How to stop the neighbours cats from fighting?

The past week the cats of two different neighbours have been fighting in our little cal-de-sac street. Sometimes during the day but most often at night. One of the cats sounds like a child screaming loudly. It's quite disconcerting and I'm worried about one of the cats getting injured.

Is there anything I can do to get them to stop fighting or is best just to stay out of the way?

 

You need to find out who own those cats first. If you can't find anyone then call the cat pound to come get them. I went throught the same thing a while back.

 

Thanks for your advice. I'd feel a little guilty calling a cat shelter or animal control to remove them. I don't mind them being in the neighbourhood. I love cats. I just worry that one of them could get seriously hurt. I will however have a chat with my neighbours. Perhaps they can keep an eye on their cats to make sure they're not carrying any nasty injuries. If they think their cat has been fighting perhaps they can keep them indoors, just during the night for their own protection.

 

I am not sure if there is really anything you can do to make them stop fighting. Hopefully the cats are healthy and vaccinated. If you have any outdoor cats, you need to make sure they are vaccinated. Not many people know that cats can get Feline AIDS and Feline Leukemia from trading saliva and blood. One of my cats contracted it from a local stray because I didn't know that. I had to put him down within 6 months of letting him roam around outside.

 

Thanks for warning us all about Feline AIDS and Leukemia. I honestly had no idea either disease existed. Thankfully it's against the law not to vaccinate cats in New Zealand, obviously for good reason. There should be far more public education about this sort of thing. I'm so sorry you lost your cat because it contracted a disease from a stray.

 

If those cats have no owners or if they do and their owners don't care to do anything about it, the quickest and simplest solution is to splash the fighting cats with cold water. Usually just once is enough but if they persist, a second dousing should settle the issue permanently.

 

Hi Victor Leigh, thanks for your pratical solution. I've talked to my neighbours and they keep their cats indoors at night now. So if the fighting starts again and gets too violent I'll keep the water in mind. To be honest I'd feel a bit cruel even using just a tiny bit of water. However if I aim it next to them and not at them that might be enough to keep them away. I guess it's for their own good. Cats can sustain awful injuries from fights.

 

I agree that it is best to speak with your neighbors and come up with some sort of agreement so that a majority of the cats stay in at night. It is so dangerous when they just go at it. There is always a loser!

 

Hi Steph thanks for your reply. I agree it's amazing how many cat owners in New Zealand let that cats out at night. Over half I'd suspect. Then they complain when their cats are injured! I agree all pet cats should be kept inside at night. I also wonder why cats tend to fight at night?

 

Fight at night? Two reasons that I can think of.

One, they cannot fight while they are kept in the house. And they are let out only at night. So night time is fight time.

The other thing is that, while some cats fight just out of meanness, more often than not, they fight over something. And that something is usually a tabby. And, same thing again, tabbies are usually only out at night. So more fights provoked by competition for tabby favors occur at night.

 

I find it kind of strange that it's apparently normal there to let your cats out only at night. What's the purpose? Why not let them out during the day, too, then?

 

Tanjz, I'm glad that you spoke to your neighbours and they were kind enough to take your advice by keeping their cats inside during the night. Then, if you hear cats screaming and crying at night, yet again, then perhaps, it's someone else's cats or stray ones. Maybe then, you should call the animal shelter, just to keep the cats safe until someone goes over to claim his/her cat(s).

I am one of those many people, HappyRocinate. Therefore, I would like to thank you for mentioning this. It would be something that I must read about, soon. My cats are indoor cats but it's interesting to learn about cats and their medical conditions.

 

My neighbor has 2 cats that fight at night, I find that making a loud noise or whistling usually breaks it up and makes them scatter. I hate to hear cats fighting. It must not be a fight over anything important because usually once I whistle or call out, that breaks up the fight for the rest of the night.

 

Cats are territorial, especially the males. They don't fight out of meanness. Its to protect what they feel is theirs. Cats tend to be more active at night so they may wander farther away into other cats territories. This is probably why you hear them more at night then other times of the day. Cold water will send them running but I find just running out there and scaring off the intruder cat does the trick. After a few times the intruder cat is less likely to return.

 

This is why I am not a fan of making a cat an outdoor cat. If you must do so, I think it should be fenced in properly just as you would do for a dog.

There are way too many bad things that can happen to "Outdoor cats". I think that cat fighting is a bad as dog fighting.

I am glad that you show your concern for this problem. Way too many people just do not care about these things when it comes to cats.

 

You could try some catnip I suppose, might distract them for a while at least.