Kitten Agressive With Senior Cat

[krystab]

i seem to have the opposite issue from most people... 6 weeks ago I adopted a new kitten, Dexter, after losing 2 of my cats in June. The shelter though he was about 9 weeks at the time making him about 15 now. My vet thinks he’s older than that (17-18 weeks) but we don’t know for sure as he was abandoned in a box. He’s up to almost 6 pounds already but might have been malnourished before I adopted him.

Dexter and my 13 yo resident cat, Casey, have been getting along quite well. But for the last week or so though Dexter seems to be getting agressive with Casey to the point where Dexter bites Casey hard enough to make him yelp. And then Casey wants nothing to do with him for a while. He doesn’t hide - he just doesn’t want to play rough so I try and distract Dex with toys when I’m home. Casey is not a dominant cat - never has been- so I have a feeling Dexter is going to be the alpha which is ok

I think Dexter’s hormones are starting to kick in. He’s somewhat agressive with me as well and his testicals are actually becoming visible. At what age does that typically happen? He’s scheduled to get neutered in December but I’m wondering if that’s too long... as it is he’ll only be 5 months by the shelter’s estimate and my vet typically prefers 6 months.

Dex has an appointment for vaccines in a couple weeks so I’ll see what they think but I thought I’d see what everyone thought here.. I don’t want Dexter terrorizing Casey for the next 7 weeks until his neuter...

 

[ArtNJ]

This is likely just normal hyper kitten wanting to play play play. They will quite often not respect an older cat's wishes unless the older cat is ready to enforce those wishes with a physical lesson, which is something that many older cats seem unable or unwilling to do.

Six months is considered somewhat old fashioned these days with five months being common and many vets doing it much earlier. All of that said, it shouldn't be too late if this is an indoor cat and your other cat is taken care of. If your cat starts spraying or something, I would find another vet to do it immediately, but absent that its probably harmless. My recollection is that 20 years ago 6 months was pretty standard.

 

[di and bob]

As you say, you don't know for sure how old he is, I would press to have him neutered, get rid of those aggressive hormones. As for Casey biting Dexter, Dexter needs to be taught how to play nice and Casey is doing that. Pinning a kitten to the floor, biting (though not deep bites, drawing blood), growling, hissing and swatting are ALL normal behaviors and his mama and siblings would be doing the same thing. As long as he runs but comes back for more, everything is normal. NOT normal would be hiding from Casey and avoiding him entirely. and casey actively hunting him down. Squealing is perfectly normal in learning manners.

 

[CB3RhettFurrever]

As you say, you don't know for sure how old he is, I would press to have him neutered, get rid of those aggressive hormones. As for Casey biting Dexter, Dexter needs to be taught how to play nice and Casey is doing that. Pinning a kitten to the floor, biting (though not deep bites, drawing blood), growling, hissing and swatting are ALL normal behaviors and his mama and siblings would be doing the same thing. As long as he runs but comes back for more, everything is normal. NOT normal would be hiding from Casey and avoiding him entirely. and casey actively hunting him down. Squealing is perfectly normal in learning manners.

Yes! Don't be alarmed by the 'yelp'- as noted above, that is how kittens learn how hard they CAN play. It is when they don't have an older cat to teach them the boundaries that you can have trouble down the line, so actually, this is all normal :-). I agree with previous responses about waiting so long for neutering, however- in most shelters/rescues the primary standard is weight, not age, and he is plenty big enough! Good luck!

 

[ArtNJ]

I think the last few posts misread the OP and reversed which cat is doing what. The 13 yo isn't doing anything to teach limits like holding the youngster down. Its good when they do that, I agree, but that isn't happening here. Its the youngster that is biting and swarming the older cat, and the older cat that is yelping. This is the variant where the older cat is just scared and stressed, growls, hisses and maybe a defensive swat.

So I stand by my prior assessment -- this is a normal over enthused kitten, and a normal stressed senior cat that wants nothing to do with it. Neutering can't hurt, might help, but the main thing that will help is time.

This is not actually an unusual situation, unless you think the kitten is actually hurting the older cat with the biting. Its within the realm of possibility -- find any wounds?

 

[Morgnjae]

As you say, you don't know for sure how old he is, I would press to have him neutered, get rid of those aggressive hormones. As for Casey biting Dexter, Dexter needs to be taught how to play nice and Casey is doing that. Pinning a kitten to the floor, biting (though not deep bites, drawing blood), growling, hissing and swatting are ALL normal behaviors and his mama and siblings would be doing the same thing. As long as he runs but comes back for more, everything is normal. NOT normal would be hiding from Casey and avoiding him entirely. and casey actively hunting him down. Squealing is perfectly normal in learning manners.

As you say, you don't know for sure how old he is, I would press to have him neutered, get rid of those aggressive hormones. As for Casey biting Dexter, Dexter needs to be taught how to play nice and Casey is doing that. Pinning a kitten to the floor, biting (though not deep bites, drawing blood), growling, hissing and swatting are ALL normal behaviors and his mama and siblings would be doing the same thing. As long as he runs but comes back for more, everything is normal. NOT normal would be hiding from Casey and avoiding him entirely. and casey actively hunting him down. Squealing is perfectly normal in learning manners.

I think the OP is saying that the kitten is biting the resident cat, not the other way around. I’m sort of in the same boat except my resident is only 2 and she does put the kitten in her place, just long after I have the urge to break it up.

 

[1 bruce 1]

I think the OP is saying that the kitten is biting the resident cat, not the other way around. I’m sort of in the same boat except my resident is only 2 and she does put the kitten in her place, just long after I have the urge to break it up.

