Cat And Kitten Introduction - Play Or Aggression?

[lillynala18]

Hi!

We've had our 1.5 year old cat, Lilly, for just under a year. A few weeks ago (just over two weeks now) I fell in love with a 12 week old kitten (Nala) and brought her home with us. We knew about cat introductions and have given Nala her own room (my bedroom), scent swapped, sight swapped and eventually moved from carrier face-to-face to supervised free face-to-face meetings. This happened in just under a week, which I'm thinking may have been too fast. The reason we took a bit less time than we should have was because the kitten seemed very eager to explore and Lilly has been crying at the door frequently (despite giving her pats, play and love - she's just a very vocal girl). I thought that as Lilly has always been really friendly, good with people, and has a sweet temperament, that Nala is so young and that they're both desexed, that it'd be okay, however I don't think it's going as well as it could have.

We've progressed from hissing and growls to the two having mealtimes together and eating out of the same bowl, generally very peacefully! However these are some of the only moments of peace - a lot of the rest of the time they're chasing each other around and swatting each other. Sometimes there are claws, sometimes there aren't. This has been going on for about 5 days. They both seem very comfortable going into each other's 'territory', and when we open the door to let them see each other they always come in and sniff each other's noses without hissing - it then very quickly progresses to what appears to be play, but this play has been a bit aggressive in the last few days. Twice now I've caught them rolling around on the floor biting and making a lot of noise, and as soon as I've said "stop" loudly they have. We then separate them and return them to their safe zones for a bit of a time out session. There have been times where they've been around each other and simply ignored each other, but these don't last long at all and seem few and far between.

I'm looking for any advice, reassurance or guidance - I'm not sure if this is normal posturing, if they're getting to know each other through play, or if this is too aggressive to the point where I should start reintroducing and going much more slowly. I've got a Feliway diffuser, and I've also used the vanilla extract trick. I don't think either of them are doing a lot, if anything. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[ArtNJ]

Noise besides growling, hissing or screaming is totally fine. Kitten likely yips now and then when the bigger cat overdoes it a little, but kitten will not be actually hurt; cats do not hurt kittens. Bigger cat may hold the kitten down for a bit with a paw or play bite to the neck. You know its nothing serious if the kitten comes back for more within a couple minutes. Sounds like you can just let them be at this point. Some posters here think its an important way for the bigger cat to teach the kitten boundaries, but regardless, its normal.

Its totally normal for people to worry when a big cat play fights with a kitten, we get 5+ posts like yours every week. But you would not be able to find a single post where the kitten was hurt. Truly.

 

[lillynala18]

Noise besides growling, hissing or screaming is totally fine. Kitten likely yips now and then when the bigger cat overdoes it a little, but kitten will not be actually hurt; cats do not hurt kittens. Bigger cat may hold the kitten down for a bit with a paw or play bite to the neck. You know its nothing serious if the kitten comes back for more within a couple minutes. Sounds like you can just let them be at this point. Some posters here think its an important way for the bigger cat to teach the kitten boundaries, but regardless, its normal.

Its totally normal for people to worry when a big cat play fights with a kitten, we get 5+ posts like yours every week. But you would not be able to find a single post where the kitten was hurt. Truly.

Great! Would your advice change at all if there was hissing and the kitten runs and hides - because that has happened once and did worry me a bit.

 

[rubysmama]

Hello and welcome to TCS. Congrats on the adoption of your new kitten.

I've never had 2 cats at the same time, so I'm not familiar with cat interactions, however, the fact that they eat out of the same dish makes it seem that they are not mortal enemies.

I'm not sure you need it, but here's the TCS article on How To Fix An Unsuccessful Cat Introduction

Also one on The Multi-cat Household

And How To Safely Break Up A Cat Fight, which mentions "mock battles" towards the end of the article.

Please post pics of your cats, if you can. We love pictures here.
How To Add A Picture To Your Forum Post

 

[Timmer]

I think it sounds just fine. There's probably a mix of play and establishing who is going to be the alpha cat in the household.
I never had luck with Feliway products or any other calming things and as far as I know "if" they work it's only for the room they are plugged in, not the entire house. But seriously, I think this is all good what's going on here and also perfectly fine for you to tell them to stop when you believe it gets out of hand.

 

[ArtNJ]

You said kitten runs away sometimes, which is normal, as long as the kitten isn't generally afraid of the big cat. Sometimes big brother's indian sunburn might hurt a tiny bit, in the moment, but it isn't enough to make little brother not want to play a few minutes later. As far as the hissing, it isn't too big a deal if it is "I don't want to play hissing". If it is "your near me" hissing, that indicates a higher level of tension that you might want to work to manage.

It seems like this combo -- very active young cat and slightly skittish kitten -- generally works itself out fairly quickly without problems. It tends to be harder (sometimes much harder) when the adult cat is older and doesn't want to play with a more assertive & active kitten, so its good that you added a little one now rather than in another year.