Cats still not getting along

Hi I'm new here, my name is Andrew. I joined because I really need some advice on what to do.
First a little history. We have an outdoor cat named Rags Unfortunatly there is no way we will ever make her an indoor cat, but she does come in for her food and in the winter sleeps in the house every night and stays in during the day a lot as well.
Three months ago we got a new kitten from the local shelter. She was 6 six months old and we named her Retro. She is an indoor cat and is very much a kitten.
The problem now is Retro feels like the house is hers and that Rags is the intruder since she only comes in occasionally. But with it getting cold she has been sleeping in at night. Retro will constantly attack her jumping on her from behind and bitting. Rags is not a great fighter and will often let Rags get the better of her even though she is still much bigger than the kitten. We keep them seperated at night and a lot of the time when Rags is in but the kitten does'nt seem to be letting up. Rags is a very sweet cat and I hate the idea of her being chased and attacked in her house.
Is there a way to get the kitten to accept the older cat more? She knows she not supposed to attack Rags because when I stand between them she stays away. But as soon as I leave she pounces. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Andrew

This is tough cause its hard if the outside cat is not allowed inside long enough for introductions. Its not fair to the inside cat, cause it IS her territory and females are worse then males sometimes. They don't like other cats, especially another female and take a lot longer to accept new ones.

In Retro's mind this is a strange female EVERY time the other one is allowed inside. Do you have a garage or an enclosed porch where the other cat can hang out and not be outside? You can't punish Retro for acting like she's supposed to act. But you can't let her hurt Rags either.

If you can't come to a solution, I would consider taking Rags to a shelter or find someone that would be ok with an outside cat all the time.

It's not that Rags is only allowed inside for brief periods of time it's that she only wants to be in that long. If she wanted to stay inside all the time we would love it. No Retro should'nt be punished but she does need to learn to accept the other cat somehow. There is no way we would ever get rid of Rags. She's been with us for years and this is her house. We would consider giving away the kitten before Rags. Hopefully that won't be a consideration. If we have to we may be able to have the cats in seperate halves of the house. Anyone else have a suggestion?

Andrew

Originally Posted by AndrewW

Retro will constantly attack her jumping on her from behind and biting. Rags is not a great fighter and will often let Rags get the better of her even though she is still much bigger than the kitten.

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Are you sure they are fighting? Does Rags hiss and growl at Retro and does she try to run away? Does she cry when Retro is biting her?

Try playing with Retro when Rags is in the room to distract her from attacking. Feed them close to each other, it may help them like each other more. If you free feed, then feed them treats next to each other.

You may also consider some sort of dual cat door system. One cat door (A) that lets Rags into part of the house (from the outside) and a second cat door (B) that would let Rags into the rest of the house where Retro is. Cat door A could be a regular cat door and Cat door B could be a key activated cat door, so that Rags could always go back into the secluded section of the house to get away from Retro if she wanted to. And Retro (not having the key) couldn't get into the secluded section. That is, assuming that your house could be divided up somehow.

Could you just keep Retro in another part of the house for the times Rags comes inside?

Oh they're fighting. Rags gets very upset and does star hissing and crying. She just wants to be left alone. Rags is driving her out of the house more than she wants to be.
The pet doors is an interesting idea. Might be able to work out something that way. We can keep them seperated if we have to. But that does mean that one cat will get less contact with us. But if that's waht we have to do for a while.
We do feed them seperatly I could try feeding together and see what happens and the snack idea is good too. Thanks everyone.

Andrew

Although it's unlikely, you may also want to have Rags checked out medically.

My boys are especially vicious towards my elderly girl when she's feeling poorly (only slightly antagonistic the rest of the time).

Of course, you can try other regular introduction things
- Take a slightly (very slightly) damp rag and run it over Rags' back and her chin if you can, then take the rag and do the same to Retro and then back to Rags again
- Maybe install Feliway diffusers, they can help calm a stressful situation

Eh I think perhaps both cats have not been around each other long enough to accept one another. The outside cat most likely has various scents that the kitten does not know, and each time the outside cat goes out the smells possibly change.

Because the kitten has never been outside [I'm guessing she hasn't] she knows the house is her home, and believes in her mind that the outside cat is invading her territory.

If at all possible, try a getting them to smell the same. If you have some baby powder, try dabbing some of it just over the back of both of them. If they share the same scent, it will help just a little bit. The next thing to do, would be to keep the outside cat inside for a while. Just long enough until the fighting stops.

When I had two old cats [now deceased] They had the same problem, but with the powder thing and keeping them around each other, they became friends within a couple of months.

They just need to get used to each other.

Some great advice. It could simply be they have'nt had enough time together. That would be nice. The smell thing makes sense to me I'll try that tonight. We did feed them together last night and this morning and they got along during that. So I think there's hope. Thanks again everyone.

Andrew