new kitten and older kitten/cat fights

Question
Hi Kalla,

Just a quick question about my two cats. I have a 6 month old desexed female
burmese whom we have had since she was about 10 weeks old. Recently we
adopted a 9 week old male burmese kitten as we were concerned about
leaving the older cat alone during the day.

My concern regards the 'fighting'/play beahviour between the two. I am
attempting to keep the kitten quarantined for at least another week, however
the two cats have met on a couple of occasions. Sometimes the older kitten
will sit outside the closed door and slip in as soon as it is opened. She will
almost immediately pounce on the younger kitten and wrestle with it - there
is a lot of neck biting/hugging and kicking involved. The younger kitten will
display submissive behaviour but still ends up being beaten. As there is
minimal growling or hissing I have tried to stay out of it but it seems quite
rough. I have been breaking up the fights when the younger kitten begins to
yowl or hiss and generally I try to limit the contact the cats have with each
other at least for now.

My first question is how much is too much? When should I break up the
fighting and when should the cats be left to their own devices? I sometimes
feel that the older kitten really doesn't understand when enough is enough
and will pursue the little one quite doggedly.

My other question is how best to break up the fighting when needs be. I don't
want to make the older cat feel like she has been maligned or her security
jeopardised but mostly I just end up pulling her out and taking her out of the
room.

Okay - enough verbosity from me. Thanks again -  I will be interested to hear
what you suggest.  

Answer
Hi Carrie,

Congratulations on the new kitten! Burmese are such lovely cats.

You are doing the right thing keeping them separated for now- I would strongly suggest keeping them apart for at least another couple of weeks given the size difference. Nine weeks is quite young.

Something that I think will help- try getting the cats familiar with each others scent.. rub a towel on kitten, then rub it on cat, so on and so on.. by mixing their scents it will help them become more familiar with each other and less stressed when they do meet. Another good trick- if you have a shower with glass doors (see through) try feeding them at the same time- put kitten in the shower behind the glass door, then feed cat outside the door. Cat will then associate kitten with positive things (like food!;) )

You are totally right about not having cat feel maligned- she needs to know she is top cat, that will be part of why she is acting this way. It's good that kitten understands he is second in the 'pecking' order. When they fight, if it looks like it is getting out of hand, I would separate them by taking kitten away rather than cat. This will keep her dominance intact and hopefully decrease the behaviour.

Good luck, I hope they're cuddling soon!