New Kitten Displaying Defensive Agression To Older Cat.

[eddie87]

I have a one year old neutered male cat. He was a rescue from the streets at a very young age (6 or 7 weeks) found alone outside our apartment block. He's quite a big softy and generally affectionate. We have just adopted a second rescue of a 10-12 week female who was hanging outside our place of work. She is very good with us and loves to be petted and handled. Our big cat didn't take it well at first but over the course of a few days of scent swapping and visibility without contact, he has settled down.

Our big cat now seems mostly curious and wants to play with her. The problem is that she freaks out at his presence completely. He will approach her and she makes herself small, hisses and will try to lash out. The bigger cat is not responding to her aggression and will leave her alone for a while and then come back to try again, receiving the same treatment. She's a little jumpy and we only put them together with us around to mediate although this is more so protecting the bigger cat who is suffering for his curiosity! We regularly rub him with a damp cloth and then her to continue the scent swapping. She has a large cage with her own food, water and litter and half is covered to give her some privacy. This is her space and we use it to keep them apart when we're at work and at night.

I'd love to know whether anyone would have any experience in this situation. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? We've only had her a week so we know it's still very early days. We're over the moon with how well our big cat has adapted. I know he must be intimidating to a kitten but he's displayed minimal aggression to her after a jumpy first meeting.

 

[ArtNJ]

Its really rare for a kitten that young to take very long to adapt to a big cat. Your likely still at the nervous stage after a week because some of those days were part of the full introduction and are going slow (which is fine!) by isolating at night and such. Kittens that young are super-adaptable and I've never heard of a kitten that young having a long term problem with a bigger cat. I think that whatever you do, the problem will take care of itself with time.

Good idea for a nervous kitten to have a safe space, but the big cat won't really hurt the kitten, so if your house is kitten proof, you can certainly leave them together if your running to the store, and in a little bit, even at night.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

So far, you are doing it all right, and it is just going to take more time. One additional thing you might try is dabbing a bit of REAL vanilla extract on BOTH cats. That will sometimes do the trick when nothing else has. That said, you aren't doing badly at all. Yes, kittens do adapt fairly quickly, but a few days is still only a few days. She had a rough start, and may well have been bullied and chased away from food sources by bigger cats while a stray. Give her a chance to know that YOUR cat won't harm her, and that there will always be food for both of them.