Kittens gone mad???

We brought a kitten who is now 13 weeks old, about 3 weeks ago. He is a very timid kitten but he is settling in as good as can be expected. Today we brought another kitten who is 7 weeks old. I found it quite strange when we put them close enough to see each other that the 7 week old kitten was the one hunching his back up and hissing. I thought it would have been the older one since he was here first to have done this. Anyways they are staying away from each other for the moment but its wierd cause now when we go near the older one he doesn't seem to cower when we go to pat him, he seems quite comfortable. Is this wierd or is it just me?? (this has all happened in a matter of 5 hours not long i know so the hissing is expected but the older one seems to have changed his tune is this short period of time).

We brought the other kitten so the other one can have a friend, he was very close to his siblings when we got him but they were sold before we could get them. We also wanted to get another kitten now before the other one was to old and too settled to be the only cat.

When I added Jinxy to the house, she was the one arching her back up and hissing, Corky just seemed vaugly interested.

If you enter a searcg for introducing cats, you will come across some excellant posts about introducing your cats to each other, and it does work with some patience and time, but the rewards are certainly worth it.

Good luck

even kittens hiss and arch their backs. isn't it so cute when they are small. they will be fine. they may even smack at each other but they will be pals befor long!

We weren't cat people and knew nothing about cats. A feral mommie made her nest near us, and we discovered it when kittens were playing in our yard. Found the Cat Site! We became caregivers to the whole family. Then the family disappeared on the fourth of July. Lazlo was left behind. He was crying for two days, and we decided to rescue him and bring him in. The family, of course, came back after another day or two, but what did we know? We loved him so much, we decided to "rescue" on of his siblings. They were used to us, and one of them let my hubby pet and pick him up. So in came Sheldon!

These two were "friends" outside - they always hung out together. We thought they'd be happy to see each other. Not so! Lazlo charged at Shelly, and Shelly, the new one, much smaller than Laz, arched and hissed! I think he felt threatened, and so tried to look big and menacing. We, of course, hadn't even known to look up introducing cats to each other, still looking at things from a "dog people" persepctive. They went at it for a while, tussling around. Any time it looked like someone was actually about to get hurt, we broke it up.

We had to drive to the airport to meet Gary's mom. We toyed with one of us staying behind to make sure they weren't going to kill each other, but decided they'd be O.K.

We were right. Apparently, this isn't always the case, and it would have been MUCH smarter to separate them, and let them meet each other in a slower, supervised fashion.

But when we came home from the airport, they were asleep in a pile all tangled up with each other in Lazlo's special "hiding place." It was the cutest thing in the world. They've been fast friends, and I can't imagine having just one.

We've since learned a LOT about cats! They are almost completely smell based. So in the future, when you take one to the vet, bring vanilla and a washcloth with you. Before you release whoever saw the vet, make sure both kitties have been rubbed down with a small touch of vanilla. That way they'll smell like each other, and the one at home won't attack the one that smells like "Vet."

Good luck!

Laurie

Well it's now a week since we brought the other kitten home and they are getting along really well. They are forever playing, running around chasing each other(no more hissing or growling).

The new kitten has brought the older one out of his shell. For the first time last Thursday night he actually came up on the lounge next to me and sat there. I waited 10mins then lent over to pat him. He actually stayed there i was the one to get up about 1 hour later. He was so content that he lay on his back and twirled his head around.

They are now eating next to each other. They have their own bowls but they like to switch. Tonight was the first time they have actually sat next to each other and eaten at the same time. The older one (14 weeks) is still a little timmid. He still runs away from us when we go near to pat him but if we get on the floor and slowly move up to him he's fine. Another thing that seems to be going well is when he comes into whatever room we are in he doesn't run now when we acknowledge that he is in the room with us. The only thing we haven't seen yet is them sleeping together or close together. But there is always plenty of time for that.

It certainly does take patience, and we have heaps of that !!