Play, or bully ???

[Jodieluv]

I got a short video of interactions between 2 of my cats, the tiger plays A LOT , but seems to "target" my youngest male, whom is scared of tiger, tiger is newest cat, and I have had him about 3 months or a little more, I do not want to rehome him, but my youngest hides , and quality of life is being affected I feel, but I do not know, there are not injuries, but if my younger boy did not run , and hide maybe there would be...

New video by Christie Griffith

 

[susanm9006]

Tiger looks like he wanted to play with the black cat - he almost did a butt wiggle before he took off. But the black cat wants nothing to do with him. Tiger did stop and seemed to respect the message he was getting and backed off. So I don’t see him as a bully.

 

[Kieka]

I don't see that as bully behavior. Black cat was startled and from the tail thumping annoyed. Tiger cat respected the message and stopped trying to play. I am assuming black cat ran off and Tiger watched him go?

Cat play can sometimes look really aggressive to humans. But as long as the two cats are listening to each other it is fine. It turns into bully when one party isn't respected the others boundaries, which I didn't see in your video.

 

[danteshuman]

I agree it doesn’t look like bullying. Also 3 months is nothing in cat introduction time!

My twerp Jackie & his brother Nick both pick on their little sister Cami. They want to play, she doesn’t, one of them jumps on her, she growls or hisses, they get off her and she quickly walks away from them. Now when I see one of them hunting her I tell them to go pick on their brother! (The boys live to wrestle & their sister does not!) All that said all 3 get along ...... she just sometimes thinks boys are annoying & wants nothing to do with them!

So even if Tiger is insisting on play, it does not mean they won’t be friends. Do they eat next to each other? Can you play with both in g to bdd Ed same room? I would keep doing cat introductions & give your shy boy time apart from Tiger every day. (for now.) If you see Tiger starting to hunt your other cat, I distract Tiger with play. (Or turn an intersctmive toy on, like a hexabug mouse.)

 

[flybear]

I agree with what was said above ... many younger cats are super playful and annoy one another greatly. Hiding after a new family member is introduced is quite normal and actually a healthy reaction. I think that cats need time to learn each other's body language, cues and do and don't s before they can be 100% comfortable with each other. It takes my cats about 2-6 months to be entirely comfortable with a new long term foster or family member - minimum ! There are usually some hisses ( it means a firm NO - don't do that ) , even growls and head bonks. Sometimes even some more serious looking ( and sounding ) altercations. The key is to have enough space for everyone to get away from each other - offer plenty of hiding spots ... cardboard boxes with two entrances, tunnels, play trees ... work well . Are both cats spayed/neutered ? Fixed cats are less likely to be territorial and fight ...