Why Does My Outdoor Tom Cat Bring Home Strays?

If your male tom cat has been roaming and bringing home stray felines, it's likely due to his hormones. Tom cats aren't neutered, meaning that they'll be more concerned with finding females to mate with and males to fight with over territory than spending quality time with you. Unfortunately, these potential paramours and rivals may follow Spike home and hang around in hopes of interacting with him.

  1. The Ladies Man

    • Spike's female feline admirers likely will be tempted to follow him home in hopes of mating with him if they are in heat. Females who haven't been spayed tend to roam, just as intact males do, looking for a mate, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It's likely that Spike's been marking the outside and possibly the inside of your home with urine. He uses his urine as a way to advertise his availability to the ladies and to mark his territory. Unfortunately, this means that some neighborhood females may be attracted to your home and will mate with your tom cat if they find him there.

    Romantic Rivals

    • Your intact male tom cat enjoys roaming around what he considers his territory, which includes the area directly around your home. To mark their territory, they deposit urine all around the area to warn other male cats to stay away. Unfortunately, stray tom cats may follow Spike home to fight with him over the rights to his turf because intact males are more aggressive than those who have been neutered, according to the High Plains Humane Society. These other males want to claim your kitty's territory as their own so that they can mate with available females in the area and eat any food that you leave out for Spike.

    Discouraging Visitors

    • Stray cats may carry diseases like the feline immunodeficiency virus and feline leukemia virus, which can be transmitted to your kitty through a bite or scratch during a fight, warns the Jersey Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Females who mate with Spike will become pregnant, leaving you with litters of kittens to deal with. To prevent Spike from bringing home any friends, keep and feed him indoors or inside an enclosed patio area that he can't escape from. Have him neutered to reduce his desire to roam, mate and fight, recommends the VCA Animal Hospitals website. Neutering will make him less aggressive overall and may stop him from spraying urine both inside and outside your home.

    Caring for Spike and His Friends

    • The best time to neuter your furry friend is prior to when he hits puberty, usually between 4 and 6 months of age, recommends the Catster website. This will prevent your little one from wanting to roam around outside and bring home any friends. Even if your kitty is older, he can be neutered safely. To deal with any stray cats he's brought around your home, contact a local cat rescue organization. The organization may adopt them out or trap, neuter and release his feral friends to prevent your local kitty population from exploding with the arrival of new litters.