Hi all,
New members here and we need some advice: we have 2 male cats: 1 older one , Cole, who is 12 yrs and we just got a new kitten, Amorette , who is like 4 or 5 months and by recommendation of our vet has not been fixed yet but will be next month. We did the introduction thing, briefly, but maybe not enough in my opinion. That is what we need advice on.
so they get along ok, but the kitten has boundless energy and ALWAYS wants to play. inevitably, any time Cole comes in the room with the kitten (we try to distract ) Amorette tries to play/attack Cole. This brings one of 2 reactions... Cole either hisses or growls and paws him to stop (which rarely works unless he takes a stand about it... more on that later ) and then Cole runs away if Amorette is too insistent about it OR Cole just runs away, which then the kitten runs after him and will jump on him all the time. Cole is somewhat of a timid cat, at least with Humans other than us. Amorette is very headstrong and he goes after any food or toy no matter which dish or whether Cole is eating or what, so its hard to get them to interact together easily.
Cole almost always runs away or to his room and either hides or makes a stand there. When Cole makes a stand though, they will sit there posturing, like for dominance or fighting and Amorette may twitch to jump or paw at Cole and Cole will paw at him to stop or push him over then Amorette usually yelps and retreats,,, occasionally Cole gives chase at this point and Amorette runs to hide behind a stack of baby gates, where Cole sits or lays outside in wait for him ... and keeps Amorette back there for a while, pawing him if he comes out... not sure what that is about but i guess that is when he has had it with the situation? He still doesn't really try to hurt the kitten. Cole stays in his room a lot now though. Also Cole was the only kitten that survived in his litter with a somewhat feral mom, so we are not sure he knows the whole kitten thing.
I can't tell whether this is play or not but the hissing and sometimes growling at times by Cole worry me. They never really try to hurt each other as far as I can tell but I worry about it stressing Cole because it is all the time... or that they will start real fighting as Amorette gets older? Cole cannot hardly walk around the house without Amorette going after him and even after being disciplined by Cole, Amorette waits a bit and is right back at it... Cole stays in his room a lot more now and just about 90% of the time Amorette approaches him, he hisses and runs off. is it territorial? should we reintroduce them? We love both cats of course, we just want to see if we can make it easier for them to live with each other.
anyway thanks for any help you can give in advance.
New members here and we need some advice: we have 2 male cats: 1 older one , Cole, who is 12 yrs and we just got a new kitten, Amorette , who is like 4 or 5 months and by recommendation of our vet has not been fixed yet but will be next month. We did the introduction thing, briefly, but maybe not enough in my opinion. That is what we need advice on.
so they get along ok, but the kitten has boundless energy and ALWAYS wants to play. inevitably, any time Cole comes in the room with the kitten (we try to distract ) Amorette tries to play/attack Cole. This brings one of 2 reactions... Cole either hisses or growls and paws him to stop (which rarely works unless he takes a stand about it... more on that later ) and then Cole runs away if Amorette is too insistent about it OR Cole just runs away, which then the kitten runs after him and will jump on him all the time. Cole is somewhat of a timid cat, at least with Humans other than us. Amorette is very headstrong and he goes after any food or toy no matter which dish or whether Cole is eating or what, so its hard to get them to interact together easily.
Cole almost always runs away or to his room and either hides or makes a stand there. When Cole makes a stand though, they will sit there posturing, like for dominance or fighting and Amorette may twitch to jump or paw at Cole and Cole will paw at him to stop or push him over then Amorette usually yelps and retreats,,, occasionally Cole gives chase at this point and Amorette runs to hide behind a stack of baby gates, where Cole sits or lays outside in wait for him ... and keeps Amorette back there for a while, pawing him if he comes out... not sure what that is about but i guess that is when he has had it with the situation? He still doesn't really try to hurt the kitten. Cole stays in his room a lot now though. Also Cole was the only kitten that survived in his litter with a somewhat feral mom, so we are not sure he knows the whole kitten thing.
I can't tell whether this is play or not but the hissing and sometimes growling at times by Cole worry me. They never really try to hurt each other as far as I can tell but I worry about it stressing Cole because it is all the time... or that they will start real fighting as Amorette gets older? Cole cannot hardly walk around the house without Amorette going after him and even after being disciplined by Cole, Amorette waits a bit and is right back at it... Cole stays in his room a lot more now and just about 90% of the time Amorette approaches him, he hisses and runs off. is it territorial? should we reintroduce them? We love both cats of course, we just want to see if we can make it easier for them to live with each other.
anyway thanks for any help you can give in advance.