Will my existing cat ALWAYS hate the kittens?

[FreckledLeopard]

So, had existing cat for six years. She was a rescue, so is approximately eight years old (ish - could be older). She has always been a lovely cat - gentle, sweet.

Anyway, in my wisdom, we acquired two kittens (brother and sister) about six weeks ago. They're now around fourteen weeks old, very playful, very cute etc.

From Day One, existing cat has DESPISED them. Hissing, growling, fur standing on end. Tried everything to get her liking them (keeping them separate to start with, introducing their scent to her, Feliway etc). Nothing has worked and she still hisses, spits, swipes and growls at them every time she sees them.

Just wondered if anyone knows if she'll EVER tolerate them, or at least stop making such crazy noises. I have visions of us three years down the line with her still making the same noises. Will she ever begrudgingly realise that they live with us too?

She'll probably settle down - she is the dominant female cat in the house so is just marking her place as The Boss. It's pretty normal behaviour for an older cat tbh when faced with incomers.

How many months should I give her before I start to worry that she'll spend the rest of her life growling and hissing?

I think it took my cat about 9 months in childhood. Same deal, older cat, 2 sibling kittens. Once the newcomers are proper cats & hiss back the older one will give up (sort of). They'll never be friends the way the kittens always will be with each other. :)

My cat was a similar age when we got a kitten - it took her about 6 weeks before she wasn't hissing every time she saw her, followed by about 2 months of actively ignoring her (ignoring her but making it really obvious she wasn't happy that the kitten was in her house) about another 2 months of just normal ignoring her and by the time we'd had the kitten about 6 months she does what she does now, which is mostly tolerate her but with a pained expression, occasionally she will play with her and even more occasionally she'll sleep curled up near her ( I suspect for warmth rather than affection, lol)

The kitten however carried on adoring the car completely oblivious the the fact that it wasn't returned, lol

My cat's pretty laid back about most things, so I suspect the timings would easily be longer with other cats

My cat still reacts that way to her three year old daughter and the boy cat I found as a kitten who's around the same age

She is not impressed at the two new balls of fluff... Neither is her daughter. Boy cat likes them though, he's not sure about being snuggled yet but they're definitely growing on him.

Ours never did.

It was mainly ignore, ignore, ignore with occasional outbreaks of violence.

It's not easy for 4 cats to ignore each other all the time but ours really put their backs into it.