Is my cat trying to harm my new kitten?

This might help.

Some cats can get very aggressive when protecting their territory. It is normal behavior, and the tips in the article above can help you get past the worst of it.

In my experience, older cats seem to want to help care for kittens, regardless of their parentage.

I would definitely guess this isn’t a 100% thing though.

Quick answer: No, your adult cat is not trying to harm your kitten. The nipping of ears, grabbing the neck and similar acts are ways cats “meet”, The adult cat is establishing herself as the lead cat over the kitten. This would be similar to a mother cat handling its kittens. The one word of caution I always give: do not leave the cats alone together without supervision until the kitten is older. Too many things can happen, too fast, when kittens and adult cats (not the parent cat) are alone. I would supervise all interaction for at least the first couple of weeks. I also wouldn’t interfere unless the interaction becomes more aggressive. It can take up to a month or more for two cats to settle into a partnership, so give it time. Just as an aside: You have had a vet check the kitten right? I never put two cats together until cleared by a vet, especially when one comes from outdoors and I don’t know its background.

I think it might be different depending on the gender of the cat, as this article suggests. I had the same experience, but with two males. I kept the kitten in the bathroom with its things, as suggested in @WestRiverrat‘s article. (although I kept it in there for about two weeks) When it got a bit bigger, I let them both together, but with me around. I took turns altering between both cats when going to sleep, taking one with me in the room and closing the door, and doing the same thing with the other cat the next night. I have no idea how much that worked, by I tried showing them that I meant to treat them equally. It’s also important to show the would be killer cat that you’re the boss, and let the cat know it just can’t push the other kitten around. It worked out fairly well, and they got along pretty fast. They always fought, (one of them died few years back, the older one) but you could tell they were just playing.
As I say the cases may be different between male and female cats though. Hope it works out.

No worries @Carney. I took the kitten to the vet the day after I found her because she had pink eye. So all is well. Thank you everyone for your helpful answers!

Has the new kitten been tested for FeLV AND FIV yet? The Vet should have suggested this to you and explained why its very important when bringing in a new cat of unknown origin into your household and potentially exposing your presumably healthy established cat. FeLV especially is very contagious and kittens,can acquire it from the mother.

If the Vet didn’t say anything about this, I would strongly suggest looking for a different vet. There is a “snap test” which can give results in around 15 mins. or so and is usually done right in office as part of a typical first visit.

You should really keep them separated completely until you know the kittens status for the sake of your established cat.

I ALWAYS get this done prior to introducing a new cat. I normally adopt shelter cats and many times they have already done this since it is so contagious. But several years ago, I adopted a cat from Craigslist. Even tho she was already two years old and they claimed they had kept her as an indoor cat, digging a little further revealed that she had escaped a few times and gotten pregnant. When the Vet did the test, unfortunately it came up positive and I had to find a new home for her since I already had another 18 yr. old cat who was healthy, even tho aging and there was no practical way I could continue keeping them apart indefinitely.

I was really glad I had that test done since they had had absolutely no contact for the initial few weeks I had the new cat prior to the Vet appt. The new cat didn’t look sick or anything and theres really no way to tell other than the test.

Hopefully you’ve already had the new kitten tested. But if not, I would strongly urge you to do this ASAP for the sake of your established cat.