11 week old kitten and 11-year-old cat, playing or hunting?

[jezahb]

I'm attaching a video to show the interaction, hopefully it works. We recently got a kitten (named Ada) and after about a week and a half of site swapping and only interacting through gates she is out with one of our cats. The one she is out with is our older cat Khaleesi who is about 11 years old. Khaleesi just immediately seemed less stressed out by Ada and very nonplussed about the whole thing so that's why she's being allowed supervised time out with the kitten. She's interacted with the kitten for a few days on and off, but for whatever reason today something changed. I noticed when we let the kitten out that Khaleesi was following her everywhere, Ada wasn't really initiating contact but just doing her kitten thing playing. Khaleesi kept seeming like she was almost stalking Ada, hiding around corners to jump out and hiss/swat at the kitten whenever she would walk by. That sounds bad but I was noticing that Khaleesi was purposely missing, and not using claws. I was also noticing that after the initial spook and scare Ada didn't seem afraid of Khaleesi but rather curious / fascinated which didn't make sense if what was happening was actually aggression. Ada started following Khaleesi back, and slightly stalking her with the same outcome. In this video you can see they were both stalking each other, Khaleesi snuck up on Ada while she was distracted playing, but when Ada saw Khaleesi she crept over to interact. In the video I play the clip through at regular speed, then I slow down the hissing and swatting interaction 5x and then 10x because it really shows how Khaleesi wasn't really aiming to hit the kitten. She missed by a mile and this is a cat who can grab a toy at a midair with pinpoint precision. She also wasn't really using when I would consider to be aggressive body language, her ears were never pinned completely and her tail wasn't tucked. Same with Ada, while approaching Khaleesi she didn't seem aggressive or really scared. Obviously she was quite scared when Khaleesi jumped at her hissing but even after this video finished, Ada went to hide under a table for like 30 seconds before coming back out seeming 100% back to normal and not afraid. See then proceeded to seek out Khaleesi again! She is not pestering Khaleesi, she seems to understand that when Khaleesi is sleeping or laying down to leave her alone but if Khaleesi is out and about she does politely initiate interaction. I will also mention Khaleesi acted this exact same way with our previous kitten Zelda who is now 6, and unfortunately Zelda took it very differently and they still hate each other to this day. Zelda was petrified of Khaleesi as a little one due to this same stalking/hiss ambush without claws or biting behavior and holds a grudge even now despite us trying to reintroduce them many times.

So I guess my TL;DR is this: is this interaction play or is Khaleesi treating Ada like prey or being aggressive?

Video of interaction

 

[ArtNJ]

Its never prey, an adult could kill a kitten in seconds. Its either play, or stress. Or sometimes maybe a bit of both. And sometimes annoyance too -- an older cat that isn't stressed at all may whump a young one to teach manners. The video and the history makes me think this is either play or at worst mild stress that Khaleesi can work through. And yes, even if the kitten retreats after a whumping, coming right back out and trying to play more 100% tells the kitten's perspective, and that can be trusted, at least as far as the kitten not being hurt or scared. The kitten feeling good doesn't guaranty the older cat doesn't have high stress, but I dont see it. This is excellent for an 11 year old; they rarely do so well at this age.

 

[Kris107]

I think it's an okay interaction. I think K just didn't love Ada sneaking up and kinda scared the bejeebus out of Ada. I agree with A ArtNJ that you have to see what Ada does next. Some will come back for more and others will take that as a boundary and stay away for a bit. I love your color point kitty though! I have a soft spot for them!

 

[FeebysOwner]

I tend to err on the side of caution, so I think there is more to this than play. I understand the introduction process was cut short because you didn't see a need to drag it out, but there is some tension from Khaleesi that maybe wasn't there initially, and has built up the longer Ada is around. While she may have been curious to start with, maybe she isn't so impressed now that she has probably figured out Ada is going to be a permanent part of your household.

Ada is a bit afraid, as I saw her walking the wall initially. But, I don't think she understands why she can't make friends with Khaleesi and keeps trying. I think I would take a step back and let them co-exist with a gate between them and see what transpires from that.

There is still a fair size difference, and while i don't think Khaleesi would intentionally hurt Ada, she could accidentally do so. She could be showing she is dominant, but sometimes kittens just don't get it right away and need to mature a bit to figure that out. On top of that, you don't know that if this interaction is allowed to keep up as it is, that Ada won't end up feeling like Zelda did.

Maybe there are some tips in this article that might help?
How To Fix An Unsuccessful Cat Introduction - TheCatSite

 

[Alldara]

To me it looked like Khaleesi was trying to play. She was play hiding behind the paper: wasn't squatted too much, didn't get lower when Ada peeked at her, didn't flatten her ears to hide better...
Then she jumped out at Ada. Ada was like "omg what the heck don't do that" and reacted with the big fear she was feeling. She vocalized, flipped onto her belly to defend herself. Her fear, startled Khaleesi who gave some warning bats to the paper.

However, I agree with FeebysOwner . Note how Ada is walking around at the beginning on the video with her tail down? She's fearful just to even explore that space. She's not ready to explore that space at the same time as having a large stranger-cat near her, who she doesn't know the behavioral patterns of. I'd walk it back to gated intros. The kitten is not usually the one to show that sign of stress.

The lower the tail, the more nervous/cautious the cat is being. Then we have to add context to the situation as well. (For example if Ada was hunting something, her tail could be low out of caution of being seen for a positive reason, positive stress. - that's what Khaleesi's doing and we can tell because even though her tail is down, its held more loosely and she gives a little wiggle the same as a bum wiggle before a cat play pounces.)

We can also tell Ada's nerves because she goes to walk in front of the air purifier, then decides that's too close to Khaleesi and shifts behind it instead.

Ada would really benefit from watching Khaleesi play with toys. She needs to learn Khaleesi's body language before she can be comfortable. They'd both benefit from having a distraction still during together time. Electronic toys that you've let them each become familiar with already are great.


Jackson Galaxy Cat Tail Language