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- May 24, 2023
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Long post to give some context, so bare with me! I have a 9 month old, 5.3kg desexed male kitten called Atlas. He's very friendly and outgoing, very playful. About 5 days ago I rescued a 10 week old kitten Feyre and am hopeful they will be close companions.
I started by feeding them on either side of a closed door and swapped their blankets. Both of them were really interested in the other outside the door, and neither of them displayed any signs of aggression. I was prepared to go very slowly introducing them to each other, but they both seemed OK so I've had the door propped open an inch or so with weights and they sniff each other, eat closely to the door in each other's line of sight, often they've been playing through the gap and under the door too. I am certain it's play, neither have growled or hissed, they take turns swatting and there's been no claws. I do feel like they've been fairly accepting of each other fairly quickly and both seemed quite interested to be in each other's environment. I have had them swap spaces to explore independently and again, all seems good, no aggression, just young Feyre exploring and playing the rest of the house and Atlas tends to just lay down and snooze in her room. Basically, I know it's early days but so far everything has seemed to be going well.
Where I'm not sure to go next, is face-to-face introductions. Atlas appears to desperately want to play and play rough every time he has access to her. Sometimes Feyre seems unbothered, and just wrestles back. He does tend to chase her a little, but she will find a small space and from there, I have observed Atlas back off, sometimes he will even start rolling around on his back, and Feyre will wriggle her bum and pounce on his head, so she is initiating as well. I'm just not sure what to do when they're playfighting and she squeals out. I've been pulling Atlas off her as it sounds as if he's hurting her, but she will either just lay there and keep wrestling him anyway or run away somewhere she can hide and swat at him with cover.
My gut is telling me Atlas isn't truly trying to hurt her, he's just a bit of a big boofhead who hasn't been around another cat since he was 2 months old and is still learning to listen to her when she squeals for him to stop. I guess I just need to some outside thoughts on the situation? Am I doing the right thing, I know 4 days is very soon but everything I've observed has been so positive. Atlas has never hissed or growled at Feyre, ever. She's hissed a couple of times at him but hasn't for a couple of days now.
Do I continue with what I'm doing, allowing short periods of supervised time together? Is it OK to let Atlas play a little rough as long as Feyre's squealing doesn't progress to hissing/growling and there's no drawing blood/fur? As I said, I am positive it's play behaviour from both of them as there isn't always squealing from Feyre and reciprocates and initiates a lot of the time too. I'm just not sure where to draw the line with roughhousing? It's confusing when I separate them and they just want to go back to each other. I don't want Atlas to accidently hurt Feyre so obviously I'm not leaving them alone unsupervised yet, but I also don't want to keep them separated when they do genuinely seem to want to be with each other. Thoughts?
TL/DR - I'm on day 4 of introducing a 9 month kitten to a 10 week kitten, they've both been displaying really positive interactions with eachother. When they meet face-to-face, my older kitten plays quite rough and the younger kitten squeals as if she's in pain. Sometimes older kitten lets go, sometimes he doesn't. Neither kitten is hissing or growling, no blood or anything. The younger kitten reciprocates play too and will even reapproach the older one again after I separate them. I've been removing the younger kitten from the older one's grasp when she squeals, do I continue doing this? Is some squealing normal part of play? Thoughts?
I started by feeding them on either side of a closed door and swapped their blankets. Both of them were really interested in the other outside the door, and neither of them displayed any signs of aggression. I was prepared to go very slowly introducing them to each other, but they both seemed OK so I've had the door propped open an inch or so with weights and they sniff each other, eat closely to the door in each other's line of sight, often they've been playing through the gap and under the door too. I am certain it's play, neither have growled or hissed, they take turns swatting and there's been no claws. I do feel like they've been fairly accepting of each other fairly quickly and both seemed quite interested to be in each other's environment. I have had them swap spaces to explore independently and again, all seems good, no aggression, just young Feyre exploring and playing the rest of the house and Atlas tends to just lay down and snooze in her room. Basically, I know it's early days but so far everything has seemed to be going well.
Where I'm not sure to go next, is face-to-face introductions. Atlas appears to desperately want to play and play rough every time he has access to her. Sometimes Feyre seems unbothered, and just wrestles back. He does tend to chase her a little, but she will find a small space and from there, I have observed Atlas back off, sometimes he will even start rolling around on his back, and Feyre will wriggle her bum and pounce on his head, so she is initiating as well. I'm just not sure what to do when they're playfighting and she squeals out. I've been pulling Atlas off her as it sounds as if he's hurting her, but she will either just lay there and keep wrestling him anyway or run away somewhere she can hide and swat at him with cover.
My gut is telling me Atlas isn't truly trying to hurt her, he's just a bit of a big boofhead who hasn't been around another cat since he was 2 months old and is still learning to listen to her when she squeals for him to stop. I guess I just need to some outside thoughts on the situation? Am I doing the right thing, I know 4 days is very soon but everything I've observed has been so positive. Atlas has never hissed or growled at Feyre, ever. She's hissed a couple of times at him but hasn't for a couple of days now.
Do I continue with what I'm doing, allowing short periods of supervised time together? Is it OK to let Atlas play a little rough as long as Feyre's squealing doesn't progress to hissing/growling and there's no drawing blood/fur? As I said, I am positive it's play behaviour from both of them as there isn't always squealing from Feyre and reciprocates and initiates a lot of the time too. I'm just not sure where to draw the line with roughhousing? It's confusing when I separate them and they just want to go back to each other. I don't want Atlas to accidently hurt Feyre so obviously I'm not leaving them alone unsupervised yet, but I also don't want to keep them separated when they do genuinely seem to want to be with each other. Thoughts?
TL/DR - I'm on day 4 of introducing a 9 month kitten to a 10 week kitten, they've both been displaying really positive interactions with eachother. When they meet face-to-face, my older kitten plays quite rough and the younger kitten squeals as if she's in pain. Sometimes older kitten lets go, sometimes he doesn't. Neither kitten is hissing or growling, no blood or anything. The younger kitten reciprocates play too and will even reapproach the older one again after I separate them. I've been removing the younger kitten from the older one's grasp when she squeals, do I continue doing this? Is some squealing normal part of play? Thoughts?