Sibling fights

[MiloTheBlackCat]

3 month kitten, Breeze, and 2-3 year old cat, Milo, coexisted at first. But the more Breeze tries to play with Milo, the more annoyed Milo gets with her. Now when Breeze tries to play with him, he will bat at her (without claws, thankfully) and hiss/growl. I feel that Breeze just thinks he's trying to play and she won't stop messing with him. How to I get Breeze to leave him be or get Milo to be more okay with her trying to play?

 

[ArtNJ]

Well, if they coexisted at first, its probably not happening for lack of a good introduction process, and backing up and doing more probably wouldn't help. I tend to think introduction process targets stranger danger, and that not wanting to be jumped on can exist totally independently of that.

Beyond that, some people on here say that you can pick up the kitten and hiss at it when it does that. Never tried it, but cant say I'm convinced that your going to train a kitten not to act like a kitten. Its hard enough to train a kitten to do/not do other things that aren't as fundamental as wanting to play with another cat. But if your bond with the kitten is strong enough, I suppose it couldn't hurt to try it. Although it may hurt your ability to pick up the kitten I suppose.

Another thing some recommend, I've tried giving treats together and playing with toys together, and am not a huge believer in the "building positive experiences together" therapeutic school. I mean, it can't hurt to try, but when I did so, either the older cat is too stressed to play or eat treats near the kitten, or doesn't seem to impact the reaction to being jumped on.

There are other things people suggest that fall in the "sure, what can it hurt category" like trying to play with the kitten more, cat music, feliway, etc. One that I know helps, at least to some degree, is more elevated spaces and/or hidey holes for the older cat. I've seen a crotechety older cat actually play with a younger cat from elevation, when that never happened without elevation. And that is one solution that Jackson Galaxy certainly preaches hard on. Whether you can build/buy enough elevated spaces and hidey holes to actually make a difference, I dont know, but budget and skills permitting, thats a good one to try. Breaks for closed door affection for the older cat are another obvious thing to help keep your older cats anxiety down.

So there are things that can be tried. It is my personal opinion though, that the thing that is most likely to work . . . is time. Usually these things get better with time, and they very rarely get worse. (I did have things get worse many years ago, but that isnt common.)

 

[danteshuman]

The clawless head boo is standard cat parenting for bratty older kittens. You want Mili to keep teaching Breze manners!

If they were my cats; Milo would get a vet check, just in case. Next Milo would get 2-3 breaks of 1-4 hours from Breeze or 12 hours apart from Breeze, every day for the next 3 months. Try to tire out Breeze as much as possible before letting them be together.

Puzzld feeders, interactive toys you rotate, bird feeders and a window perch all will help drain some of Breeze’s energy.

Many years ago I had a 1 year old cat and I got a 6 week old kitten. I stopped my adult cat from displining Dante. Dante became a bit of a bully to my other cat Salem and was a bully to my mom’s cat! I regretted not letting Salem teach that bratty hyper kitten manners! They had more of a frenemies kinda relationship. So learn from my mistake and let Milo bop Breeze all he wants! Another cat (that happened to be the top cat) did the bop to a kitten, who he took under his wing. I nicknamed him The Godfather. That kitten became the top cat of 4, after The Godfather passed.

Take tons of & videos; they grow up so fast!

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
I agree with both posters above !