Newly introduced kittens not getting along! Help!

[MJE11]

Hi all,

Any help would be massively appreciated! This maybe a longish post so I apologise in advance!

Around 6 weeks ago we took ownership of a lovely 8 week year old male tabby kitten (half main coon/ British short hair). He’s been brilliant. Settled in perfectly and seemed to be loving life in his new home. He is massively affectionate towards both me and my partner. We were over the moon.

So over the moon that we thought it would be a great idea to get another little kitten as we enjoyed the process so much. So just over a week ago we picked up another 8 week old female black (half Siberian / unknown ). We watched quite a lot of videos on how to best introduce your cats, but in the haste and excitement of bringing her home, we ignored that advice and introduced them pretty much straight away (stupid I know). They fought instantly and we separated them and set up base camp for the new one in the spare room. We have been following the process of setting meal times in-between a door so they can get used to the each other’s smell, and have been slowly moving the food closer. We have also been rubbing each of them with a towel in order for them to both get used to each other’s scent.

We got to the stage where we started feeding them with a slight crack in the door (enough for them to swipe a paw through, but no more). One thing we’ve noticed is that our resident cat seems to completely ignore his food at this stage and is very very focused on her.

Positive signs are there doesn’t seems to be any spiking of fur or raised back/ears going back, so we decided to let them into the same room and do our best to distract them both with toys and praise for good behaviour. The male cat again could not be distracted and continuously makes a beeline for her and pounces usually pinning her down. She also gives as good as she gets and also charges him, so it’s not completely one sided, but he is quite a bit bigger then her and we are terrified he’ll hurt her. We have avoided just letting them work it out and we do separate them, but we are starting to get very stressed as neither of them like being by themselves so keeping them separated is very difficult because of the crying (they cry the second they are left alone in a room). It’s now normal for me and my partner to be in different rooms with both cats of an evening so they are not alone.

Basically we just don’t want them to fight, but we can’t seem to stop it.

The problem is that we are not 100% sure if they are fighting or just playing. There hasn’t been any injuries, or hissing, growing or any typical ‘vulnerable’ behaviour, so sometimes we think they are just playing. But it doesn’t seem to stop, it’s continuous. We break up the ‘fights’ but we’re sure if that’s helping or making things worse. We then put them in separate rooms again.

Here is a brief video of them fighting/playing. Your thoughts on this would be greatly received: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XyYHH ... p=drivesdk


In addition to this, our resident male cat in recent days seems to be very stressed out. He has diarrhoea and has vomited a few times, and also does not seem interested in his food, so the method of feeding them behind a closed door goes out the window as he is not eating and instead is more interested in her. Before we got her we didn’t have any of these issues.

We’re worried that he is very stressed about the situation and that he is attacking her as he is threatened by her. We don’t want him to be stressed and Ill.

We’ve made a few mistakes where the new kitten has used his litter tray a few times and we’re wondering if this is making him feel like his home is being taken from him.

Please help! We just want them to get along!

Thank you.

[Alcolb]

The video you posted are exactly how my 1 year old cat and new 4 month old kitten are. I feel like its too rough for the baby and she sometimes runs away and hides under the bed but then she goes back for more.

Honestly we have just been letting them get on with it but ive distracted them with other toys or sounds when I worry it gets too rough.

Its been a couple of weeks since you posted this so I'd be interested to know how you're getting on with them now