Introducing a kitten to a cat

Oy, I've got a new kitten camping out in my bedroom, and he's been here for about 4-5 days. Roscoe (resident kitty, ~1 year old) won't even go near the closed door to my bedroom, let alone even think about giving the new guy a sniff or two. He's the posterboy for 'scaredy cat.'

I am bringing a kitten home on Saturday and am keeping her in a seperate room until Wednesday when I can bring her to the vet and have her tested for feline leukemia (my cat is vacinnated but I've read it's only like 85% effective). Plus that will give her some alone time for a few days.

I'm going to try the vanilla extract trick, I have a feliway diffuser to help ease tension, and I'm going to do the t-shirt thing also. I also like the idea of using the same brush.

I will update my situation in this thread once things start rolling.

My cat has only been here for a month herself so I don't know how territorial she is even going to be. She is about 1 and the kitten is 11/12 weeks old (we're not sure). She's not super skittish but she's certainly not brave, I am sort of expecting her to be afraid of the kitty.

I am not sure what happened but our cats get along so well! It's like Wesley showed Sox he is boss and now accepts her! I am so happy! Sox sure is a hyper little thing though! She loves going crazy running around and palying with everything. But that's a kitten for you! It's a good thing she's cute! She is actually laying on my stomache sleeping as I lay here and type! What a cutie!

I brought Chloe home today (she's about 11-12 weeks). I am keeping her in our 2nd bedroom / Office with a litterbox, food, water, toys, a bed, etc. She's doing fine so far, but my older cat (Matilda, a.k.a. Mattie, who is about 1) knows she is here. I was hoping they wouldn't see each other yet (just smell each other) but it's too late for that. Chloe bolted out of her room and Mattie saw her and was ok, but she is growling a little bit. She is also very curious, she's been pawing at the door to the bedroom that Chloe is in.

I have a t-shirt that I'm trying to get to smell like Chloe so I can eventually show that to Mattie. Chloe hasn't been tested for feline leukemia yet and Mattie isn't done with her shots so after they go to the vet on Wednesday I am going to really introduce them. Until then, they can just sniff each other under the door.

I have a feliway diffuser that I want to plug in, but I don't want my SO to see it because he'll make fun of me. He already thinks I buy the craziest amount of cat stuff.

While RJ still needs some canned air to remind him to leave Puffy alone, he's also been spotted sharing the bed with Puffy, and they pass in the hallway with no problem. It seems when RJ gets wound up, the idea he gets fixed in his head is that he wants to draw Puffy into the fun, whether Puffy wants to or not.

As for Mr. Bond, we've had some breakthroughs. I wrote it up in this post here:

http://wayofcats.blogspot.com/2007/1...ew-kitten.html


Every time Mr. Bond breaks down and does something nice with or for the kitten, my heart soars. At 10 & 11, they were a bit old to be adding a kitten, but Dear Husband had his heart set, and we didn't have the room in our apartment for long introduction periods, so I just tried to find the best kitten for our circumstances I could.

Well, he kind of found me. But so far, so good.

It's fun reading the experiences you are all having with your new fur babies! Sox is just a little cute bundle of fur! Her and Wesley get along as if they have always been together! The only thing Wesley does not like is when Sox plays with his tail! But he isn't as big as a grump as when we first brought Sox home.

Sox is so silly! The past few times I have taken a shower, she comes in and walks around in the shower while I am in there! She gets all soaked and just continues to walk around as if nothing is happening! I have never heard of such a thing! She wants to be with me no matter what I am doing! What funny things does your new kitty do?

Our new little boy came home Saturday We decided on a different name, Hypnos, and he is a little ball of love and energy. I am wiping both of them with a towel to transfer scent and the Feliway plugins are hard at work. On Sunday, they glimpsed each other through a cracked door while they ate. They briefly met on Monday. Ares licked Hypnos until Hypnos tried nursing on Ares, then the wrestling began. An accidental second meeting occurred later that day when Hypnos escaped the guest room, whipped into the bathroom and promptly used Ares's litterbox. Ares walked in and had a heart attack, so I scooped him up and shut him into our bedroom while I corraled Hypnos back into his room. Today, Ares sat by the bedroom door, meowed, and kept putting his paw under the door. (I know Hypnos was on the other side, but I never saw his paw meet Ares.) This evening, they met again, ate food together, and were OK for awhile. When Hypnos began running around after toys, Ares then took to rolling him and licking/biting him. After the play seemed a bit rough, we split them up again and Ares sat crying outside of the bedroom again. I think things are going well, but I do have one question. We are keeping the face to face sessions very short, but how can one tell if play is becoming too rough? Oh, and I need to add that I obviously forgot how small Ares was shen he came home. Hypnos is 2.5 lbs (just like Ares was) but Ares is 8.5 lbs and appears to be a horse next to him!!

