Cat biting neck of another cat

Champ

Alright I've been taking care of a stray cat since it was a kitten for about 2 years now.

Another stray has turned up which is young, I'd say not more than a year old.

Now the other cat seems to tolerate the younger one and they seemed to get along fine for 3 months (thus I've taken to feeding this one too). They've even slept curled up close together.

Now today I'm discovering that the older one is constantly biting the young one by the neck. The young one isn't yelping out in pain (for the most part you hear the odd meow of protest and only once did it twist around and gave the other cat a smack to its face) and doesn't really defend itself or run away e.g. I just witnessed this 4 times in the space of 10 - 15 minutes. The older one is also.. ummm marking its territory often during these nips. The young one seems oblivous to the fact that the other is semi stalking it with the result that its getting neck bitten quite often (no blood drawn though it seems).

Not sure if this is related to the fact that another cat has recently turned up (doesn't trust humans though)???

From googling the evidence seems to point to "cat dominance" in that the older cat seems to be trying to establish itself as the "alpha cat". General advise on the web seems to be don't interfere and let them work it out themselves. In practise how long should I let this continue before taking further action... anyone got any experience with this? I've already broken it up a few times as it looks vicious...which in hindsight looks to be the wrong thing to do?

fro9etb8j5qsl2

Yup it's dominance. My 2 male cats came from the same litter and were best of pals til they hit kitty puberty. Then the neck biting and fighting started. Now 1 of them tends to stay out of the house most of the time while the other one is mostly indoors. You can try and break it up, I certainly would if it seemed like the less dominant one was in pain, but ultimately, you won't be able to stop their battle for king.

planetX

Have you had them neutered? If not it certainly will turn nasty.

john 08

this is actually happening to my cat. there is a female cat that comes into our back garden and starts trying to dominate my cat, constantly following him around and then jumping on his back and biting his neck. i assumed they were just playing as they were nt fighting properly.

is it normal for a female cat to try dominate a male cat ?? my cat is neutered. im not sure if the other cat is spayed but they are around the same age. also for some reason my cat is a lot smaller compared to other cats and hes an adult cat.

Heroditas

Our male does it to the two females. He does it when he gets very hyper and then picks on one of them.
Not a lot you can do, they'll do it even if they're neutered.
Try and keep them as amused as much as possible with toys so they're too worn out to do too much damage to each other. They'll still fight but they'll tire quicker.