Male Cat Behavior Problems: How To Stop Your Tom Cat’s Bad Behavior

Male cat owners face additional challenges, as their cats often have additional behavioral issues compared to female cats. The first of them is that they are more active and need to find the company of the cats. As a side effect of this need, male cats frequently try to leave the house. It’s not running away at all, as they are quite willing to return home after doing the deed. The problem is that they face a lot of danger away from home. They will fight with other male cats. They can also be hit by traffic. These added concerns of owning male cats can certainly cause their owners premature graying.

For these reasons, veterinarians and many animal rights groups strongly recommend that owners neuter their cats. Neutered male cats lose the need to roam, making it easier to keep them close to home. They will stop chasing female cats in heat and stop fighting aggressively with rival male cats. No more wandering around and fewer fights – all of this means they are less likely to get seriously hurt outside the home. Another added benefit is that they will not produce stray kittens from their unauthorized encounter with female cats.

Many vets prefer to err on the side of caution and will not neuter male cats until they are one year old. Others are willing to do it as early as four months of age, as some more recent studies indicate that younger neutered male cats show no adverse reactions. The sooner you neuter your cat, the better. They are less likely to develop the habits of fighting, wandering, and chasing female cats. Despite this, spaying late is better than not spaying at all. As long as the habit is no longer driven by natural instinct, it can be broken and replaced with something else.

Still, neutered or not, male cats tend to be more aggressive. While you can never get rid of this aggression completely, you can reduce it over time. An easy way is to put a collar with a bell on your male cat. What does this? Often your male cat likes to attack other animals. He will stalk and ambush them. It is obvious that the attacker usually has the initiative in a fight. If your cat can surprise the other cat and jump first, it is more likely that he will win the fight. While winning is usually a good thing, in this case it just encourages your cat to get into more fights. Once you bell your cat, it will have a harder time successfully stalking and attacking other cats and animals. Little by little, he will lose the need to get into fights.

Another more common problem in male cats is spraying. Spraying is different from peeing. On the one hand, it usually affects vertical surfaces such as walls. Your cat does it to mark his territory. Common garbage training techniques will not help. Neither is the punishment. One thing you can do is learn where your cat’s favorite spray spots are and clean it with some sort of enzymatic solution. Normal cleaners will not work, as they do not remove the underlying male cat urine odors. Your local vet or pet store will likely have something just right for you. After cleaning, you can spray one of those “pet sprays” to keep kitty away.