Cat Fight?

hughtron

I searched through the other cat threads, but had some difficulty finding a similar situation to mine.

We have a two-year-old cat, and recently aquired a new kitten. Following instructions and guidelines we'd read, we kept them seperate for the first week or so, but now we're trying to intigrate the kitten into the house.

I've read (and been told) that a certain amount of hissing, sparring and fighting is normal, as the cats determine the 'pecking order' of the house.

But their fighting is killing me. After a few seconds of wrestling, the older cat will grab the kitten and start to rabbit foot. The younger kitten will squeal, and we'll realize what's happening and seperate them again.

Is this fighting normal? How much should we let it happen? A freind of ours has told us to just let them sort it out, and the kitten will be tougher and stronger for it. I'm a little uneasy with that, as hearing the little one squeal or squeak just slays me.

Heir

Our cats rabbit foot each other all the time.

Usually, our older (and weaker) cat tries to start a fight with the younger, more muscular one. Younger cat cries about it, but as soon as older cat starts to fight, younger cat puts the beat down. Older cat cries a bunch, then runs away.


Basically, it looks rough, and our cats cry some, but you will KNOW if cats are really fighting. It's very loud, and very unsettling.

IreneDAdler

Some neighborhood cats fight outside our windows all the time. The first time I heard it, it was the scariest sound I'd ever heard; it sounded like one of them was being skinned alive. Your cats don't sound like they're actually very hostile towards eachother.

Zeromus

Rabbit footing, if I have the right idea of what you're talking about (thumping or repeated kicking with the back legs?) is pretty typical, even when playing with human hands. I don't really think it's something that you really need to be worrying about right now.

Signs you want to look for to tell if a cat is very frightened, angry, or violent:

- Arching of the back, puffing of the tail and back hair, and sideways position. Basically, the cat is trying to make itself look as big as possible.

- Hissing, spitting, ears folded and pressed back. This is killing mode.

- Obvious, but clawing and scratching.

Zeromus

Oh, and yes, they would probably have very high-pitched, screech-like meows. You would know if you heard it.

Heir

Yep. It's more akin to screaming.

Incenjucar

Make sure you're careful about it, personally.

I still have a scar from when our somewhat... bipolar cat rabbit-footed my wrist open.

Looks like emo scars.

Aurin

Zeromus wrote: »

- Arching of the back, puffing of the tail and back hair, and sideways position. Basically, the cat is trying to make itself look as big as possible.

My cats randomly scare the crap out of each other, and that big fluffy tail has to be the most hilarious thing ever.

My cats also wrestle with each other quite often, and do get into the whining and yowling over it. But I've seen angry cats, hissing and loud, LOUD yowls accompanied what they were doing.

The best thing you can do for the little one is offer places for him to hide, my youngest would fight back and forth with the older cat, but was smaller so he could squeeze into places to have alone time that the other cat couldn't get into. :P

aesir

well heres one thing to check, if the big cat is genuinely hurting the kitten, there will be blood, or at least tenderness on the other cats stomach from the "rabbit footing." More likely though is that the older cat didn't have its claws extended and wasn't actually hurting the kitten. So check over the little kitty and see if its ok. Other than that, just yell at your cats when they fight. No that that'll stop em. Nothing really will.

hughtron

Not that any experts have actually recommened it, but 'The Internet' seems to think that unless my kitties sort out their problems through violence, they'll just keep fighting forever.

Zeromus

It is possible that they're playing, which will make it seem like the younger kitten is getting pulverized. My two cats are the same age, and siblings, but one is quite a bit smaller than the other, so whenever they play around she ends up complaining a lot.

Fallout

hughtron wrote: »

Not that any experts have actually recommened it, but 'The Internet' seems to think that unless my kitties sort out their problems through violence, they'll just keep fighting forever.

...what? If they don't stop fighting, they'll keep fighting?

Pheezer

If they don't decide which cat is in charge they'll keep scrapping. That's what she meant.