How do you deter hostile outdoor cat?

[ArtNJ]

My 4 year old neutered female is a good hunter, average size and aggressive when appropriate, but there is a LARGE and MEAN tomcat that will come into our yard, terrify her, and drive her to our door. The tomcat will come close to her and continue to terrify her until we respond to her howling.

So far, we havent found any bite marks, but what do we do?

[kayla baxter]

If it were me, I'd keep my cat inside. Problem solved and a whole lot safer.

[ArtNJ]

She has always been an indoor/outdoor cat for various reasons including the fact that we found her as a stray, that she was slow to use the literbox, and slow to accept the existing cat. Those reasons are moot now, but she already has her routine and really likes going outside at times. She is very aggressive about demanding what she wants, and I would prefer not to force the issue.

I've been trying to hit the big tom with a cup of water, but he doesnt come around all that often and seems totally fearless, so its a tough one.

She gets along tolerably with a younger and smaller tomcat that belongs to a neighbor. I did see what looked like wounds on the young tom, surely from the bigger and meaner tom, but the neighbor poo-poo'd it so I never did find out if their vet said it was a bite wound.

[rightsaidfed]

Is he a feral or a stray? Any chance he's neutered?

You could trap him and have him neutered. That might calm him down over time as well as help control local population growth.

Keeping your cat inside might be the best option.

What about Lemon juice around the property? Not sure how long this would last outdoors, but citrus is supposed to be a deterrent to cats. This worked for me on some cables in my living room - I have no idea if it would work on a large scale like that outdoors.

[ArtNJ]

I dont think trapping him works. Any cat that size in my residential neighborhood is probably not feral as there is no ready source of food to be raided. My own cat that we are talking about was very skinny when found, despite being a good hunter. I suppose its possible that there is a feeder on a nearby street, but the probability is that its someone's cat, just not someone from my immediate street (I would know). Even if I figured out whose cat it was, cant really say "your cat is mean, keep it indoors".

I still think that there must be a way to scare the &^%! out of it without hurting it. Maybe really chase after it with a super soaker or something.

I'm puzzled by the whole chase the neutered female all the way to her house and still be aggressive thing. Is that normal? I would have thought that he would run her off his territory and that would be the end of it.

[Carmel]

The only way to take care of it would be to trap the cat and send him off to the local shelter to see if he is owned by anyone. Another reason would be for the shelter to neuter him if it hasn't already been done. Some places have neuter programs in place that will neuter any stray cat that is brought in and then if the cat is friendly they will adopt the cat out and if it isn't, give it back to you to release back where it came from.

If the cat is not neutered that can be a huge cause for the cat picking fights -- it doesn't have to have any bearing on your cat being spayed, if he isn't neutered he is extra territorial and is far more likely to wander far from home. The wandering he may be doing since you don't know who owns him but he could be feral/stray and just making his rounds to find food.

If you're in a high-kill area though sending him to the pound could lead to a very sad outcome for the kitty so you'd want to double check with the shelter on what they would do if you trap him, and they should also be able to provide you with a trap...

[Catmamma]

I have found that non-neutered males will still pursue any female around, neutered or non-neutered. That local tom is the "top cat" and until you take his status away, you will have trouble letting your female or male out. I had to become the "top cat" to keep our non-neutered male in line. BTW, he is not neutered because we can't catch him or get him to go in the trap. One day, one day....

[Carmel]

I just wanted to add that you can be fooled by a cats weight, don't assume someone owns them/is intentionally feeding them based on their weight. The semi-feral cat I've recently trapped and had neutered weighed in at a little over 11 pounds and the vet said he could lose weight. He's been eating our cats food on and off all summer (we weren't trying to feed him but he'd sneak inside), he'd also eat any sort of food he can find, like scraps that people dump outside or get into garbage cans. He's fought other animals for the food too sd he had bite marks on his leg that were treated when he was neutered. It's a tough life outdoors, they spend their whole day looking for their next meal and when they find food they're going to eat everything they can even if it means they will overeat since they don't know when their next meal will be.

I don't know how fast you can see changes after being neutered, I've read it can take upto 6 weeks? But the very next day he stopped growling at me, something he'd been doing every day before that when I was standing up/approaching his food.

[3furbabies]

I agree with the weight thing. Don't assume he is someone's pet. My neighbour through his cat out several months ago. At one point he was really skinny then I hadn't seen him for a week. He gained weight the next time I saw him so I assumed they brought him in. Nope. He was living on hand outs from folks in the neighbourhood. Including from me. I would give him a huge pile of food, he would mow it all then would be good until I fed him the next day.

Also it will be next to impossible for him to leave your cat alone. He will end up attacking your cat if you don't keep it in. He is the dominant cat in the area.

[LaurulFeatherCat]

The only way to make sure she is safe is to keep her indoors.