3 cat introduction ... With a couple of twists - Advice please :)

Hi Everyone!

I have been a cat owner for a very long time (they have been around me since I was born!) but I have never run across a situation like this and so I am looking to the members of TCS for advice!

My boyfriend and I have decided to get a place together – it is a brand new home (it has just finished being built) so neither my cat or his have been in the home before…aka no territory/home field advantage for any of them.

I have one cat (who was a kitten stray) and has been an indoor cat since Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve owned him (which was at 8 weeks or so). Scout is now just under 3 years old. My boyfriendâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s 2 cats (Clinton & Nixon) are from the same litter, and are just under 2 years old and are in/outdoor cats. All three cats are males and all three cats are fixed.

Here is where it gets tricky…

Due to my travel schedule my boyfriend will move into our new home, cats included, before Scout and I get there. We have decided that the litter boxes will be in the basement and the dry food and water will be in the kitchen…

Where we have 3 cats coming into a brand new house and his cats will be there before mine I have the following questions:

Where his cats will be there a week or so before mine, should they stay in one specific area and if so, which area? I would have thought the basement initially, but where that will be the common area for the litter boxes Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m no longer so sure if thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s where all 3 should meet. Adivce??????????

How would you suggest introducing the cats, since my cat is basically the “outsiderâ€/not a brother and from the same litter as the other 2 are

All suggestions, advice, similar experiences and what worked best are greatly appreciated!

Thanks

My advice would be to have your boyfriend keep his cats to one or two rooms (not the whole house) before you and Scout get there. Plan out carefully what rooms will be theirs and what room will be Scout's safe room. This is an awful lot of change for two kitties to begin with, then you put another cat in the mix and it does get complicated. On the other hand, all this "newness" could work to your advantage as this is nobody's territory yet and I'm assuming it's probaby bigger than what they were used to before.

When you and Scout get there, I would treat it as a new cat introduction, go slow, smell each other first, get good associations i.e food and treats near where Scout is, then let them play some "footsies" under the door. Do you have a blanket or toy with Scout's scent on it? Your boyfriend could try presenting it to his cats along with some yummy treats so they associate the smell with something good. If they're not used to you, he might also try this with one of your shirts (who knew dirty laundry had so many uses )

You might try the vanilla trick where you use vanilla extract on all the cats so they all have a common scent. Try Feliway spray/diffusers or Bach's rescue remedy (flower essences) might help to releve tension.

I'm sure there's others on this site with more advice on this ever popular topic of kitty introduction!

Grab a towel and give your kitty one heck of a good rubdown. Then, when your BF moves in to the new house, have him keep the towel in a corner somewhere. That way your cat's scent gets brought into the house the same time his cats' scents are brought into the house.

Thanks for the advice

I am a little nervous and want things to go well... Based on the feedback below should my boyfriend's cats not stay in the basement area (where the litterboxes will be) until my cat gets there. We thought that would be a good area at first so his cats could go in and out and wouldn't have their scent through the house...

Maybe they could stay down there and then we could try to introduce them with a divider between the kitchen and living room????

Thanks again and any other feedback is appreicated!

Originally Posted by MyLilScout

I am a little nervous and want things to go well... Based on the feedback below should my boyfriend's cats not stay in the basement area (where the litterboxes will be) until my cat gets there. We thought that would be a good area at first so his cats could go in and out and wouldn't have their scent through the house...

Click to expand...

I would advise that if you do that, just make sure there's a litterbox that Scout can use without going into their territory. At least until you're sure everyone is comfortable.