Is this kitten too aggressive??

or have i just forgotten what kittens are like?



A week ago i found a kitten living in our car.
I trapped her and brought her home. She's been to the vet and is now healthy and doing well.

I have 3 of my own cats and 4 fosters at the moment. I had a feeling that one of my own cats zoey would get along quite well with the kitten as the last time we had a very young kitten she was very maternal towards it.

So i put zoey in with the kitten in our bedroom which has turned out to be a nice spacious nursery for the kitten. It took less than an afternoon for Zoey to be comfortable with the kitten!

Once the initial hisses were over (mind you there were only a few) Zoey, as expected took to the kitten like a duck to water! She's been in the room with the kitten -Pixie for almost a week now. She comes out to eat and stretch her legs every now and then but as soon as she gets a chance she's back in there watching the kitten. Trying to groom her and playing with her.

One of my other cats has also started doing the same although less frequently. Of course i am glad that they are getting along so well but i'm also a bit worried that zoey being over 5kg and very big will accidentally hurt the kitten as in the last few days they've started to tumble around a bit.

There is no hissing or anything malicious but i am concerned that the kitten might be a bit aggressive and that zoey might acidentally whack her too hard or something like that might happen. Also when ever she play attacks zoey she has hers ears pressed back and looks like cats do before they go in for a fight. Tail all puffed up etc.

And that brings me to my main concern that Pixie seems a little agressive. She is very sweet natured and will curl up next to you when you go to bed but she is constantly nibbling on my fingers and chasing zoes tail and racing around. She's like a speeding bullet. If she's not asleep she's never still. She's constantly racing around playing with stuff, taking a swipe here and there at the older cats... And when i say racing i mean racing. To date i've never seen her walk. She only runs

I worry because i don't want her to turn out like another cat that i am house sitting who is constantly grabbing hands and fingerrs and biting them and is generally just too enthusiastic. And also it has been such a long time since i've had a kitten this young that i can't recall if all this is normal or not.

I suppose that after a while the older cats will put her in her place.

How can i curb this biting? Is it because she's teething?
And when i'm sleeping she'll poke my in the eye with her paw or grab my nose and bite it! It was cute the first few times but nw it's becoming a little worrying. What should i do?

In terms of the biting when she tries to do it withdraw all attention from her and she will soon realise that you don't like it hopefully stop. When domino was a kitten I let him bit my fingers because it didn't hurt now he still does it to be affectionate 8 years on and there is nothing I can do to stop him.

well i guess i should start doing that or replace my fingers with a toy or something.

just a few minutes ago she did a flying leap over one cat and the ran between the legs of the other. i was quite impressed.

I adopted a 10 week old kitten (Fez) from the Humane Society a week ago. He was 6 weeks old when they got him with a litter mate.
I have read where it's better for a kitten to stay with its mother and litter mates until 8-12 weeks, 12 being best. I have been a little concerned about his social skills and what he has missed out on being taken from his mother so soon. So far he is very active, sleeps hard and plays hard with my 2 year old cat Shamie and sometimes with my toy poodle. Usually he snuggles up with the poodle for nap time, or on my lap.
He seems to play pretty rough with Shamie. He bites and kicks Shamies face with his back feet, pounces and attacks very aggressive. Shamie has been very gentle with him and will get up and leave sometimes. I think when he is tired of being chewed and clawed too much.
My toy poodle use to play with him until Fez scratched or chewed on him a little too hard making him yelp. Now the poodle avoids Fez when he's in his feisty mood.
Shamie and the poodle use to play together for hours. Chasing each other, rolling around together and playing ball. Now they don't play as much since Fez has taken over the chase, tackle and roll game with Shamie. When Fez is sleeping the others will play more.
Fez has been biting my fingers here and there. Today he started biting my 13 year old daughters hand while she was holding him. This is not something I want him to continue doing. So far saying "NO" in a stern voice has worked pretty well. Sometimes I have to say it more than once for him to get the picture that I don't like it. I tried the ignore thing with him. I set him down after he bit my hand and he just ran off and found a toy to play with. I don't think that worked very well at all. I wonder if there are other things we can try to stop our kitties from biting. I know the first time he bites my hubby he is going to be very unhappy and not trust him at all. When he was younger he stayed the night at a friends house and woke up to a cat running across his head. The cat left his nail sheaths in his face and head. So I have my fingers crossed that I can teach Fez not to bite before that happens. Even though hubby doesn't really trust him much already. He keeps saying that Shamie was never like this when he was young. Well how would he know, we got Shamie when he was about 1 1/2 years old. I keep telling him that all kittens are wild, crazy and cute. He just lifts his eyebrows at me. Shamie is the most mellow cat I have ever met in my life! When he walks across you he is very gentle. He never uses us as a catapult when jumping. He jumps on the bed and you almost don’t feel him and he weighs 12 pounds. Fez is wild and goes 500 mph when he's awake.

Ok I'm done rambling on and on....sorry for the long post.

Hahaha! My three do the same thing! Kitties are very active. Atleast he's healthy.

i have the answer to be lemon juice on my hands and fingers.
it seems to be working quite well so far.

Originally Posted by zazi

And that brings me to my main concern that Pixie seems a little agressive. She is very sweet natured and will curl up next to you when you go to bed but she is constantly nibbling on my fingers and chasing zoes tail and racing around. She's like a speeding bullet. If she's not asleep she's never still. She's constantly racing around playing with stuff, taking a swipe here and there at the older cats... And when i say racing i mean racing. To date i've never seen her walk. She only runs

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She sounds absolutely adorable!!!! Most kittens have 2 speeds: On and Off and Pixie fits into that category perfectly!! LOL

Some kittens that have been taken from their mom too early develop an oral fixation and we often become their target. As some one said, stop play or redirect her to something more appropriate. If she annoys Zoey to the point where she can't take it, Zoey will correct her and Pixie will learn from it. I firmly believe that another cat will be a better teacher than humans - we don't understand their language very well.

That's exactly what i thought! a cat would be a much better teacher than me. in fact zoey actually seems to be teaching her things like drawing her attention to things like the bath tub and the hidey holes and showing her what to do.

i thought i was just reading too much into the behaviour but now i really do think that zoey is showing her the ropes. and i'm very glad as i was so worried that she wouldn't have any company being so young and small.

i can't wait till i get my camera and then i can take some pictures of them.