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So first , just for a little back round, my wife and I have had cats all of our lives together and before we were together. Even as kids, our families always had cats. We are pretty experienced in cats.
I have posted before about Ozzy, or kitten.....who is now 10 months old. We also have 2 older cats, 5-6 years old. They are rescues and no stranger to cats. However, we got Ozzy at 6 weeks old after rescuing him. My wife and I gave him his own room as we waited until he was old enough to go to the vet to be checked for FIV and other diseases before he was allowed to interact with the older cats. We played with him in there constantly and gave him a ton of toys and he socialized and bonded great with us. Every night, we brought him out in the cat carrier so everyone could sniff each other and be used to the scents so when the big introduction came, it would be easier.
So he got the green light and we started supervised intros slowly. One older cat wasn't thrilled right off the bat, the other was more tolerant. Ozzy was confident little firecracker right away.
He did the usual kitten stuff, pouncing, stalking them....etc
The issue is he always running after them and pouncing on them......starting as playing but gets a little carried away. No blood or bad fighting but he is not learning the rules when they swat him. The older cats are definitely anxious when he is near and they hiss at him. He is relentless with them. When its feeding time in the morning and I am getting the cans opened, he is jumping and running after each cat like a wild cat. Same thing at night when we get home from work. Could it be because cats like to hunt in the morning and at night? Maybe he is practicing his hunting skills?
My older sister took his sibling and she is mellow and lives with 2 other cats and 3 dogs.
He really drives them up a wall and I am wondering when this behavior stops or slows up? We do try to redirect him with a toy when he gets crazy with the girls. He has more toys than you can imagine, 2 cat trees, 5 scratching posts in different parts of the house.
With my wife and I , he is gentle and sweet......with the other cats, it's like open season as soon as he sees them.
He is our first kitten that young......we rescued a 7 month old once that was mellow but never one this young. We always try to rescue older cats. Don't get me wrong, he is not an evil cat or a problem but the balance we had with just 2 cats has been broken. I am assuming he is just being a kitten and needs play. Maybe he does not understand why they wont play with him?
3 cats is our max at any one time, if we only had one cat at the time, we would have kept Ozzy and his sibling together as he would have an easier time.
Unfortunately, since he was away from his mom and littermates at such a young age, he missed out on the all important inter-cat socializing in which he learns what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Your other cats will tolerate it now, but as he gets a bit older they will let him know, in a very direct way, that his behavior isn't appropriate. For now, I would work hard on playing with him- A LOT- so that he is so tired he won't have as much energy left to pester the other cats and hope that he grows out of it and your resident cats teach him the ropes.
Unfortunately, since he was away from his mom and littermates at such a young age, he missed out on the all important inter-cat socializing in which he learns what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Your other cats will tolerate it now, but as he gets a bit older they will let him know, in a very direct way, that his behavior isn't appropriate. For now, I would work hard on playing with him- A LOT- so that he is so tired he won't have as much energy left to pester the other cats and hope that he grows out of it and your resident cats teach him the ropes.
Yeah, that's what we were thinking too. We had no choice, he was born in a garage and a few littermates disappeared(owner of house thinks coyotes since they were spotted near)and the remaining kittens were brought in to the vet where my sister works. I was against a kitten that small with older cats but once we saw him, you couldn't say no No one could. Lol.
Unfortunately the older cats don't tolerate it too well , one of the older cats is submissive and takes the brunt of it. She fights him off but then runs off and that makes it worse. When she is asleep peacefully, he will jump on the bed and pounce on her.....and that never ends well. The other cat will swat him when he comes at her and make her noises but it does not deter him much. Then there are moments where they can all be in the same area together. Sometimes we play with toys with all of them and they are ok with that. He is also slightly bigger then them now.
He can go from a crazy cat to a sweet mush in minutes.
I assume Ozzy has had his neuter surgery, so that should rule out hormones. As already said, he had no momma cat to discipline him when he was very young. Momma will swat & nip their offspring as a teaching tool, but other older & unrelated cats will not (usually), until the kitten is pretty close to being an adult and around a year old or so. So he has basically grown up with no boundaries. I would like to say that at 10 months old Ozzy is very close to being old enough for the others to start being more firm with him. But it depends on their & Ozzys' temperament, and if he is now bigger than they are, they may be afraid of him. Like the previous poster said, play with him as much as you can, and keep redirecting him when necessary. Hopefully some of his overly aggressive play will start to subside in a few months. He's really still a half kitten.
