By Rita Reimers, Cat Behaviorist

How to Tell the Difference

Are your cats playing or fighting? Can you tell the difference? If you’ve ever watched two cats chase each other down the hallway, wrestle across the floor, tackle one another, and exchange a few well-placed smacks, you may have wondered:

Are they having fun, or am I about to have a cat fight on my hands?

Let’s Talk About Cats at Play

Cat play can look surprisingly rough to us. Chasing, wrestling, biting, bunny kicking, and even an occasional hiss can all be part of normal play. On the other hand, an interaction doesn’t have to look dramatic for one cat to be feeling intimidated or overwhelmed.

The key is not to focus on one isolated behavior. Instead, watch the entire interaction and ask yourself these important questions:

• Are both cats participating willingly?
• Do they take turns being the instigator?
• Can either cat walk away freely?
• What happens if one cat wants to stop?

Those clues will tell you much more than a single hiss, swat, or wrestling match ever could.

If both cats are participating without force from the other, if they take turns jumping on or chasing each other, and one can decide to stop without being attacked by the other, then they are playing, not fighting.

Why Cats Play Rough

Cats learn important life skills through play. What looks like a miniature wrestling match to us is practice for many of the behaviors that come naturally to a cat, including stalking, chasing, pouncing, grabbing, biting, and kicking.

But kittens are learning more than hunting skills when they play with one another. They’re also learning social boundaries.

When one kitten bites too hard or gets too rough, the other kitten lets them know. They may squeal, hiss, swat, or simply stop playing and walk away. Over time, kittens learn how much is too much and what they need to do if they want their playmate to keep playing.

This is one reason I don’t like to see young kittens separated from their littermates too early or adopted as single kittens if there is another appropriate kitten available.

A kitten who doesn’t have another kitten to wrestle and practice with may turn that rough play toward their humans instead. Hands and ankles become substitutes for another kitten, and those cute little kitten bites aren’t nearly as cute when that kitten grows into an adult cat.

Let’s take a closer look at healthy cat play.

What Healthy Cat Play Looks and Sounds Like

To help tell if your cats are playing or fighting, let’s examine the differences.

Healthy play is mutual. Both cats choose to participate, and although one may be the chaser or wrestler for a while, those roles often switch.

Watch their body language to help you decide if they are playing, especially when observing newly acquainted cats. (See Successful Cat Introductions)

The Physical Signs of Cat Play

• Loose, relaxed body movements
• Taking turns chasing and being chased
• Pauses during wrestling, slapping, and chasing
• Controlled biting and swatting
• One cat being able to disengage
• Both cats voluntarily returning to play
• Normal behavior once playtime is over

One of the biggest clues is choice. If a cat runs away, pauses, and then comes right back to initiate another round, chances are pretty good that you’re watching play.

The Sounds of Cat Play

During play, you may hear a hiss or a growl, so also pay attention to what they are doing physically as outlined above. Every hiss or growl or little noise does not indicate fighting, so observe as you listen so you can learn the difference.

Let’s talk about what fighting between cats actually looks like.

What Cat Fighting Looks and Sounds Like

Now you are probably wondering, what does fighting look like so I can tell the difference? Since my cats don’t fight, I can show you through photos of other cats fighting or getting ready to.

The Physical Signs of a Cat Fight

Here is another way to tell if the cats are playing or fighting. You will notice the stance of the cats here is very different from what you see in the playtime photos of Simba and Sweetie Pie above. Where playing cats have relaxed body movements, ears upright and forward and may be making little noises as they play, fighting cats look very different.

Often you will see:

• Ears flat back against their head or to the side
• Eyes laser focused on the other cat
• Body crouched low to the ground
• A tail that looks like a bottle-brush
• Hair on their backs standing on end
• One cat trapping the other so they cannot leave

Interrupting Rough Cat Play

If the cats are playing but one cat wants to stop and the other is not taking the hint, intervene before the interaction escalates.

• Use the cat’s name or your S.O.S. cue to interrupt their fixation.
• Redirect the persistent cat away with a wand toy or another favorite activity.
• Place a visual barrier, such as a pillow or piece of cardboard, between the cats if needed.
• Give both cats time to calm down in separate areas before allowing play to resume.

Interrupting a Cat Fight

During a cat fight, protect yourself as well as the cats. Do not reach between fighting cats or attempt to pick up a highly aroused cat with your bare hands.

• Use a large pillow, flattened cardboard box, or another sturdy object to block the cats’ view of one another.
• Guide the cats into separate rooms without placing your hands near their faces or claws.
• Close the doors and allow both cats plenty of time to calm down before attempting any contact.
• After a serious fight, return to an earlier stage of the introduction process rather than putting the cats back together immediately.

Simba and Sweetie Pie

Don’t worry, no cats fought during the production of this article.

Did you notice how their legs were locked together at the start of the tussle? If that was a fight, they would not have been close together and touching like that.

Simba and Sweetie Pie are true pals who would never hurt each other. At least, not on purpose!