Happy to report we are now intermixing Cynder and the babies and all is going well..
The feliways have been running full force and she is on week 3 as of today with us.

She is feeling better too now after her reaction to the booster for Luekmia.

Cynder hisses at the boys and they are SOOO curious about her but they are all sharing living space now and even litter boxes. Pumpkin hisses back at her though and is not as curious about her as the boys...so I wonder if it is a girl thing?
She will walk around with them now and not run for the bed everytime they come near.
SO no bloodshed not even a swat! She just hisses (or Pumpkin) and watches their every move.

whew..what a relief..that was worrisome!

I found out that the best way to help the cats get along is to let them mingle all the time together. They had their fighting war at first but now they get along. Every once in a while Sox goes up and pounces on Wesley and I get nervous but my husband just said to let them be 'cause they are playing and I watched them and they do just fine together. I thought Wesley would hurt Sox because she is so much smaller but when they are attacking eachother she does not seem to care at all. She keeps going up to him any way and asking for more. Mainly, they just leave each other alone but they like to play sometimes. I never thought it would be that way when we first brought Sox home. Because at first they did not like each other at all! Now, they lay together, play together, eat out of the same bowl and even use the same litter box! I thought Wesley would freak when SOx was in his litter box but he did not care at all! Now, at night time they both have been laying on our bed with us the whole night! How exciting!

It sounds like things are improving for all of us who recently introduced new cats to our household!

Shelly and Miles are getting along much better. They touch noses a lot and are still compelled to be in the same room most of the time. They even play chase, even though it usually ends with Shelly being too rough on the new kid and hisses at him. Miles is SO wanting to snuggle up with Shelly, but she refuses to let him. Instead, he makes do with this:

Mattie is not warming up to Chloe. She is pretty much staying under the bed except to come out to eat, use the litterbox, and to try to sneak some of Chloe's kitten food. Chloe is very energetic and I think wants to play with Mattie, Mattie just hisses at her. I keep them seperated most of the day still. They eat dinner near each other and that goes fine. I am giving Mattie treats when she is near Chloe and acting ok. If Chloe is in the room and food isn't involved, Mattie mostly just watches her and hisses at her when she gets too close. I guess it could be worse...

The hissing isn't a bad thing right? They have to work out the whole hierarchy between them don't they?

Poor Mattie. She has a new kitten in the house plus she is having to take antibiotics for something else. Life is rough for her right now!

Originally Posted by azcarol

It sounds like things are improving for all of us who recently introduced new cats to our household!

Shelly and Miles are getting along much better. They touch noses a lot and are still compelled to be in the same room most of the time. They even play chase, even though it usually ends with Shelly being too rough on the new kid and hisses at him. Miles is SO wanting to snuggle up with Shelly, but she refuses to let him. Instead, he makes do with this:

Click to expand...

Same thing in this house on the positioning...too cute....

The hissing isn't a bad thing right? They have to work out the whole hierarchy between them don't they?

Click to expand...

Lilly still hisses at Forrest every time they play. After two months she stopped hiding under the bed and seems to want to play...but always hissing during it. Her ears are not back and there is never any growling or screaming...just hissing. In fact, it seems like she has two kinds of hissing: play hissing; and "Leave me Alone" hissing. Forrest seems to know the difference now.

