Kitten and older cat.. fighting or playing?

[wthellcat]

I've posted a couple times on here and you guys have been really helpful. I'm hoping I can ask for advice again.

Backround: We've had our 9yo female (Kitty) for about 5 years. Recently we got a male kitten (who is now 3mo), Seamus. We introduced them slowly. Now they are able to be in the same house for the most part. They can eat together, but before too long Seamus tries to eat from Kitty's dish. Sometimes they can be near each other with no problems (although Seamus is always just a minute away from pouncing on Kitty). Sometimes one cat "attacks" the other. I think Seamus definitely thinks it play (?) but perhaps Kitty does not (?)

We assumed this was normal and would go away.. but it's been about a month and there are still several times a day (maybe more than "several") where the cats seem to attack each other. Usually it is Seamus being insane and running and jumping on Kitty.. but sometimes Kitty instigates. What concerns me is that it doesn't look like play to me:


What do you think? This is the worst it gets. They are not hurting each other (as far as I can tell).. but the noises Kitty makes really freak me out. Is this normal? I don't think we can go back to square one... but will these guys be able to live together?

 

[jessica1]

Hard to tell for sure from the video. You'll definitely know it's aggression if there is hissing, , growling, and/or cries of pain (I can't get the sound to play) . My suggestion is to try to tire the kitten out a little more with an interactive toy - laser pointer, feather on a stick, etc. Our older ladies were perturbed when we got energetic kittens, but they let the boys know their boundaries and the boys play a lot with each other. That is one benefit of having two kitties.

 

[catwoman707]

I watched the video first and then read the details, but I knew what was up before even reading.

This is not playing. It may be to the younger 'pain in the butt to the older girl' kitten, but ti is certainly not play for the older cat. She is really annoyed with his young age and hating it.

Not only is she stressed with his crap but may get worse, she might decide to start hiding/keeping to herself/isolating out of his reach, she may start to pee even. She may decide to fight back for what is HER territory and get rougher with him. The last one is looking less likely, the first two more-so.

It was maybe not the best idea to get that young of a cat, it was however ideal for the second cat to be a male. Females are usually the top cats and males are accepting of this and submit without much resistence.

She needs your help to intervene, not to allow him to pounce on her if possible as much as you can at least. You will want to allow her personal time in a closed area without him around, reassuring her she is the baby, it is her home, and so on.

If he were older, he wouldn't continue with taunting her like this. It is due to his age and lack of understanding what she is trying to teach him.

Very hard on her for sure, not for him.