Cat attacking kitten please help!

Hi

I am really need of some good advise as I am
very worried & upset about a situation with my two kids. I adopted a 9 month old cat in May and she settled in to our home very quickly. She is naturally easy going and friendly. I don't know much about her background before I had her, only that she had a litter of kittens at around 6 months old.

This month we decided to get a second cat and after reading some of the info got a 9 week old male kitten. I followed some of the advice keeping the kitten in a separate room for the first few days with all his own things.
After a couple of days I started introducing the kitten and whilst my cat would hiss and occasionally try and swipe at the kitten, she generally seemed ok.

By week two and with a few days off work the kitten was out and about the house most of the time during the day and although my cat would occasionally pounce & swipe it didn't seem hugely aggressive (no claws, no hissing). I went through stages of telling my cat off when she did this, trying to distract her or putting her outside to calm down but none of the things made much difference.

My mum suggested keeping the kitten out during the day while I was at work and letting them get on with it now. Unfortunately it seems this was very bad advice as my cat's swiping has now become much more aggressive and she has scratched the kitten quite badly on a couple of occasions.

I have gone back to separating them today so at least the kitten is safe but feel bad for him after he was starting to get used to being out & about in the house. My cat is still being very aggressive towards him - attacking the kitten again while I had him out shortly tonight.

I am very worried I have now made the situation much worse and don't know what to do for the best. I really do not want to give either cat up and I don't know if 3 weeks is a long time for them still not to be getting on or if I can repair their relationship. Please help!

Hi! Welcome to the forums!

I recommend starting over completely and using the steps outlined in this article: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/introducing-cats-to-cats

Take it very slowly, making sure both cats are okay at each step before moving on further.

Also be sure to be giving some extra attention to your first cat... you don't want her to think she's been replaced!

Good luck

@khubb -- hi and welcome to TCS!

it's a very common misconception that putting cats together and "letting them work it out themselves" is an approach that works well. it's very common for cat integrations to take anywhere from 6 months to one year or longer before the cats are comfortable enough with each other to peacefully coexist. there are exceptions, cats who very quickly become best buddies, but this is unusual with integrations. also, young kittens most times won't need to be integrated, they'll usually get along well very quickly -- but there are exceptions with integrating young kittens too.

you did exactly right by separating the two cats again. this should simply be viewed as a temporary setback or "bump in the road" of the integration. many/most integrations have minor or major setbacks at times, and these can be caused by trying to move forward in the integration process just a bit sooner than one (or both) cats are ready for. it's very important to let your cats tell/show you when they're not comfortable enough/not ready to move forward in the integration. scratches or "fur flying" when they're interacting with each other is a sign that they're probably not ready to move forward in the integration process just yet.

since your new little boy is only about 11 weeks old (?) now, he's still very young and would be much smaller in size than your 1 year old girl. there's enough of a size difference between the two that i would only allow supervised (by you) visits when they're ready to start that again. it's not that your girl would even mean to injure the little guy, she's just much bigger/adult sized and could unintentionally hurt him.

so, again, you did right by separating the two. i'd give it a couple days (let them settle down a bit), then start some scent swapping. take two towels and gently rub each cat -- one towel to each cat. put the towel with your girl's scent in with your little boy, and the towel with your lil guy's scent in with your girl. watch to see how they react when they go to investigate those towels. if they do fine, are comfortable smelling the towels with the others scent on it, then maybe try the next step in the integration. take things slow and easy, no hurry to it.

it's very important to treat your girl (resident cat) as the most important during this period of integration. she needs to feel that she's still very much loved and important to you. after all, she'll now have to adjust to sharing you with the new little boy.

whenever the two cats are near each other/together/see each other through a baby gate/etc, try to do things like give them treats or take turns playing with a cat toy with them, things that are "happy" things they'll start to associate with when they're together -- they'll learn that when they're together, good things happen. you want these good kind of associations for them.

here's a link to an article here about introducing cats -- http://www.thecatsite.com/a/introducing-cats-to-cats

Thank you both for your advice. You've made me feel all is not lost & I've just rushed things. Day 2 of re-separation and I've been making sure to pay lots of addition to my female cat. I got the kitten out in his carrier for about 10 minutes and fed the girl treats just in front of it. She did pretty well, only a very small amount of tail twitching and one small hiss when they got very close. I think I'll try that again later and a few times tomorrow and once I see no reaction I think I would be more confident to try a face to face again.

@khubb -- when you're trying face to face with your girl and lil guy, try to make sure their time together ends on a positive note/before growling,swatting,etc start -- better to finish their time together a bit earlier, than to have them have negative interactions (swatting, growling, etc) to remember/associate with each other.

remember, the integration is laying the ground work for their relationship for the long term. let both cats take all the time they need to become comfortable with each other. the time and patience we put into integrations at the beginning (of the cats relationship) pays off with cats who peacefully coexist and many times are very comfortable around each other, some even becoming best buddies.

it sounds like things are going well today!