Should I let Baz meet our other two now?

We have had Baz at home for three weeks now. We have swapped him into a different room and our other two seem not to mind his smell. We have a mesh doorway to 'his' room. We have been giving Fred and Ginger treats by the door. They are more or less ignoring him now. Sometimes they sit briefly on the windowsill outside his room and look in as well. I have been spending lots of time with him and sleeping in his room at night.

He is eating well, using litter tray, grooming and playing. But he won't come near me and cringes away if I go too near to him.

He does seem bored and I would like to let him out to meet the other cats. What I wonder is, is this too risky given that I can't pick him up to return him to his room. The only way I would be able to do this is to open his door a little and let him leave the room when he wants to. But I can't think of a way of doing this that would prevent the other two going in to his room. His safe place would not be secure from them.

I would appreciate advice on whether to go ahead and open the door to let them meet.

I kind of like intermediary efforts, so can you put up a screen door in his safe room so the two resident cats can see Baz, and vice versa?
The other thought I had was: do you have a friend who could help you when you introduce open the door? One to kind of watch how your resident cats react and you can monitor Baz. Your friend will have to be comfortable picking up Fred and Ginger (love the names BTW) should any cat start acting out.
Similarly, (same friend) maybe as soon as practical upon opening the door, engage all the cats in play time. Your friend would entertain Baz (feather or similar toy at end of wand) and you could play with Fred and Ginger. The cats would be fairly far apart.
These are just suggestions off the top of my head; I have limited experience in introducing cats.
Good luck--and thank you for taking in this stray.

We have already put a metal mesh door in the room, so they can see him. My husband is here to help if I go ahead later today. Thank you for your advice.

What I really need advice on is whether it is wise to risk Baz leaving his room when I can't handle him to return him there. Also I think it is very likely, as he is so wary, that Ginger will go into Baz's room before Baz comes out. Would that matter? Is he likely to want to defend his territory? He just seems so bored in there, I would love to give him a bit more freedom but I don't want to risk a difficult situation developing.

I'd leave the introductions for a while until he is more comfortable with you. If he can see  Fred and Ginger through the mesh and, judging from the photo, can look out of the window too he's not going to be that bored. Try reading allowed to him or playing with a wand toy until he is happier about being handled.

I have a semi-feral female cat at the moment that is only just letting me pet her but if I need to move her from one room to another I use a wand toy and get her to follow the feather into the next room. If you can get him used to doing this your husband could pick up Fred and Ginger and you could coax him back into his room if things get out of hand.

Love his markings. He looks a lot like some of the feral cats that live around here.

I would continue to work with him on getting him more comfortable with you before letting him meet your cats.  Since you cannot handle him, he might run and hide somewhere and you will have no way to get him out. 

When I brought a stray/feral into my house in late May of last year, he was in his own room for over 2 months before we allowed him to see our indoor only cat and dog.  Then it was just swapping time out of his room and putting the other cat away.  I did try and allow them to both be out together, but I rushed the process and had a huge setback. 

I know it's hard to have him in his own room separate from everyone else.  Make frequent visits to see him.  Always coming in with a special treat and leaving by giving him another special treat.  Work on getting him used to you first.  You want to take the process slowly.  If there would be a problem with Baz and your cats and you cannot handle him it will be a problem. 

Do you play with him? How does he respond? 

Take things very slowly and don't rush the intro process.  If you truly want him to come out into your living space, you could get a large cat to place him in.  Yet that would entail getting him in the cage and moving it. 

Thanks for the advice. I will leave it a bit longer and hope he gets more comfortable with me first as you all suggest. No, I haven't got a toy on a stick - will get one tomorrow. It is so helpful to have this site for advice and reassurance.

Debbie Black said:

 
Thanks for the advice. I will leave it a bit longer and hope he gets more comfortable with me first as you all suggest. No, I haven't got a toy on a stick - will get one tomorrow. It is so helpful to have this site for advice and reassurance.

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Have multiple toys available as you just don't know what will scare him or what will excite him.  When I brought Marvin inside, he was scared to death of the wand toy and da Bird.  Yet he did well with old shoe laces, some toy mice and soft spongy balls.  As he got more comfortable he started to enjoy the wand and da bird. 

Just take it slowly and look for small steps forward!!

Baz is eating a lot less than he did at first. He was having three sachets (100 gm) of wet plus the equivalent of a tea cup of dry every day. He has dropped bit by bit (it's been three weeks in total) to one 100 gm sachet and a tea cup or less of dry. Is this because he was a feral so he was eating everything he could at first? Is what he's having now enough? He is pretty active (only in the evening and through the night) but obviously limited by being in a small room.

That is how my former ferals/strays ate too.  At first they gobbled and gobbled and eventually they realized there would always be enough food and they cut their food consumption way down.  I feed wet food 2x a day and then just leave dry out too as well as fresh water.  Sounds like he is regulating himself!