We just got a new female kitten yesterday and she is about 6wks old. I did not know how to properly introduce her to our 7mth old male cat (he's neutered) so unfortunately I went about it the wrong way and didn't sequester her away for a few days like I was supposed to.

In the beginning the male cat just simply hissed at her; she had tried to sniff him and be more friendly but he was not interested. Then he started becoming quite aggressive, and batting her around the head with his paws, and then started biting the back of her neck, and her hind end down near her tail.

Through the night, he progressed to pinning her down completely and biting her neck very hard (the back and/or sides) and by the time we finally separated them, he had gotten to the point where he was flipping her onto her back, and biting at her chest and belly; sometimes scratching her with his back paws as well.

He is very rough with her, and any time I let the kitten out from her designated room, she gets about 5mins to herself before he comes over and starts attacking her. It's not always aggressive straight away, but always progresses to that and she ends up screaming/hissing/yowling.

Is this normal behavior and should I just let them have at it? A few sites I read say to remove the kitten when the resident becomes too violent, though I'm not sure what is "violent" in cat terms versus human terms. I know they need to work themselves out, and dominance needs to be established, I'm just not sure if this is the normal pattern of going about it.

The kitten will only sometimes start to fight back with hissing and spitting of her own, and has once or twice, tried swiping him back with an open paw, claws splayed.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

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