Cats re-establishing territory?

[Bright_Star]

We just got a kitten added to our other 2 cats. Our two older cats are female & are of course "fixed". The newest kitty is male and over 2 months old. Got him yesterday afternoon & since then our two older cats have been acting as if they've never seen each other. Growling & acting mad at each other. They both hissed at the new kitty when they met him but that didn't last long. They've just been acting as if they were strangers.
I'm assuming it's because we've introduced a new cat to the household & they're re-establishing territory & trying to figure out who the 'alpha" cat is going to be.
They'll fight it out amongst themselves. They have no choice but to eventually settle down & get along.

[protege]

That's what it sounds like--before the new kitty arrived, there was a sure pecking order. Now that he's arrived, things have been shaken up a bit.

[Nurian]

These, of course, are the rare Arctic Pecking Cats

We have two males, both fixed. Every now and then the older one will hiss at the little one, but I think their fighting is more playful.

[BethB]

sounds like my brother's cats when we introduced our hairball. His are neutered males and ours is female(fixed too) and the Alpha of the two(he can be alpha all he wants. He's a big orange hairball not unlike Garfield...meaning he's huge and FAT) seemed to treat her like a little sister that needs protecting. Now the other we will call Nermal(not his name but he's small for his age and grey tabby) did not like this interfering little furby and still hisses at her. Mostly because she kicks his butt. Poor cat. But they do this so the new kitties know who is master and commander of the house.

[Racket_Man]

sounds like a bit of reshuffling of the pecking order.

that reminds me of when me and Ex got our first cats. first we got a year old female. she had the run of the house for a copuple of months. then we found a stray orange tabby male kitten. at first it was a lot of hissing on the older females part until young boy got a bit too "rough" in the play department. he tried to sneak-attack her one night. she just stood there for a moment, then smacked him down good. but the funniest thing was after she smacked him a few times she got him on his back and grabbed his "manly bits" and drug him accross the floor. all the while he is whinning and owhling. boy learned a little "respect" after that.

another male kitten we had tried the same thing but this time he got his ear notched for a sneak attack