Kitten afraid of new kitten

[ljh516]

I adopted a 3 month old male kitten, when I first adopted him I was torn on geting 1 or 2 kittens, I walked away with just one but i ended up regretting it so I adopted a second kitten who is the same age about a month later.

My first kitten was very friendly and playful, he never seemed to want to calm down. The second kitten is also very friendly and playful but is a lot calmer. we introduced him to the new house and then to the kitten slowly and he relaxed very fast. but my first kitten is terrified of him. he doesn't even play anymore, the second kitten hasn't done anything to him to make him afraid of him. My first kitten runs and hisses and cowers from everything now. Even after i put them in separate rooms for a break he was still hissing at his own shadow.

What can I do to get him not to be so afraid and to go back to his usual crazy self?

[special]

Hello and welcome to pet lovers! Don't worry, all it takes is time. Eventually kitten 1 will forget that kitten 2 was never not there

How long has it been since you brought the new baby in?

You can help things along by getting feliway plug in diffusers, and exchanging smells, by rubbing something that smells like you on one kitten, then the other. Put this shirt or whatever under kitten #1's food dish so the kitten will associate all the smells with something good.

Make sure you have some vertical spaces for the kittens to get up on.

In a room with a vertical space, sit on the floor with both kittens in the room. Engage in play with whichever kitten comes around first. The other kitten may start to play too, forgetting for moments at a time that he hates kitten #2.

The feliway plug in diffuser will help a lot. Plus....if they are not neutered, getting that done will help, too.

What are their names?

[ljh516]

They seem to be doing much better now, they aren’t best friends yet but now I definitely have hopes that they will become good friends.

The first kitty is a black and white tuxedo kitten names Kratos and the second kitty is a mostly white kitten with orange ears, an orange dot on his back and an orange tail, his name is Achilles. I've had Kratos for a little over a month and Achilles for a little over a week.

I started feeding them in the same room and moved them closer each meal since they seemed all right with it. The food definitely made my first kitten get courage to be near him, he loves to eat! The other thing that also helped was giving them treats, I would sit on the floor and slowly coax him to me while the other kitten was near me and give them both treats that seemed to help him not be so afraid of coming near the kitten.

I also have a small adult poodle mix names Coka, and she actually helped make them closer, she is a very friendly dog and both kittens are good friends with her, they both cuddle with her and play with her, and my first kitten got very interested when he noticed that the new kitten was playing with my dog. He would timidly go up to them but he wouldn’t really join them but it did give him the idea that they could play together.

So now only a few days later they will eat in the same bowl and they both will lie on me together, but they haven’t laid together on their own yet and they chase each other, I feel like its getting more playful then aggressive though, at first I felt like the chasing was very aggressive, especially on my first kittens part because he would growl and hiss but now he’s not hissing so much and they will stop playing and lay down to look at each other, so it seems like they are getting along a lot better.

Thanks again for your help, I have good feeling that their relationship will just keep improving.

[special]

You're welcome! thanks for the happy update, I'm glad to hear things are working out so quickly!

Keep in mind when you see them tumbling and chasing that many cats are very vocal when playing. A lot of hissing and growling may not mean much. Unless you see fur flying, or injuries on either kitten, you can probably assume it's play. They will let each other know if one is being too rough with the other.

Get them used to having their paws handled now so you can trim their claws every few weeks. This will help prevent any inadvertent injuries during rough play. I can help with that (nail trimming) if you need it.