cat keeps growling at kitten

Question
"Hopefully you can help me with this, I have a 6 year old female spayed cat that has always been really moody and can turn on you in a second, but can also be loving. About 3 months ago I brought in a stray kitten, a girl and had her fixed. The only interaction they have is the older one chasing the kitten and hissing and spitting. Recently however my Caddy who is the older one has been constantly growling and attacking Lily my kitten. It comes out of the blue and I don't know why. I know they'll never be best friends but I want them to get along. I can tell all the kitten wants is to love on Caddy but she wont have that. She's a real bully to Lily. Caddy has also started being nasty to me when Lilys around. She'll love one me one minute and the next, she'll turn around and bite and scratch me so hard I bleed. Is there anything I can do to help this situation? I want both my girls to be happy and have a nice home but I feel like they're not getting it b/c ones always angry and the other always scared and bullied."


Answer
Hi
having two cats of such different ages and of the same sex can be a very difficult situation. Basically your female cat is feeling very threatened by the arrival of this younger female cat and is acting aggressively because she feels so insecure.

The only thing you can try to do is to go back to step one and start to introduce the two cats to each other in small doses and under supervision. See my link for my page about introducing cats at the bottom of this e-mail.
However you may find that the situation never really becomes harmonious and that they end up just tolerating each other. All depends if your 6 years old can relax enough about the situation and feels secure once again.

Sorry i couldn't give any guarantees

Best wishes

Kate
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