As your cat gets older, it’s essential to monitor his behavior.
He’s prone to various health conditions, such as spinal issues. When his emotions start to affect your work, it’s essential to understand what’s causing his behavior.
You can take steps to prevent him from causing trouble. So, why is my old cat playing roughly with kitten?
As your cat gets older, it’s essential to monitor his behavior. He’s prone to various health conditions, such as spinal issues.
When his emotions start to affect your work, it’s essential to understand what’s causing his behavior. You can take steps to prevent him from causing trouble.
Let’ dive in more!
Contents
Is My Cat Being Too Rough With My Kitten?
If you see your kitten is in bodily pain, get professional help immediately and read our article on safe pet vaccinations to find new information on cat vaccinations and vaccination side effects.
However, cats may sometimes play fight or roughhouse playfully with their kittens and littermates.
Why Is My Old Cat Playing Roughly With A New Kitten?
Kittens and older cats are playful cats; they naturally enjoy playing with one another.
It’s because a cat’s sense of play is instinctual and part of normal feline behavior.
Cats may play rough with one other or other pets or family members such as kittens or dogs, even some cats may bite just when play-fighting as part of the feline game.
Physical harm may occur when an older cat plays roughly with a kitten or with kittens or with dogs or with other cats, but most often, kittens and young cats break easily.
Because cats are born hunters, chasing, stalking, and attacking are natural behaviors for them.
It is inescapable, however, that your cat’s growing kitten may cause him to act out of character.
It’s nothing to be concerned over just yet – but it’s worth noting certain behaviors or actions in your pets and acting accordingly in your cat’s behavior.
Why Does Your Older Cat Keep Biting Your Kitten?
You may have noticed that your cat and kitten have been playing roughly with one another lately.
An elderly cat’s biting habit might develop because he wants to play rough with his kitten or kittens while they are still young.
If your elder cat, on the other hand, is biting or swatting at you or another pet in the household, then it may not be because he wants to play rough with you or your pet playmate.
It applies to elder cats who bite or swat at dogs or humans too or during play-fighting with other animals.
If it’s a tomcat, it’s cat could be bored or depressed or may be acting out of loneliness.
If this occurs often, your older cat may need professional attention.
How Should You Stop Rough Play With Your Kitten?
Misdirection
Misdirection is a harmless technique that helps stop your cat’s habit of rough play for kittens and kittens.
Using another toy or activity to displace playtime with your cat may hinder him from rough-housing with your kitten or kittens since he’s not getting what he wants.
You can distract your cat with toys or games such as the laser light or string toy or with interactive play-giving items or scratch post, etc.
You can use retrospective playtime with your cat; this involves observing your cat’s behavior and playing with him in appropriate situations.
Loud Sound
If that fails, you may make a loud sound to distract your cat from biting or swatting at you or another pet.
This method works because it shocks him and causes him to switch his attention from rough play to attention seeking activity.
Clapping
Clapping your hands together loudly will attract your kitty’s attention and help you redirect him to more appropriate activities.
This will enable you to stop rough play with your kitty or kitty.
Will Your Cat Kill Your New Kitten?
You may be concerned that your older cat might kill your kitten or kittens.
Cats, on the other hand, normally do not kill kittens – and if they do, it is over something rather trivial such as ‘ownership’ or curiosity.
By demonstrating violence, they most often frighten other cats and kittens – a potential problem if you live in a multi-pet household.
Cats, on the other hand, will usually act aggressively toward other cats, or their owners, when being intimidated or threatened.
Giving your senior cat a kitten to play with won’t cure everything, but it will help to make him a kitten-friendly cat.
Local cats may fear that your kitten is an intruder, and your cat may bite her protectively.
Hissing, chasing, snarling, swatting, or biting are signs of aggressive behavior.
They will not, however, kill your kitten or kittens if they are young and healthy and are fed properly.
How to Introduce a Kitten to an Older Cat?
The majority of cats do just fine when a kitten is introduced to their household; however this does take some careful management.
Older cats may welcome new kittens straight away, or they may greet them with suspicion and resist them until they feel more secure.
It’s possible that they never actually took notice of the other cat in the first place.
When this occurs, you’ll usually notice the older cat hissing at the newcomer and swatting playfully with her tail.
Always attempt to keep the peace between the elder cat and the kitten by ensuring that the kitten is kept a safe distance away from the older cat until she becomes used to her.
Allow the elder cat to smell the new kitten; this will help her become accustomed to the new arrival.
After that, put the new kitten in a room with the older one and close the door for a few minutes each day for the first few days, and gradually this can be extended until they’re together all the time.
Allowing the elder cat unsupervised access to the kitten and the house will result in unwanted accidents and problems later in life.
You may start letting them sleep in the same area or using a baby gate to keep them apart, but it’s safer to leave the kitten in a different room until you’re sure they’re getting along well with one another.
Also Read: What Do Maine Coons Like to Play With?
Conclusion
As a possible solution, you can try training your cat to avoid rough play by using positive reinforcements.
These techniques include giving treats and pets when your cat doesn’t try to play rough and ignoring him when he does that.
If the problem persists despite training, you can seek advice from a professional cat behaviorist for assistance.
If you’re unable to resolve the problem on your own or your cat’s behavior gets worse over time, don’t hesitate to take him to your vet for medical treatment as soon as possible.
