Need tips on introducing a third cat to our house

In My Humble Opinion
1

Some of you may have seen this thread about the injured outdoor cat that we captured and had operated on.

Poppy is doing well and will have her last casts removed in about 10 days. After that the vet recommends that she stays in the house (and be allowed to roam freely) at least one month more to get used to walking etc normally. For the last two months she has been entirely confined to a cage in our dining room. We are considering keeping her in the house permanently after that. However I don’t really know how best to make this transition. Poppy is 6 years old, and although we have fed her (and her brother who also lives outside) daily since she was a kitten, she has never lived inside. We have two other cats, Junior and Simba (Siamese male brothers, 5 years old) who are entirely indoor cats. All of the cats mentioned have been sterilized.

Junior and Simba are well-acquainted with the two outdoor cats through seeing them through the window and possibly smelling each other through the screen door and on our hands after we have petted them. And now they have been physically near Poppy indoors for the last two months. They have shown only casual interest in Poppy in her cage and none seems upset by the presence of the others. Junior has gently hissed at Poppy in her cage a couple of times but hasn’t shown any real aggression. Junior and Simba get along with each other perfectly and have almost never fought.

I should add that Poppy’s brother still comes daily to be fed and often sits on the windowsill looking into the house. I don’t know whether or not he is looking for Poppy, but he might be.

Once the casts are off in 10 days, my plan is to release Poppy into the dining room for the next month, but to restrict her to that room only for that initial period. After that we would consider letting her into the rest of the house and to mix with Junior and Simba.

I would appreciate any advice you have on how best to make this transition. Here are my specific questions/concerns:

  1. Cats are territorial and the house has been Junior and Simba’s exclusive territory for the last five years. I want the introduction to be as peaceful as possible. As I mentioned, all cats have been sterilized and so far have not demonstrated much aggression
  2. I am concerned what will happen when Poppy and her brother see other through the window. They will have been more than three months apart by then. Will they recognize each other? Will they be upset?
  3. Although we would prefer to keep Poppy indoors (it is safer and healthier for her and for the two Siamese) I guess one option is to let her come and go as she pleases. But how likely it is that she would willingly come back into the house after being released outside?

Advice and experiences would be greatly appreciated

2

I think that’s a good plan. The only addition I’d make is that after she’s had the run of the dining room for a few days, take her out briefly and let the other two explore and sniff. They’ll get her scent and leave theirs, an important exchange in cat-world.

The fact that they have seen her for a while now and aren’t too horribly offended says good things about the relationship overall. There may still be some hissing and minor kerfuffles, but they should come to an agreement reasonably quickly.

As to her brother outside, and whether she’ll want to go out and stay out, it’s hard to know. She may venture out through habit, stay out a bit and then decide that inside is pretty great, or revert to outdoor only - it’s hard to predict. I’d be tempted to not give her the option, but that’s me and I don’t know her or your situation. I really think it’s a play-it-by-ear situation.

Good luck, and bless you for taking such good care of her!

3

Yay!

Thanks for update!

I think this will probably go pretty smoothly.

I wouldn’t worry about an occasional hiss, or even an occasional swat or brief bout. Cats will usually work these things out among themselves. I’d watch the first interactions carefully, though, especially if Poppy might still be in pain; if one of the others accidentally hurts her more than they might have expected, she might react badly. I’d let them loose in the same room, first just one of the others with Poppy at a time, and only with you present at first; have a pair of gloves handy in case you need to break something up. Don’t feed them together until they’ve been loose in the same room together without much problem, and feed them all/both at the same time but with separate dishes when you do. Make sure Poppy can retreat to known ground. Don’t hold either cat; they may panic at feeling restrained.

They will almost certainly recognize each other. I’ve known cats to recognize humans they haven’t seen in well over a year, I’m sure they’re going to recognize another cat as long as they knew each other as adults or as mostly-grown cats. They’ll probably want the smell to be sure, however. Do you have a window with a good quality metal screen in it that you can open? If your screens are fiberglass or nonexistent, but you have doublehung windows, a hardware store or even big box may have portable screens you can put in a window.

Depends on the cat –

but if she liked the pats and the food supply and the places to sleep, IME quite good. Her brother may follow her in, if he sees her going in and out.

