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- Nov 9, 2021
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I was hoping I wouldn't have to make this kind of post, but here I am.
So we adopted our newest cat April, at the beginning of April (hence the name, lol) and we went through a proper introduction process to our resident cat Annie. It was slow and a bit shakey as to be expected, but they now get along and can be left in the same room etc.
I wouldn't say they're the best of friends, but they are friends to a degree. Annie is the one that mostly grooms April, whereas April rarely grooms her back. They don't cuddle, but can and will sleep in close proximity of each other. There's no hostility around food or anything like that, but there is one problem that persists. Annie is the younger one and slightly smaller of the two, recently having her 1st birthday whereas April is 1 year and a few months. We adopted April for Annie's benefit, knowing she'd love to have another cat to play with, and she certainly does. Annie loves to be chased and is the instigator of all of their play sessions, and I can tell (hopefully this isn't biased though as I'm still very protective over Annie) that she is genuinely trying to play when she instigates these sessions, she sometimes bites and nibbles but it's never hard and for the most part she tries to hop around and paw at her sister to start playing with her. The problem is that about 70% of the time they play, April will get a bit carried away and bite Annie hard enough to make her make noises (idk how to describe it, but it's not a friendly noise) and I have to break them up. Sometimes Annie will go back to her sister to carry on playing after I break them up, but lately a lot of the time it ends with Annie running away from April to give them both some distance as it seems the bites are harder than before. I've never seen them draw blood, but this behavior is a persistent thing that worries me for when we're not around. They're still friends afterwards, Annie isn't necessarily scared of her sister after this happens but she does often run away to get away from her for a bit until they both calm down. It's always April pinning Annie to the ground and causing her to make noises too, never the other way round.
Some information about April that might be the reason for this; When we adopted her, we were told she was in a foster home with other cats so we were "assured" that she would get along with other cats, but I fear that maybe because she was in this foster family for so long that maybe she actually didn't always get along with the other cats and never learned how to play properly. We also were given the wrong age when we adopted her, being told initially that she was about 6 months(?) old but when we took her to the vet, we were informed she was actually over a year old, which means looking at the paperwork we were given when adopting her, she'd been with this shelter/foster family for quite a long time. She's otherwise a very sweet and affectionate cat, very silly and playful.
I'm just wondering if there's a way to help her un-learn this behavior and stop her from being so aggressive when playing with her sister.
So we adopted our newest cat April, at the beginning of April (hence the name, lol) and we went through a proper introduction process to our resident cat Annie. It was slow and a bit shakey as to be expected, but they now get along and can be left in the same room etc.
I wouldn't say they're the best of friends, but they are friends to a degree. Annie is the one that mostly grooms April, whereas April rarely grooms her back. They don't cuddle, but can and will sleep in close proximity of each other. There's no hostility around food or anything like that, but there is one problem that persists. Annie is the younger one and slightly smaller of the two, recently having her 1st birthday whereas April is 1 year and a few months. We adopted April for Annie's benefit, knowing she'd love to have another cat to play with, and she certainly does. Annie loves to be chased and is the instigator of all of their play sessions, and I can tell (hopefully this isn't biased though as I'm still very protective over Annie) that she is genuinely trying to play when she instigates these sessions, she sometimes bites and nibbles but it's never hard and for the most part she tries to hop around and paw at her sister to start playing with her. The problem is that about 70% of the time they play, April will get a bit carried away and bite Annie hard enough to make her make noises (idk how to describe it, but it's not a friendly noise) and I have to break them up. Sometimes Annie will go back to her sister to carry on playing after I break them up, but lately a lot of the time it ends with Annie running away from April to give them both some distance as it seems the bites are harder than before. I've never seen them draw blood, but this behavior is a persistent thing that worries me for when we're not around. They're still friends afterwards, Annie isn't necessarily scared of her sister after this happens but she does often run away to get away from her for a bit until they both calm down. It's always April pinning Annie to the ground and causing her to make noises too, never the other way round.
Some information about April that might be the reason for this; When we adopted her, we were told she was in a foster home with other cats so we were "assured" that she would get along with other cats, but I fear that maybe because she was in this foster family for so long that maybe she actually didn't always get along with the other cats and never learned how to play properly. We also were given the wrong age when we adopted her, being told initially that she was about 6 months(?) old but when we took her to the vet, we were informed she was actually over a year old, which means looking at the paperwork we were given when adopting her, she'd been with this shelter/foster family for quite a long time. She's otherwise a very sweet and affectionate cat, very silly and playful.
I'm just wondering if there's a way to help her un-learn this behavior and stop her from being so aggressive when playing with her sister.