Hi everyone,
The other cat intro thread was so helpful I thought I'd reach out. I wrote a little bit about the situation here: Older and younger cat but it's not necessary to read that to get this.
The cats:
- BC: 6 year old female tabby (fixed), with the exception of her first year in a shelter has lived here.
- Rapscallion: 4 month-old male domestic short-hair (fixed).
I got Rapscallion in March. She was sheltered in the bedroom for over a month, with the food introductions with a door between them, visuals under the door and through the door crack, then supervised intro time making more and more of the apartment open to him.
BC had been the dominant cat with her former sister (passed away) and was growl-ly under the door, but since the space opened up is more of a wimp (as my friend put it). A lot of the interaction had been as others described: kitten was enthusiastic with this new toy. BC did not take well to him. The typical scenario is BC with her ears folded and rapscallion in play mode. BC would generally run away from a confrontation but would expose her back and Rapscallion, who likes to jump attack, would do just that. BC would generally flee upwards. As anyone might have predicted, the kitten found his way to those perches.
The current situation:
The kitten's playful behavior has turned into alpha-territory behavior. Whenever the older cat is on the floor, on her favorite chair - anywhere but two perches that the kitten has a hard time approaching from the side - the older cat will be pounced on. When I see Rapscallion attack her he gets a time out in the bedroom.
The time outs seem to work, to an extent. When the kitten sees me there, she's hesitant about attacking. Or she'll attack and then run to a place I can't get at him. When he comes out of timeout, he's kind of sheepish and goes to a box he's taken as his hideout spot. I'll play with him to get him to understand that it was the behavior of attacking his sister, not being in the room, that was the problem.
Questions for the folks good at cat psychology here:
Andy
The other cat intro thread was so helpful I thought I'd reach out. I wrote a little bit about the situation here: Older and younger cat but it's not necessary to read that to get this.
The cats:
- BC: 6 year old female tabby (fixed), with the exception of her first year in a shelter has lived here.
- Rapscallion: 4 month-old male domestic short-hair (fixed).
I got Rapscallion in March. She was sheltered in the bedroom for over a month, with the food introductions with a door between them, visuals under the door and through the door crack, then supervised intro time making more and more of the apartment open to him.
BC had been the dominant cat with her former sister (passed away) and was growl-ly under the door, but since the space opened up is more of a wimp (as my friend put it). A lot of the interaction had been as others described: kitten was enthusiastic with this new toy. BC did not take well to him. The typical scenario is BC with her ears folded and rapscallion in play mode. BC would generally run away from a confrontation but would expose her back and Rapscallion, who likes to jump attack, would do just that. BC would generally flee upwards. As anyone might have predicted, the kitten found his way to those perches.
The current situation:
The kitten's playful behavior has turned into alpha-territory behavior. Whenever the older cat is on the floor, on her favorite chair - anywhere but two perches that the kitten has a hard time approaching from the side - the older cat will be pounced on. When I see Rapscallion attack her he gets a time out in the bedroom.
The time outs seem to work, to an extent. When the kitten sees me there, she's hesitant about attacking. Or she'll attack and then run to a place I can't get at him. When he comes out of timeout, he's kind of sheepish and goes to a box he's taken as his hideout spot. I'll play with him to get him to understand that it was the behavior of attacking his sister, not being in the room, that was the problem.
Questions for the folks good at cat psychology here:
- Is there any way to get BC to be more assertive? That's a key issue in her situation.
- Are time outs for Rapscallion the way to go? She's also taken to biting my arm as I'm placing her in time out. But she also seems to be decreasing her attacks on BC (at least while I'm there). If that's the way to go is there a recommended way to do it?
- How I'm handling the return after time outs - should I be playing with Rapscallion after timeout (to make him feel less sheepish)? My current thought is that she should associate behavior (attacking the other cat) with result (time out) but that's it.
- Distraction: one way I handle the build up to a fight is to distract Rapscallion by playing with her. Good idea or not? Other ways to decrease his aggression?
Andy