Mean Kitten

My wife and I adopted a new 8 week old female kitten. We already had a 13 week old male kitten for about 6 weeks.


We made the mistake of just putting her in front of him with no other introduction. She was very friendly walking up to him while he backed up. He then proceeded to jump on her and bite her giving her nowhere to run or move. After he didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t stop we put her in the bedroom with her own food, water, and liter box.

We called the vet explaining what happened and they just said this was normal. No other advice was given. After the initial meeting I did some research. I got some different advice:

1) Put the cats together. When he attacks place him in a cage. Repeat if he continues. Spray with water to break up.

2) Put cats together and let him go at her. They have to work it out. He will stop evenly.

3) And I read on the cat site forums to keep them separated for 2 weeks. Introduce smells. And then try an introduction. (I wish I read the forums before we got her)

We have kind of done a combination of all three.

We keep her in the bedroom. We let them get together for a few hours at a time when he chases her pinning her down and nipping her. Heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s on the attack mode 95% of the time. She fights back but is too small to constantly push him back. She sometime chases him away or jumps on him. He retreats. But the majority of the time she gets the worse of it. When he wonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t let go I spray him with water. Thereâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s no blood of broken bones. He just wonâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t calm down. His pupils remain large with a waging tail. Sheâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s very playful. He also rapidly chomps done her food and goes into her litter box making a mess.

Its very upsetting for us seeing our new kitten get picked on. What should we do? Do vets medicate cats for this? Any help would be very appreciated.

Thank you, Daniel.

We went through this in late August as we introduced a 9 week old to our 1 year old. We took the initial advice from friends of "just put them together and they'll work it out" which was a definite mistake. We stumbled into The Cat Site and got the two-week supervised advice. No arguments, it works. Fortunately for us, it only took about 4-5 days of separation and monitored play for Sassy and Striker to figure out they weren't mortal enemies. Now we can't keep them away from each other! Big brother/little sister always romping and playing nice together...totally in tune with each other.

Good luck!

Bill

Really the easiest and best way to do it is the slow introduction. Let them get familiar with each other through a closed door. They can smell each other and interact under the door. Bring something out of the room that the 8 week old has been sleeping or laying on for the 13 week old to investigate and vice versa. After a few days, let the 13 week old into the room under supervision. If he attacks, pick him up and take him out.

Thank you both for responding.

Things are getting much better now. Twinkles the younger kitten is now starting to chase Snuggles. Now they seem to actually enjoy each others company (not all the time).