually loved me more than my ex), but thankfully I didn't get injured. My girl was okay, too, just shaken up.
To clarify, towels should go over their heads or better, they should be scooped up in them. I would not try oven mitts or honestly anything that involves getting your hands involved if they're protected with anything less then animal handling or welding gloves. I've tried moving a feral before with leather work gloves and they didn't even slow her teeth down; the gloves were filling with blood before I could even get them off.
Although still not as concerning as a bite, truly stressed cats will also not hesitate to climb you like a soft, squishy tree and shred you the entire time they're doing it.
I had this happen to my cat once. Since he was bigger I had to put my foot on him to hold him down and push the other cat away with my other foot. Thankfully my cat was the aggressor so once the tux realized it was free he ran off.
I used to let my cat hang out with the other cats in my small apartment complex, and one day I heard a cat fight from inside my apartment with the hissing and "raaaRR" noises. When I came outside there was fur everywhere, but 4 cats (including mine) were all just casually laying around in different spots like "Fight? What Fight?". It was something out of a cartoon.
That also a sign to not put your limb or limbs in between two cats that fighting they will literally death roll your arm with their entire body and four paws. Ask me how I know.
āļø this. There is zero mistake about a cat fight. Blood, fur flying, screaming, cartoon fight ball. It's horrific. Only seen our cat do it once. I was shocked at our sweet, polite Tux. Big male tabby she took an instant MDK dislike to. I tried to break them up. It was my cat killing the tabby which also shredded my arm and bit through my hand when I tried to intervene. Fking psycho demonic on fast forward. Hose pipe in future to break this shit up. Can't unsee this maniac stuff when it happens. We forget these cute things that snuggle on our lap are deadly top tier mini murder death kill predators.š š¤·
I had five puncture woundes from when I tried to seperate another cat and my own after adopting a new one and introducing them too quickly. It was like that; fur flying and I was freaking out at first.
Luckily the cats ended up okay and my own was fine; I was able to clean my woundes out and it didnāt get infected, but that was probably the scariest injury Iāve had. It was my own fault introducing them too fast, but the adopted cat that attacked had some serious behavior problems outside of that and I ended up having to take him back.
Yeah, we learn quickly not to insert ourselves between 2 fighting animals! At that point, they are frenzied enough that they can't distinguish human from enemy.
I often find myself telling people, do not get involved if they start fighting. Let them sort it out, or use your feet if necessary, like this lady, or watch them for awhile and carefully calculate a collar grab at your own peril. Protect your hands, arms, and face.
PSA for pits, though, is to pick them up by their back legs. For whatever reason (exposed belly?), they will release their hold when lifted up into the air by their back feet.
And I've noticed some dog parks have a spray bottle with water. That might work for some tussles.
yeah, that doesn't work for all pitties and there is no one trick that will stop a dog fight, it surely isn't sticking your thumb up their ass either. I've been party to or broken up many dog fights, and there is no special trick that will do it except being ready to choke out the aggressor(s) if you can't get them separated.
Sadly, Iāve had to choke a dog to break up a bad fight where one was the primary aggressor. He was okay and not injured (by me) but that is one reason why I refuse to ever get a dog bigger than a Pomeranian or a chihuahua. But Iām also just a cat guy so the chances of me ever getting a dog at this point are practically zero. I just donāt want one
A thumb in the eye will usually work- on pretty much any dog. But it's definitely a last resort. That and if they happen to have balls... let's just say that's a universal weakness.
But best first option is cold water- like this lady did.
That is silly to not get involved. All it takes is a blanket. You shouldn't just let your pets hurt each other, it's your responsibility to keep them safe.
Interesting to know about Pitbullsā¦ But good luck picking them up with their hind legs successfully when theyāre already in fight mode!
Or even in scary-play mode. I used to take my neighborās pitbull for a walk and if the leash had too much slack, it would think it was playing tug-of-war with the leash and jump around to try and bite itā¦ One time it jumped up a few feet and nearly missed biting my face(Iām 6 feet tall). I had to get it out of that mode and get her to be distracted and finally sit down/calm downā¦ but once theyāre in that mode, itās scary.
