Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hello all! I’m completely new here but I’m hoping that some of you lovely people can maybe help me out and give me a bit of advice or share you similar experiences and how you handled them. Bear with me as I’m sure that this will be quite long, but I want to give the full picture.

We have a little kitten who is about to reach 6 months this week and a few days ago we brought home an 8 week old kitten. We originally wanted to get two from the same littler to make things a whole lot easier, but our little Pickle (6 month old) was unwanted so we took her straight in and have now got her a new baby sister! I’m after some advice with regards to socialising them as all of the advice I have found online doesn’t seem to relate to the situation we are currently in regarding their interactions.

My husband holds the old-fashioned view of ‘leave them together and they’ll sort it out’, but I understand that this isn’t the best way to go. When we first brought Norma home, my husband tried to introduce the two together and Norma was met with lots of hissing and growling from Pickle (our resident kitten). Norma seemed fine with this and just carried on exploring. We also did some scent swapping and kept Norma in the carrier for a little while, and all seemed fine. We kept them apart overnight and the next day, Pickle had mostly stopped hissing and tried to play with Norma. But as Norma was so terrified of Pickle from the day before, she kept hissing at Pickle whenever she put her paw on Norma! (Pickle’s claws are kept in when ‘tapping’ Norma and it must be play as when she’s happy to see me or tries to initiate play, she always taps her paw on my cheek which is exactly what she’s doing with Norma.)

Today is the third day and they seem to be taking the hissing in turns (one will hiss at the other every time contact is made for an hour or so, then the other way around). I bought Pickle lots of ‘big girl toys’ in preparation for any conflict or jealousy so that she then has them to play with. This morning I put together her cat tree and gave it to Pickle who was so happy with it! I held Norma the whole time to try and teach Pickle to associate this new big toy with Norma (trying to make her think that Norma is a positive thing) and she did really well. It was their first meeting today as we keep them apart at night and when unsupervised and Pickle didn’t show any aggression towards Norma, she just tried to get her to play too! Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Norma.

Every time Pickle comes too close to Norma, Norma hisses which then provokes Pickle to hiss and growl. It’s now got to the point where it’s happened so many times that Pickle is now growling or hissing first (when she taps Norma) as I think she’s trying to pre-empt Norma’s unfriendliness! I think that Pickle is also getting a bit fed up because she is making an effort to play and Norma isn’t. I can see that Pickle is trying, because she does run around looking for Norma, but I’m worried that as Norma is so scared, we’re going back to square one! I did also read somewhere that if a tiny kitten like her gets hissed at by a bigger cat, they are then frightened of them for life!

I have been rewarding the girls with treats for all of their ‘meetings’ – If they both growl or hiss, neither of them get a treat. If neither of them hiss or growl, they both get treats. And if one hisses/growls and the other does nothing in response, they then get a treat. To a certain extent, this does seem to be working. Their ‘meetings’ only last a few seconds as Pickle then runs off and plays by herself as normal, and then comes back to try again. They are perfectly ok in the same room with supervision, especially when Norma is asleep on the sofa as Pickle just runs around like normal. Yesterday Norma was asleep on the sofa and Pickle sat on the armchair watching, but then fell asleep herself so they were definitely getting there.

I’m just worried that we’re now back to square one as when Pickle taps Norma, either Norma will hiss (sometimes causing Pickle to hiss) or Pickle will hiss and growl as she taps Norma which then makes Norma hiss back! I’m sure they’re fine and I know it takes time, but if anyone has any tips on how to make Norma less scared of Pickle, or how to make Pickle be more patient or less rough (she often creeps up from some distance and surprises Norma) with Norma, that would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry this is so long, but I couldn’t find anything online that suggested how to stop the new kitten hissing at the resident kitten so would love to hear any similar stories or tips on how to stop her so that they can start to positively interact! Thank you

Hi there and welcome

I don't think you need to worry too much - the hissing and growling is absolutely normal - everything's strange at the moment, new experiences, smells, everything, for both of them, and this is how kittens respond to something new in their life. I once brought home a kitten who decided to sleep on my shoulder the first night. If I only moved a tiny bit, she hissed - but didn't budge from my shoulder! It was as if she was saying, 'you're strange and I don't know you yet but all the same I'm staying on your shoulder!' She grew into the most loving cat.

I've also seen tiny kittens fluff up and growl and, walking crabwise, menace adult cats - and the adult has backed down lol. Kittens will always try it on!

Your two sound halfway there; in effect they're exchanging mock threats, just as, soon, they'll be mock-fighting - they'll roll each other over and squawk and carry on and chase each other round - but you'll always find them together. I don't think there's any fear of them traumatising each other - in fact I think it's just what they both need to make their lives complete, a 'sister' to play with and cuddle up to. Cats are social animals.

The only thing I wouldn't do, personally, is give one cat a treat and not the other; I'd keep them equal, but perhaps this is just me being sentimental!

Other people on here will have more tips on settling them in but hope this helps for now and congrats on the new arrival and all the best for many happy years ahead!