They wont kill each other, right?

sharonkay

sharonkay

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Hello everyone,

Its been absolutely ages since I last posted on TCS, but I would feel better if I could get some opinions on how the introduction of my new kitten is going and I was hoping to bounce the situation off of some people who have been through this before (this is the first time I have tried this!).

My resident cat (Adelaide) is about 8 years old and we have had her for about 2.5 years. I hadn't planned to ever get another cat, but we ended up with the opportunity to adopt a male kitten (Nathan Detroit - can you tell we are musical theater people?!?) and he was just so sweet that we couldn't turn him away.

Nate is a VERY friendly kitten and extremely social. He was born in a house with a large loving family and plenty of cats - his brothers & sisters and his mama. Our plan was to leave him in our large second bedroom with litter and food/water and more toys, blankets, and pillows than you could imagine. Still, when we leave him in there he CRIES and SCREAMS and it just totally breaks my heart. So, we decided to see how an introduction would go.

Yeah, I've read all the stuff about introducing cats, but we let them meet the first night. Little bit of growling, little bit of hissing, a couple swats...not too bad. They can be in a room together and be fine, just when he passes too close she lets him have it. They dont seem to care one bit about the scent of each other, and I can get them to both play with a laser toy for a little while (until he crashes into her and she has to stop and yell at him.)

Things have gone on like this now since Friday night - I have heard everything from "thats going great!! they'll be friends in a week!" to, "well, maybe you should keep them seperate still...". They roam the house at night without our supervision and haven't killed each other yet, but I am still afraid to leave them alone when we go to work.

Am I a worry wort? Did I rush the intro and now they are just going to be in this limbo? It might be worth noting that Adelaide is declawed (we adopted her that way) and Nate has a full set of little talons that he will be keeping :-). I think that eventually I wont worry, but at the moment I have this fear that she is going to swat him and he will swat back and hurt her.

If I just need to back off and let them work it out between them, it would help me if other cat people would tell me that and not just my husband :-)
 
arlyn

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Sounds to me like things are progressing normally.
I would not worry unless there is bloodshed, but swatting and yelling is typical.

I have 4 declawed cats and two intact cats, there is nothing to worry about on that front.
Let them set their own pace.
 
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goldenkitty45

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Sounds fine to me. Females tend to take longer to warm up to a new cat - getting a male kitten has helped (is he neutered?).

Ling still gets upsets if Charlie gets too close and they still have wrestling matches - Charlie wants to be top cat and probably will when full grown. We've had them together since Christmas. Sometimes they will lay in the same chair and sleep together


As far as nails - be sure to keep the kitten's nails short - check once or twice a week.
 
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sharonkay

sharonkay

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Sounds fine to me. Females tend to take longer to warm up to a new cat - getting a male kitten has helped (is he neutered?).
Click to expand...
Not neutered yet - he is 4 mo old. I was going to get it done before bringing him home but we are moving in 2 weeks and I wanted to be able to introduce them in our resident cats home turf instead of introducing the new house and the new cat variable at the same time...

He will be half the man he used to be shortly though ;-)
 
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That's maybe a different story - he may be so rabid to mate that he may well try to force her into it, and if he's larger and heavier, could make her pretty miserable. I'd be very careful until 6 wks or more after he's fixed. Maybe she needs a safe daytime place. with a box, water, etc.
 
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sharonkay

sharonkay

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Originally Posted by Larke

That's maybe a different story - he may be so rabid to mate that he may well try to force her into it, and if he's larger and heavier, could make her pretty miserable. I'd be very careful until 6 wks or more after he's fixed. Maybe she needs a safe daytime place. with a box, water, etc.
Click to expand...
He is WAY smaller than her, and for the most part she is the agressor. I haven't seen any signs that he is trying anything like what you suggested, but I will definitely keep my eye out for it.
 
epona

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I have 2 kittens - Radar who is now nearly 11 months old, and Sonic who is 5 months old. Radar is neutered and Sonic will be neutered in a month, as the earliest I can get it done here is at 6 months.

