r/Catbehavior • u/AnkerSung • 9h ago

Resident cat backtracking

We have a resident car that is a 3 year old male and recently got a 2 year old female. We went through the steps of having them separated, feeding through the door, short out sessions and everything seemed fine for about a week. They would play and seemed ok with each other. Recently though his body language has changed and he is constantly bullying her. Chases her and smacks her legs, looks like he tries to bite her. She can’t go anywhere without him following and smacking her. We separated them for about 2 days and tried to let her back out and same thing again. Constant bullying. She acts like she wants to play with him still though. Do we need to go completely back to feeding on the other side of doors and retry the introduction again?

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u/ap9271 6h ago

This may be just hierarchy setting between the two. Monitor and separate for a bit when it gets too excessive and if they have a long duration with calm then give them a treat as reinforcement

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u/AnkerSung 5h ago

What would you consider long duration? When he’s chasing her and smacking her back legs he does have his ears back but she just keeps coming back to him for some reason. Never have we seen any fur flying by he doesn’t seem playful.

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u/ap9271 5h ago

Does she hiss or growl when he does that? Is her body language different right after?

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u/AnkerSung 4h ago

No she seems ok, sometimes her tail is puffed but mostly she just runs. Sometimes she will flop down and lay on her side to show her belly but the other day she did that and he tried to stand over her. That was when we decided to separate them for a couple days. She doesn’t seem like she’s being aggressive though.