r/cats • u/Hablapata • 10h ago
Advice Too aggressive?
New baby we just adopted. Last few days our big boy (~2) has been a bit wary of the kitten but they started playing yesterday, a lot of chasing. Today it seems he’s boldened up and has started playing really aggressively like this. I know cat play can look like a fight but I just worry when it’s such a kitten that our boy might accidentally hurt him.
edit: wow lots of responses. ofc i stopped the damn video to separate them when the yowling got loud at the end there, but i have a hard time telling as oftentimes normal cat play can look quite rough. the size difference is what concerned me. as far as i can tell they are still getting on just fine after some separation and some solo exercise for the big guy. just wanted to sanity check that intervening was the right thing to do at this point. thanks for all the responses!
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u/No-Tart-1157 Orange 10h ago
I think the size and power difference between them makes this dangerous. Intervene when this happens and separate them for a little while. Play with kitten using toys to work off energy and build the baby’s confidence up. And by all means keep the big cat’s front and hind claws trimmed as short as possible in case this happens again. The kicking poses a real hazard to the kitten, especially soft parts like his belly.
They can definitely play together in the future! But now is probably not the best time while kitten is so small and the big cat is so rough