Young deaf kitten won't leave old hearing cat alone

[danceixen44]

I recently (within the last 4 weeks) adopted an adorable pure white deaf spayed female kitten from a friend who was unable to care for her bc his dog thought she was a fun chew toy. I already had an eleven (11) year old all-grey neutered boy kitty, who I have raised from his own kittenhood. They get along better now than their first few days together, but I am still noticing a recurring problem. My deaf girl simply will NOT leave my older hearing boy alone! I had read that female cats tend to establish dominance over males, but that does not appear to be the issue here. Deaf kitty is not in any way aggressive or even assertive, but whenever she gets too close to hearing kitty, he hisses and growls like something possessed by a demon & snaps at or bats at her (both are de-clawed, him due to the fact that I didn't know it might be considered cruel 11 years ago & her because her previous owner wished it). However, she cannot hear his hiss or growl & also seems unfazed by his physical attacks & bats back, but not aggressively; she appears to only want to play even though he's actually struck her more than one of the times he snapped at her. In fact, he will get upset & retreat under a coffee table, whereupon she will become sad that he's not "playing" with her and begin meow-ing plaintively.
My question is, of course, HOW do I:
a) get my older boy cat to like the new deaf kitten because she clearly adores him? OR
b) get my deaf kitty to leave my poor old man alone?
I have already sprayed her with water on her flanks when she pursues the older kitty & I have already shown "preference" for the older kitty when she sneaks up on him, to no avail.
Help!

[danceixen44]

I should mention that the older boy kitty never attacks the deaf girl kitten on his own; only when she gets "too close" & actually invades his personal space. He will growl if she gets close, but of course she cannot hear that. However, she will "attack" him regardless of distance from one another, but never, ever, in an aggressive or territorial way. She really seems to be fond of him, which hugely annoys him! Also, they share a litter box (their own choice; they both preferred the newer one) with no conflict & are able to eat at the same time from separate but very nearby bowls. Thank goodness no one has gotten hurt or seems likely to get hurt (again, both declawed, & he's as yet not bitten her in earnest - & any time he'd bitten ME in the past, he merely snapped & then licked it "all better;") ::crosses fingers:: ! However, the vet estimates her at about 7 months and she likes to gnaw gently on my knuckles if she's sitting on my lap while I work on the computer (like right now), & I think she may have done this to his tail once or twice recently.

Please, ANY guidance is appreciated!

[snosrap5]

If there isn't any serious fighting between the two cats, than I would let them work it out on their own.

Your female kitten is playing and doesn't realize the older cat doesn't want to play. Of course you could always get a playmate for your new kitten. That would solve some of your problems. Your new kitten would have someone to wrestle with and they just might leave the old guy alone.

Now if there is serious confrontation between the two or she is really terrorizing the older cat. You need to separate the two and reintroduce the both them slowly to each other until there is no fighting.


I have a deaf male cat and he doesn't give a flip if he happens to walk by our crabby old girl. He is the happiest go lucky cat. Everything is sunshine and roses to him. He thinks everyone loves him and wants to play.

Good luck.

[strange_wings]

I think it sounds more like hyper kitten issue than anything. I've had kittens that could hear perfectly fine, but that didn't mean that they would listen. She may be deaf, but I can guarantee that she's seeing his annoyed signals - ears back, stiffening posture, swishing tail. She's just being a kitten.

As suggested, get another cat or kitten who will enjoy playing with her a lot or you could try taking up more of her attention and play with her as much as possible.

[cjh27]

Hi

This is a bit like having a 13 year old who is into Hannah Montana, make up and style & parties room with a 70 year old who wants to watch his soaps - not a match made in heaven.

Your best option would probably be getting a second kittie to play with your little furr ball- in which case you'd have to find a kitten that is also not too dominant.

Other than that all you can try is to give your old boy lots of kuddle time on his own and try to power out your girl by playing with her.

regards,

christine

[GoldenKitty45]

I had a similar problem with my rexes. I had one deaf kitten (gold-eye white) and didn't know it. The kitten was sold to a friend of mine who had another kitten from me (was adult at the time). The deaf kitten kept doing the same things and the older cat was frustrated that the kitten would not "back off", etc. They would fight a lot with each other.

After a month of this, she returned the deaf kitten to me and told me that the vet had found out it was deaf. So I wound up keeping her for awhile and then finding a home where she was the only cat and the owners had deaf Dalmations in the past, so knew how to handle her. She became a very outgoing and loving cat by herself with owners that understood the special needs.

Deaf kittens don't know how to read the signs of hearing cats and have some problems adjusting at times. You can try to continue working with them, but if it doesn't improve, you may have to look at rehoming the deaf kitten to an only cat home.

[white cat lover]

I have 2 deaf white cats. They are "problem girls" because they do not know when the other cats warn them to "bugger off". When introducing them, I kept an eye on the tussles, but it never got severe enough for me to intervene & they worked things out. I now have 5 other cats in the house with the 2 deaf girls.