When she’s recovered more fully and has had the run of the house for a while, you’ll be able to tell how hard she’s trying to get back out; which may be anywhere from not at all to desperately. If she’s trying really hard to get outside – sooner or later, she’s almost certainly going to succeed. She might be easier to get back in if you make an obvious point of letting her out on purpose; though I agree that I wouldn’t do that till the vet clears it, and also not till she’s comfortable in the house as a whole.

That’s a good idea; though it reads like they may already have exchanged scents through a cage door?

4

When you release her to free run of the dining room, keep the wire cage in the room. She will see that as her ‘safe space’ and retreat to it when she feels frightened. Especially when the other cats are in that room with her. Don’t let them corner her in the cage. They will want to explore the cage (new space in their home) but don’t allow that when she is in there (unless there is a back exit). Try to make sure she is safe outside before they begin examining the cage – sitting on a cushion high atop the cage may make her feel safe. Especially if you are there petting her.

Feeding: feed everyone at the same time, in separate dishes, but within sight of each other. A barrier between them (like her inside her open wire cage) may help at first, probably not needed for long.

Bring her brother inside, too! (But wait until she is accepted by your other cats.)
She’ll be more confident with him there, and so will he. You might end up with them two against your two current cats, but that won’t last too long. Worst will be that they divide the house into 2 separate territories for the 2 groups and stay separate, but that’s not too likely, and probably not long-lasting.

Remember that you now need 1 or 2 more litter boxes added in new locations.

5

Rule 1- get TWO more litter boxes.

We lock the new cat up in one bedroom for a while- so she can sleep with one of us, etc. Sooner or later the other cats will get over anger and start being curious about the new cat- which is when we introduce them, but still at night the new cat sleeps with one of us.

Our last little gift from Bast however, immediately got along with everyone. But she still slept with me for about a week first. Our smallest cat, an orange girl, which is kinda rare I have been told. maybe the fact she is smaller than the rest?

6

My outdoor feral cat I rescued never tolerated being inside. He was as sick as sick could be. Never been near my house when we brought him home.
I have a cat door to the garage and a resident hobocat. He decamped with her.
He’ll come in the cat door about once a day to beg for human food. Always back out to the garage.

My 2 Siamese indoor cats have decided he’s just a mirage they can ignore.

7

Is that JoJo?

8

thanks for the responses everyone. It sounds like I am on the right path. Today we had her bandage changed for the last time. One more week in the cage and then we will release her into the dining room.

I am reasonably confident that the transition with the Siamese will go OK, especially if I follow the precautions mentioned above. But the biggest question mark is about what happens when she sees her brother. She may not particularly care about going outside except if she sees her brother. Let’s see.

@DrDeth and @Tim_T-Bonham.net, can you elaborate on the 2 additional litter boxes thing? I have heard the reference before but never really got it. Currently we have only one litter box for each of the Siamese, and they are right next to each other. There has never been a problem. What is the rationale for the n+1?

9

That is definitely my hope. Fingers crossed.

Curious about how that would work though. How do cats transition from exclusive territory to shared territory? Is there sort sort of recognised process from initial conflict to eventual peace? I don’t know much about animal psychology.

And this prompts another question: is there a risk that the Siamese might gang up on Poppy? Do cats do that? I can imagine this from dogs…

10

I look forward to your next thread - “need tips on introducing a fourth cat to our house” :smile:

11

FWIW: I have two litter boxes for four cats. No problem. I usually have three to four cats and have never had more than two litter boxes and have never had a problem with it.

For that matter I’ve known people who had three cats and one box and no problem. There is some advantage to two, I think, in that some cats seem to prefer to shit in one and to piss in another.

There are apparently some particular cats who are unwilling to share, in which case more boxes may be necessary. But I think that whole thing about one-per-cat-plus-one-more may have been started by somebody selling litter boxes; while that may be necessary in some specific households it certainly isn’t necessary as a general rule.

IME, not surprisingly, it depends on the cats.

Some of them will pretend to ignore each other. Some of them will start off by attacking each other, but then move from that to either being close friends or ignoring each other. Some will do one of those things for quite a long time and then shift to one of the others.

But (again IME, but I’ve been living in multiple-cat households for over 70 years now) they’ll almost always eventually reach either truce or friendship; though there are rare exceptions.

