Newbie... advice please

Hi
I'm new to this site. My name is Tracy and I have 2 cats and 1 dog. Prince is the dog and 11 years, Charlie who is 13 months and Arthur who is 12 weeks. We ve had charlie since he was 8 weeks and Arthur the same.

I have 2 queries I hope you guys can help me with!!

Arthur is a mid haired white kitten and he is a deaf as a doorpost. Does anyone have any advice/experiences they can offer?

And the other thing is initially charlie did not take too well to his new house mate and hissed and growled alot. The hissing and growling has now stopped and charlie has returned to normal (he was spending alot of time outside or in a different room as arthur) They seem to be playing, chasing eachother and the like, but when charlie gets a hold of arthur he really hurts him and arthur squeels until I split them up or he gets away. Is this normal? Are they playing or fighting?
Charlie has been nuetured and arthur will be as soon as he's old enough.
I ve started to seperate them when I go to work as Im scared charlie will really hurt arthur.
Any advice would be graet guys!!

You're doing the right thing by separating them when you're not around - but you'll have to keep a close eye on things. Charlie's obviously feeling his oats, neutered or not, and trying to show Arthur who's boss, but until Arthur's a bit older (bigger), it's going to be pretty unequal. You might consider trying Feliway (a plug-in pheromone air diffuser) that many people think helps in such situations, but it's not cheap and may not work. As far as Arthur goes, try to be very consistent about hand gestures with him, and remind everyone not to 'sneak up' on him from behind so he won't grow up skittish. He'll adapt otherwise well, but I wouldn't let him outdoors because he can't hear cars, dogs, or anything else that could be dangerous.

General rule of thumb I go by is that's its all play until someone screams, hisses or growls (or makes a noise).

Charlie obviously knows he's the bigger cat of the house. Give it time, arthur will quickly catch up with size and then beat the crap out of Charlie (J/K)

Draco loves to wrestle with Psyche, and I don't mind except that Psyche's only 13 weeks and Draco is over a year and weighs a LOT more than her. He'll grab her by the throat and Psyche will scream and scream and it's always a rush to find her and break them up before something happens. It's very good that you're seperating them when you can't supervise and yes, Arthur will catch up to Charlie pretty soon and then it'll be time for revenge.
As for the deafness, we thought Psyche was deaf for a while (turned out she just has selective hearing!) and I did some research on it. One way to help train him is to stomp on the floor or move a chair or something to make vibrations he can feel to get his attention, and use lots of hand-signals.

Hi tracmac!!! Welcome to TCS!!!

I don't have any advice for you, but wanted to say that I feel your pain... I hope it all works out for you, and you find some peace in your home & in your mind. Best of luck.

Deaf cats have a harder time adjusting to a household. Many times (I had one white deaf kitten) the kitten does not hear the older one (hisses) and doesn't know how to react or reacts wrong.

This upsets the hearing cat and sometimes that is why they fight. Also the older one is letting the younger know who is boss in the house - that's part of it.

Hopefully they each can adjust to things soon.

My deaf kitten was placed in a single cat home because she could not adjust to hearing cats and the person that adopted her, returned her to me. At the time I sold the kitten I had no idea she was deaf - only after the kitten was tested did we find out. The people who adopted her knew about her being deaf and was fine as they had deaf cats in the past.

We did teach the kitten some hand singles like "come here" and would stamp our feet on the ground to get her attention. If she was in the same room as you were, everything was fine (she was VERY alert). But if you left the room and she didn't see you leave, then she would just sit and scream till you came back - then happily come to you for petting.

Also deaf cats talk off key and louder since they can't hear.

Yes Arthur does have a very loud purr...and he purrs most of the time too. When we got him we didnt no he was deaf and he had a serious case of earmites. We took him to the vet who gave us some drops. The drops worked and he has had his hearing test.
As he is deaf we are going to keep him indoors, this is turning out to be very difficult tho as charlie has been used to coming and going as he pleases and we have a cat flap. We bought a magnetic one today so that only charlie can use it but he's having a hard time getting in so i've got to think of something else!

Its been nearly 4 weeks now and touch wood the fighting seems to be lessening...and charlie has even tried licking arthur a couple of times. I really do feel sorry for charlie tho...I dont want him to feel pushed out and as he's never been a cuddly cat its hard to reassure him!