I have an adult male cat, around 5 years old. About two months ago, I took in a female rescue kitten, about 13 weeks old when I got her, so about 21 weeks old now. Both the rescue organization and Google told me adult male cat and female kitten was not a horrible idea.
It started out well, I kept the kitten in a separate room to begin with and let them get to know each other slowly. Once they got used to each other everything was great for a few weeks. The kitten is extremely energetic, constantly playing and the adult cat was interested and seemed to like her. He would let her do pretty much anything, which included jumping him, chasing him and playing with his tail. He never hissed or swatted her.
However, after a few weeks, it seems like he got fed up with her, or perhaps is now trying to assert his dominance? Now he hisses at her often and sometimes swats her. They don't play together much anymore and he sometimes hisses at her just when he sees her. I've read that grooming is a way of asserting hierarchy, and I noticed that he often tried to groom her but it always ended up in her turning it into a biting/brawl game, which seemed to upset him. I'm thinking that perhaps the adult male cat has not been able to assert his dominance properly and that's why he has turned to hissing and swatting. There have also been some incidents when the adult male cat has not covered is poop and even pooped outside of the litter box. I've read this is also a way of asserting dominance. I had 2 litter boxes to begin with but have now added another one.
I've read that hissing/swatting is normal, I'm just a bit confused because he changed overnight from basically letting her do anything to seemingly being constantly annoyed with her. I should say that they never seem to have any serious fights, and whenever they play/brawl they break it up as soon as someone lets out a loud shriek. And the adult male doesn't actively seek her out to hiss/swat at her. When they are both in sleep mode they have no problems and often sleep together.
Both cats are indoor cats, but the older cat gets to go out on the balcony whenever he wants to. They have both been sterilized.
Is this something I should be worried about, or will they work it out between themselves when the kitten becomes more mature?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/k7y30z/adult_male_cat_and_female_kitten_relationship/
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