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Neutered and un-neutered cats?
I currently have 2 unneutered male cats of unknown age. I suspect one is 1-1.5 and the other seems much older for his size. I have had them for a month, and the younger cat only went outside of the box twice, both times I believe because he smelt dogs on some stuff I have. It wasn't like he sprayed, he just took care of #1 on the floor near these items. Now, I've had this cat that has started coming around my house and I have paid no attention to him short of giving him a bowl of water and talking to him while I work outside. Regardless, he has taken to sitting by my back door crying day and night, waiting for me to come outside. From what I can tell it is an older, reasonably well-fed, declawed, and neutered male.
It is my understanding males will mark their territory when they are around other males and a female, but if I were to add this cat to the family it'd be 3 males in the house, what's my chance of my cats marking territory against this new guy? Does the fact that mine are unneutered and he is neutered have any correlation? Honestly I'd prefer this new cat over my younger one but he is very close to my other cat and they have already clearly established I'm their owner so I'd hate to break that up.
2 Answers
- ?Lv 77 years ago
If all cats were neutered it would cut down on a lot of aggression that may come up between these cats that don't know each other. Neutering calms cats down a great deal. If you bring in the new cat there may be a fight without the neutering. Even with they will have to work out who is the alpha cat and who gets the best spot to sleep etc. There are little jealousys that will pop up. The older cat sounds sweet but he must have a home somewhere nearby. You'd be cat napping someone's cat if you took him in. Still cats like to choose their home. As for the litter box issue I put a shower curtain liner on the floor under the litterbox so if there is an accident it's pretty easy to wipe up. I found that more cats need more litter boxes. They hate to go where another cat left it's smell. Get one more litter box and the problem may go away.
- SebastianSLv 77 years ago
Unneutered male cats are an endless source of trouble. They will spray, demand to go out, and get into fights when they do, and have a number of health problems neutered males will not have. Also, you have to understand that delaying the fixing of a male will still result in some of these issues, because once the male develops a behavior pattern, that is it.
Neutered males exist in a kind of limbo. As -- if neutered early enough -- they do not spray and do not develop the physical characteristics of tom cats (big fat round faces, heavy muscular bodies ) intact males do not see them as a threat, and can even treat them as females -- courting them, and attempting to mate with them. It may be that the neutered male has attached himself to your intact males. Basically he is their eunuch. Your cats may spray more because of this cat, because they may see him the same way they see a female -- as their property -- and feel the need to mark their territory to warn other toms off.
This neutered cat probably has an owner, and is just hanging around your house because he likes the company of your cats, and the attention he gets from you.
