Older kitten biting younger one

[MissCardew]

As title says really - I have a 16 week old kitten and a couple of weeks ago we adopted an 8 week old kitten (both female). We kept them separate for the first few days and have slowly introduced them to each other.

The older kitten started with a lot of hissing and growling and puffiness, that has now stopped but now when allowed in the same room she just makes a beeline for the little one, pins her down by the neck and bites her. She will let go when little kitten squeals but then repeatedly goes back to do it again until I split them up.

The little kitten doesn't seem overly bothered by this and in fact, cries for the other cat when she isn't there but it does all seem a bit savage.

So should I continue to separate them or do I let them get on with it as it's normal kitten behaviour?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

They tend to work it out on their own. Females are more dominant than males, so the elder is establishing the pecking order. It looks more violent than it is, and she obviously doesn't mean harm if she lets go when the little one squeals. They're play-fighting. Have you got a wand toy like a FRlying Frenzy so they can work off some of that energy together in a non-fighty way?

When we first brought the youngest home, I was worried MCat was going to snap his scrawny little neck. No harm came to him, now they're thick as thieves.

Any chance of a photo of your fluffy hooligans?

Flying Frenzy, not Friying Frenzy!

Kittens are tough little beggars though, I've seen cats do it to puppies on youtube too, it's sort of "I'm boss of you" move.

Maybe distract with play like mantra said so it's more interesting than pin down.

Thanks mantra and fluffy for your replies. Hopefully in a couple of weeks little kitten will give big kitten a run for her money! In the meantime I'll try distracting and continue to separate when things get nasty!

Just updating if anyone ever happens to come across this in the future. 3 weeks later kittens are the very best of friends and spend their days playing and snoozing together!

Wonderful news.