My little toasty loooves his big brother!!..a little too much sometimes! looking for some advice!
My little guy, Baby, was adopted a little over 4 months ago from a hoarding situation w/ neglect and 40 other cats involved. He developed an affinity for other cats, and is a little fearful of people, although he’s warmed up to me a lot, he still thinks his big brother is the absolute coolest thing that has ever existed. He’s like the obsessed girl in the new movie Obsession level type obsessed lol. Baby could be dead asleep and Floki (resident oldie), could just think about moving to go into a different room & Baby’s eyes will shoot open and Baby is immediately glued to his side.
Floki definitely gives off warning grumbles, but also Floki does initiate play, and the two do cuddle. I can tell though that when I’m away from work, a full day of kitten glued-to-side is a lot for him, and he will swat and grumble at Baby by the time I get home. I have made sure Floki gets wind-down time away from the kitten daily, and we go on long walks in his stroller (sometimes up to 2 hours), just for Floki time. Floki used to be able to jump on all his high perches to get away, but Baby has figured out how to jump now and so nothings off-limits.
I’ve started trying to clicker train Baby to give Floki space, as the biggest issue is that Baby will try to get into the litter box with Floki whenever he goes, or he’ll put his nose in Floki’s butthole while he’s pooping, or play with his tail while peeing which causes Floki to hiss and lift his tail and run away and get pee everywhere :(. I can tell this especially stresses Floki (obviously!!), and by the end of some days Floki is so irritated and done with Baby that he grumbles even when he hears the pit pat of Baby’s feet on the carpet a room away.
When I’m home, I try to help Floki out by reinforcing his boundaries and giving him space when he grumbles by clicker training although I think that’s going to be a longer process, but does anyone have any suggestions to help Baby understand he needs to give space/ how to make him more independent and not so obsessed with Floki’s every movement??
I have some puzzle feeders and a snuffle mat on the way, and I play with Baby for multiple hours a day everyday with wand toys until he’s tired out. I live in a tiny studio apartment with no doors on the rooms so I do have baby gates I put up stacked, and I give Baby some treats and put him into a back room gated up at night so floki can wind down with me a bit kitten-free to destress. I introduced them slowly over one and a half months and let Floki take the lead, and kept them separate until Floki started jumping the gates and cuddling, but now that Baby is more comfortable in the environment he hides less (was hiding like 20 hours a day so floki would mostly get the day to himself with small bursts of Baby), and now he is just totally enamored with Floki an out 24/7. Their relationship isn’t bad, but I can tell Floki’s getting irritated of seemingly being the main source of entertainment and I just want their friendship to continue to grow without resentment and many setbacks, they’re both the absolute sweetest boys, just with totally different needs from each other and I want to help!! any help is appreciated! :)