Senior cat and 10 week old kitten

Hello, I have a 15 year old female cat that is still pretty active, so I decided to get a kitten. It worked out fine at first, but now the kitten is starting to annoy her with his playfulness. I give him lots of playtime but the moment she comes around, he starts chasing her tail and jumping on her, she hisses and swats at him but he's relentless, he sees it as play! Please help! What can I do to make him back off a little!?

torils65 said:

Hello, I have a 15 year old female cat that is still pretty active, so I decided to get a kitten. It worked out fine at first, but now the kitten is starting to annoy her with his playfulness. I give him lots of playtime but the moment she comes around, he starts chasing her tail and jumping on her, she hisses and swats at him but he's relentless, he sees it as play! Please help! What can I do to make him back off a little!?

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honestly, i think the best solution is to have another kitten of similar age...a playmate for your little boy. i would caution that you would need to be sure you'll have the time, space, and finances to properly care for another kitten.

may i ask -- how old is your boy? playing and wrestling and such is a very big part of life for kittens! they learn how not to play too rough by playing with other kittens/cats, and when to back off.

kittens also many/most times don't take much, if any, time to integrate with each other. another kitten would likely take several days to become comfortable in your/their new home, but may very well become friendly with your boy almost immediately. if you were to consider adopting a second kitten, you might look for one of a temperament that you feel would go well with your boy's and having a similar energy level. also important would be to have the two kittens close in age, so they're close to each other in size -- so one kitten wouldn't be significantly bigger than the other, and potentially (and accidentally, in play) hurt the smaller kitten.

i have a 4 year old make cat, jaspurr, and adopted two kittens in january. at that time, the kittens were both 5 1/2 months old and our jaspurr was about 3 1/2 years old. while my boy loves the girls/kittens and enjoys playing with them, the girls also have each other to play/wrestle/chase/etc with. having two kittens really helps! they help 'burn off' each others excess kitten energy, and they generally won't annoy adult cats in their home nearly as much.

Hi, my kitten is 10 weeks old, thanks for your advice on getting another kitten, but unfortunately I am only allowed two cats where I live.

i can totally understand that.

something you might look into is 'play dates' with other kittens. if you know someone(s) who have kittens around the same age, you might arrange play dates much like you would with human children.

for your senior girl, i'd suggest making sure she has some time each day just for herself (and you with her, for part of it). adult and senior cats do just relax and sleep more than kittens. just having some time for herself without the kitten each day can help your girl feel more...tolerant of your boy's 'crazy kitten' energy and playfulness.

do you have a ball track for your boy? do you have any cat trees? you can even make a kitty fort out of cardboard boxes taped together, with holes and windows and doors cut out of it -- for your boy to play with. kittens have so very much energy that needs burning off each day! my two girls, deedee and punky, are about 10 1/2 months old now and they still zoom up, down, and around the house quite a few times each day and on/off through the night.

another thing you might try is clicker training, though i have no experience with that. i believe that @jcat has experience with clicker training. she would know better if that might be helpful for you. and there's harness training too, so you could take your boy out (safely) for walks -- but i think that might need to wait until he's a bit older/bigger. you could work on getting him used to wearing a harness now though.

How much time are you spending playing with the kitten? Interactive toys are a great way to help wear the kitten out so she is not constantly trying to play with your senior. I used feather toys on a wand to re-direct baby Starbuck when she got to be too much for my nine year old boys. Also my cats have a track toy that they play with on their own.

In 2006 I wound up adopting a six week old Starbuck when I had 2 nine year old boys. Starbuck was abandoned by some ass out a car window at 4 weeks old. A friend's family rescued her but no one was able to keep her. I did not want her to go to a shelter so I took her in. She had no socialization and was a brat. I had to play with her a lot to wear off her endless energy supply. Over time one of my boys did take on the role of daddy and teach her kitty manners. The hissing and swatting at the kitten may be some of that behavior. As long as they are not trying to hurt each other keep an eye on things but let them be. Hopefully since you mentioned your senior is active the kitten will learn boundaries pretty quickly just like Starbuck did.

Hello, yes my boy has plenty of toys to play with, after I got him I purchased an Armarakat cat tree, and the Catit Super Roller Circiut! Which he loves! And my senior girl gets plenty of me time, and space to herself. I've only had him 3 weeks, I'm sure he'll get use to my older cat wanting her space.. Thank you, for your advice, it's very helpful.

Three weeks together is a short time frame. It sounds like you are doing every thing you can. It definitely took longer than 3 weeks for my boys to teach Starbuck kitty manners,

Kittens typically start to ease out of the crazy kitten stage at around 6-8 months of age. You may need to give the kitten his own play room to give your senior girl a break.

Continue to have regular play sessions with the kitten throughout the day (as many as you can manage, but at least 2-3 good sessions per day.)

I don't typically recommend kittens when there is a senior cat in the house (even if that cat is still active) because kittens just have too much energy for them. However, your kitten will eventually calm down as he ages and hopefully the two will learn to coexist peacefully and maybe even become buddies.