Are My Kittens Playing Or Really Fighting?

[Leahkatsu]

I've got two 5 month kittens, the runt a black female named Basil and a mainecoon striped male named Milwaukee who's pretty big. They seem to like each other and I'm pretty sure they're from the same litter, although when they were all still outside I never saw any kittens play with basil. I picked her from outside first because she wasn't doing well, the others we relocated later and that's when I decided to keep Milwaukee he's sweet and like human attention. I introduced them slowly feeding them on different sides of the same door they started pawing at each other under the door so I thought that was good and then I let them meet face to face he seemed scared of her and didn't interact much beyond a quick nose touch and sniffs then after a few days they started wrestling basil hisses at him and he'll stop for a second and then try again. I haven't seen any fluffed up tails and basil hasn't tryed to escape him but I am a bit worried, they're always supervised when they interact so I can make sure they don't hurt each other though.

 

[sam12]

Did you adopt them from a home or did you find them outside your house? I doesn't sound like they are from the same litter in my opinion just because sibling cats do usually tend to get along
it sounds like Milwaukee is intending to play but Basil doesn't. As long as Milwaukee isn't displaying behaviours of hissing and growling before he attempts to play I think its fine it'll just take him a while to adjust to Basils personality and same in turn
You're doing super well with introducing this guys and its most likely kitten play getting out of hand

 

[Columbine]

Hi, and welcome to TCS L Leahkatsu You have two absolutely gorgeous kittens there

Boys often play more roughly than girls, so that will be part of the problem between them. In my (admittedly limited) experience with runts, its pretty common for them to be less confident and less sure of themselves too, so they find it harder to stick up for themselves with other, more confident cats/kittens.

The best way to deal with this is to give both kittens plenty of separate interactive playtime. For Basil, this will help raise her confidence and self esteem, so helping her learn to stand her ground a bit more firmly. For Milwaukee, the play will get some of that kittenish energy out of his system, hopefully making him calmer and less pushy in his games with Basil.

Continue with supervised interactions too, and be ready to redirect Milwaukee as necessary. Equally, back Basil up if you need to - if Milwaukee ignores her hisses, remove him yourself (not necessarily out of the room, just get him to switch focus and come away from Basil). Increasing the available vertical space can really help too as, done thoughtfully, you can remove places that Basil could get cornered. If she knows she always has an escape, that will help her confidence too.

It sounds like you're doing great with them though