Older cat too rough with young kitten...?

Question

I have just adopted a female kitten who we think is about 7 weeks old (she was a rescue kitten, abandoned by her mother). I also have an 11 month old male kitten.

Today is the 5th day of introducing them. My male cat has seen the kitten lots of times, and there is no longer any hissing or posturing between them.

The problem is that literally as soon as he sees the kitten, he pounces and wrestles with her. She then gets under the sofa but every time she comes out he pounces on her again. We've tried waiting a couple of hours to see if he gives up, but he never does! When she cries out he usually stops, but we have ended up separating them when he gets too rough.

I am just needing reassurance from anyone who's been through a similar thing! The poor kitten doesn't get a minute's peace - he is constantly pouncing on her! Should we keep separating them, or should we just leave them to it?

Answer 1

Is the male cat fixed? If not, that would help tons... if so just give them time... I went through that type of thing before. Most likely the older cat just doesn't understand the other cat is so much younger and smaller. Just give them space from each other. Also don't let the male cat witness you loving on the kitten. That will only create more jealousy. Once the little cat becomes bigger she will stand her ground with him and show him who is boss. He is just trying to state his dominance and territory. There is a possibility that their personalities just do not mix and they may never get along. Hopefully for everyone's sake they will just ignore each other and not start trouble. Good luck!

Answer 2

my cats are doing the same thing I have a female cat that is over a year old and she loves to pounce on top of my eight week old kitten and bites her. At first it looked like play but now I am even not too sure about it. I have also noticed that she doesn't always stop when the kitten cries out so I am just getting a little more worried about it. I don't think my older cat does it to hurt her considering they sleep together and they will both even eat from the same dish when hungry.

Answer 3

I have 4 cats, 2 males and 2 females. I have also been through 3 litters of kittens with our stray mama cat who has now become our indoor cat. Mine do play like this all the time. But I would watch closely to make sure your male cat is not hurting the kitten. Male cats sometimes will try to kill a kitten, although that is rare. He could also just be putting the kitten in his/her place, showing it that he is the boss. If you feel that your male is actually hurting the kitten, then yes separate them. At least until the kitten gets a bit older!

Answer 4

It's a good sign that the hissing and posturing has stopped. Your male cat is still an adolescent so he is partly wanting to play with the kitten, but at the same time, he wants her to know that he is top cat in your home.

When we adopted a male kitten as a companion for our 6 month old female, she would pounce on him at every opportunity . She would often straddle him and bite the back of his neck and make him cry. Stalking, chasing and pouncing are the games that kittens and young cats enjoy playing because they are actually practising their hunting skills. Until the female is at least 12 weeks old, I wouldn't leave them together unsupervised. I'm not suggesting that your male would try to hurt her, but she won't be physically capable or have enough life experience to escape from him if he does get too rough. When kittens play fight it can look quite rough as it involves a lot of wrestling to see who can pin the other one down. However, if you feel that your cat is getting too rough or you can see that you kitten looks distressed, then you are wise to separate them with a time-out, so that your male cat has chance to calm down.

It took one month for our female to fully accept the male kitten. By this time, he was a little bigger and better able to stand up for himself, which I think helped them sort out their differences. Two years on, my two still enjoy wrestling, but now they are both the same size they are evenly matched, and he gives as good as he gets (lol).

Be patient, your cat just needs a little more time to get used to her. Once he has fully accepted her, he will really appreciate having a feline friend to play with.

Answer 5

i had a similar problem. My 6-7 (was rescued) kitten was attacking our 8 year old male. He hissed, and growled at her contently, sometimes he even hit back! We were worried because he was De-clawed and she wasn't.

After about a month and a half (probably won't be as long for you, our old grouch like to hold grudges.lol) she settled down and now they don't leave each others side!

He could also be rough if he's not been fixed. The vet told us to put the kitten in a room and close the door. that way they can get to know each other under the door without getting hurt.

Good luck

~kitty

Answer 6

Hi, this is quite normal. What is concerning is that your older male cat is getting stressed and your kitten knows this. So next time she bullies him, you need to intervene, this could be picking her up and hissing right in her face (this is what the mother does to her kittens to say this behaviour is not acceptable), you then remove her from the room, and you pick up your older cat and comfort him. What you are showing your kitten is her behaviour comes with scolding and isolation, what you show him is that she has been told off and he has done nothing wrong. You could spray her with water, but she cant see you doing it. She is being dominating, so one thing you could try is feeding him first and before her, in the lion kingdom, males eat first and the females eat after, this shows the pride that he is in charge, so feed in first in front of her... if you make small changes by putting him first, she will soon learn he is to be respected.. thats all it is, she has no respect for him... Even getting them to snuggle together when sleeping with make the bond between them stronger to the point where she will accept him - it takes time, and you need to be dedicated

Answer 7

Same thing happened to my next door neighbours. They have one older cat (in this case about 11 years old) and they got two new cats (about 3 months old). They started fighting and had to sleep in separate rooms at first, but then as the days and weeks wore on, the older male got used to the idea of having two younger cats around. Now they are fine and fit it to the family perfectly!

Hope you get a happy ending too!

Good luck : )

Answer 8

you can try punishing the older cat when he ponses on the baby. By putting him in a kitten safe room and closing the door for about five minutes and then let him out and dont make eye contact with him for 10-8 min. then you can look at him but dont play with him do that to him and hes lible to stop. Or you can take the kitten and put it in the boys litter box and make it so she smells like him and he may accept her and be nicer.

Answer 9

Maybe try to keep them separated... and bring them out together when you are around to supervise. My friend brought her kitten home and things seemed ok after a while, but then the older cat attacked the kitten and made her paw bleed and could have hurt her much worse if no one was home

Answer 10

Keep them separated when you're not around to supervise. Otherwise, just watch. Intervene only if you believe the smaller kitten is getting hurt. They will probably sort things out, but you may need to keep them separate or supervised until she's big enough to hold her own with him.

If they get where they groom each other and sleep together, then you have probably passed the point where you need to worry.