Need to know if behaviour from my older cats is normal towards my new baby kitty

Question

About 3 yrs ago a stray cat showed up on my doorstep . I took her in and she had kittys 2 weeks later so i kept her and a kitty (found good homes for the other 2 ) about 3 weeks ago my bro found on his property 3 kittys their eyes were still blue so i took them in and weaned them to solid food etc and decided once again to keep a kitty my question is this my first 2 cats the kitty i kept that time was a male they both are now spayed and neurtred and the kitty i have just kept is still to tiny my vet and I have calucated his age tto be aprox 7-8 weeks ..I first intruduced the new kitty to others by scent ...brought out of the room i was using as a nursery for the baby kittys a blanket and put once each on the spots in the house where my other kittys liked to sleep then after a day or too introduced the lile one to the big ones (have a dog also but she and and kittys are fine she loved tthem from the start cleaned and nuzzled them etc ...)the mommy stray she hissed and will run from him but i wasnt to alarmed she was a stray and i dont know for how long and am truely amazed about how far she has come and she will also hiss at her own off spring my other cat the male now the male sniffed the baby wasnt to impressed but never really did much first cpl days he would run from the baby but the last 5- days or soo he will greet the lile one with a purkkkkk noise and sniff him and l**k him but he wouldnt play with him but not tonite he has started sumthin that i dont know if it is normal behaviour or not ...we have caught the male greeting the kitty nuzzling him then he will try out of nowhere to pick him up by the neck and carry him off ...i havent let him go where he wants cus i am a little nervous cus i read sumwhere that a male cat will if given the chance shake a baby male kitty by the neck until he dies is this true when the older male does this obviously the lile one doesnt like his legs flail cus he doesnt want to be restrained and he makes noises like he is restrained ...but the older mail doesnt show any aggression is it just being sly or is he just trin to be a mommy to the baby kitty and want to take it away by the scuff of the neck to protect it ...should i be concerned ???please if anyone has any idea can u let me know

Answer 1

I had a hard time understanding your question because it seemed like one never-ending run on sentence. I didn't read anything that sounded bad. If there's no fighting then you don't have a problem. Hissing is totally normal when an intruder is brought into their territory. Just keep supervising them.  

Answer 2

I'm a little confused but it sounds like there's nothing serious going on.

Some intact adult male cats will kill small kittens to get the mother to go into heat again, but that shouldn't be an issue for your situation.  Lots of male cats will mother kittens.  My five year old boy allows the little one we found to try to nurse on him and bathes him regularly.  And when that 5 year old was a kitten he used to try to nurse on my older male cat who allowed it too.

As long as the kitten isn't upset, I wouldn't worry.  Our smallest one was found at around 5 weeks old and has been playing rough with the other kitties since shortly after he got here.  He will squeal every once in awhile when they get a little too rough but he seems generally happy to play and starts most of the play sessions himself.  

Answer 3

I'm not sure I understand the entire issue - the post was kind of long and it was hard to concentrate. Anyhow, just be careful with the new kitty around the others, because we don't know what cats are thinking and there are cases where older cats have killed kittens. I don't think it is a matter of male/female. Our latest cat, a 3 y/o female rescue who had several litters before she was adopted, hates kittens but is OK with adult cats.

Answer 4

I have had this happen on several occaisions. Cats have very different personalities. Some are very social, and some are more loners. Many females tend to avoid young kittens that do not belong to them simply because they do not want to get into a fight with the kitten's mother. As the kitten gets to be a little older, the Female cat may become more accepting of it. Male cats (especially neurtered males) can tend to take on what I like to call a "doting Uncle" role, where they will play with, wash, and sleep with the new kitten. These are all normal behaviors of the very complex domestic feline.

Answer 5

I really don't think you should panic. :)

Clearly, your male cat is exhibiting maternal insticts and is trying to protect and care for the kitten. Also, a male cat will only attack a kitten which is not his offspring if he is involved in territorial fights and would want to wipe off kittens that doesn't belong to him. In your case, I highly doubt this is likely.

Continue to monitor the situation. If your male cat has not been aggressive towards the kitten (hissing, paw swipe, growling, staring), then he is just a great surrogate mom/dad. Otherwise, they will need to be separated.

Also, I hope you didn't intentionally separated baby kitty from the stray mom. If she comes back to claim her kitten, you might want to think about adopting her although being a feral, it would be quite difficult for her to adapt. The best thing for you to do is to trap her and get her spayed so she wouldn't continue on producing unwanted offspring.