Older Cat attacking Kitten.?

Question

My daughter found a female kitten (we think it's a female) approximately 8 weeks old. She has a 9 year old neutered male & a 6 year old spade female. No problems with the male accepting the kitten but the female Becca, is too aggressive and dominant towards this kitten. I had Becca staying @ my house temporarily a few years ago & she had aggression issues then with my spade female Zoey. Having many cats myself I know that kittens are usually accepted easier by the other cats. I had thought Becca's aggression was because of being @ a strange house, but now I am beginning to think otherwise. Normally she is the most laid back kitty I have ever seen & never thought of her as being an "Alpha" or "Dominant" female. Becca will "stare" or "Pin" the kitten down to keep it in one area. When the kitten ventures out of the room or starts to play w/anything, Becca will chase the kitten down until it is intimidated enough to go hide. There have been a few times, not many though, that they have come nose to nose without a problem. My daughter kept the kitten in another room for about a day when she 1st found it; she only has a 1 bedroom apartment so it's rather hard to give everyone their own room. She has brushed all of them with the same brush transferring the smells to each other and squirted water on the older cat, what else can she do. This poor kitten was terrified when she found her & she is even more scared now.

Please help a thrown away kitten survive in her new home.

Answer 1

Becca isn't necessarily dominant.  Generally same s*x pairings can take more time to develop.  She may be just letting the "intruder" know her status in the household in comparison to her.

You might be able to modify a solution that works for me to your needs.  I crate a new cat until I start to see friendly behavior offered by all established critters.  I have big dogs, cats, foster occasionally so I crate whoever is new.  I've used a large dog crate and set up a litter box, food and water in there for a difficult case.  My latest addition of an 8 month old kitten resolved rather quickly with the use of a small crate and about 4 hours in the big crate until the little girl demanded she come out and join the family.  1 of my established 3 still decided we didn't need no more kitties and I would just gently intervene if he got physical.  I would try to leave the squirt bottle out of it, it may just confirm Becca's belief that the kitten is bad news (she gets punished around the twerp).

The crate seems to help the newcomer feel safe until they get used to their new surroundings.  Another benefit is you can stroke the upset individual in your lap outside the crate, dole out treats if they like them, all the while talking comfortingly about how much they are going to like their new best friend.  It just slows down things a little bit for everybody.