Playing

Hey all I'm sorry if this is the same question being asked again (if seen quite a few similar questions on here!) but i just want to make sure i'm doing the right thing with my cats so here's the full story!

We have an established cat (Merdle) who's been with us since april and is now 7 months and we were selfish and wanted another one so got Lola 2 weeks ago today, she's now 11 weeks old. We've done the gradual meeting thing and after a few days of growling and hissing through the pen we keep Lola in when they're in the same room Merdle settled down and just seemed more curious of her than anything as did lola so we let them see each other with out the pen.

Firstly it was just a case of them hitting each other but now it has progressed to rolling around together with Merdle obviously always being on top as she's that much bigger than Lola, then Lola escaping only to be caught by merdle again and so it continues but after a while lola runs behind me, does this mean she's had enough and wants me to protect her? after a while of this she ran into her pen (where merdle cant get) so i thought bless her she's tired and wants a break. Merdle patrolled the gap until she got bored (about 2 minutes) then moved away slightly so Lola then decides to run out to the other side of the room where I am, get wrestled to the ground a few times then back into the pen, and repeats a few times, was she just playing? we let them do this for just over half an hour then shut Merdle out as we didn't want to stress Lola for too long.

Is this just them playing and me feeling over protective of Lola as it looks so bad at the moment with the size difference? I have been trying to be strong and only stop them when Lola is pinned in a corner. I dont think Merdle has that bad of intentions towards lola as she's got in before when lola has been eating and she's just licked her hind area and what looks like has a little bite of her which Lola barely responds to?!

I hope all that was understanderble, I just want to know if all is ok in the house or if i should be doing something different?

Thanks in anticipation!

Rainy

It sounds more like playing than anything, unless big chunks of fur come out, there's a lot of serious screaming and/or blood seen. The future remains to be seen, but so far I wouldn't worry a lot.

They're playing. Cat-play can get a bit rough, so as there's a size difference just keep an eye on them so that you can 'rescue' the little one to give her a break for a while if she's had enough. As she gets bigger, she'll be more able to tell the older one to give her a break, but while she is little just supervise to make sure she's holding her own ok. Keep claws trimmed so that when they swat and bat each other around the face (perfectly normal behaviour!) there's no danger of an accidentally scratched eye. Sounds like it's going fine though! Congratulations on your new addition

Their playing alright Merdles still a kitten herself so it's all part of kitten fun

They are just playing. But be sure to keep both cat's nails trimmed short so they don't accidently hurt one another.

thanks for all the words of advice/support. We're still limiting their time together so's not to wear the kitten out too much, we can usually tell when she's had enough as she stops darting about the room and stays in one place. Merdle came in this morning and licked her head and body but lola was having none of it and ran off, only for the chasing and catching game to begin once again so hopefully as lola gets bigger Merdle wont find it such an easy challenge and not chase her round everytime they meet!

Once again thanks everyone