Bottle baby aggression

I've had a couple of litters of bottle fed babies and it has not been my experience that they are more aggressive than other cats, in fact, they tend to be more loving than other cats. The problem arises because we as people know very little about how cats actually discipline their young. Cat moms teach their babies behavioral boundaries when they are young, which makes them good cats as they age. If a kitten has a tendency to be overly playful and is not taught manners, they show what you are describing as aggression as they get older.

I had 1 orphaned kitten (Koko) do what you are describing when she was young. Most of my cats didn't tolerate her antics and she learned to leave them alone very quickly. As a mom cat would do, they would just smack her and she would back down. However, her littermate brother Muddy was also somewhat confused about boundaries and she used to pound on him for hours on end when they were young. Muddy didn't know that he could simply smack her back. He also didn't have a cat mom influence to teach him that's how you deal with things. What made things worse for Muddy was that they had to be quarantined in the house for about 2 months, and those 2 were isolated in a bedroom during that time. Koko grew out of it by the time she was about 18 months old. The peak of her antics occurred between the age of roughly 5 and 12 months.

Koko was never rough with humans so we didn't have the issue of her biting us. Once we got the kittens out of their quarantine, Muddy had cat condos to climb to get away from her, and lots of territory to escape to. If I had to raise that litter all over again, I would have spent more time trying to imitate what a mom cat would do with their young when they misbehave - hiss at them, hold them down with my version of a paw (my finger), etc. I know, it's too late for some of that.

If your older one generally gets along with the kitten and 99% of the time they are fine with each other, it tells me that the 2 of them will work it out. The kitten will simply grow out of it. But for attacks with you, I suggest that you start hissing when he starts his attacks on you. There's a great sticky thread on cat aggression towards people you might want to read for other ideas. http://www.thecatsite.com/t/20837/ouch-how-to-stop-cat-aggression-toward-people I won't repeat that thread here.

He'll get better, but be consistent with how you deal with him when he starts on you. The learn amazingly fast.

And btw - kittens do not always respond to products like Feliway, Rescue Remedy etc while they are young. Those types of products seem like they work better with adult cats.

I am kind of in the same boat as you. I was given my mousey when she was a very young kitten that the mother had been killed. She is very agressive If I say no or get down sometimes she dose it but most of the time it just irritates her and she will sometimes try to attack. Mousey though has gotten worse thought its almost a every day issue with her attacking anymore you can;t even walk into the same room as her without here growling and posturing although most of the time she runs and hids after. I have also tried the water bottle and time outs. The water bottle didn;t work to well. I thought the time outs were starting to work because she calmed down and actualy for two weeks she started mellowing out but One no get down from there and all heck broke loose and it was back to square one. She has been agressive ever since I got her which is about two maybe three years ago has gotten worse in the last six months. I think it stems from when she tried to scrach me and got her claw stuck in my metal watch band and it caused it to bleed. I had her checked out but her agression has gotten worse since that day and it just keeps getting worse. I am getting to my wits end with mine as well. I hate to just get rid of her and with her agression to not only me but other people as well I fear she would end up just being put down or tossed out into the outside to fend for her self (She has been a indor cat almost all of her life)