Some are more patient than others, for sure.
The asthmatic cat has been known to let a kitten do whatever they wanted, before he reacted (by walking away). Queen Bee would "attack" Baby Girl's little kitten pen anytime she walked by with an angry "BAP" noise and slap the crap out of the side.

 

[FeebysOwner]

You need to separate the two when you are not around to monitor. Dexter, as far as I am concerned, is terrorizing Casey - play or not. And, since you say Casey is not a dominant cat, he is going to start showing signs of anxiety due to Dexter's behavior. In a 13 yo, that is not going to be good.

There are some good suggestions above that you can try. But, most importantly is to find a way for Casey to have a place to be on his own when you are not there to intervene.

 

[krystab]

I think the last few posts misread the OP and reversed which cat is doing what. The 13 yo isn't doing anything to teach limits like holding the youngster down. Its good when they do that, I agree, but that isn't happening here. Its the youngster that is biting and swarming the older cat, and the older cat that is yelping. This is the variant where the older cat is just scared and stressed, growls, hisses and maybe a defensive swat.

So I stand by my prior assessment -- this is a normal over enthused kitten, and a normal stressed senior cat that wants nothing to do with it. Neutering can't hurt, might help, but the main thing that will help is time.

This is not actually an unusual situation, unless you think the kitten is actually hurting the older cat with the biting. Its within the realm of possibility -- find any wounds?

You are correct - the kitten is the agressor not the 13yo. Casey (13) does give Dex smacks when he gets out of hand but I don’t think Dex fully gets it. Dex was probably taken from his mother too early and hasn’t quite figured out “cat speak” yet.

Casey isn’t overly stressed out - he’s just not particularly impressed. Everyone is eating, drinking, purring, cuddling etc. I think Dex just bites too hard sometimes. There are no injuries- I check Casey over every day due to his age so I can catch anything early. And I do break it up if it’s getting out of hand

I’m not going to start separating them again as I don’t want to set their relationship back. This isn’t constant- Dex just gets overzealous sometimes. Right now they are sleeping together on the top of the cat tree.

I think I’m going to up Dexter’s playtime in the evening which is when he seems to get the most crazy. Hopefully I can tire him out

 

[krystab]

This is likely just normal hyper kitten wanting to play play play. They will quite often not respect an older cat's wishes unless the older cat is ready to enforce those wishes with a physical lesson, which is something that many older cats seem unable or unwilling to do.

Six months is considered somewhat old fashioned these days with five months being common and many vets doing it much earlier. All of that said, it shouldn't be too late if this is an indoor cat and your other cat is taken care of. If your cat starts spraying or something, I would find another vet to do it immediately, but absent that its probably harmless. My recollection is that 20 years ago 6 months was pretty standard.

I’m not sure why most vets here, Winnipeg Canada, still go by the 6 months rule. The only ones who neuter/spay early is the humane society and not the rescues.

The rescue covers the cost of the neuter so you can’t just pick any vet - I’ve actually already gotten them to agree to use my vet instead of the one the rescue uses.

I’m taking Dex for his final round of vaccinations in 2 weeks so I’ll see if I can convince the vet to move up the neuter even further. Since we don’t really know his age I would prefer to err on the side of caution and get him done sooner

 

[krystab]

You need to separate the two when you are not around to monitor. Dexter, as far as I am concerned, is terrorizing Casey - play or not. And, since you say Casey is not a dominant cat, he is going to start showing signs of anxiety due to Dexter's behavior. In a 13 yo, that is not going to be good.

There are some good suggestions above that you can try. But, most importantly is to find a way for Casey to have a place to be on his own when you are not there to intervene.

We are nowhere close to Casey being terrorized... he just gets a bit freaked when Dex doesn’t stop. This only happens occasionally when Dex really gets hyped up. I am keeping a very close eye on both but don’t want to separate them unless I see issues with Casey being too stressed

This is them right now... Dexter on the left and Casey on the right.

 

[krystab]

Dex is using Casey as a pillow right now...

 

[ArtNJ]

Yeah that doesn't sound too bad krystab - I definitely think your right not to overreact. Things should improve over time. And they are actually OK now, if they are cuddling. We always tell people if the only problem is "in play" and the more reluctant cat to play doesn't avoid the "aggressor" at other times, then there is no real problem.

 

[krystab]

Thanks A ArtNJ . It’s been a long time since I’ve had a young kitten so I want to make sure my instinct is correct. Dex may just take more time to figure out Casey doesn’t want to play that rough. So I’ll continue to break things up if they go too far.

The neuter will help but he may never 100% understand “cat” and that’s ok. My RB cat Oliver never really got that when his brothers hissed or growled it meant they weren’t impressed... and Ollie and Casey were best buds.

 

[ArtNJ]

I don't know it is a was on the street thing, because even momma cat/home raised kittens can be little terrors. I adopted my most recent kitten from a home with a 3 legged cat -- and yeah, I'm sure that cat was very happy to see the kitten go! I think it is more about the older cat, because the only thing that seems to stop these little terror kittens is an older cat that holds the kitten down until it gets the message. And for whatever reason, many of them lose the ability to do that if they age without young cats constantly around.

 

[danteshuman]

I agree that Casey needs a break from the little kitten/terror. Even a daily 4 hour break would be appreciated!

I also think Dextor needs lots of play. Puzzle feeders and bird watching in a window should help tire him out mentally.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I don’t want Dexter terrorizing Casey for the next 7 weeks until his neuter...

I'm sorry, I used the word terrorize because of what was in your OP. Glad to see things are not as bad as it originally seemed!!!!