New Kitten And Resident Cat Biting Each Other?

[MegShort]

Hey everyone, I know this is a common topic but I had a few questions. We just adopted our new kitten Pepper exactly 3 weeks ago. He’s 11 weeks old today. Our resident cat Izzy is about a year old.

We did our research on introducing a new kitten and did everything as best as we could. Pepper stayed in a separate room for his first week here, we got Izzy used to his scent and vice versa, then slowly starting introducing them face to face over the next week. Initially they only spent about 20 minutes at a time together under close supervision, then we gradually increased their time together. Izzy was pretty standoffish at first and hissed at Pepper quite a bit, but never tried to attack him or anything.

At this point, they now share the whole house together most of the time except for at night. Izzy’s current attitude towards Pepper seems to be that she is tolerating him, but she’s not exactly friendly either. What worries me a little is that they often jump at each other and bite each other on the throat, belly, ears, and tail. I’m not sure what to think about it, because sometimes it seems playful, and other times it seems quite aggressive. Sometimes these “fights” happen for seemingly no reason, and sometimes it appears that Pepper is just annoying Izzy and she’s retaliating.

I know cats often look like they’re fighting when they’re just playing, but I’m still unsure. I’ve never seen cats biting each other like this before, but I’ve never owned more than one cat before so maybe this is normal? Izzy is often the aggressor, and since Pepper is much smaller Izzy often pins him down on his back and bites his throat/neck. Once in a while, Pepper lets out a yelp when that happens and I usually end up separating them for a bit because I’m concerned Izzy is hurting him. I can’t imagine he’s getting hurt that badly though, because sometimes he starts the “fight” by leaping on Izzy and biting her. Neither of them seem overly agitated when they “fight,” although Izzy’s ears do go flat.

So is this just play or aggressive behavior? Is it a fight for dominance? Should I be separating them when it happens or just let them fight it out, so to speak? Thanks in advance for any insight!

 

[littlecatt]

I had this exact same question when I introduced my resident 2.5 year old cat to my new 12 week kitten! After perusing this site and watching many videos, I can tell you that unless fur is flying or there's blood, it's definitely playing. To put your mind at ease, watch your cats when they play — does Pepper hide from Izzy or hiss at her? The fact that Pepper is also initiating play is a sign that these two are having fun together and Izzy isn't hurting Pepper badly. They're figuring out each other's boundaries, and Pepper is telling Izzy how hard she's allowed to bite. Cat playing looks a lot like mock fighting, and combined with dominance behavior like neck biting, it definitely looks intense! I forgot to text my last cat sitter to give her a head's up, and she texted me in horror that they were wrestling and biting at each other LOL.

All in all I'd say you have little to worry about! As Pepper gets larger he'll be able to stand up for himself more and won't always be the one getting pinned. Even cats that have lived together for a while will still get in scuffs, but even if Izzy steps over the line and bites Pepper too hard, it sounds like Pepper isn't afraid of Izzy and will come back out later ready to play again. The bottom line is that cats are much better at figuring out their relationship and boundaries than we humans are when we intervene. If you separate your cats they'll just learn to rough play when you're not around, rather than not learn it at all. If Izzy wanted to hurt Pepper or if she regarded him as a threat, you'd be able to tell — if you google videos of cats fighting, it looks very different from playing!

Definitely post pictures too! Kittens grow up so fast!