Hi,
I've ended up here as i'm in need of some advice concerning the behaviour of my resident Male(4Y) Norwegian Forest mix towards our new Male(4M) Ragdoll kitten.
Before our new kitten arrived we spent a significant time researching how to introduce our kitten to our resident cat. This paired with the fact that our resident boy gets along with another cat that sometimes appears on the terras we were convinced everything would work out eventually. As expected the during the initial meeting the kitten was met with a curt hiss. Now that our resident boy was aware of the new kitten we separated them for a couple of days. Allowing the kitten to get used to us and the house before adding the additional challenge of dealing with another cat.
As it turns out our kitten is quite confident and is making himself at home. Occasionally we would section parts of the house of by closing a door allowing the kitten to explore without disturbing the resident cat, additionally it also added more scent stimulation for the resident cat once the doors were put back to their original position.
Unfortunately, during one of these moments our kitten had managed to slip by us and confront the resident cat. Unsurprisingly a hissing fit followed.
We once again separated them as we had not intended for them to confront each other yet. After some time we allowed them to meet, separated by a glass door. This seemed to go quite well, our resident boy did not hiss and seemed genuinely interested. Slowly we created a bigger gap until both of them were chilling on the floor next to each other. We then closed the door again, happy with the days progress. We repeated this the next day, this is when our resident boy started to behave strangely.
He essentially made a 180 flip in behaviour changing from reclusive anxiety to full out stalking the kitten and swatting at him. The change was so sudden that it caught us completely of guard.The best i can explain this is by describing the events of that evening.
We were supervising the kitten exploring the living room while the resident cat was chilling under the dining table. When the kitten turned a corner i noticed our resident cat going prone and his pupils dialating, classic signs of pouncing i guess, he would then proceed to race around the corner and stop when he sa the kitten again, rinse and repeat. I didn't think much of it until it started escalating to what seemed like genuin Stalking behaviour as he does when chasing bugs or rodents. He now follows the kitten around in a stalking manner and once he finds a appropriate moment pounces, essentially ambushing him, him and delivers several quite hard sounding swats straight to the kittens face, the kitten will occasionally hit back but is mostly overwhelmed. The resident cat would do this repeatedly so we separated them once again.
Additionally, when opening the kittens room door recently the adult cat came running up the stares and took up an ambushing spot outside the door.
Me knowing what he was up to held the kitten in my hands and slowly edged it closer to the portal, shielding it with my hands. Sure enough a powerful swat followed combined with what sounded like a half cough, half hiss.
I read online that swatting is to be expected as they learn to respect boundaries but this behaviour seemed to extreme and is worrying.
I'd appreciate some feedback and or advice, perhaps we're taking incorrect steps?
Thx In Advance!!
I've ended up here as i'm in need of some advice concerning the behaviour of my resident Male(4Y) Norwegian Forest mix towards our new Male(4M) Ragdoll kitten.
Before our new kitten arrived we spent a significant time researching how to introduce our kitten to our resident cat. This paired with the fact that our resident boy gets along with another cat that sometimes appears on the terras we were convinced everything would work out eventually. As expected the during the initial meeting the kitten was met with a curt hiss. Now that our resident boy was aware of the new kitten we separated them for a couple of days. Allowing the kitten to get used to us and the house before adding the additional challenge of dealing with another cat.
As it turns out our kitten is quite confident and is making himself at home. Occasionally we would section parts of the house of by closing a door allowing the kitten to explore without disturbing the resident cat, additionally it also added more scent stimulation for the resident cat once the doors were put back to their original position.
Unfortunately, during one of these moments our kitten had managed to slip by us and confront the resident cat. Unsurprisingly a hissing fit followed.
We once again separated them as we had not intended for them to confront each other yet. After some time we allowed them to meet, separated by a glass door. This seemed to go quite well, our resident boy did not hiss and seemed genuinely interested. Slowly we created a bigger gap until both of them were chilling on the floor next to each other. We then closed the door again, happy with the days progress. We repeated this the next day, this is when our resident boy started to behave strangely.
He essentially made a 180 flip in behaviour changing from reclusive anxiety to full out stalking the kitten and swatting at him. The change was so sudden that it caught us completely of guard.The best i can explain this is by describing the events of that evening.
We were supervising the kitten exploring the living room while the resident cat was chilling under the dining table. When the kitten turned a corner i noticed our resident cat going prone and his pupils dialating, classic signs of pouncing i guess, he would then proceed to race around the corner and stop when he sa the kitten again, rinse and repeat. I didn't think much of it until it started escalating to what seemed like genuin Stalking behaviour as he does when chasing bugs or rodents. He now follows the kitten around in a stalking manner and once he finds a appropriate moment pounces, essentially ambushing him, him and delivers several quite hard sounding swats straight to the kittens face, the kitten will occasionally hit back but is mostly overwhelmed. The resident cat would do this repeatedly so we separated them once again.
Additionally, when opening the kittens room door recently the adult cat came running up the stares and took up an ambushing spot outside the door.
Me knowing what he was up to held the kitten in my hands and slowly edged it closer to the portal, shielding it with my hands. Sure enough a powerful swat followed combined with what sounded like a half cough, half hiss.
I read online that swatting is to be expected as they learn to respect boundaries but this behaviour seemed to extreme and is worrying.
I'd appreciate some feedback and or advice, perhaps we're taking incorrect steps?
Thx In Advance!!