I'm in the (very) early stages of introducing Jack into Sophie's life...right now he's still quarantined. Their only interaction is under the bathroom door; I was hesitant about allowing even this much so early on, but with limited space, it was unavoidable without confining HER as well.
She's not being aggressive, destructive, or having any issues using her litter box, but she's definitely showing some stress. She's been less affectionate and more aloof than usual, which I expected, and also more skittish (she's never been a hider, but now loud noises will send her flying under the bed)...but she's also eating a lot less, which concerns me.
Her usual food routine is measured free-feed dry, and wet "meals" two times a day. Normally, she goes crazy with kitty joy when I bring out the wet food, but she's been acting increasingly disinterested. Mostly she's just been scratching around her plate of wet food to try and "hide" it. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't really SEE what was happening at first; Jack's arrival coincided with yet another out of season "heat wave" in our area, and she tends to eat less when it's hot, so it wasn't until today, when the temps dropped to comfortable levels, and she STILL wasn't interested in eating, that I realized what was going on. I did get her to eat some of her canned food this evening, but only by literally spoon-feeding her. She has still been picking at her kibble, but definitely not her usual amount.
I've been trying to keep her routine as normal as possible (aside from the obvious, restricting her access to the bathroom where Jack is housed) and giving her as much attention as possible without overstimulating her.
Aside from Feliway and Rescue Remedy (both of which I'll definitely be getting, but will have to wait until my next check clears early this coming week), is there anything I can do for her to keep her stress level as low as possible?
She's not being aggressive, destructive, or having any issues using her litter box, but she's definitely showing some stress. She's been less affectionate and more aloof than usual, which I expected, and also more skittish (she's never been a hider, but now loud noises will send her flying under the bed)...but she's also eating a lot less, which concerns me.
Her usual food routine is measured free-feed dry, and wet "meals" two times a day. Normally, she goes crazy with kitty joy when I bring out the wet food, but she's been acting increasingly disinterested. Mostly she's just been scratching around her plate of wet food to try and "hide" it. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't really SEE what was happening at first; Jack's arrival coincided with yet another out of season "heat wave" in our area, and she tends to eat less when it's hot, so it wasn't until today, when the temps dropped to comfortable levels, and she STILL wasn't interested in eating, that I realized what was going on. I did get her to eat some of her canned food this evening, but only by literally spoon-feeding her. She has still been picking at her kibble, but definitely not her usual amount.
I've been trying to keep her routine as normal as possible (aside from the obvious, restricting her access to the bathroom where Jack is housed) and giving her as much attention as possible without overstimulating her.
Aside from Feliway and Rescue Remedy (both of which I'll definitely be getting, but will have to wait until my next check clears early this coming week), is there anything I can do for her to keep her stress level as low as possible?
I think one of the most important things we can do when introducing new cats is to remain calm ourselves. I think sometimes people's own anxiety adds to the situation. With my cat Friday in particular I see a real difference in his anxiety levels when I, as I call it, "talk him down" but just telling him he's alright and to relax. He listens and it helps. My other three benefit from it too but I see the biggest difference in him.
She had an awful diarrhea (some solid, some liquid) under my bed and tracked it all over the place; poor sweet girl was covered in it. She did not want to let me help her clean herself off, so after licking off a lot of the mess, she vomited this AM. She did have an especially stressful day yesterday; my sister, who moved out recently, came in to take some furniture from her old room, so there was a lot of noise, strange voices, and the dogs carried on the entire time late yesterday afternoon. As I sat down to type this, she went and ate some of the wet food I put down for her, which I'm taking as a good sign.
