6 year old cat biting on kitten

Question
We adopted a 10 week old kitten from the humane society and brought her home to our apartment with our 6 year old male cat.  I didn't think to look into how to introduce cats as our cat (Crookshanks) has been acting lonely for a companion.  Obviously I was wrong.  After a few days of the occasional hiss, we now have them out together which is usually no big deal.

The only problem we're having is that our older cat will occasionally bite the back of our kittens neck.  It doesn't appear to be mean-spirited, but it certainly is a bit rough.  If this a dominance thing?  An invite to rough house?  Is this behavior that we need to continue to keep a close eye on or is it just cats being cats?

Answer
Brett,


It is important that you know that cats are territorial and they tend not to like change very much. I generally recommend a period of isolation around 2-3 weeks behind a closed door for the new kitty. The isolation period serves a couple of purposes, it is a quarantine period so that if the kitten has been exposed to any contagious viral or bacterial infections they aren't passed on to your resident cat and the isolation period gives you time to find out what normal behavior is for the kitten as well as giving Crookshanks time to get used to the idea of sharing his territory with a new cat. Male cats will actually kill kittens in order to mate with their mother sooner. If Crookshanks isn't neutered then I would be very alert for any signs that things are getting too rough. It is possible for an adult cat of average size to really hurt a young kitten. The biting of the back of the neck could be a few things, it may be that the older cat is trying to assert dominance over the kitten, if he isn't neutered he may be trying to mate with the new kitten. It is important that you know that cats are induced ovulators which means that unlike many other species they don't actually ovulate until they have been mated. If both cats are spayed/neutered my suspicion is that the issue is dominance related and that can get out of hand reasonably fast. I do recommend that you follow the normal introductions so that Crookshanks and the kitten will have the best chance at becoming good friends. Also, the kitten should be eating kitten food rather than adult food where Crookshanks is almost needing to eat foods formulated for senior cats. It is also a good idea to thoroughly kitten proof your home so that the kitten doesn't get into anything that she shouldn't. I hope that you have found this information helpful. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me again.