I Am Constantly Feeling Guilty

[arouetta]

8 week old kitten and 14 year old cat.....that's basically trying to get a toddler and someone on Social Security to play together. Think back to when you visited your grandparents as a kid. They kept up with you for short stretches and then it was calming activity time or them sending you into the backyard alone so they could get a breather. Keep that in mind when structuring the cats' together time.

And like any arranged marriage, there's going to be setbacks when the two made to live together are having an off day or misread each other's intentions. It happens, don't despair.

 

[Omardufromage]

Yeah my 9 week MEATBALL attacks my 14 year old sylvie. I understand he's just playing and I should let them work it out but he is just relentless no matter how many times Sylvie hisses or meows or swats him away. We play with meatball throughout the day and give both of them a ton of attention but meatball only cares about Sylvie whenever she is around and always seems to have extra energy just to jump on her back and nip at her.

 

[Letta]

Give a lot of cat trees and shelves for Sylvie to get away from the little one.

 

[Alicia88]

They're just being normal cats. Meatball is a pain in the butt wad of energy and Sylvie is older and calm and teaching that young whipper snapper his place. She'll swat at him and whatnot when she gets irritated - she's just teaching him some manners. They'll get along in time.
And it's not just an age thing. Cats need time to adjust to other cats. Our newest addition, Marcy, took quite a while to warm up to the boys. We had over a month of constant hissing, swatting, and nastiness on her part. Now they play together. None of them are older. The boys are all around a year and a half old and Marcy is probably around 6-7 months old.

 

[arouetta]

And it's not just an age thing. Cats need time to adjust to other cats. Our newest addition, Marcy, took quite a while to warm up to the boys. We had over a month of constant hissing, swatting, and nastiness on her part. Now they play together. None of them are older. The boys are all around a year and a half old and Marcy is probably around 6-7 months old.

Yeah it can take some time. It took 5 years before Shadow grudgingly let Montressor sleep near to her on the bed. And she hissed at Midway occasionally until she died.

If you have the room, you might want to think about getting your kitten his own kitten. That's what I finally had to do to give Montressor the social interaction he needed. Most cats could care less but he needed to be around both people and other cats.

 

[Omardufromage]

Yesterday while we were having our visits I noticed my eldest Sylvie wasn't running away as much from Meatball and she seemed to engage him more. She would put her paws around his little head and bite/lick all around him but also wrestle him around to be on top of his neck biting. After about 2 minutes she then hisses and didn't want to play anymore and this happened a few times throughout the day after separations when she wanted her alone time! Is this a good step in the right direction or is this something I should worry about?

 

[arouetta]

It's a great step in the right direction.

 

[Alicia88]

That's definitely a good thing. They'll be friends before you know it.

 

[sweetblackpaws]

Totally normal! Mine do the SAME thing! When my boy plays too rough, my little girl will hiss, like she is saying "back off!!". An hour later, they will be grooming each other. They will be fine.