Will they ever get on?

[maidmarian2012]

DP and I recently adopted an orphaned kitten, he was tiny and being kept in a cage on a farm. We carried on hand rearing him (as staff at said farm had been doing) and he's doing really well.
He is 2 month old now (He was 1 month old when we took him in) and can use his litter tray, is playful and eats well.
We have a lovely old male tabby also, but he absolutely detests our new kitten :( older tabby is in excellent health (He is 13) and will not have the kitten near him. He is not nasty to him, but will not tolerate him and "bats" him away with his paw.
He spends as little time in the house as possible and cries to be let out.
The kitten just wants to play, but older cat ignores him.
When we brought the kitten home we made a huge fuss of old cat, and make sure they both get fussed equally, so he is not jealous of the kitten.
Will they ever be friends? They will eat together now, but I long for the day when they're snuggled up in front of the fire together.
Anyone have any stories or advice? Many thanks x

He's only biffing him so that may be as good it gets - that actually is toleration from an older tom. They're eating together after all.

But the weather is wrong for snuggling up anyway. Your older cat may just want to be out strutting his stuff in the summer breeze. Give it some time and wait for the colder weather.

Well done for taking the kitten in - 4 weeks is so young

the age difference is like putting a pensioner and a teenager in the same room as the kitten gets a bit older and calmer the older one will probably chill out more

We introduced a kitten to 2 older cats last year - one cat actively hated the kitten, and a year later seems to actually quite enjoy chasing games with him. The other cat had more of a mild dislike, and now just completely ignores the kitten. So they've sorted it out to an extent - but it took quite a while, certainly 6 months or so.

Thankyou everyone, appreciate your replies. Yes, the older cat is i suppose tolerating him. They are both on the sofa eyeballing one another at moment x

Well I don't now what the weather has been like with you over the last fortnight, say, but until today, we've had tetchy humans and tetchy cats both - with the heat and stickiness. I wouldn't judge anyone on just that.

As I said - give it some time. If older cat is just eyeballing him, it actually sounds fairly promising to me. Maybe they won't end up the best of mates but as long as they just about get on, I reckon that's good enough. Anything else would be a bonus.

Best of luck.

We got two kittens just over a year ago and our 7 year old tabby continues to loathe them both. She avoids them as much as possible and hisses at them daily. Very, very occasionally she will groom the you g female cat but will never ever curl up with the boy.

So whilst sometimes cats may get on, don't bank on it

Kittens are so annoying to older cats though, especially boys.

I think the older cat is just letting the kitten know who is boss, as the kitten gets older it might change.

My childhood cats had strict rules about who was talking to who.

Thanks everyone, your little stories are making me smile, my kitten is extremely playful and is really quite brave (he was born feral) and thinks nothing of occasionally pouncing on older cat, thinking its funny!!
I feel a bit more confident of them living in harmony :)

thanks for the replies, you're all great on here. x

Just to add another affirmation- I have 3 cats and the best I can get is two cats on the same lap which only lasts for a few minutes. They are happiest when they have my undivided attention and would rather take it in turns than sleep next to each other. It's funny because if one has been on my lap for a while and another approaches, the original cat leaves and new cat takes up the prime lap spot. And this rotation system can go on for hours.

I feed mine treats etc out of one bowl to keep encouraging them to go near each other.

Our older cat has learnt to tolerate the younger one we got as a kitten, he had no sense of personal space and would sneak up on her and try and touch her tail! They now are at the stage where they can sleep on the same bed about 2 foot apart,but he will still try and go up to her if they are in th e lounge together and try and give her a hug/kiss! She tells him to piss off quite clearly!

We found a kitten about 18months ago (vet said he was about 7 weeks old) and brought him home to two dogs and a 17 yr old cat.

For the first few weeks old cat actively despised the kitten, spat at him, growled at him and batted her paws at him.
Kitten was undeterred, he would run and jump on her, pinch her food, swing off the dogs leg or tail etc.

We made extra fuss of the old cat, kept telling kitten not to jump on her by lifting him off saying no and putting him on the floor next to her and stood over them when they were fed to make sure they only eat their own food.

Now, they get on OK, occasionally can be found licking and cleaning each other but have only once cuddled up and slept together (when kitten came home from the vets after the snip, he went straight to her).
Old cat will sometimes play with kittencat but he uses up most of energy going outside/up the trees/over on the field so doesn't bother her so much now.