Kitten Rough Play - Help?

[vicky271]

Greetings. Our kittens, Poppy and Oreo, have gone from "ewwwww hisshissshisshiss" (<- Poppy 100% of the time when Oreo came home) to "Hey, let's engage in rough play!!!" It's hard for the family to watch because this is the first time we've had two cats. Can anyone offer any behavior attitudes to watch out for that emphasize that we have to separate the kittens? My friend says the most important is to watch and see if either of the kittens run away quickly, thus ending the fight. And others but i can't recall. See, the youngest is Oreo and he's timid, and not as quick as Poppy, and he sometimes yowls. So I pick him up and move him, and he goes right back to Poppy. There's no hisses, spits or growls during rough play.

 

[Timmer]

I just read an article about cats who play rough, and also play rough with their owners. It said that they were taken away from their mothers too young and never learned the proper social skills from their moms. Are your kitties brother and sister?
is Oreo yowling because Poppy is sinking her teeth into him?
Can you maybe play with them with a fun wand or feather toy. That might put the aggression on the toy and not on each other and it will also bond you with them.
I've never heard that about running away.

Hopefully you will get some other answers.

 

[Kieka]

General rule of thumb at our house is no fur, no blood, no problem. Some cats just play in a way that seems rough to us and some can be loud. The key to keep in mind is that play is practice for hunting or fighting in many cases. Even if your cats are indoor only, that ingrained fact doesn't change. You will have cats who take it more serious and ones who are more relaxed. But as long as they aren't causing fur to fly or drawing blood it really is just play.

Here are my two playing. The smaller one, my girl, got really upset that my boy left shortly after this. After heleft she yelled at me for a few minutes and went to find him.

View media item 420658
As your kittens get older you'll get a better feel for them and know when it crosses the line. My girl does get annoyed with our other male at times but they sort it out and he will jump too high for her to catch.

If you have one who is bullying the other then you may have a problem. In normal play there should be some trade off between being the aggressor. Think a wrestling game of tag. Most cats though will sort it out themseleves unless you have a very passive personality. In our house we have one who isn't as good at play. He doesnt play unless he is the aggressor. So the other two play with him less. If yours doesn't self regulate you may need to up play time to provide a healthy outlet for energy.

 

[vicky271]

General rule of thumb at our house is no fur, no blood, no problem. Some cats just play in a way that seems rough to us and some can be loud. The key to keep in mind is that play is practice for hunting or fighting in many cases. Even if your cats are indoor only, that ingrained fact doesn't change. You will have cats who take it more serious and ones who are more relaxed. But as long as they aren't causing fur to fly or drawing blood it really is just play.

Here are my two playing. The smaller one, my girl, got really upset that my boy left shortly after this. After heleft she yelled at me for a few minutes and went to find him.

View media item 420658
As your kittens get older you'll get a better feel for them and know when it crosses the line. My girl does get annoyed with our other male at times but they sort it out and he will jump too high for her to catch.

If you have one who is bullying the other then you may have a problem. In normal play there should be some trade off between being the aggressor. Think a wrestling game of tag. Most cats though will sort it out themseleves unless you have a very passive personality. In our house we have one who isn't as good at play. He doesnt play unless he is the aggressor. So the other two play with him less. If yours doesn't self regulate you may need to up play time to provide a healthy outlet for energy.

See it's frustrating me a little, because I'm getting multiple people telling me different things. I've got some people saying rough play is part of the process, and others saying "NO NO NO NO" and i'm like ._.

Poppy and Oreo seem to like each other. Poppy will come to the french door when we separate them, and Oreo will too. I got this adorable photo of them on either side of the french door, waiting for me to open it because despite just being separated, they wanna go at it again. It is good for Oreo, because I've noticed a confidence increase in him since we started allowing him time with Poppy.

The video is good reference. That's what they do, but amp it up 500%.

 

[ArtNJ]

Kieka 's cats are grown. Her cats probably only do this once or twice a day. Your kittens will play like this more often and more vigorously -- "amped up 500%" as you described. What you are describing sounds totally normal.

