Ted Winston the kittens new friend that doesnt purr

[carlymlee]

I have akitten named ted. hes 3 months. very friendly and lovng gets on well with al our other anmals. Got a new Kitten for my mum f, 8wks old, no name yet and its quite timid and scaed looking yet alittle playful. so theres a few issues.....
1. this new kitten hisses and phaphs at Ted constsntly, Ted is trying to play, kitten wants to play only if Ted doesnt move. sound s like its upset cos of all the hissing but if i go to take her away she wants to go back.
2. Ted wants to bite on the neck constantly, he only yung and shes a baby, he doesnt want to knock her up does he....
3. she doesnt purr.....tried to get her to purr but she is very quite and timid. does this mean shes not happy cos she aint purring...
god this doent make much sense, al i know is its 3am i have either kitten each side of me and i want them to work it out. thanks...nite

[Mona]

It is quite possible he could be starting to mate even at such a young age.

Please try to supervise the new kitten very carefully, as they are very fragile at a young age.

Can you call the vet and set up a neutering appointment for Ted?

I do hope everything goes well, and of course you will then have to have the female spayed.

Believe me it makes such a difference and they feel much better after spaying and no worries about infections setting in. My new kitten Chloe (now 6 mos.) was spayed at 8 weeks at the shelter I adopted her from and was up and about in 1 day and we just watched the stitches carefully and she did so well. I really feel young is good for spaying and recovery. You of course may want to wait until 3 months for the kitten to become a little larger before spaying her.

Mona, HOneybun and Chloe

[Yzma]

I agree with the spaying. We had a boy kitty once, and we were a bit worried about spaying him... But that was because we didn't realise that it was such a relatively small and not too invasinve procedure for the males. It's really very very simple, and your cat should be recovered within a couple of days. In fact I dont even think there are stitches involved. It's just a very small incision and then they remove something and that's it. Just a bit of bruising aroung the genital area and that's all.

When we got bobbie she didn't purr either. And she was also very timid. But loads of love and affection and about a zillion hugs and billion kisses later and she is now the queen of two other cats, even though she is the smallest at only 3.3kg.

Have you tried gently brushing her face with your finger? It usually gets them purring if you try and do it like a mummy cat. And perhaps your kitty is purring but very very softly. Bobbie has the softest purr, and you have to sort of press a bit against her neck before you feel it, but on the other hand she purrs all day.

[MA]

I would encourage you to get your male neutered as soon as possible. About the purring, this is really the first noise a kitten learns from the mother. It is how they find her to nurse and how she communicates with them as they do nurse. Let the new kitty settle in, and get your male neutered and go from there.

[Mona]

I never really thought about purring in that way , Ma, nicely put.

My Chloe (6mos) purrs all the times, chatters trills and screeches.
She is extremely verbal and affectionate. She was adopted by us from a shelter where she was with her siblings and mother. She was not outside, but the woman had them inside her home. This probably is the difference, where Chloe learned love and security from the mom.Much like human bonding.

With the proper petting and love I am sure that is where she learned to be more affectionate from us.

Mona, Honeybun and Chloe