Crazy kitty wrestling gone too far?

[Lorraine]

I am concerned about my cats wrestling sessions!
Sammy will soon be 1 year old on July 4, and he is quite a Husky fella, he weighs probably around 12 pounds.
Little Romeo is about 14 weeks now, and weighs 2 pounds, he's a little guy.
Anyway, the two of them get into these insanley passionate wrestling bouts, many of which are provoked by Romeo himself.
They LOVE to do this, and do it many times through out the day.
Usually, it ends up with Romeo pinned down underneath Sammy, which Sammy enjoys, because he loves to groom Romeo. He will lick, and clean him thorughly, which is quite cute.
However, Sammy now has a tiny scratch at the corner of his eye, which is pink. I don't know if I should put anything on it.
Romeo's problem is that his once wonderfully long and fluffy whiskers are missing! He has 2 full whiskers on one side, the other side he has 3! The other ones are just little stubby nubs!! I think Sammy is gnawing them off when they wrestle!
I have spritzed them with a water bottle to break them up, but I figured that is mean, because they love each other so much!!
Is this normal? Granted, kitty wrestling is normal, but I have never had any kitties have their little whiskers stolen!

[wolflady]

Awww! Poor little Romeo! It does sound like typical cat play, but I haven't ever had any of mine get their whiskers chewed off! Maybe because Romeo is so small, the whiskers are just breaking off during the rough and tumble? Have you seen Sammy actually chew on them? Both of your cats are very young, so the play may seem a bit rough right now.
I would assume it's ok for them to roughhouse a little bit, especially since the little one initiates it, but if anything seems out of hand, it's probably a good idea for you to come between them. He probably wouldn't do so unless he wanted to play, but I am a bit concerned about his whiskers and the scratch. Do both of your cats have their claws? You may want to consider putting Soft Paws nail caps on their nails, because that would help deaden any kind of scratches. As for his eye, just be sure to wipe it with a clean damp cloth, and possibly a little peroxide to kill any kind of infection.

Do you happen to have a cat dancer toy? My cats just love these, and this would get you involved in the play with both of your cats. Good luck and give you babies lots of lovins for me!
**hugs**
Karen

[catlover4ever]

I would say it is typical "play" although I have never seen any of my cat's loose their wiskers....they usually end up loosing lots of fur.

Here is a picture of Abner and Tobias. As you can see from the picture Tobias (the one laying on his back) is ready to start causing trouble, but I distracted him to take their picture. These 2 would wrestle for hours! Sometimes I would hear them growl at each other and that's when I knew that they needed to broken up.



As for the cut on the eye, I agree with wolflady, wipe with a little hydrogen peroxide and keep an eye on it to make sure an infection does not set in.

Lots of head and chin rubs to Little Romeo and Sammy!

[Barbara]

It sounds all very normal for cats that age -but the whisker thing is unusual.
With mine missing a little hair with a tiny bit of skin in it is more or less normal

Cats loose whiskers from time to time (I kept some of Tigris' beautiful 10-cm-whiskers) and they grow again -have you seen Sam nibbling them?

[Lorraine]

Thanks for the advice, and good thoughts!
I took your advice Wolflady, about the peroxide I put a little on Sammy with a q-tip, it is just a little scratch, but better to be safe than sorry!
I have never actually seen Sammy pulling out the whiskers, I just figured it must be what happened, I don't have a better explanation! This started about a week ago, with maybe just 3 missing, (it is very noticable, with his white whiskers, on his black face!) and as the days went by, it was more and more missing whiskers! Now he has a total of 5 whiskers, oh my poor little boy, it looks like he needs to shave, with all those little white stubs all over his face!
I am pleased to hear that they will grow back! Thanks Barbara!
I have never had this happen before.
The cats have a bunch of toys to keep them entertained while we are not home. They have light-up balls, kitty teaser wands, cat dancers,micies,loads of cardboard boxes to play in,(the local grocery warehouse just opened, so I collect the boxes they give to take your stuff home with for the cats they LOVE them!)
I even put plastic, and rubber bouncy balls in the tub and shower for them to bat around. When we arrive home, I don't think the kittes paws hardly touch the ground except for potty and snack breaks, because my girls love them up like crazy! The cats get hugs, kisses, get brushed, and of course they play barbies together too! So I don't think they wrestle out of boredom, but I am quite sure the heavy duty wrestling takes place while we are not home. I also find tufts of fur laying around-(minus the skin!) I hope Romeo's whiskers will not get yanked out anymore!
Well, once he actually gets some! Poor fella!

[Cheshirekatt]

I'm not sure if mine lose whiskers from rough play, but I do know that when Elvis' allergies are really acting up and he scratches a lot, he tends to lose quite a few.

They take a long time, but they do grow back.