Introducing new kittens

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  • 3 December, 2016 at 5:42 pm #854667
    Daniel
    Participant

    My partner and I brought a new kitten 1 month ago, he’s 4 months old called Cooper is very playful and cuddley. We both work full time and the vets suggested getting a second kitten so Cooper has a bit of company so on Friday we got Mimi a 3 month old kitten.

    Now we looked up some tips online and our house isn’t particularly huge so keeping them in separate rooms for weeks would be massively difficult, it’s also very difficult for us to spread our time across both of them when they are in separate rooms without them calling out for attention.

    We found some probably bad advice online that said to keep things calm and just let them meet, ignore the hissing and growling and just make sure they aren’t fighting. Well things have gone a bit wrong, Mimi seems to really like Cooper she’ll follow him everywhere. Cooper hates Mimi and hisses at her, he’s never attacked her bar the odd jab (without claws) but also Cooper has stopped eating except for a few treats, he won’t come near us if Mimi is around either and I’m not to sure what to do, we tried to go back to separating them and trying to transfer there scents on each other but Cooper just hissed at us and runs into a different room. The closest we got was putting some treats down next to Mimi while she was sleeping and he ate them, realised she was there and started hissing again. Mimi seems pretty unaffected by all this.

    Any ideas for us? Should we change tactics or should we just carry in introducing them as we are and hope they get along?

    3 December, 2016 at 11:17 pm #854669
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    How to Introduce a Second Cat


    I have posted a couple of good sites to give you ideas for introducing a second cat. It doesn’t make sense to just let them work it out, because a lot of times they just don’t. When someone recommends getting a second cat, they don’t realize that the first cat has established themselves, and it’s their territory, so you have to take it slow. I have 4 at various ages, and it’s something you learn over the years. The scent swapping thing is a great idea. Something that is theirs, blankets in their beds and switch them to the others’ bed works really well. Isolation doesn’t really work, but they need to be able to see each other but not be able to get to each other. They become familiar with the other’s scent and watch them. Playing with them together is another tactic that works well. With wand toys and a laser. Make sure they have their own beds (their own territory) and places where they can get up to look out windows, a cat tree, etc. where they aren’t vying for each others’ attention every second of the day. The youngest is usually the easiest, the one that has the established territory will be harder to win over. Good luck!

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