Older cat and new litter of kittens

[Kareywood]

We found a pregnant stray in April. Decided to keep her. She had 4 kittens on 5/24 so they are now 7 and a half weeks old. We already had a 14 year old Cat. He is getting along fine with the mama cat. he Has always been exposed to the kittens as we keep them in a pen in my home office And has not usually hissed at the kittens at all. Today, he came into the office while I had the 4 kittens out. I guess they were too rambunctious for him so he growled at the two kittens that were closest to him. I immediately put the kittens back in their pen. Is this a sign that he will not be able to tolerate them? We’d love to keep all 4 kittens plus mama cat but worry about our old guy! should we introduce them one at a time, even if that means the kittens will have to stay in one room for a few more months? Thanks!

 

[Meowmee]

We found a pregnant stray in April. Decided to keep her. She had 4 kittens on 5/24 so they are now 7 and a half weeks old. We already had a 14 year old Cat. He is getting along fine with the mama cat. he Has always been exposed to the kittens as we keep them in a pen in my home office And has not usually hissed at the kittens at all. Today, he came into the office while I had the 4 kittens out. I guess they were too rambunctious for him so he growled at the two kittens that were closest to him. I immediately put the kittens back in their pen. Is this a sign that he will not be able to tolerate them? We’d love to keep all 4 kittens plus mama cat but worry about our old guy! should we introduce them one at a time, even if that means the kittens will have to stay in one room for a few more months? Thanks!

I would guess he is probably just disciplining them. This is typical for an older cat with badly behaved kittens. Byron used to swat Angelina over and over on her head when she jumped on his rear, you could hear it, but he never hurt her. She would just lay on the ground and as soon as he turned his back she jumped on him again. She was a looney kitten but she calmed down at about 5-6 months.

It can be harder for an older cat though so keep an eye on all of them. It will be good if he helps show them how to behave well.

 

[ArtNJ]

Growling is nothing. What you want to watch for is whether he will run away and hide when they are being annoying, or growl and pin one. Its actually much better if he pins them. The popular view is that this is teaching them manners, and maybe that is right, but I can say for sure that in a practical sense, older cats willing to stand up for their personal space a bit seem to do better. It can take the ones that aren't willing to do that and just try and get away a fairly long time to adjust, and the process can be somewhat stressful for them.

 

[vince]

Even if the older ones run away, it's not necessarily a bad sign. My two fixed males hissed at and acted frightened of the small kitten I brought in, but warmed up to her pretty quickly (3-4 days or so). They were pretty good at teaching her manners too.

 

[catsknowme]

I have found that an older cat willing to discipline the youngsters gets ever more confident and often attaches to favorites. When my MC was in the last stages of CKD, he adopted one of my fosters and they spent the last few weeks together grooming each other and napping together.

 

[Kareywood]

Thanks for all the replies! We haven’t had any more instances of growling and my old boy is still coming into the room where the kittens are kept and seems comfortable laying down near them. So the incident the other day apparently was not that big of a deal! the mama cat was just 10 months old or so when she gave birth so maybe it will be a good thing for our old boy to help discipline the kittens, in case she doesn’t know how to do that on her own!