We have two cats. A bigger white 1 year old female. And, a 4 month old smaller male kitten.
Do cats have a hierarchy system? If so, how do you tell who is the dominant cat?
Our female cat dominates the male kitten in play-time and she is bigger than him. However, he nudges her out of the way for food. And, often, she does not want us to show her affection when she is in the room.
Any thoughts?
Answers:
Cats do have a hierachy. That other answer was long and complicated. Hierachy is in constant flux and can change from room to room, and from situation to situation. An interesting but fun book to read on the subject is cat vs. cat by Pam Johnson Bennett
When you have more than one cat, one cat will usually be the alpha. The cats will work their standings in the hierarchy out themselves.
Social Behavior of Cats
Cats, like most animals, establish a hierarchy based on a combination of factors, including gender to age. This hierarchy is not just among cats, but between your cat and dog as well as between you and your cat.
Cats, especially in catteries, develop a well-defined social hierarchy. Stud cats are at the top of that hierarchy, but an aggressive queen may edge her way up the social ladder using strategies such as attacking a tomcat showing amorous intentions. Most often, the tom retreats and leaves her alone.
Challenges to dominant males from other males are dealt with forcefully, with the tomcat punishing any rebels swiftly and aggressively to maintain the hierarchy. In catteries, stud cats are kept in separate cages to prevent fighting, either for dominance or the right to breed with certain queens.
Among the females, queens used for breeding usually have a higher status than that of spayed females. Older queens who have been raised with young adolescent females are dominant over them.
Social hierarchy is easily studied in catteries by simply placing a plate of fresh food among the cats and observing who eats first, with the dominant tomcat usually at the top of the list.
Sex and the Kitty: Tomcats and Queens
The Lords and Ladies of their realm, tomcats and queens occupy a special place within the dynamics of your home. Their behavior is much more gender specific than that of neutered males and spayed females.
Just like men and women, biology has become a steppingstone for specified social conduct between tomcats and queens. Within their individual groups, or with the social whole, their activity and maturity will determine their status and rank within your home and among other cats.
Tomcats and queens are the royalty of any feline kingdom, earning the respect and authority of their status through continual scrutiny and challenges by the junior members of the realm.
The Tomcat
By definition, any un-neutered male is a tomcat. Not only will a tomcat be more determined to mark and spray his territory, he will also focus more on fighting and social status. The toughest male establishes himself as top cat through trial by combat. Subordinates constantly grapple for position, creating a consistent, simmering tension in the ranks. Neutered males have no social rank and do not fight as much as tomcats.
The Queen
Un-neutered females 鈥?queens 鈥?develop a matriarchal order, with the number of kittens per queen determining rank. This is symptomatic of the frequency of a queen's period of heat, known as estrus, during which tomcats attempt to mate with her. When the queen is in heat, she will become anxious, searching out a mate, and howling and calling in a raucous voice. If your queen is left unguarded, unwanted frequent pregnancies can endanger her health.
Tomcats are constantly on the look out for a queen in estrus in the hopes of mating. A queen's period of estrus begins cycling in January, increasing in frequency during March or April, June, and September, and stopping in October and December.
The Courting Process
When a mate appears, a queen engages in the ritual of rejection before finally accepting him. The tomcat withdraws and voices his disappointment after being turned down. Several more attempts and rebukes follow before the queen relents by purring and rolling in front of the tomcat.
Coitus
After the first act of coitus, the two may repeat the ritual many times over. Further, while she remains in estrus, the queen will seek out other tomcats even after successful intercourse with the first.
Social Behavior: Playing or Fighting?
Observers can't always distinguish playing from fighting. The following guidelines are not absolute, but they can serve as a general guide:
Quiet vocalizing with some hissing indicates play. When cats fight, their vocalizations include loud wailing, hissing and howling.
If one or both cats are injured, you can be sure they weren't playing.
Fighting cats keep one another at a distance.
When cats fight, one usually takes on a defensive position, while the other is the clear aggressor.
Cats don't mutually enter into a melee. Typically, one or the other initiates the rumble while the other seeks avoidance.
Usually with cats the female is the dominant one and since she is the older one that would make her dominant too.
Kittens are greedy little buggers by nature, she should have her own food bowl and not be expected to share with the kitten.
I don't think it's so much a hierarchy system as it is a control of territory. Cats are territorial, and the female cat established her territory there first. But, the lines are not as clear cut when you're dealing with spayed/neutered indoor animals. True territoriality comes out in outdoor male cats that aren't neutered. They'll mark their territory with urine and they'll fight with any other male cat that enters their territory.
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