Male cat owners face additional challenges as their cats often have additional behavioral issues compared to female cats. The first of them is that they are more active and need to find the company of cats. As a side effect of this need, male cats frequently try to leave the house. It is not running away at all, since they are very willing to return home after doing the deed. The problem is that they face a lot of danger away from home. They will fight with other male cats. They can also be hit by traffic. These added concerns of having male cats can certainly cause premature graying for their owners.
For these reasons, veterinarians and many animal rights groups strongly recommend that owners neuter their cats. Neutered male cats lose the need to roam, making it easier to keep them close to home. They will stop chasing female cats in heat and will stop fighting aggressively with rival male cats. No more wandering around and fewer fights – all this means they are less likely to seriously injure themselves outside the home. Another added benefit is that they will not produce stray kittens from their unauthorized encounter with female cats.
Many vets prefer to err on the side of caution and will not neuter male cats until they are a year old. Others are willing to do so as early as four months of age, as some more recent studies indicate that younger neutered male cats show no adverse reactions. The sooner you neuter your cat, the better. They are less likely to develop the habits of fighting, wandering, and chasing cats. Despite this, spaying them late is better than not spaying them at all. As long as the habit is no longer driven by natural instinct, it can be broken and replaced with something else.
Still, neutered or not, male cats tend to be more aggressive. While you can never completely get rid of this aggression, you can reduce it over time. An easy way is to put a collar with a bell on your male cat. What does this? Your male cat often likes to attack other animals. He will stalk them and ambush them. It is obvious that the attacker usually has the initiative in a fight. If your cat can surprise the other cat and jump first, he is more likely to win the fight. While winning is usually a good thing, in this case it just encourages your cat to engage in more fights. Once you put the bell on your cat, it will have a harder time successfully stalking and attacking other cats and animals. Little by little, he will lose the need to get into fights.
Another more common problem in male cats is spraying. Spraying is different from urinating. On the one hand, it usually affects vertical surfaces such as walls. Your cat does it to mark his territory. Common crap training techniques won’t help. Neither does the punishment. One thing you can do is learn where your cat’s favorite spray spots are and clean it with some kind of enzyme solution. Regular cleaners won’t work, as they don’t remove the underlying odors from male cat urine. Your local vet or pet store will likely have something suitable for you. After cleaning, you can spray one of those “pet sprays” to keep kitty away.
