More than 40% of cat owners say their homes are entered by neighbourhood cats trying to gain attention, shelter, food or to attack the resident cat.

The stress this can cause is underestimated by owners, says researcher Jon Bowen, animal behaviour consultant at the Royal Veterinary College, and as a result many opportunities to improve cats’ wellbeing are being missed.
 
“In our research, owners reported that 18.7% of cats with outdoor access had been attacked in their own home by someone else’s cat. The figure rose to 24.8% for households that had a plain cat flap without any security features,” says Jon Bowen.  “Don’t forget that this is only what the owners have seen. When cat owners are away from the home during the day or in bed at night they are unaware of what is happening.”
 
The results from the Neighbourhood Cat Campaign – which has surveyed over 1,000 cat owners and non-cat owners – has provided some fascinating insights into the secret lives of cats. 41.8% of those surveyed said their cat had been attacked in the garden by other cats and 36.6% said their pet had been chased back into the house. But even in their-own homes cats with unsecured cat flaps were still under threat, with 39.4% of these owners reporting that intruder cats stole food.
 
The research – led by Jon Bowen and supported by SureFlap, the microchip-operated pet door company and Your Cat magazine – was prompted by concerns that dense urban cat populations were creating stress for cats. The findings will be used to help inform vets on feline behaviour in the neighbourhood, so they are better equipped to suggest remedies.
 
Jon explains that a cat’s territory is divided into sections, with the core home area being somewhere the cat should feel safe to eat, groom and sleep. “Outside, cats use scent marks, like scratching and urine spraying, to let other cats know when and where they will be in their territory at different times of day. This prevents cats from coming face-to-face with each other too often, so they don’t get into fights. Cats can coexist like this outdoors, but if a cat finds that its home has been invaded by another cat, it can be highly stressful.”
 
The research showed that cats that had received even minor injuries from fights with other cats were more likely to have health and behavioural issues. These cats had significantly higher incidences of hair loss, lameness, eye infections, coughs and sneezes and were four times more likely to spray in the house.
 
Jon further analysed the homes of those with an unsecured cat flap – where intruders can freely access the home – against those homes with a restricted access cat flap. 
 
“51.1% of households with an unsecured cat flap experienced some kind of feline home invasion. For the resident cat this will be extremely stressful – a common trigger for behavioural problems and health issues such as cystitis and dermatological conditions.
 
“The primary motivation for neighbourhood cats to invade a home seems to be to find food. There is a strong association between cats entering homes to find food and then fighting with the resident cats. It seems that many owners do not recognise that giving other people’s cats’ unrestricted access to their homes is creating stress for their pets.
 
“When owners are aware of the link between intrusion and stress-related problems there are many measures they can take. The most obvious is installing a secure cat flap so that only the resident pet can access the house.
 
“These findings also suggest that access to food is a cause of conflict too.  We know in the wild that cats eat between ten and 20 small meals a day. However, from our study 33.0% of owners feed their pets at set meal times. If a cat gets only two meals a day, this is the equivalent of a person only having a meal every second or third day. This creates a perception of a shortage of food, which encourages cats to search for food elsewhere.
 
“If all cat owners provided ad lib food this would reduce the motivation for cats to break into each other’s houses. I would also suggest not allowing food to be placed near the cat flap. Cats have a strong sense of smell and often can even see the food bowl through the cat flap. Either move the bowl away from the door, or better still make the flap opaque so neighbourhood cats cannot be tempted by the sight of food inside the house.”
 
Causes of friction between neighbours were also investigated in this research.
 
“A common annoyance for non-cat owners was cats toileting in their garden. 69.4% of non-cat owners stated this was a problem but only 9.8% of cat owners have ever received a complaint about it from a neighbour, so there is clearly a communication gap,” says Jon.
 
There could be an easy solution to the problem; it was found that 85.3% of cat owners don’t provide an outside toilet in their own garden. Just digging a hole and filling it with sand and gravel for their pet to use could be the route to more harmonious living.
 
The findings are of great interest to cat enthusiast Judith Bank of SureFlap who suggested the research when she discovered that little was known about the secret lives of cats.
 
“52.7% of owners considered cats to be part of the natural world and yet there have been few studies of the behaviour of pet cats.  People often purchase a microchip-operated cat flap to help their pet to feel secure and this motivated us to look into the problems pet owners might be having, and how their cats interact with their local environment.  The findings have been fascinating.”
 
A full report of the findings from the Neighbourhood Cat Campaign can be found on the SureFlap (www.sureflap.co.uk) and Your Cat magazine (www.yourcat.co.uk) websites.