Fighting between 2 brother cats

by Anonymous

My two house cats were on the back porch. They saw a stray cat outside. Then they started fighting with each other. Major hissing, growling, etc. Why are they doing this between each other?

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starstarstarstarstar 		Thank you!
by: Anonymous

Thank you. We separated them in 2 different rooms. 1 was in a closed bedroom, where he immediately went under the bed, hissing at me! lol
His brother flew upstairs. About a hour or so, later Cooper came down the stairs and was his normal sweet self. He started looking for his brother, and meowing. Wando 'asked' to come out of the bedroom, by this time. and he also was fine. Phew, it's is scary when it happens. This is the 2nd time. Thanks everyone!! Happy Day to you all!
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starstarstarstarstar 		Shorter time to reintroduction
by: Anonymous

I’d agree misdirected aggression, but in my experience separating my two boys for a short period (1 hr or less, with the agitated cat in a dark, quiet room) is enough time for Muz to get over his issues. Then I just open the door and they are fine together. If the agitated cat is too aggressive for you to pick up (or entice into a room with treats) then put the innocent bystander cat in a different room and try to close off the view of the intruder (lower shades, etc).
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starstarstarstarstar 		Redirected aggression
by: Kurt (Admin)

That sounds like a classic case of redirected aggression. One or more cats becomes frightened or agitated by something, and takes it out on the nearest target. In this case, his brother.

A way to handle this is to separate the two cats so they can't see each other. Then, do a slow and controlled reintroduction, just like they'd never met before.

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