kitten attacking older cat

Grainne

i have a three year old cat she has a flap and is inside and out. shes a very independent creature and is really easy to be around. before xmas we rescued another cat (shes under a year old), we found her at the roadside. shes very affectionate and was definitely loved and looked after. anyways, the problem is that shes constantly trying to get at the older cat. she runs and tries to pounce on her. the older cat tries to fight back but its just too hard to watch. it doesn't actually come to blows but theres lots of hissing and screaming and the odd punch. the older cat is ok with her being in the house, and really wants to get on with her own thing without being bothered. i've tried to keep them seperated but its been going on now for over three weeks and our house is in turmoil. its such a stress trying to watch the new kitten coz shes into everything. how can i get her to calm down and leave the older cat alone? we got the younger cat spayed at the weekend and she was a really good patient but shes is just tormenting the older cat. i've tried putting her outside for long periods so she'll tire herself out but this doesn't work as she just wants to be in the house fulltime. i love her dearly but shes hard work. i've no problem with her being in the house if they could both get along. i am at my witts end and i hope you can help me. how can i integrate them. i don't want them to be best pals or anything, i just want them to get along .......... thank u. ......

Jules

I have done this a few times and what i have figured out is that they will sort it out themselves. Your older cat will take it to a certain point and then give the younger one a few slaps and the younger one will learn its place.

You have to remember the young one is still a baby and is learn where boundaries are.

How old is the older cat?

lubie76

I am going through a similar thing with my one year old male cat and a 3 month female. She is a slip of a thing and he is a monster but she is constantly picking on him and pushing him out of his bed. All he does is this really tortured mew and look up at me with these big sad eyes. It makes me feel so bad. I have seen him outside with other males and he is well able to fight so I wonder why he doesn't just put her in her place just once.

They definitely have got a bit better in terms of getting along though as sometimes she leaves him alone for a bit. I'm just hoping as she gets older and we neuter her that she may calm down a bit.

MsFifers

Kittens just love to wrestle. I got two at the same time and they just battled with each other all day - all in good sport. I know the poor older cats must be really fed up, but the kittens are probably also a bit frustrated that they have no one who wants to play with them.

The only things I can think of (other than waiting for the kitten to grow out of it) is to get another similar aged kitten so that they can match each other. Although that could end up a bigger disaster granted...;)

So, maybe try to spend more time playing with the kittens yourself - make up games/toys that give them an opportunity to chase and pounce and get it out of their systems. Drag little mousies on string, fishing rod toys, toss balls for them. Might help a little...

Whispered

Hi, your older cat is only 3 and could well defend herself if she needs to, so I wouldn't worry. She's obviously just a sweet cat who doesn't want to hurt the other one. They might have to sort it out between the two of them. But you could help by doing things such as play with something they both want to get into, I found the little laser beams great for this as both my cats will chase it. Then you are there to supervise, the younger cat gets tired out and hopefully starts to see the older cat as someone she can have fun with. Another thing is cat treats, make it a ritual, one each, in turns and only give treats (to the younger one) when the two cats are in the room. Besides that I'm not sure what else you can do. I'm not sure if cats have an "alpha" as with dogs, people say they dont but looking at my two I'm not so sure. I know cats are very territorial so maybe if you have "special" places for each of the cats, even if it's just two cat beds in different areas, they might sort out their differences.