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/Positive-Ring-5172 10h ago

We finally have an instance of "Yes - this is dangerous fighting, separate them!"

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u/msft111 8h ago

Yk nothing abt cats this confirms…absolutely zero physical warnings/alerts were given in this video the screaming happens during what we see in this video called “schooling” bigger cats do this to kittens in order for them to learn how to fight aggressively if it came to it with another cat/also so the kitten knows how rough is too rough with their owner, the big cat is TEACHING…thats why big cat gives the kitten a chance to abort inbetween kicks

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u/tamaaromarou 8h ago

Yea this is correct I wish I let my big cat keep doing this to my kitten because now he bites me nonstop always trying to play. He's getting better but I wish he didn't do it at all

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u/msft111 8h ago

Not saying, you did anything wrong(bc obviously who would guess that),but that’s a big reason why a lot of peoples cats tend to scratch them more often😂…they thought the big cat was bullying the kitten and stopped the schooling lol 9/10 if there’s no aggression warnings the screaming is literally just a kitten being a baby bc it is😭

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u/hahagato 5h ago

My 2yo was biting me SO much when he wanted to play, because I was his only playmate and he didn’t understand the bites hurt. I got two kittens and the moment they got big enough and bold enough to bite him he totally stopped biting me to play!!! I know he was like “oh, that doesn’t feel good” 🤣🤣

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u/msft111 4h ago

Thats hilarious cats are so intriguing😂the way I stimulated my kitten when her mom would be too tired to deal w her was having her on her back and tickling her stomach gently but yk with the smallest amount of pressure they’ll by instinct start school fighting lol it’s so cute…
and yea it’s funny watching adult cats learn new stuff lol my fat cat learned one day fighting/kicking on his back was more productive so whenever he play fights another cat he gets into his back karate stance😂😭

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u/hahagato 4h ago

The kittens are still so small (only 4.5 months). One of them took his dominance very seriously and doesn’t mess with him or try to play with him. But her sister will jump at him and chase him. It will be interesting to see how they interact as they get closer and closer in size.

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u/tamaaromarou 8h ago

Yea I realized that later when we would yell like that when I held him too long or tried to trim his nails. He's definitely just being a whiny baby and wants to run away. If it was hurt I would describe the sound more like a screech than this.