Feline Heirarchy in the Home

[Donna]

Is this something we should interfer in?

Misty seems to be dominating the house and Chloe is always the one getting slapped or put in her place. Feel sorry for her as she was my first cat. Should I stop Misty doing this?

Dont want Chloe to be unhappy.

[Luke]

Hmmmmn all i can say is..in our house the animals sort their own battles out. We've had a few fisty cuffs but it gets resolved usually..Clementine is the dominant one and Elsa just tends too do what Clem wants..but then u throw the dogs in and Polly rules all.
I just left our lot sort themselves out..it all pulled together in the end

[Fran]

I think it's generally best to let them sort it out themselves unless there are serious issues of course. It's normal for them to sort out the pecking order and this is what they would do in the wild. I would say that on the whole most cats know their place in the pecking order and accept it...

[Snoof]

With the rats, I allow them to sort their own scraps out. If there's blood, then I split them up right away - but if they're just scrapping I leave them to it.

My mother-in-law always broke up scraps between my cat and hers. It resulted in two cats who couldn't even be in the same room together, and mine eventually decided to stick to my bedroom, my bathroom and the kitchen. Hers would roam through her bedroom, her bathroom, the spare room and the lounge, and frequently venture into the kitchen, but my boy would just back up (it did not help that she only broke them up if my boy had the upper hand - if hers was winning she left them to it).

The only times my cat would venture into the other cat's territory was when the other cat hissed at my son a few times - and those times he would most definitely get the upper hand. He was considerably bigger and stronger than the other cat, but he got scared to assert his dominance, and the result was a sort of limbo none of us enjoyed.