Radar was the resident cat, and we got Sonic at the end of January. They wrestle constantly, chase each other round the flat, pin each other down, and it just generally looks nasty. However when we separate them they both cry, they want to be with each other. Despite how it looks, neither one of them has given the other so much as a scratch! They are working out dominance. I am pretty sure that Sonic will end up being the dominant one, as Radar will not go on the windowsill when Sonic is there, and usually stays on the floor when Sonic is on the sofa. When it's dinnertime, Radar lets Sonic choose which bowl he wants, then eats from the other himself, or will eat from the same bowl if Sonic lets him.

The thing is that I know when Sonic is neutered they will likely go through it all again as his status may well change when his hormones settle!

As long as there is no bloodshed I am sure it will be fine, just keep an eye to make sure that the older cat is not in danger of inadvertantly injuring the kitten due to the weight difference! I separate Sonic and Radar when we are out, as they only stop wrestling to eat or for Sonic to stare Radar down (poor Radar) and I would rather keep an eye on them while they are together until they have calmed down a bit.

I would also keep the kitten's claws well trimmed as even play-wrestling could result in a scratched eye by mistake
 
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I agree that it sounds like things are going well. No harm in separating them while they're out of the house. I think it's helpful for the cats to have some time alone as they're adjusting -- particularly an older cat, who can get tired of an active kitten's antics. It'll be good for her to have a private space she can retreat to for a break now and then.
 
persi & alley

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Originally Posted by SharonKay



Hello everyone,

Its been absolutely ages since I last posted on TCS, but I would feel better if I could get some opinions on how the introduction of my new kitten is going and I was hoping to bounce the situation off of some people who have been through this before (this is the first time I have tried this!).

My resident cat (Adelaide) is about 8 years old and we have had her for about 2.5 years. I hadn't planned to ever get another cat, but we ended up with the opportunity to adopt a male kitten (Nathan Detroit - can you tell we are musical theater people?!?) and he was just so sweet that we couldn't turn him away.

Nate is a VERY friendly kitten and extremely social. He was born in a house with a large loving family and plenty of cats - his brothers & sisters and his mama. Our plan was to leave him in our large second bedroom with litter and food/water and more toys, blankets, and pillows than you could imagine. Still, when we leave him in there he CRIES and SCREAMS and it just totally breaks my heart. So, we decided to see how an introduction would go.

Yeah, I've read all the stuff about introducing cats, but we let them meet the first night. Little bit of growling, little bit of hissing, a couple swats...not too bad. They can be in a room together and be fine, just when he passes too close she lets him have it. They dont seem to care one bit about the scent of each other, and I can get them to both play with a laser toy for a little while (until he crashes into her and she has to stop and yell at him.)

Things have gone on like this now since Friday night - I have heard everything from "thats going great!! they'll be friends in a week!" to, "well, maybe you should keep them seperate still...". They roam the house at night without our supervision and haven't killed each other yet, but I am still afraid to leave them alone when we go to work.

Am I a worry wort? Did I rush the intro and now they are just going to be in this limbo? It might be worth noting that Adelaide is declawed (we adopted her that way) and Nate has a full set of little talons that he will be keeping :-). I think that eventually I wont worry, but at the moment I have this fear that she is going to swat him and he will swat back and hurt her.

If I just need to back off and let them work it out between them, it would help me if other cat people would tell me that and not just my husband :-)
Click to expand...
In my case, Persi was the resident cat. From the start he wanted to make friends with Alley and would approach her only to receive hisses and threats of scratching his eyes out. Remember, Persi was the male and the resident so you would expect behavior in the opposite direction. Anyway, Persi would never give up and just kept approaching Alley until Alley finally gave in (after about a week or ten days) until they finally got to the point of laying around together as you see pictured below. Persi just wanted a new friend and he was not going to give up. I kept close supervision during this time because both have claws but nobody ended up getting hurt. Now they "play wrestle" together; they tumble around together but no teeth or claws are ever involved. Good Luck, and may you have the perserverence of Persi!
 
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