New and needing advice..

ali_kat

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Hello,
My name is Jenna. I just signed up today for the forum. I have a situation and I am hoping maybe someone can chime in with some good advice?

We just adopted a third kitten into the family. My older cat is 12 years old and my second cat is 2 years. The 12 year old cat is the one I THOUGHT would have the most problems with the new kitten. That suprizingly is not really the case. My 2 year old cat is having the biggest problem. But I am confused because even tho he acts like he hates the new kitten, he does everything in his power to get into the bedroom we have her in. Once we let him in he gets narly and we have to sho him out before a fight breaks out. The 2 year old is declawed and neutered, the new kitten is not spayed yet, that will happen next month.

I am not sure how to do this
we are currently keeping Ali seperated from the resident cats but we dont know for how long we should do this? and is there a better way to introduce them? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Jenna~
 

gemini_n_hobbes

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Hi, I am also new and just signed up today. Welcome


Reading your post brought back some scary memories for me, lol. I had to introduce a new male kitten to my adult female cat awhile ago. It took a lot of time and patience with the adult cat, but it was well worth it. Here's what I did:

First seclude the new kitten in a bedroom (like you have been), make sure there is food, water, litter, etc...

Let the other cats (particularly the one with the problem - the 2 yr old) sniff around the door, hiss, growl, etc...all the things cats do when they are pissed off and jeolous. Let this go on for a day or two, or however long it is neccessary. We let this go on for 2 days - this is how long it took for Gemini to stop hissing and start meowing and rubbing against the door.

Next, for a few minutes a day let the 2 yr old go into the room with the kitten. Maybe you could put a leash on the 2 yr old or else try holding onto the kitten close to you while the 2 yr old checks him out. When the 2 yr old starts gets upset, remove him from the room and try again later.

After about 3 or 4 days of doing this and increasing the amount of time they spend together, it should be okay to let the kitten out of the room and wander around the rest of your house to check it out. But keep a close eye on both the cats to be sure they don't start a fight. When this happened to us, we let the new kitten wander the apartment while I sat with the adult cat and played with her, petted her and comfort her. We also kept them seperated during the night, this went on for a few weeks.

Eventually the 2 yr old will get used to a strange kitten in the house, but he will still pick on him likely, just not as violent. In our case the cats actually play together but fights will occur from time to time due to the older cat being jeolous...still.

The most important thing is to pay lots of attention to the 2 yr old. He is likely feeling jealous of the new cat. So be sympathetic to him even though you want to give him a nice swat on the bum and lock him in the room. He just needs some love and affection. To this day when the older cat starts getting mad, I will give her extra attention. Some may say this is encouraging the bad behaviour, but I don;t. It just helps reassure that you still love the her....it's kind of like with humans, when you bring a new baby into the house, the youngest child will start getting jealous. But it passes...

I hope my experience has helped some
Hopefully you can have some peace soon.
 

goldenkitty45

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Try some of these tips for face to face meetings.

1. Sprinkle all the cats with some cornstarch (not the talc) baby powder and rub it in so they smell the same.

2. Put a dab of vanilla extract on all cats nose and butt (to smell the same).

3. Wash the cats in the same type of shampoo.

With all new cats you have to expect some hissing and "fighting" for awhile till they sort things out and accept each other.

Be sure to clip all the nails so that they won't hurt each other.
 
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ali_kat

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thank you both for your replies, sounds like two very good ideas going on here. Right now I have her in a carrier sitting by me while I type and my two year old is rolling around by her cage.. with no hissing. I will not let Ali out of the cage yet though. I will put her back in her room in just a little bit now. Thank you both again for the great tips!

Jenna~
 
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