Introducing two cats..

Right, been reading up on the forums about this: got my feliway diffusser, my vanilla pure, a new rather shy and timid siamese cat in the bedroom, been there a week now and a violent siamese nutcase in the living room, what next?

The next step we took was to let them explore each other's area in a controlled manner, very limited direct interaction if any at this point. If they were in the same room I kept them occupied with toys and treats.

Good luck!

Right, i'll try that over the weekend, Amy (the shy one) has started looking interested at the bedroom door so hopfully she'll want to come out and explore, will keep up all posted on my progress....

Originally Posted by JellyBella

The next step we took was to let them explore each other's area in a controlled manner, very limited direct interaction if any at this point. If they were in the same room I kept them occupied with toys and treats.

Good luck!

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This was my approach exactly. Right now they are laying by my feet snuggled up together. It took some time but I believe JellyBella is right on.

I will be glad when this is all over, it would be lovely if they made friends, none of my other two cats are friendly with Squitten and she does need lots of love and cuddles, but she did meet Amy briefly and just went nuts at her...

Well, Amys been comming out and about and been exploreing the house, shes met Greebo who is very confused because there was a siamese in the living room and a siamese in the hallway, and he had to keep checking on them both to make sure there was two, (as much as i love him, greebos not the brightest cat i've ever met), Amy and Squitten have been talking (or making death threats) under the bedroom door to each other, not sure if thats good or bad...

Originally Posted by SquittensMum

Amy and Squitten have been talking (or making death threats) under the bedroom door to each other, not sure if thats good or bad...

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I'm going through the same thing as you are! Kinko seems more concerned and acting like a good big brother to the two new kittens, though my older girl is a bit more wary and unhappy.

Have you tried feeding the two cats on opposite sides of the door yet? I was going to try that tonight and my husband just let in the two older ones!

Luckily they all seemed to be fine eating next to each other with no growling or hissing.

BTW - my older male is doing this funny thing where he opens his mouth slightly while sniffing them. Have you noticed Amy or Squitten or Greebo doing that?

Hiya, glad i'm not alone in this madness! lol, haven't tried feeding them like that, might give that a go later, haven't noticed any of them sniffing each other as yet, don't think any of them have got that close to each other yet. Amy's so timid she just runs off, shes a lovely cat but quite hard work, its taken 2 weeks just to get her comfurtable with me, shes 5 and a retired breeder who was living in a kennel so i expect shes taken a long time to adjust to a "normal" family home.

I'm going through this right now too, my 2yr old female turns into a hissing/growling machine when she sees the new kitten (it's been 10 days). We've done a lot of room switching and that's seemed to help them get used to each others' scent. We tried the eating by the door thing in the beginning but the older cat just refused to eat. However we tried it again about a week later and now she'll cautiously eat there and growl at the same time.

One thing that does seem to be working for us, although I know it's not an option for every situation - we bought a large dog kennel and set it up in the resident cat's territory. We put a small litter pan, some water, and some toys inside, and will put the kitten in there for maybe 30 minutes at a time and let the resident cat come and go as she pleases. For the first 5 minutes or so she'll hiss and growl a lot, then eventually she'll find a comfortable elevated spot where she can just watch, and she seems to relax quite a bit.

my older male is doing this funny thing where he opens his mouth slightly while sniffing them

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My girl is doing a little bit of that too, not sure why...then she'll leave her mouth slightly open for a minute or so after she's done sniffing, just looking around, which is pretty cute until she starts hissing again.

Well, begining to get somewhere now, Amy and squitten have been having supervised contact, quite a lot of growling, hissing and spitting but i guess thats to be expected, their both doing that thing with their mouths that a couple of other people mentioned, fingers crossed they will be getting along soon...

Good luck, keep us posted! I'm about at the same point with my intro, so nice to hear how others are progressing.

Just a quick update, still on supervised contact, they have small moments when they sniff noses then (usually Amy) will start hissing or growling, I daren't leave them alone together for a minuet, they start fighting and Squitten starts doing squirrel impressions with her tail, hope they sort through this soon, I must admit, I do feel like banging their heads together!

Hang in there...about at the same point with mine.They can be in the same room together and both be relaxed, until the kitten gets too close to the older one, then the older one flips out and we have to separate them. It's been almost a full week of this now with no real change.

Patience, I suppose! All these people out there introducing new cats, somebody better have a breakthrough sooner or later.

Have you noticed a difference with the Feliway? We've got the diffuser but it only seems to help with the cats are RIGHT next to it...

It's happening!

So I've had the new kittens for 9 days and things are going along well. We still keep the kittens in the bedroom exclusively, I personally think they are too little to be roaming the house by themselves. We've never quite done the introductions as we were supposed to, my husband has a complete lack of patience. Besides, Kinko never seemed to mind the kittens and Chloe could tolerate eating next to them and being in the same room. She just didn't like the kittens coming near them.

Anyway, today I let the older cats into the bedroom for a little while. And Harley just loves Kinko. Whenever Kinko is around Harley is right behind him. For the past 3 days the two of them have cuddled, play fought, and groomed each other with no issues.

Now Sasha has become determined to get Chloe to love her. She'll go up and try to nuzzle which Chloe is not too fond of. Though in recent days Chloe as become more amiable.

Also, well we tricked Chloe a bit. There is this thing she does that is really unique. We found that if you blow in Chloe's face she loves it and will lick the air. So we have been blowing her face with the kittens in front of her and forcing her to lick the kittens. Best idea ever! As she has become far less wary of them.

Here is a pic of my kittens with the older cats. Chloe and Sasha are on the left and Sasha just about forced Chloe to let her sleep there. Harley and Kinko on the right were off to dreamland in no time.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...409&id=2512653

So keep up the patience! It will happen. I just got REALLY lucky with these guys.

Think i'm getting somewhere, they were just rolling around together on the sofa, purring away, only lasted a few minuets before Squitten went to slap Amy but thats the best they've been together so far, not sure if the feliways helping or not but something working!

My DH said that they are learning that the hissing, swatting, growling are "empty threats."

Chloe still hisses at Sasha and Sasha doesn't care, she continues to nuzzle up to her.

Soon enough they will be cute and cuddly together!

still not quite what i'd call friends but their begining to tolorate each other!

actually, I'd say that was really good - they pretty much have their backs to each other, so they must be feeling a good deal of trust with each other. And so pretty!!!

Still not quite happy familys yet, i'm giving them the odd 10 mins alone together, and quite a bit of supervised contact, Squittens happy to go into Amys room but won't let Amy come into the living room and Amy's to shy and timid to try, if i pick her up and bring her in here she wriggles out of my arms and runs back to her room and i'm sure Squittens bullying Amy a bit, she keeps licking the top of her head then going to bite her neck or ear! when i sit down with them both in Amys room they snuggle up with me quite happily but i'd like to be able to do that with them in here.

Another update; still pretty much the same, Squitten dosen't want Amy in the living room so Amys staying in the bedroom, although, now i have a new set of problems: just been offered a new house, 200 miles away, has anyone moved long distance with cats? any hints or tips? really not looking forward to a 4-5 hour journey with upset kitties!