Cat and Kitten....Is this normal?

dvds57

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I just got a kitten 1 week ago. He is about 10 weeks old. We already have a 1 year old male cat. I kept the cats away from eachother the first day and then slowly let them smell eachother. The big cat has never been really "mean", but he does growl at the kitten every once in awhile. He usually growls at him if the kitten tries to eat out of his food bowl at the same time, or the kitten tries to play with a toy that he's playing with. He also licks the kitten a lot and they both run around chasing each other. I haven't seen him swat at the kitten or be very aggressive, but the growling worries me. Is he just getting used to the kitten? Is this all normal?
 

kittyqueen

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It's very normal actually. When I brought in all the new cats to the cats that were here already, they hissed and one of my girls who STILL doesn't like the other female would hiss at the *new* cat(s) and swat, AND growl, lol. It took her maybe 3-4 days tops than it all stops. At first ALL cats hiss, it's only normal when bringing in a new cat for the other cats to be on edge, cats HATE change, but in your case I would say things are going VERY smoothly - give 2 more days tops and I bet he won't hissing/growling at all anymore.
 

rosiemac

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Yes it's normal
Basically what your older cat is saying to the kitten is " Hey i'm the alpha cat here not you squirt!! ". It will die down because the kitten will know how far to push your older cat.

My Rosie was the same with Sophie. If Sophie wanted to play and Rosie didn't Rosie would growl at her and give Sophie the occasional bop on the head, but then the next time you would see them they would be snuggl;ing up together
 
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dvds57

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Thank you guys for your advice. I always worry WAY too much, but I just wanted to get other people's opinions. Just in case
 

phantomsr

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I've had 2 kittens introduced to my older female cat 2 opposite reactions. The first time she had to deal with a new kitten, she didn't want anything to do with him and he loved her and wanted to play and snuggle. She'd bat and growl and hiss, but never use claws or teeth. She never got along with him until the day we cut his nails. He was howling like we were trying to skin him and she run up and beat my legs until I put him down. After that she always looked after him. He took over the alfa cat role rather however. He would take whatever dish got food first, took the toys he wanted, and slept where he wanted. He had no reservations about moving Milo out of his way.

After Tigger passed, I got a new kitten to help Milo and us aswel. Milo reacted quite differently this time and quickly decided to try snuggle and lick this new kitten. Nermal however wanted nothing to do with Milo. Hey would hunch up and growl at her and she would sit quitely and watch him. She'd try to sneak up and lick him while he was sleeping or looking the other way but he'd wake up and growl and swat. It took a few weeks but they moved onto chasing each other around and snuggling.

Every cat is different, and the same cat may react completely different to the same situation every time.
 
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dvds57

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Thank you all for the info. I have one more question.
Sometimes the two cats play around (rolling around and biting eachother). It doesn't look like they're being EXTREMELY agressive, but sometimes the kitten starts meowing, but he doesn't try to run away. Should I just let them do their thing?
 

lookingglass

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Originally Posted by Dvds57

Thank you all for the info. I have one more question.
Sometimes the two cats play around (rolling around and biting eachother). It doesn't look like they're being EXTREMELY agressive, but sometimes the kitten starts meowing, but he doesn't try to run away. Should I just let them do their thing?
Is the older cat biting the younger cat by the scruff of the neck? If so, it's more of a dominance thing and they should be fine. If it gets too heated grab a blanket and throw it on top of the furry mass. Then pick up one of the cats and separate them for about 5 or 10 minutes. If it's a true cat fight you may want to think about redoing the introduction.
 
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