Sometimes. One of the rare exceptions that I know of involved two new additions, previously strangers to each other, ganging up on the resident cat. Said resident cat was a fairly timid cat and took to spending all his time hiding from them until my parents gave up and re-homed the newcomers. I don’t think there would have been a problem with a more confident and determined resident, or with less determined newcomers – my parents introduced a different cat later and that combination worked out fine.

However – if your Resident Cats were going to do that, I think they’d already be showing more aggression than they are. And again, I’ve only personally run into one instance of that in quite a lot of experience.

Yeah – I suspect that when the brother realizes his sister is safe and well inside, he may become willing to move in also; at least as an indoors-at-night cat. Might take a while, though, involving a certain amount of panicky running in and out.

12

Very often, cats will react m to a new cat by blocking food or litter boxes. The general rule of thumb is “number of cats = number of litter boxes +1” So, three cats= 4 litter boxes, and not all in the same place.

Nope.

Cats that are territorial tend to carve out their path of travel throughout the house and, if the alpha cat is aggressive toward the beta cat, the bully can block the litter box entry. Denied access can lead to elimination elsewhere — like your favorite couch. But if two of the litter boxes are placed at opposite ends of the house, stalking is cut off at the pass. It’s impossible for Tigress, for example, to guard both boxes at the same time. The third box, meanwhile, can be placed somewhere between the opposite two, or on the second level of a two-story house.

To determine the number of litter boxes you need, count the number of cats in the household, then add one more. For example, if you have two cats, the minimum number of trays is three. If you have three cats, then the minimum number is four…Do not place litter boxes side by side, particularly in multi-cat households. Ideally, place trays in various parts of the house to minimize felines being cornered, blocked off, or guarded by assertive cats.

13

All I can say is that 70 years of experience with multiple cat households including but far from limited to my own show me differently.

I’m not saying there may not be some households where this is necessary – cats vary a whole lot. If you’re having trouble with cats not using the pan, adding more pans to whatever your current number is, and/or adding more locations, is certainly worth a try (so is a trip to the vet. to check for any problems with elimination or with getting in and out of the pan). But I am saying that it certainly isn’t necessary to have n+1 pans in all households with multiple cats.

14

Sure, but experts say differently. And say our Op does get two more litter boxes- and it turns out both are not needed? Fine. Better than finding one cat has been bullied and you got cat poop in your bed.

15

That has been discussed in our house, but Poppy’s brother is not as tame as Poppy and I think the challenge would be greater. He does not allow us to pet him, and the only physical contact we have with him is when he play scratches us. Problem is that his play scratches still hurt (he frequently draws a bit of blood) and I don’t know how we could train him out of that. In addition, I really don’t want so many cats in the house. We have a detached house, but it isn’t huge. I’m already wondering where to put Poppy’s new litter box(es).

16

I understand the logic, but don’t get the math. If there are n cats and the n-1 alpha cats try to block the beta cat’s access to the litter boxes, they can only block n-1 boxes right? That still leaves one box accessible. So why would we need an n+1st box?

This may be an argument for spacing the boxes, but I don’t understand the additional box.

17

Also, the logic only applies at all if one or more cats are actually blocking the boxes. If this is happening, then get more boxes. If it’s not happening, why bother? Especially if there’s no good place in the house or apartment to put more boxes.

Ditto water bowls. Are people going around saying that there must be N+1 water bowls scattered around the house?

18

Jackson Galaxy is where I read one must have an extra box.

19

Sometimes a box becomes the favorite and gets dirty fast.

Look, I only know this is what the experts say, and that it has worked well for us.

Because you cant watch the cats all day long and all night long when you are sleeping. Cats will do this, it is pretty standard.

Certainly more than one. we have about 5.

20

If they’re going to do it, it’ll become pretty obvious if you’re paying attention. They’re not going to do it only at three in the morning; if they did, the subordinate cat would just use the pan when they’re not doing it.

And while I’m sure that some cats do it, I very much doubt that it’s “pretty standard.”

Not that the results will prove anything, but I might put a poll on the poll page.

(There are cat experts and then there are cat experts. I’ve read books and articles from people claiming to be cat experts talking about cats not blinking; and about cats (the domestic species) being essentially solitary. I could go on.)

ETA: It’s not exactly going to work badly for anybody, except in terms of having to find places for all those pans and having to take extra time cleaning them. If you give cats more catpans than needed, they’ll probably use all of them at least occasionally. So the fact that it’s working doesn’t mean that having fewer pans might not also have worked.)