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Introducing Cats


Vienne_Billygoats
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Hi

I am about to introduce our 3 month old male kitten to our 10 month old female cat, in the hope that they will one day be best of friends or at least at the worst just tolerate each other.

I have never had two cats before and so have never been in this situation, can any one give me any idea what the likely reaction will be or is every case different, and is there any way I can ease the situation or do I just let them get on with it.

I am just a bit concerned for the little one and hope he is not still a little young to cope with the bigger one.

Many thanks

kay

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Introductions usually work best on neutral terretory.  The female will not think her space is being invaded by this newcomer.  So if you have an part of the house where she has hitherto not been allowed, try bringing them together there.
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Hi Kay,

We've done this many times - expect fireworks!!  But it'll be worth it!!

The best way we have found is to keep the newcomer in a seperate room for a day or so & let the excisting cat get used to the smell of another cat in the house (we were lucky to have a glass door between our newcomers & our older cats - so they could see each other)

If you have an old towel, rub the new cat with it, then the older cat, then the new cat again & so on - so each others scent is being passed from one to the other. 

Make a fuss of your older cat, as much as possible - it's her territory (not yours!!) being invaded & will probably be a little jealous.  It's very hard not to want to play with the kitten - but do try to avoid this, for a little while, so your older cat won't have her nose put out!!

Once you let them get together, stay close.  They will probably fight, hiss & spit - but it's only natural, if this happens.  They will settle.  Our Ben & Penny are from the same litter & they still fight.  Solomon, who was introduced a few months later, gets on with Ben - like a big brother & neither go near Penny, who is smallest, but the boss!!

Don't worry about the new kitten being able to look after itself.  They are tough little characters & will be perfectly ok.  [:D]

Good luck - & don't worry. 

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Make sure they have lots of space dont just plonk it infront of her nose and hope for the best, let her hear it crying in a nother room, giving her the chance to go to him, once she has gone to him they will sniff a bit and moan and growl for a little while, may be a little head swiping, just to let him know she is the boss, and then they will settle, dont tell her off for the head swiping or mean behavoiur has its there way of making the pecking order, within a few days she will be washing him and showing him around ,its just nature!!!![:)] 
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Ali's advice relating to scent transfer is definitely right. If the new kitten has been in the house a while, he will have picked up some of the scent of "home" but transferring the cats' smells back and forth is a good thing to do. Concentrate on the heads of both animals because the scent glands on the head give off feel good pheromones - which is what a cat does when it rubs it's head against your leg, for eg. Another thing you can do is get some Feliway spray from the vet. This spray mimics the feel-good scents and if you spray this around the area where you're going to do the introductions thing, that may help. I'd spray (if you see what I mean[blink]) about 1/2 an hour before the meeting time. Good luck. [:D]

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Slightly off topic but I have just gone through the process of introducing a labrador puppy to our two other labrador dogs, and mama cat also decided it was time to bring her two kittens downstairs from the spare bedroom where she has guarded them for 5 weeks![:-))]

Result:- One cat keeping one puppy very much in order as it tried to investigate two bundles of fluff (he now knows who's boss [;-)])- one cat watching one old labrador gently sniffing two bundles of fluff (no problem[:)]) - one cat giving one other labrador a good right hook as he barked at two bundles of fluff (I don't think he had ever seen a kitten before![8-)]). Luckily this did not all happen at the same time![blink]

Conclusion - Cat 3 - Dogs 0. [Www]

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I've read somewhere that you should resist the natural instinct to hold the new kitten up for the other cat to see it, when the other cat is on the ground (i.e. don't make out the kitten is higher in the pecking order than the original cat.)  This may be hokum of course!

Similarly have read that they should have separate litter boxes (not usually an issue when older cat goes outside of course, unlike our own ancient mog who will stand cross-legged in the garden if cat-flap is blocked, waiting to use litter tray....)

Chrissie (81)

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I've read somewhere that you should resist the natural instinct to hold the new kitten up for the other cat to see it, when the other cat is on the ground (i.e. don't make out the kitten is higher in the pecking order than the original cat.)  This may be hokum of course!

Good call, Chrissie, about not holding one cat higher.  It never occured to me before now - but when our lot are having a scrap, one always tries to get on the higher ground - even it that just means on the back of the sofa (& painful for us, if we're sitting on it, at the time)!!  Sounds like there could well be some truth in that!!

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We started with two cats and now they have produced five kittens (I know we must get the females seen to.) The female has turned out to be an excellent mother, but the male! At last he deigned to visit his offspring, but when one approached him in a friendly manner he gave it a clout with his paw and stalked off. I think he's jealous as his wife is spurning his advances at the moment. Rings a bell? Pat.

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