Is The New Kitten Distressing My Older Kitten?

[Pablo&Diego]

Hi,

I have a 28 week old Persian kitten called Pablo and yesterday we brought home a new Persian kitten who is 12 weeks old called Diego.

Pablo is very sweet and affectionate - he loves human affection and shows off whenever anyone comes round. However since Diego has arrived he has been much more on edge. We introduced them slowly and they will tolerate each other and be in the same room but Pablo follows Diego everywhere and initially kept trying to bat his tail and now he is full on pouncing on him. Diego is eating and using his litter tray and playing and mainly just ignoring Pablo however he does hiss/growl at Pablo when he does this. Pablo has occasionally been growling at Diego and then runs away and Diego seems fairly unaffected.

We thought it would be best to separate them last night and put all of Diego’s things in the spare room however he cried all night long. I went into him at about 2am but he started again very shortly after. Pablo then woke us as normal at 5:30 and I brought Diego out.

I feel terrible on Pablo because he is behaving like I have never seen him before (even with my mums springer spaniel he settled with her very quickly)and I don’t want to stress him but equally Diego has a lovely personality and just wants to play but hates being alone.

We are going round my sisters tomorrow and I don’t want to leave them alone but I don’t know whether it’s better to leave Pablo at home and bring Diego and put him in his own space upstairs in my sisters house so we can check on him more often or is this going to be more unsettling on him as he only came home with us yesterday morning?

Is this normal behaviour and are they likely to settle?

Any advice/views would be greatly appreciated

Thank you!!

 

[ArtNJ]

Yes its normal behavior and you don't need to worry about it. Older cats are trickier but kittens almost always end up friends. You can safely let them work it out on their own. I certainly would not bring a kitten with you. That will stress out the kitten, and they may smell different when they come home, which is a known source of problems. Some may say to set them up in different rooms, but if you leave them together, they will work it out.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

LOL, not only is their behavior normal, it is actually phenomenally good! You had these two playing together in one day! Even with kittens that young it can take weeks. Pablo, being the older of the two, knows more about how to "cat" properly than Diego, and is going to teach him the ropes. This involves a bit of hissing and growling and an occasional swat along the way, but that is nothing more nor less that Mama Cat would be doing. These guys are good to go.