My 3 month olds who are still with their Momma kitty are h-ll on four paws. My two year old Charcoal will wrestle with them, but even he gets tired and heads for his kitty condo for peace.
My 11 year old......one hiss from her and both kittens lie flat on the floor. They KNOW she is Empress of the House and not to be crossed.
It's funny.. my 11 year old was a feral rescue .. less than 4 weeks.... so grew up without her Momma kitty. She was h-ll on four paws when I got her. Wouldn't leave my Dad's old cat alone for two secs. But she grew out of it... and turned into the biggest couch potato cat I've ever owned.
How do I teach an abandoned 6 wk old kitten to be a well-behaved, well adjusted cat?
That would depend on what you consider a 'well behaved & well adjusted cat to be. You haven't given much info here, and many other things can factor in to raising a kitten successfully, such as other pets in the home, your level of experience with cats, your lifestyle, etc.
There are many very knowledgeable people on this forum that can provide you with excellent tips & advice, but would need to know more about your circumstances.
One thing above all else if you are a first time cat parent.... please, please do not even consider de-clawing your kitten. There are many threads here about the long-term negative effects of doing that & I truly hope you're not considering it.
We are all cat lovers here who are eager to help, so if you have questions, ask away.
Welcome to the forum.
I assume Ozzy has had his neuter surgery, so that should rule out hormones. As already said, he had no momma cat to discipline him when he was very young. Momma will swat & nip their offspring as a teaching tool, but other older & unrelated cats will not (usually), until the kitten is pretty close to being an adult and around a year old or so. So he has basically grown up with no boundaries. I would like to say that at 10 months old Ozzy is very close to being old enough for the others to start being more firm with him. But it depends on their & Ozzys' temperament, and if he is now bigger than they are, they may be afraid of him. Like the previous poster said, play with him as much as you can, and keep redirecting him when necessary. Hopefully some of his overly aggressive play will start to subside in a few months. He's really still a half kitten.
Yes, all neutered.I don't think the older cats are afraid of him, just annoyed. We try to redirect him as much as we can and will continue to do so. I'm sure he will grow out of it.......hopefully. Thanks for the information
Orion was probably too young to leave his mom too, he was a big kitten and whoever turned him in either misjudged his age or lied. The shelter told me he was 8 weeks old but his eyes were still blue and his fur hadn't changed. His eyes are the odd green typical of Norwegian Forests and his fur is medium long, he's a big guy, 14 pounds so I can see how someone might have thought he was older when he was a kitten. That said he was a quiet kitten but a kitten nonetheless. I adopted an adult cat with him and he gave her no peace.
She was placid and when she'd had enough of his craziness she would get up on the furniture out of his reach - until he figured out how to leap and claw his way up. Cats are usually self monitoring and as was noted no bloody fights, most are loud at their worst then the combatants go in different directions. In my many years of mixed cat households I've found it's best to let them sort it out. I've never had a cat injure another in my home. I had a stray appear who didn't get along with Orion, both male, the stray was not neutered but Orion is, and although they never got along they never harmed one another. I did get the stray neutered after I figured out he wasn't leaving
When my friend's cat had kittens, he was displaced by the storms, they added a new level of chaos to our cats' lives. The older cats were like, 'what?!' And Orion avoided them while some of the others, we had 3 adult males, were interested in these new additions. As they became bolder they stalked the adults who tolerated them.
Overall I'd say let the cats sort it out unless it gets too loud for you to tolerate, or things start breaking. Cats unlike dogs are very good at self policing. Although my dog is doing a good job of it right now, the puppy is begging her to play and she's doing a great job of ignoring him, I think being raised with cats rubbed off on her!
Thanks for the reply....all of them. Actually, last night when we got home from work, my wife decided to give a longer play workout. She used a toy he loves to chase as she pulls it and she ran all over the house.....after 20 minutes he passed out on the living room floor waiting for his second wind. He just needs more playtime and redirection and he should be fine in the future. We feel bad because he really needed to have another kitten(sibling) along with him to grow with. Kittens and older cats are a tough mix. Had we only had one adult cat when we got him, we would have kept his sister with him but 3 is our max at one time. We had her overnight the day we got Ozzy as my other sister was picking him up in the morning to keep. I have a video of them playing together that night.....very cute.
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No one could. Lol.
