Cat social structure is complicated and getting the dynamics right when you have multiple cats is no easy task. While you can reduce the risk of a cat fight by having appropriate resources, not getting a kitten if you have a senior cat, and introducing your cats properly, chances are at some point your cats will have a fight. Here’s what to do to break up the cats in a safe, effective manner without creating more problems for yourself.
Stopping A Cat Fight Safely: Don’t Use Your Hands
Your safety is important so let’s get this out of the way right away: never use your hands to break up a cat fight. Cat bites are very dangerous even if they don’t cause significant physical damage to your body. The reason? Bacteria. A cat bite can quickly become infected due to their sharp and long front teeth. These infections may not be mild, either: bites may lead to sepsis or even death within 24 to 72 hours of symptoms showing up. Yikes!
The only time you should use your hands to directly stop a fight is if you have thick bite gloves on. It’s still better to not rely on bite gloves so let’s go over some safer, more effective methods.
Stopping A Minor Fight With Distraction
If the cat fight is relatively minor or hasn’t started yet, you may be able to de-escalate the situation. Deescalation may involve:
- Distraction: Call the more calm cat, who is more likely to listen to you, to get them away from the situation. Shaking a bag of your cat’s favorite treats or using a toy may help redirect them.
- Toss a ping pong ball: While shaking a can filled with coins will scare your cats and is likely to escalate the situation (more on that later), a ping pong ball tossed across the room will get the cats’ attention and many cats love playing with them. They have a few advantages!
- Set off an automatic feeder: I’ve done this with my cats before for other reasons and can work really well in a pinch and is part of why I recommend autofeeders with wifi capabilities. It helps if you have two of them so each cat can go to a different one.
Use Powerful Tools
A toy or treat your cats are lukewarm about isn’t going to be enticing enough if your cat is particularly scared. If your cat has a favorite toy at the moment, use that toy (and if you haven’t found a toy your cat loves, you need to try the Cat Dancer because it’s the toy I can get most of my clients’ cats playing with). If you are using treats, the same concept applies.
Whatever you use, gently guide them to separate areas of your home so they can be alone with a closed door between them so they can have a break. While they rest, figure out what the source of the tension between them was and cautiously have them meet again.
More Severe Fights
If you have a more severe fight on your hands or there is enough tension, distraction alone is not going to cut it. A lot of guides on cat fights suggest using squirt bottles, making a loud noise, or doing something to startle a cat. This is far from the best choice and should be an absolute last resort. You should try other methods first and none of these methods should be your go to. If you’re having to use them regularly, you need professional help or even to consider rehoming.
Adding fear or startling a cat might freeze them temporarily or it could increase the level of arousal they’re experiencing. Increasing arousal could lead to increasing aggressive behavior. You risk injury to the cats or redirected aggression toward humans in the home. It may also worsen the fear and damage the relationship between your cats further.
A Safer Solution
A better solution is using a barrier to separate the cats. Stick the barrier between the cats and pry them apart. Physical barriers have three big advantages including:
- The cats can’t see each other anymore so the source of fear and stress is removed. This allows the cats to begin calming down.
- The barrier blocks the cats (and their teeth) from getting to the other cat and can be used to pry them apart. Yes, you may sometimes need to move it if the cats try to go around the barrier, but a noise doesn’t even have that as an option. By using a barrier, you’ve made a dangerous situation less dangerous very rapidly.
- The barrier can double as a way to gently guide one of the cats to a separate space.
After you get the cats separated, don’t attempt to pick up the cats as you may get injured. You want to keep the cats separated for at least 24 to 48 hours, though if they seem stressed out or are still acting off, you may need to do a longer separation.
The Best Barriers To Break Up A Cat Fight
A flimsy sheet isn’t a great barrier for breaking up a cat fight, but chances are you have a few sitting around home such as:
- Flattened large cardboard boxes
- A large cutting board (obviously without anything on it. Don’t let your cats play with knives unless they’re knives cats can play with)
- A couch cushion or pillow
- A self healing cutting mat (used for crafts)
Many of these items, especially cardboard boxes, can be stashed around the home so you have things nearby. In an emergency, get creative. As long as it’s thick, solid, and won’t hurt the cats, it can be used.
Acceptable Barriers In A Pinch
If you don’t have anything that fully fits the bill, there are a few other options that can work, though may have challenges but are still better than a spray bottle to stop a cat fight. Ideas include:
- A laundry basket, which will scare a cat but provides protection while you separate the cats. Collapsible laundry baskets can be easily stashed to grab quickly in multiple locations.
- A thick blanket or beach towel. Thicker is better, but these aren’t sturdy. In an emergency, you can throw one over the cats, but this should be a last resort as it will also scare them. It’s still better than just startling them.
- A broom works great for separating the cats and keeps distance between you and the cats, but doesn’t offer much of a visual barrier. These can be easily stored around your home using a wall broom mount for easy access.
- A pizza peel can technically work but do you actually have one sitting nearby?
Get The Cats To Another Room
This has been hinted a few times, but the next step after sticking something between the cats is getting them separated. They should be completely separated in a safe location and not be able to see each other at all for a few hours. A draft stopper can prevent swats under a closed door.
Guide the cats away using a toy, treats, or another distraction if you can. You can use cardboard or whatever barrier you used to guide one cat away if the cats aren’t distractible, though keep in mind they may not find this super pleasant so don’t try to pet your cat immediately after.
Once you’ve gotten the cats to different rooms, you can breathe a little easier. You did it! The cat fight is over!
… For now.
Stopping A Cat Fight Permanently
In reality, once you break up a cat fight and get safely separate the cats from each other, they need to destress a bit before you interact with them. They definitely need time before they see each other again. A shortened version of a cat introduction to see how they do with more supervision may help if it was a severe cat fight.
You’ll need to solve the underlying problem or problems that led to the altercation in the first place and repair the cats’ relationship. If your cats are fighting frequently, it may be a good time to call in a professional. Consider reaching out to your veterinarian or a cat behaviorist who can help you come up with a long-term solution.