As some of you may have read here, I have adopted an adorable baby calico (Myri) recently. She is currently being quarantined in the bathroom so I can make sure she’s healthy and get my other cat, Caddie, used to her. It’s been three days and Caddie is still hissing and growling at the kitten when she can see the kitten’s feet under the door. I have tried petting her in front of the door and petting her with kitten-scent on my hands and feeding her treats by the door so she associates the kitten with good things, but she’s still hostile. I’m not too worried yet since I was going to give them a week before I started to try to introduce them, but I’d like to hear anyone’s advice and experiences.
I wanted a kitten so that Caddie would not be so lonely when I am on vacation; she is very needy when I get back. Plus an active friend would get her some more exercise; she’s still playful but I can’t play thing-on-a-stick for hours a day.
Did you have a kitten and a cat that eventually got along? Do they love each other or just tolerate each other? How long did it take?
I’ve done it, but the cat I was introducing the kitten to was a very laidback male cat. He did hiss a bit with outrage when the kitten ate from his dish, and he was less than resigned to being attacked by a ball of energy when all he wanted to do was nap, but eventually they came to terms.
What you’re doing now is pretty much the same advice I’ve always heard. I’d say hold the course.
Jayjay and I went through somewhat the same thing when we brought home two kittens (sisters), last year. We brought them in, and our older cat Pud went into a hissy fit, hissing and growling at the cat carrier. So we sequestered the kittens in our bedroom and went online to get some advice. Hissing is very normal. My advice to you is to let Caddie into the bathroom, at regular intervals, so she can sniff the new kitten’s space and litterbox, and then introduce them, with a spray bottle close by for behavior correction.
The “door between them” trick has always worked for me, and I have 8 cats I acquired one at a time. It just takes time, and they may never be best friends but usually will at least accept one another.
I know I too often attribute human emotions to my cats, but I swear this is true. Several years ago I was fostering a litter. I had just brought them home and they were in the incubator when Yogi comes strolling in. He goes over to sniff the box and gave me a look that said, as clear as day, "I can’t believe you had another litter at your age!
Letting Caddie in to sniff Myri’s scent sounds like a good idea, supervenusfreak. I will try that this weekend.
I thought I would have less trouble since Caddie is friendly with the kittens next door. They get scared and hiss and her, and she just sniffs then curiously and ignores the hissing. The difference seems to be that the new kitten is in HER home. Maybe I can try introducing them with the kitten off Caddie’s turf, but they’ll have to get used to being together in the apartment. At least Myri does not seem especially frightened or hostile; she does not hiss at Caddie. So ONE cat is willing to get along, at least.
I was really worried about my older kitty accepting my new kitten a few years ago because he’d been a spoiled only kitty for years. I got the kitten for pretty much the exact same reasons you did.
There was definitely intial hissing and growling (unfortunately, I can’t remember how long I kept them apart) but that settled down pretty quickly. The big kitty even started grooming the kitten (they’re both males). However, the exercise inducing effect only lasted a short while through the kitten’s adolence; my big kitty is now entirely back to his slothful self. (he does still groom the little kitty when he plops down next to the big kitty)
My friend, Amy, adopted a new kitty from a lady who rescued cats. The lady advised her to keep them in separate rooms for an entire month, to give lots of attention to the “old” cat, and to ignore the new cat in front of the old cat.
It worked. They’re now buds.
Please be careful - our older female cat killed a kitten we were fostering temporarily. It was a wild cat that had been picked up by a tourist and then dropped miles away from wherever the poor thing had been found (happened a lot where we lived) and my Mum had found it. We were looking after it for a week until the new owners we found for it were ready to adopt it. We kept the cats as separate as we could but our house was not set up for that and the kitten escaped from its pen while I was at school and my Mum was down the garden. She got back to the older cat just finishing the baby off.
That older cat was the love of her life but the fact that she could murder a baby really shook my Mum, and I don’t think she ever felt quite the same way about the original cat again.
We’d adopted another kitten under the same circumstances the summer before and we’d lived in a two cat situation for nearly a year, but the older cat NEVER forgave the younger cat and bullied and beat him up at every oportunity, until we were forced to adopt him out. I wonder if the original cat remembered that and decided to put a stop to the situation before it went on too long? Are cats capable of such thought?
We got a male kitten 9 months ago (he just turned 1). We’ve got two older cats, a 10 year old female and a 3 year old male.
The 10 year old doesn’t like any other animals, but they leave her alone for the most part and she leaves them alone except for growling whenever one comes near, which only has the effect of making them curious about her.
The two boys play fight (no one’s been hurt other than minor scratches when we let their claws get too long) and chase each other for hours every day.
As soon as we knew the little one was healthy (he was a stray), we just put him into regular population and kept a close eye on them. Luckily, we’ve never had a problem. They’re still working out dominance (now that the kitten weighs almost three more pounds than the older boy), but for the most part they just play.
Have you considered a Feliway pheromone diffuser to help ease the tensions? It might work, and is worth a try.
I hadn’t heard of Feliway before. Looks like there are a few small studies that back it up, so I’ll see if I can pick some up this weekend. Thanks!
You also may need a seperate litterbox for each, depending on the nature of the cats in question.
Cats! :smack: The baby is still in quarantine in the bathroom most of the time, though I let them meet for a few supervised minutes and let her out to roam the whole place for an hour or so a day while the older kitty stays in the bedroom. She cries a LOT when she’s in the bathroom and I am not visiting her there: mewmewmewmewmew mewmewmewmewmewmewmewmew mewmewmewewmew mewmewmewmewmew mewmewmewmewmewmewmewmew mewmewmewewmew mewmewmewmewmew mewmewmewmewmewmewmewmew mewmewmewewmew… The older cat still hisses at her but after all the meowing I feel like hissing at her too.
To top it off, the baby is not eating enough though she has no signs of worms; I am feeding her superrich food from the vets to get some calories in her. Now my older cat has stopped eating and I’m scared it’s liver or kidney failure! I took her to the vet but the bloodwork’s not back yet. It might be just stress but she seems otherwise contented and calm, except for a bit of legarthy.
Overall, the older cat seems to ignore or aggressively dominate the younger, but does not bite or actually hit (she does wave a paw and growl) The baby is not very frightened and approaches often, but does not pursue in the face of growling. They might work things out but the twin eating issues are stressing me.
It will probably get better in time. Can you have a friend stay over, with the idea of them fussing over the kitten, and you fussing over the older cat in your room, and seeing if the fussing gets them both to relax and eat? (I don’t know that I’d send the kitten out to be “kittensat” because the tensions would probably flare right back up once the kitten returned, since the older cat would think they had driven the kitten away.) I think your instincts that it is stress are correct on both parts. Maybe you should ask your vet for advice on how to help calm them enough so they will eat?
Maybe the pheremones aren’t working (if you tried them) because they are being masked by the distress signals of both cats, and if you can get them calm enough they will be more likely to stay that way? It also might be, that the older cat is so grouchy because they really are sick. If that is the case, then it is just coincidence that the kitten is there. Tensions might ease once the older cat gets better, but I don’t know what to tell you if it is bad enough that nothing can be done except make her comfy. Good luck, I hope it isn’t as black as that, and that calm returns soon to your house. sends soothing kitty vibes
