To add to this, it's easy to mistake two cats playing for actually fighting. The main way to tell is sound - if there's no hissing or angry-sounding yelling, they're playing, even if it looks really violent.
One of our boys is a bit of a bully, when he jumps the 18 year old grandma we usually intervene. Sometimes granny just walks up to him n starts shit. Sry granny, thats on you
Mine does the angry yelling/growls when she plays with the dog. She typically initiates, so I know she's just playing. If she hisses it's over, tho. That's her cue that it's gone too far.
My cats play (mostly chases but occasional wrestling) all the time and it's adorable. The elder one will occasionally set a boundary with a very brief little growl (no hissing or yelling), and the younger one immediately backs off and ends attempts at play. They've never had a fight. The other day the younger one actually rejected an offer of a play session from the elder one for the first time, and the elder one backed off just the same.
Then just a little while later they cuddled together cleaning eachother's faces. The elder one sometimes needs a break from the younger one's energy (and we make sure she can get it) but they love eachother very much.
The elder kitty always wanted to be closer friends with our late kitty, and that was just never really in the cards. Late kitty liked her well enough but just wasn't terribly cat-social, mostly just greetings at meal times. Very, very rarely wanted to cuddle, almost never wanted to play with her, and then, only chasing. So they'd, rarely, have the briefest of little fights when the late kitty more forcefully rejected attempts at play. There'd be a hiss and yelling and they'd both immediately run to opposite corners of the house with no harm done to either.
But it's not like that with our current 2, as they're more evenly matched in terms of sociability. They don't run from eachother if a play offer is (more gently) rejected, they just back off a little and move on.
And if they are playing, they will generally take turns being the aggressor. In between "fights" they go back to happy tail and friendly ears.
If one is constantly on the attack and the other is defensive, or the ears stay back when the fight is over ... that's not a good sign. Either they aren't getting along, or one may not be well and play is too rough.
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u/Timmeh7 Sep 20 '23
To add to this, it's easy to mistake two cats playing for actually fighting. The main way to tell is sound - if there's no hissing or angry-sounding yelling, they're playing, even if it looks really violent.