New kitten annoying resident cats

[GorgeousLadyofWrestling]

I have two 2 year old cats and a recently acquired kitten. The older two are female and the kitten is male. I didn’t actually intend to get a kitten but nobody wanted him and I couldn’t NOT have him in that situation ❤️

The girl cats are totally settled - we’ve had them since they were 12 weeks. They’re sweet cats and so is the kitten but obviously he’s a bit mental at the moment. He’s 4 months and due to be neutered mid September. We’ve had him for for about six weeks.

He harasses them quite a lot. When he’s not trying to play fight with them, they’re pretty tolerant of him - will eat and rest next to him. But obviously he’s a baby and cannot help himself - that play instinct is so strong. The problem is I think his play is stressing them out. They react very seriously with hissing and growling.

I’m not sure of the best approach. Sometimes we shut him in the front room with us so the girls can chill out somewhere else in peace. They are outdoor cats and I don’t want them to start viewing their home as a place of stress. But I also question whether they should just be sort of putting him in his place a little - like establishing dominance and maybe he will give them some respect and peace?!

I bought the Feliaway for introducing new cats to each other but I don’t know if it’s helped or not. I’m hoping after he’s been neutered and is old enough to start going out, he will chill a bit. We play with him and entertain him and play fight with him as much as possible but are keeping him inside until he’s neutered and old enough.

I’m just worried about my older two but I am a bit precious over them, tbf 😂 I don’t want them stressed. They’re out all the time at the moment - for one this would be normal anyway but the other one is a bit lazy and wouldn’t normally be out so much.

Get another kitten. Seriously, kittens should come in pairs so they play together and learn how to be cats without annoying the older ones

Apologies apologies, forgot to add pics 😂

@Costacoffeeplease i thought about that but despite having acquired one, kittens are actually hard to get hold of where we live. I also don’t want to further stress out the older two. Plus I don’t think I could persuade DH to get another 🙈

It would be much easier all round. I volunteer in animal rescue and have had up to 18 cats at a time, and always have more than one kitten

Sorry I don't have any advice but I'm following to see what others say as I'm about to be in a similar situation. I have one older female and we're about to adopt a kitten but I'm considering a pair since it seems the advice is to have a playmate for the kitten so the older cat is not constantly harassed.

I think your approach of having some separate spaces for your older cats makes sense so that they have somewhere to chill without the kitten bothering them.

Yeah @Macaronnotmacaroon if this had been an intentional adoption thing, I would definitely have set out to get two kittens. He does need someone else like him to play with.

Do I just have to keep trying to manage the situation until he’s older and neutered/ calmed down. The other two are still very loving towards us and get lots of special attention and treats and generally being spoiled away from the kitten.

Do you have a fishing rod toy? They always love those and 10-15 minutes will tire him out quite well. I also have the marble run type games to keep them occupied

That is really tricky. Long term unless you own a very big house and garden where you can keep the cats seperate, you need a plan to rehome him.

You mention dominance. The problem is you’re thinking like a human. In the animal kingdom, a younger male will always dominate older females. Look at lion behaviour. A female can have her own family but if a young male arrives he will kill her cubs and make the female hunt for him and she just accepts gim as the boss and does it. She doesn’t challenge the lion for dominance.

Even with domestic cats, a strong male kitten may chase away his mother from their territory once he’s mature.

It would be highly unusual for a female cat to dominate a male. I think maybe gorillas might sometimes. But not cats.

I’m not going rehome him. I promised the person that needed me to take him that he wouldn’t be passed around and rehomed.

Everything I have read about cat behaviour indicates that the sex of the cats is not impactful on the success of accepting each other.

I cannot wait for him to be neutered as those hormones are likely contributing to territorial and play drives and in addition, him being able to go out will make a huge difference. I do agree about them having the space they need, which they do.