As far as people telling you different things, the folks on this site are experts, and we generally agree, especially on stuff like this. That said, of course its hard for us without a video, and if you'd like to upload one, our advice will be even more reliable. But I'd be really surprised if there is anything to worry about. If they keep coming back for more, and don't show avoidance behaviors, if there is no actual growling and hissing, and if there is not clumps of hair ripped out during the fighting, your good, its healthy play. What you are hearing is more on the order of protest noises -- little brother yelling "mom" when play gets a tad rough. Doesn't mean that there is a real problem, or that little brother won't be right back in 5 minutes looking for more play. Kids will be kids -- you can't totally prevent that kind of play, and you probably shouldn't even if you could. You can certainly keep an eye on it, and if it gets *really* over the top and little brother looks especially miserable, you can certainly gently break it up -- but just be careful, you don't want to stress them out, and you don't want them to accidentally scratch you.

 

[Kieka]

Kieka 's cats are grown. Her cats probably only do this once or twice a day. Your kittens will play like this more often and more vigorously -- "amped up 500%" as you described. What you are describing sounds totally normal.

As far as people telling you different things, the folks on this site are experts, and we generally agree, especially on stuff like this. That said, of course its hard for us without a video, and if you'd like to upload one, our advice will be even more reliable. But I'd be really surprised if there is anything to worry about. If they keep coming back for more, and don't show avoidance behaviors, if there is no actual growling and hissing, and if there is not clumps of hair ripped out during the fighting, your good, its healthy play. What you are hearing is more on the order of protest noises -- little brother yelling "mom" when play gets a tad rough. Doesn't mean that there is a real problem, or that little brother won't be right back in 5 minutes looking for more play. Kids will be kids -- you can't totally prevent that kind of play, and you probably shouldn't even if you could. You can certainly keep an eye on it, and if it gets *really* over the top and little brother looks especially miserable, you can certainly gently break it up -- but just be careful, you don't want to stress them out, and you don't want them to accidentally scratch you.

You should have seen those two as kittens.. well the boy was a year old and girl 4 months. It was non stop, if they were awake they were playing. Now it is a little less, probably just two hours each morning and an hour before bed.

The joy of hyperactive Siamese mixes.

 

[vicky271]

Kieka 's cats are grown. Her cats probably only do this once or twice a day. Your kittens will play like this more often and more vigorously -- "amped up 500%" as you described. What you are describing sounds totally normal.

As far as people telling you different things, the folks on this site are experts, and we generally agree, especially on stuff like this. That said, of course its hard for us without a video, and if you'd like to upload one, our advice will be even more reliable. But I'd be really surprised if there is anything to worry about. If they keep coming back for more, and don't show avoidance behaviors, if there is no actual growling and hissing, and if there is not clumps of hair ripped out during the fighting, your good, its healthy play. What you are hearing is more on the order of protest noises -- little brother yelling "mom" when play gets a tad rough. Doesn't mean that there is a real problem, or that little brother won't be right back in 5 minutes looking for more play. Kids will be kids -- you can't totally prevent that kind of play, and you probably shouldn't even if you could. You can certainly keep an eye on it, and if it gets *really* over the top and little brother looks especially miserable, you can certainly gently break it up -- but just be careful, you don't want to stress them out, and you don't want them to accidentally scratch you.

Thank you!! I really appreciate this!! I'm going to save your response and refer to it later!

 

[danteshuman]

And you don't want one cat to learn they can use you to win fights because he run to rescue *giving Salem the stink eye.* Otherwise your kitten will learn to yowl in order to get the upper hand. Cats are smart and great at training their humans.

Salem figured out if he growls I come running to break it up. So sometimes he does things like lying in Dante's spot at the end of the bed, when Dante tries to approach to hang out with me on the bed, Salem growls really loud I had to start resolving it by moving Salem sometimes and re-directing Dante when he is hunting his brother. I guess I'm glad Salem got his confidence up? I would ignore him every time he growls but half the time my punk is hunting him and Salem does not appreciate being Dante's living toy!

 

[vicky271]

And you don't want one cat to learn they can use you to win fights because he run to rescue *giving Salem the stink eye.* Otherwise your kitten will learn to yowl in order to get the upper hand. Cats are smart and great at training their humans.

Salem figured out if he growls I come running to break it up. So sometimes he does things like lying in Dante's spot at the end of the bed, when Dante tries to approach to hang out with me on the bed, Salem growls really loud I had to start resolving it by moving Salem sometimes and re-directing Dante when he is hunting his brother. I guess I'm glad Salem got his confidence up? I would ignore him every time he growls but half the time my punk is hunting him and Salem does not appreciate being Dante's living toy!

Thank you! It's a hard thing to do because Oreo's extremely timid, and vocal, so he squeals and it's heart breaking But we'll keep that in mind.