Is My Cat Bullying The New Cat?

[caitkrau]

Hi Everyone! I have posted on here before about introducing my scaredy cat Baxter to our new kitty Dexter. Well it has been 2 weeks and after 1 week of doing all of the recommendations we were able to cohabitate without having to be separated. Both cats looked at each other and would groom in front of each other with no issues. Baxter would often times run to Dexter in a playful manner looking to play together. Dexter was not a fan of this and would usually hiss and swipe at Baxter (he never made contact, not sure if that is on purpose or not). Lately now whenever Dexter comes into the main apartment Baxter will chase him back to the bedroom under the bed. Dexter will run under the bed and hiss and swipe (still not contact has been made) at Baxter until one of us moves Baxter back to the main room. At the beginning it seemed like Baxter was just trying to play with Dexter but now I'm not sure if he is just bullying.

I know that when you introduce cats to each other it takes time, I am just confused by the sudden turn from living together fine to now Dexter keeps being chased away.

Right now we keep them both separated when we are not home and keep a baby gate up when we are home. This seems to be working with Baxter not jumping the gate to get to Dexter (unless one of us gets up to use the bathroom, thus leaving them alone).

Also Dexter has something wrong with his back and he is not able to jump right now. The vet says that it will heal on it's own but he currently does not jump up he only climbs. So part of me thinks this may be part of the reason he doesn't want to engage in playing.

 

[jen]

I really don't see anything wrong with their behavior. Sounds totally normal to me. It is fine if someone hisses or growls or swats at the other, that is just them saying "knock it off".

 

[caitkrau]

I really don't see anything wrong with their behavior. Sounds totally normal to me. It is fine if someone hisses or growls or swats at the other, that is just them saying "knock it off".

I it normal though for everytime Dexter walks out into the room that Baxter chases him off. It seems like Dexter is scared to even leave from under the bed. When we closed the door so he was alone Dexter then started to eat and use the litter box immediately, which makes me feel he wasn't eating or using his box since it was in the shared space. (Mind you my bedroom door was always open before we separated them again)

 

[caitkrau]

Is it normal though for everytime Dexter walks out into the room that Baxter chases him off. It seems like Dexter is scared to even leave from under the bed. When we closed the door so he was alone Dexter then started to eat and use the litter box immediately, which makes me feel he wasn't eating or using his box since it was in the shared space. (Mind you my bedroom door was always open before we separated them again)

 

[susanm9006]

Given that Dexter has an issue with his back, I would keep up with your current separations until he heals a bit. He may be running instead of hissing or slapping back just because he knows he isn’t up to standing up to Baxter. Once he is healed you can expand their time together.