I need help

It's very interesting, yes.

At first I thought the bigger white kitten was the more dominant one. But he isn't. Interesting that when they are both at the food bowl the black one will keep one paw on the white kitten's ear while he is eating! The white one is not allowed to eat until blackie is done.

I have three other bowls of food but the white kitten just waits for his turn at the black kitten's bowl.

Should I let that continue, I wonder? The white one seems to be okay with it.

Cats' social structures are actually pretty complicated, but they do work with a heirarchy. It's best not to interefere. It's a natural thing, and they work it out. Or they don't - and there's lots of fighting. Seems like you got lucky.

Actually - in a multi-cat household, it can be very important to provide vertical space. That's why so many people do turn to "cat furniture" - cat trees and gyms and "cat walks" and stuff. Vertical space can help them define their hierarchies without the fighting.

But that paw-on-the-head thing is very normal, and it's nothing that needs to be discouraged. They'll progress to butt-sniffing at some point, though that paw-on-the-head thing is something black kitty may always do as long as he's alpha cat.

And as you've already learned - "alpha cat" has nothing to do with size!



Laurie

Interesting!

There is some vertical space here now, a bed, a couple of platforms higher than a bed. I'll have to watch to see what they do with it now that I am aware of this. Thanks so much.

Yeah - it was all so fascinating when it was all new! Not that it's not now - but I was just so interested in everything our cats did the first few years. Now? I'm happy if they're not bugging me.

The vertical space thing IS fascinating. We've got multiple cat trees throughout the house. The one that was alpha before our current alpha was rescued LOVES to be on the top. He'll sleep in the highest vertical space - until the current alpha decides he wants to be there. There's often a little scuffle in the "shift," but (usually) no one gets hurt.

On the other hand, our deaf, partially blind (vision very impaired in one eye and the other eye removed) cat was rescued after the "new" alpha (Tuxedo) had been living with us for about four or five months. They all seemed to get she wasn't normal - and whenever she's up top, no one ever bothers her. Not even our alpha. It's weird.

I've always been intrigued by dog packs, in the wild or the home setting. I had no idea cats had a similar thing going on although I should've known since they are social and some wild cats live in groups.

Recently my BF has been telling me of the behaviors of the cats in his home--there are four and a fifth who lives on the lower floor. So the concept is new to me, yes.

Well, these are two kittens that were found in the wild. The gray one is the one who was sick and the white one nearly tore my hands apart as I was removing him from the cage and getting him home.

They just got neutered two days ago. I would've like to have waited a couple more weeks but I needed to get them into the low cost neuter program so I had no choice. By the beginning of next month I will either have officially adopted them or found them a home together.

They are incredibly loving and nice kittens.

I've separated them from the other kittens I foster and last night they spent their first night in my home away from the others. Pixel is still freaking a bit but she's come a long way (still has a way to go with them). However I found it amazing she was just sitting there watching the white one eating from HER food bowl. (That was accidental on my part--I have their food and litter in a different part of the house).

Aren't they adorable? I need names for them...

I woud name them something like Cookies and Cream..they definately seem bonded.

Katie

yes, I definitely want to name them as a pair. That picture wasn't staged, they are quite a little team. When one gets lost in the house the other helps me call him.

After spending yesterday chasing them all around the house, today they actually seemed to tell me where they wanted to spend their time until they get bigger. I have three bedrooms in this tiny house and they want the computer room next to the cat room where they used to be with their friends. I mean, I came into their new room three times today and I found them in three different positions sleeping on the chair. They must've been tired from all the excitement yesterday because today they were slackers.

I am thinking of naming them Peek and Boo, since I've always leaned toward calling the gray one Boo.

God they look so cute running around chasing each other, honest.

Not staged pictures below, they should be in the dictionary under the word "adorable."

Peek and Boo would be such cute names for them!

And boy - they are INCREDIBLY adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for taking everyone in and doing such a great job with them!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it's hard to believe how big they have gotten; talk about growing bigger every day...even looking back at the initial pic I took of Boo--he had already grown into his ears!

So, they are now eating with Pixel. I got the idea to feed them together in these forums, so that Pixel will associate them with the pleasure of eating. Feeding them together is counterintuitive to me but it works just fine.

Peek will even go up to Pixel when she is eating and Pixel is very tolerant of him; though she did cuff him once. She is NOT so tolerant of Boo and he is more scared of her than Peek is.

But miraculously, Pixel is slowly coming around more each day.

One thing is, I am still baffled as to where Peek came from. He was found around the same litter of kittens that were all captured in cages and given to me. He looks so much different than the rest of them. He has blue eyes, for one thing, and though Boo's eyes are dark blue, his siblings are not blue at all. And Peek looks Siameseish. It seems he is from a completely different litter but we can't figure out how since we haven't found similar cats to him around here!