Eko mounting Lucy…a problem?….any advice?

Home › The Daily Kitten Cat Chat Forum › Cats & Kittens › Eko mounting Lucy…a problem?….any advice?

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • 25 February, 2013 at 2:54 pm #54176
    ecbrown
    Participant

    So my randy little panther is determined to make kittens with Lucy (and they would be awfully cute if both of them weren’t “fixed.”) Eko was neutered at around 4-5 months of age. Lucy was spayed as an adult after having kittens.

    At first the mounting was infrequent and he could be distracted by me clapping loudly. I wasn’t too worried. Now it is several times a day and he won’t be distracted. He gets on top of her, bites her neck (must not be too hard because it takes a while for her to respond sometimes), and kneads with his back paws. He doesn’t really hump or make any “critical connections.”

    Lucy sqirms, yowls a little (isn’t this what a female does during mating?), and bites Eko’s ears until he gets off. If he was really persistent about it she will give him a little swat and hiss after he gets off. BUT they are still good friends and she doesn’t avoid him at all….even right after one of these incidents.

    Last night, during an incident, my husband picked Eko up (which I’m slow to do since he is attached by the teeth) and put him in the next room. Lucy followed them and gave Eko a friendly greeting (nose bump.) Then they both stared at my husband, wide eyed, like “Why did you do that?”

    We were discussing what to do about the situation. At first my husband thought maybe spraying Eko with a water bottle might distract him. (I really don’t like this idea…might seem punitive or aggressive.) BUT then my husband asked the key question, “What does Leo do while this is going on?” You see, Leo is the police cat around here. If he hears a squeal of distress from the female cats (usually because Eko is playing too rough), he is on the spot and gets Eko to stop usually just by using his body language. But during these mounting incidents Lucy does make what I think are sounds of distress (a bit of a yowly sound) and Leo just lays there and does nothing. Do you think this could mean that he knows this is no big deal??

    Leo’s reaction to this and Lucy following her “attacker” around and wanting to be with him made my husband think maybe this is nothing to worry about. But I don’t want Lucy to get stressed and have this affect their friendship. I also don’t want to overreact and stress Eko unnecessarily. (By the way there is a feliway diffuser going at all times and I spray calming spray around occasionally if tensions seem high between the cats.)

    Any thoughts or experiences with this type of thing?

    25 February, 2013 at 2:59 pm #764532
    MaelieBird
    Participant

    I’d be willing to hear thoughts on this, too–I have almost the exact situation going on with my cats Moose and Maelie, who are littermates and both fixed. Maelie usually gets ticked off and bucks Moose off; he seems to be the only one who cares. I kind of hope he doesn’t start to do it with Mattie one of these days, too.

    25 February, 2013 at 6:15 pm #764533
    Mojo
    Participant

    EC, I think this is entirely normal cat behavior and nothing to worry about. I remember how my Cloud used to mount Salem (both males) all the time and bite into the scruff of his neck, and Cloud would make a kind of moaning sound as he did this and Salem would squeal. A friend was visiting and saw it and thought it was appalling! Wasn’t I going to do anything? No, I wasn’t. I’d asked my veterinarian about it and she’d assured me it was normal behavior for cats. I’d been uncertain myself, but it did not seem to me that Salem was ever hurt. It’s a dominance display and also a form of play.

    In contrast to this, my Kensho, who is 14 pounds, will go up to Jasmine, who weighs 7 pounds, and pounce on her, several times a day. This too is play, but I can tell she finds it annoying, especially the frequency, because she’s taken to sleeping much of the time on the top of the closet shelf, where he can’t jump. Still, he doesn’t really hurt her so much as annoy her with these pounces.

    So, while your reaction to it is understandable, I would not worry about it in the least, and I certainly would not squirt Eko or otherwise punish him!

    25 February, 2013 at 6:37 pm #764534
    ecbrown
    Participant

    Thanks for the input, Mojo. Yeah, Leo (male) will occasionally do the same type of thing to Eko too. So maybe Eko is just passing it on. But I have a feeling Leo’s is a playful, wrestling, dominance type thing and Eko’s is more purely sexual. I don’t know for sure, of course. I think I’ll keep watching to see if Lucy seems stressed by it and try and figure something out if she does. But I agree that punishing isn’t the way to go. What could be more natural, right?

    Maelibird, here is one interesting article I found on the topic if you are interested….

    http://www.petplace.com/cats/sexual-aggression-in-cats/page1.aspx

    I liked that they had some solution ideas. Putting feliway on the female cat was an interesting idea….but it says on those sprays not to apply them directly to the cat. If we decide we need to address the behavior and get desperate for ideas I might try it in spots it would be hard for her to lick, like when you apply flea treatments.

    ETA….funny about your friend’s reaction, Mojo. I had a friend over Saturday who was rather shocked by the behavior. Understandable, I guess.

    25 February, 2013 at 8:51 pm #764535
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I am so glad this topic was brought up….. because several months ago our sweet Rufous (pictured) started humping our legs and feet in the middle of the night. He is ‘fixed’, so we could not figure out why this amorous behavior would suddenly exist. After a week or so of his nocturnal love fest (on us), I decided he needed something else to love on. Found two teddy bears that I had used in displays from my last job. Turns out he attached to them right away. Now, he drags them all over the house, and ‘loves’ on them to his hearts content. Occasionally, he will play a bit rough with one of our girl kits…neck biting and such, and trying to mount….. Good thing she has a black belt, and those incidents are short lived. 🙂

    25 February, 2013 at 10:01 pm #764536
    Mojo
    Participant

    Interesting article, EC. Being a DVM, with a material interest in giving prescriptions, he proposes “treating” the problem, including with progesterone. Of course, I used to intervene when Cloud would mount Salem, but eventually I stopped, because I realized it was normal, and Salem wasn’t being hurt.

    In the case of Kensho jumping on the sleeping Jasmine (not mounting her), I do more often intervene, because I know she gets annoyed by it. Still, she’s not really getting hurt, so much as irritated. And she has a place to retreat to where he cannot jump that high.

    26 February, 2013 at 1:53 am #764537
    JerseyJoan
    Moderator

    I am wondering if this is part of the reason Leela does not like Comet – he was too agressive with her. He hasn’t bothered her lately. Now he just has his way with my arm. (I only let him if I’m wearing a sweatshirt.) It cracks me up seeing him yell when I try to move. He knows not to bite my wrist, but rather grab the sweatshirt.

    I thought it was leftover hormones, but I’m guessing that it is more typical behavior.

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.