cat trouble

[Dman]

Does anyone have any tips.We have a female cat, she is about 6yrs old, we decided to get a male kitten he is now 11wks old, we have had him now for about 3wks.The older cat is growling,spitting and hissing at the young one at every meeting, this does not seem to be frightening the little one, in fact he chases the big one all over the place.The older cat has hit him a few times but nothing serious.We have been giving our older cat plenty of attention but on occassion she has even growled at us when we have gone to pick her up.
Is this normal behaviour at this stage and does anyone have any tips they could give us to help this situation as we are worried that we may not be able to keep the kitten and this would upset us terribly as we have got very attached to him already, thankyou.

[Liz]

This is normal behaviour and should hopefully settle down soon.

However, you might like to try a product called Feliway which can really help in this kind of situation.
You get it as a plug in and it releases pheromones which relax cats and is helpful for any stressful situation such as a new arrival.
Have a look on the internet. The cheapest place I could find for Feliway was www.vetuk.co.uk

Good luck!

[Dman]

Thankyou very much Liz I will try that, much appreciated:D

[KCI]

Try not to worry too much. I have an old female cat in her 20's, and a young male cat aged 6. When our young cat first moved in 6 years ago, the older cat hated him! She wouldn't even come into the same room for the first couple of weeks - she just stood there growling and spitting at him! He was scared of her, and she did beat him up a few times, before I could stop her!

But she did get used to him gradually. I'm not going to say they are the best of friends all the time, even now, but she has played with him in the past, and she does wash him sometimes!

Give it some time, and maybe they will get used to each other. Try Liz's suggestion, and hopefully it will help.

[Liz]

You are very welcome!

Hope it works and that harmony will be restored!:lol: Even if they never become close your older cat should, hopefully, learn to tolerate the kitten.

One of my cats still hisses occasionally at my youngest cat but just a sharp 'No'!!! stops him.

If things don't improve get in touch with me as there are other things you can try.

[Dman]

Hi Liz, I've been on that site and gone ahead and ordered some of that Feliway, I read some of the reviews and they were all very encouraging, it looks a very good site, thanks again.:)

[Liz]

Hi Liz, I've been on that site and gone ahead and ordered some of that Feliway, I read some of the reviews and they were all very encouraging, it looks a very good site, thanks again.:)

Have had a lot of success with Feliway from introducing new arrivals to cats spraying so, hopefully, this will help in your situation as well.
Let me know what happens.