Is my cat playing or fighting with another cat?

A new study aims to distinguish when cats are playing and when they're gearing up for a fight

There's no doubt cats are complicated creatures.

While the animals enjoy some good old play time like other pets, it can difficult for people with multiple cats to tell whether their beloved animals are messing around for fun or if a full blown fight is about to break out.

However, scientists believe they may have cracked the code to help owners work out when their felines are gearing up for a fight.

In a study, researchers looked at recorded interactions between cats taken from YouTube videos and also asked a number of cat owners to provide footage of their pairs of cats.

Cats' behaviours can be difficult to understand

In total, interactions between 105 pairs of house cats were looked at.

Those carrying out the study came up with six specific categories for the cats' different behaviours including wrestling, chasing and the vocalisations or noises they made.

The researchers then placed each of the videos they analysed into three main groups depending on the cats' interactions they'd viewed.

These three categories were playful, agonistic, which describes more aggressive or defensive interactions and intermediate, which the researchers say describes long periods of cats interacting in both a playful and more aggressive manner.

What did the cat study show?

Cats that are wrestling are probably just playing with one another.

However, cats that make sounds like growling, snarls or hissing, are inactive for extended periods of time and which chase between these breaks could very well be fighting.

Can you tell when your cats are simply messing around?

Behaviour which falls into the intermediate group is a little trickier to work out, as there could be elements of both play and fighting.

Also, the researchers say a feline's interaction with their fellow house cat can quickly change from playful to more aggressive, making the assessment of their behaviours even more complex.

Dr Noema Gajdoš‑Kmecová, who is a author of the research from the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Slovakia, says cats' interactions with one another are not always clear, but their behaviours could give us some understanding on what's going on.

"Maybe ask yourself are they playing, fighting, or is it something in between," she told the Guardian.

Can you tell when your cats are playing or fighting? Why not leave us a comment below!