Forrest still annoys her - constantly. My husband and I both work out of our home so we're around to step in and give her a break from him. He's really exactly like a bothersome little brother. Always wanting to play and repeatedly wanting to just poke at her with his paw. They're like a couple of kids in the back seat of a car. If Lilly could speak I'm sure I would hear "Mom..he's touching me...make him stop touching me"

I want to start off by thanking everyone who has posted on this topic. I'm new to the forum and have been trying to introduce my cat Sprite to my new kitten Elf over the past week. I was really very worried about making the introduction but after reading all these posts and see that others were going through the same process I felt that it could be done.
For two years Sprite was a very spoiled only child and he did not take the intrusion of a kitten in his home very well. The first couple days all Sprite would do was hiss and his fur would bush up, Elf is deaf so he couldn't hear the hiss and would try to get closer to Sprite. I was reallly nervous to just let them go and see what happens. After reading the posts I realised that I needed to do it eventually and as it had been a week I let them meet freely. It went really well! I'm so happy I had to come and tell everyone here who provided such helpful info thank you. They sniffed each other and there was no hissing. Elf was more interested in exploring the rest of the house and Sprite just followed him around. I know there is still a long way to go but I am so excited that the first meeting went well. So thank you everyone!

Originally Posted by AudioCat

Lilly still hisses at Forrest every time they play. After two months she stopped hiding under the bed and seems to want to play...but always hissing during it. Her ears are not back and there is never any growling or screaming...just hissing. In fact, it seems like she has two kinds of hissing: play hissing; and "Leave me Alone" hissing. Forrest seems to know the difference now.

Forrest still annoys her - constantly. My husband and I both work out of our home so we're around to step in and give her a break from him. He's really exactly like a bothersome little brother. Always wanting to play and repeatedly wanting to just poke at her with his paw. They're like a couple of kids in the back seat of a car. If Lilly could speak I'm sure I would hear "Mom..he's touching me...make him stop touching me"

Click to expand...

That is EXACTLY how Mattie and Chloe are. Chloe is an endless ball of energy and always wants to play and that annoys Mattie. Mattie hisses at her to leave her alone. I was playing with Chloe and Mattie with Da Bird trying to get them to relax a little around each other and focus on the toy and Mattie ended up swatting Chloe (lightly) on the head instead of the feather toy. Mattie had this look on her face like, "What??".

Originally Posted by AudioCat

He's really exactly like a bothersome little brother. Always wanting to play and repeatedly wanting to just poke at her with his paw. They're like a couple of kids in the back seat of a car. If Lilly could speak I'm sure I would hear "Mom..he's touching me...make him stop touching me"

Click to expand...

Wesley gets that look on his face that looks just like he is saying that when Sox is trying to play with him and he doesn't want to be bothered! It is too funny how cats can have such expressions on their face. My husband and I are constantly saying out loud what it looks like that cat would be saying if they could talk!

It's so interesting to see in how many ways they are the same as human children. Forrest is just like a little boy sometimes. He's quite a talker and when he is playing he's always making little cat noises...kinda like my son did when he was young playing with his toys. Even when Forrest is in the litter box he has to make that lyrical cat chatter while he digs

Forrest is such a Mommy's boy right now and always on me or in the room with me. I'm wondering if when he reaches the equivalent of a human teenager if he will become "distant" and not want to have anything to do with my husband and I for a while.

Mattie and Chloe are sleeping in the same room! Mattie is under the bed but Chloe is pretty close to her and so far Mattie hasn't left.

I do believe this is progress

Originally Posted by AudioCat

Forrest is such a Mommy's boy right now and always on me or in the room with me. I'm wondering if when he reaches the equivalent of a human teenager if he will become "distant" and not want to have anything to do with my husband and I for a while.

Click to expand...

I wonder this too! Right now Sox loves to be wherever we are. She doesn't seem to like to be alone very much. So yeah, I am interested too to see if she will be that way as she gets older.

Originally Posted by Sakura

Mattie and Chloe are sleeping in the same room! Mattie is under the bed but Chloe is pretty close to her and so far Mattie hasn't left.

I do believe this is progress

Click to expand...

Yes! This is great progress! How exciting!

Here is a picture my DH took of the cats, 3.5 weeks after introducing them.





I was laying down on the couch, Shelly came and snuggled with me and then Miles came a little while later. Then, they started grooming each other!! It was so sweet! They sometimes lay down next to each other, and they play (a lot!). At times, the play gets a bit rough: Shelly pins Miles down and seems to go for his jugular! It turns into a little fight, both hiss, and then separate. They haven't hurt each other yet so I'm just keeping an eye on them.