New kitty...

allysh0rty

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Hi everyone!
My husband and I adopted a grey tabby manx about 7 weeks ago. He's now about 14 weeks old (We named him Spock
). We wanted to get two at the same time, but we saw him and fell in love with him, and the second kitten wasn't old enough to have yet. Anyway, we brought home the second kitten 2 days ago (we haven't named him yet), who is about half the size of Spock. Spock is of course still in the "I'm going to attack everything" mode... and little kitten is having trouble defending himself. We put little kitten in a "safe room" at night. But he cries and cries and it's very upsetting. We both work during the day & I'm afraid little kitten is getting lonely because he's so used to being with his litter mates before we adopted him. I hate to leave him in the "safe room" during the day, but I'm also afraid Spock will hurt him if we leave them together. It's a strange age difference. Any suggestions? Will little kitten be lonely?
If someone could respond here or email me ASAP, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!
 

goldenkitty45

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How old is the 2nd kitten. At 14 weeks (just 3 months old) that's not that big. Is the new kitten under 10 weeks old?
 

carolpetunia

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First thing is to make sure everybody's claws are clipped... and that you've gone through the gradual introduction process that you'll find in a sticky at the top of this forum (under the "Behavior problems? Look here first" headline).

Then if I were you, I would go through at least several days of supervised visitation before letting them be alone together... maybe longer, if the difference in size and/or strength is significant. Bear in mind, though, that kittens do play rough, as part of the process of learning to hunt and to defend themselves. As long as there's no crying out, hissing, growling, or bleeding, they're probably doing okay.
 
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allysh0rty

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Yes, the new kitten is 7 weeks old. Spock is very big for his age. He's a long-haired grey tabby.
 
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allysh0rty

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Well actually, the only thing they're doing as far as hissing and growling is, baby kitten sometimes yelps out, but usually Spock isn't doing anything to him. It's usually like, a really annoyed yelp.
 

bab-ush-niik

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Keep an eye on them, but they should be ok. We had the same problem with Puppy and Bunny, even though they are older. Bunny is 1 and is used to sleeping with the other foster kitties, Puppy is twice her size and plays very rough and tumble style. They turned out to be ok, and Bunny can hold her own. She figured out how to hide if he gets too rough, and recently she's started instigating the play fights. Just allow your kitties some supervised playtime, and provide some small hiding spots for the little one.
 
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allysh0rty

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Thanks so much everyone for your replies. I really appreciate it. Will baby kitty be lonely at night? I worry about him. I know I probably shouldn't, but I do.
 
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