Older kitten trying to kill young kitten?!?! Help

[Poppymailaw]

Hello, so we have a 13 week old kitten Cleo... and last night we got an 8 week old kitten Cassie (though Cassie looks tiny for 8 weeks)

So Cleo is still young so we though everything would be fine... Cleo has had her jabs and worming and fleaing too!

Cassie has just had her flea and worming and is booked in for her first lot of jabs next week!

So basically Cleo goes up behind Cassie and jumps on her, putting her teeth round her neck... then rolls Cassie in to her back and starts kicking Cassie with her back legs.... (we obviously stopped this as soon as we saw it) but I'm just so confused!!! Like why is she doing it and how do we stop it?

They are both females

All so Cassie hasn't done a wee or poop yet she's been here over 12 hours... and she's eating the cat litter.... she's healthy, playful, fun kitten though, with clear eyes and is eating drinking and cleaning herself... just not sure why she's eating litter and hasn't been to the toilet yet! Help?!

Cleo is the tortie, and Cassie is the tabby and white

She isnt trying to kill her, so dont panic!! She is play fighting and its a really important part of their bonding. They will do this lots through their entire lives, and its just part of being cats. They bond, learn boundaries and will learn to hiss if one of them goes too far. Its fun for them and completely normal. My advice would be to step back and dont intervene at all.

Cleo is play-fighting as she would have done with her littermates - she doesn't have any conception of Cassie being smaller and likely to be hurt.

My last new cat took three days to have a wee or poo!

Are you using the same litter that Cassie had at her previous home?

Not going to the toilet is quite normal for up to 24 hours in a new environment. You can also make sure new kitten knows where the litter is by putting her in the tray or putting her front paws in. But it all sounds v normal to me.

If there's no blood or screaming, then it's play fighting. Mine occasionally go at each other like there's no tomorrow, then 5 minutes later are curled up together asleep.

When I first brought mine home in the middle of the day, they didn't use the tray until the following night.

Our kitten is now 10 months old, he is wary of our 7 year female but he thinks the 8 yr old male is fair game. The kitten launches himself on the cat, biting etc. I try to leave them to it as I know the older boy will sort the kitten out but occasionally I do intervene as the kitten is an arsehole.

Kittens learn through play and being told off by the other cat/kitten. It seems rough at times but generally they know what to do.

@ShadowsInTheDarkness @ScreamingValenta @Allergictoironing @TopBitchoftheWitches

Thank you everyone for your reply!

SHE DID A WEE YAY!!!

I'm just worried because Cassie is literally palm sized and Cleo being rather large for her ages too worries me! Cleo has always been abit bold and feisty going clearing at our hands legs back ect and no letting go!

Cleo got hold of Cassie earlier and Cassie was meowing and squealing but Cleo wasn't letting go! I do agree with you though I think she just wants to play but doesn't understand how tiny cas is!!!

Tried to show in the pictures that's she's palm sized compared to cleo who is a big girl now

If you are worried then keep them apart when you are not about for now. I still keep my older ones away from the kitten when I am at work as I don't trust him to leave them alone and I don't want expensive vet bills !

Cute babies btw 🐱

Off topic but are you quite sure cleo is really 8 weeks old?

When my DH bought our kitten as an eight I knew immediately she was much younger, the vet put her around 5 - 6 weeks.
She also was about the size of a palm.

Cassie I mean

When we got our small cat we also had a huge boy cat, she used to wind him up chasing his tail etc to the point where he’d completely flatten her and kick her head with his back legs, she’d always leap up for more play fighting

I wish my older boy would do this. The older female doesn't take any shit from the kitten who is now the same size as her, she just has to hiss at him and he backs down. The older boy is much more laid back so when the kitten is hurting him I intervene. All are neutered, it is just the older boy won't fight back much.

My two kittens fight all the time - the bigger one was around 8 months and the little one was 3 months when we introduced them. The fighting was initially noisy with ears back but now they are quiet and it seems more playful. They throw themselves at each other and kick like rabbits but there have never been any injuries. The big one also grabs the little one in a headlock and then licks her face . The little one is feisty which helps!

@HelloJackieYouLookNice @Madratlady it's constant though? Like Cleo won't get off Cassie, and we have them separated for now but then I feel like we won't get anywhere!

Not constant. The little one occasionally launches herself at the big one and she just gets this look and the other one walks away . I would say early morning/late evening is when they chase each other like lunatics.

It was more constant at first though before they decided they liked each other but within about 2 weeks that had settled down and now they sleep next to each other and the little one looks for the big one chirping for her which is so cute. It’ll settle down but you are right to keep them separate when you aren’t there if you are worried one will get hurt.