How long to keep new kitten in "safe room" ?

A

axld

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So,
After weeks (months) of debating, I am moving forward with getting a brother for Sal. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve had him for 4 months (heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll be 8 months when yet unnamed kitty 2 comes in) and I think heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll be happier with a playmate. Heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s extremely social and pouts at the door when I leave and is usually sleeping by it when we come back from work.

The introduction does not worry me too much because Sal is amazingly friendly to people and pets (heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s from a house with plenty of cats and dogs).

Hereâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s the tricky part. He has “his†room, which will become “the cat roomâ€. When I got him, I was really nervous of letting him roam and he spend the first few weeks in the comfort of “his†room, full with a big tree, toys, food, litter, etc. Now, I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t have enough space to make an other cat room for the new kitty, and Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m not too keen on leaving in the bathroom which is really small.

So, whatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s everybodyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s opinion: should I let the new cat roam free after a few days? How long did you keep your new kitten (cat) in a safe room before you let them go out?
 
laureen227

laureen227

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Originally Posted by axld

So, whatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s everybodyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s opinion: should I let the new cat roam free after a few days? How long did you keep your new kitten (cat) in a safe room before you let them go out?
Click to expand...
i only keep mine sequestered until i'm sure they're healthy [or at least not contagious]. but i usually have 'foundlings', so that's an issue. if the new one is considerably smaller, i allow 'supervised' outings until i'm sure newbie can handle him/herself with the larger cat. there's a good intro article here: i'd like you to meet...
 
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eggytoast

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Depends on the kitten, really. For Bixby, he was very outgoing and wanted to be around us, so we slowly introduced him to Juniper -- who had been with us for about 2 months, by himself. So we put him in the carrier and stuck them in the hallway after Bixby was sequestered for about 2 days. Then we would slowly give them more time together, but only when we were at home, and if they wrestled too roughly, we put Bixby back in his safe room. Which was our bedroom, so he got used to being around us.

It took about 2 weeks for us to kick Bixby out of the bedroom and fend for himself with Juniper, but they're best buddies now. So we did it gradually and got in the habit of simply making sure Bixby was out and about and could get to his litter box and food if he wanted to, and made sure Juniper wasn't terrorizing him too much.
 
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judi

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Originally Posted by axld

So,
After weeks (months) of debating, I am moving forward with getting a brother for Sal. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve had him for 4 months (heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll be 8 months when yet unnamed kitty 2 comes in) and I think heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll be happier with a playmate. Heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s extremely social and pouts at the door when I leave and is usually sleeping by it when we come back from work.

The introduction does not worry me too much because Sal is amazingly friendly to people and pets (heâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s from a house with plenty of cats and dogs).

Hereâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s the tricky part. He has “his†room, which will become “the cat roomâ€. When I got him, I was really nervous of letting him roam and he spend the first few weeks in the comfort of “his†room, full with a big tree, toys, food, litter, etc. Now, I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t have enough space to make an other cat room for the new kitty, and Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m not too keen on leaving in the bathroom which is really small.

So, whatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s everybodyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s opinion: should I let the new cat roam free after a few days? How long did you keep your new kitten (cat) in a safe room before you let them go out?
Click to expand...
I don't think you should let a new kitten or cat roam free after a few days.
Too much could be broken. Perhaps you should consider giving the new kitty the cat's room for a while.
 
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goldenkitty45

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We got Charlie at 4 months old. He was not allowed to run completely free till he was about 5-6 months old. When we could not supervise him, he was kept in the library room.
 
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karebearcasey

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a lot will depend on the personality of the kitten being introduced. i still have to keep sophie locked in a room after a month, but millie who we got the same day was ready the next day. when we got max it was less than a week. you will have to see how they get a long and how curious/scared the new one is.
 
saya

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I agree, it's totally dependent on the kitty in question.

I let Bea run free from day one (she was the only kitty)
and Berach and Chloe were allowed to roam freely unsupervised after about two weeks. They chose to spend the majority of their time in my room though for about another week or two after that.
 
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