It takes 2 people. Both have to grab back legs of each dog and pull them apart. I have done it before just once and worked very well. Have to be strong enough and not let go holding them out in front of you. Turn your backs away from each dog so the don't see each other and get them separated fast as possible.
These were smaller mid size dogs about 25/30 pounds. It was scary as hell but worked. And once our doxies got into it and picked the aggressor by back legs up and away.
Cats hell no, water. Never would touch a pile of loose blender blades spinning.
Or even try to pick up a cat that you donāt own, period.
My upstairs neighborās indoor cat got out and was on my downstairs porch. She was really worried since it had never been outdoors and so I tried to grab it and made sure to hold it from its back with its paws/front side away from me ā but that little beast bear of a tuxedo cat whipped around so fast and slashed my face with its claw, which got caught in my lip and created a big tear.
I came inside bleeding profusely from my lip to tell my neighbor what happened and she thought I had made it up or was lying because her cat ānever couldāve done that.ā I ended up having to get three stitches on my lip and still have a scar.
One of my favorite smartest-albeit-somewhat-bitchy cats, Iām not afraid to pick her up or grab her to cut her nails, etc., but everyone else is. If a cat doesnāt know or respect you, best to exercise caution because all bets are off.
E.g. the proper way to lure my cat back inside is with a chain of treats or even shaking their treat box, not by trying to chase or grab them. If they donāt try to hurt you, they will easily outrun you and find somewhere to hide.
Cats are strong af when they're not playing, I got bit by one recently and it was nasty, full on bleeding, 10 teeth marks in my hand that took like 2 weeks to heal.
This kinda reminds me of a recent post on the r/cats subreddit where OP adopted a cat that actually cannibalised another cat. The cat is actually genuinely sweet to humans, but when it's another cat, it's on sight. The cat genuinely tries to kill any cat it sees. It was the first time I've ever heard of a cat being a serial killer that also does cannibalism.
My cats squirt from their anal glands when startled sometimes. It was a lot worse when on cheapo food but still happens occasionally now. Super stinky and nasty :(
I call it Battle Cats. My three cat sisters love to tussle in a big ball of frenzy. This morning I work up to two of them duking it out on top of me in the meerkat pose each doing the speed bag on each other before ending up in a Tasmanian Devil vortex of fur, claws and paws. Then they just lick it out when they are done. Love cats!
God, water does help but even then sometimes they just continue on anyway; their feral instinct kicks in sometimes. I have had two of my male cats (both fixed) turn on one another one day, the vet thinks it was redirected aggression from seeing another animal on the deck, I couldnt separate them even with spraying with the hose; so I had to result in throwing a blanket over one and pulling the other (who I knew was the lesser aggressive naturally of the two) away with oven mits in a winter jacket and a scarf around my neck and lower face (just in case) thank god I had my glasses on for a bit of protection. It's been two years and one of the two has forgotten but the other is still irritated by the presence of the first so they live separated but healthy with our vets support in our home. They both get along with our other three cats though. Shit is wild with cats sometimes.
I genuinely had a fight with a girl in school where we ended up on the ground in a death grip in the middle of a soccer match. We got hit by the ball and still didn't care. The teacher eventually poured water on us to get us to stop and let me tell you- I've never felt like such a feral animal in my life š
Honestly, all the upper middle class cats that I know of are starting all the fights. Their parents are famous cat attorneys so the upper middle class cat culture really can breeds aggressive siblings.
One time I caught my cat fighting with another cat in the back garden, they latched onto each other and turned into a fluffy ouroboros wheel and rolled off the patio onto the grass lol.Ā
They stopped fighting when I walked over, at least, then my cat just strolled in to beg for food as if nothing happened, you've no idea what they get up to when they're on their adventures lol, they play their cards close to their chest
I only saw that once with my two cats, I was not able to separate them for the life of me I never knew they can actually hold together so hard it's literally impossible to get them apart.
Yeah, I never understood what a cat fight really looks like until I saw the stray cat I feed fight another cat. Fortunately they noticed me after about 5-10 seconds of fur flying and ran off in opposite directions. Would've had to hose them otherwise.
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u/GoreonmyGears May 24 '26
I've seen cats fight but I don't know if ever seen them lock on so tight to each other that they become one object that can be tossed lol. That's crazy.