Neutered cats

[netibiza]

I have a spayed female and a neutered tom but at this time of year I am invaded with macho toms and they go to fight the poor neutered male of mine.  This is the question - does my spayed female give off a smell even though she cannot conceived and why do the males think my neutered male is a threat to them

[natalie_1982]

I have a neutured tom and he is fighting a lot at the moment, so I don't think he has a lot to do with your female, as I don't have one!

He rarely goes further than the back garden (except to toilet) and a lot of the neighbourhood cats have been invading our garden lately and he fights them out, I don't know why they keep doing this.  Maybe they haven't been chopped and are trying to chip away at his masculinity even more!

[andy hughes]

Cats are territorial creatures, and if a tom finds a new piece of territory, he will try and establish it for his own. This may include disauding the incumbent tom from making an issue of his plans, but natrually the established tom will not welcome any intruders - queue fighting. Your tom will probably will in the end - most visiting toms won;t hang around to make a major issue of it - they can move on to another less troublesome area. Your tom, on the other hand has a vested interest in protecting his home space, and will see off allcomers, eventually. It's nature, but don ;t hesitate to give him a hand with a water spray if you see any visitors looking like 'Come on then ....' types.

[netibiza]

BUT my neutered tom won't fight - he cries and I have to go fight for him - both my cats were strays - and they trot around the neighbourhood and the male goes missing with other toms when another female is on heat - I can't work it out!!

[ratbag66]

Neutering toms isn't always 100% affective at taking away all of their masculine traits - my sister has a neutered tom who still sprays to mark his territory and gets into fights with 'entire' toms.

[netibiza]

But Ratbag66 both my cats spray (yes even the female) its only pee pee nothing to do with being neutered and it's marking territory.

[Little m]

I believe that if a tom has started spraying before he's been done he'll continue. Never had any problems with my tomcat Tom, and female Sadie (rescue cat) was about 18 months when we got her but had her spayed when she had her first season with us. Both OK but hardly go out.

[nrmatth]

my cat was almost beheaded in a cat fight when he slipped out the door once. all the more reason besides car and people and kids i like to keep him inside. ever thought of just keeping your altered (and un- altered) cats inside for a week or two? altered cats have lower hormone levels and are more weighty to give them a disadvantage if a fit tom comes in their neighborhood. and dressing wounds for the rest of the spring hardly seems fun to me.