Hello!

Hello all I'm new to this forum. My name is Steph, I'm 23 and from the north east of England.

I have a cat Susie who is 5 years old and about 3 weeks ago we introduced a male kitten called mike who is 4 months old.

We are having a few issues with Susie. We knew she wasn't going to take him at first as she is a very shy and nervous cat but she had ended up staying upstairs all the time and won't come down to eat. She has gotten much better with him she will sit in the same room as him but it they go near each other she either growls or hisses.

My main issue is that my partner keeps feeding her upstairs. I've told him that we need to stop doing it as she needs to come downstairs for food. I don't want It to end up being that one cat lives upstairs and the other downstairs

Has anyone got any tips/advice for how we could potentially get her to come downstairs?

I know the eating upstairs needs to stop but it's just a concern as if she is ok with him in a room upstairs then why not downstairs?

Thanks

Steph

You can start maybe by putting mike in a carrier and letting Susie investigate him while he is in the carrier. Also I think them eating together can be a start to acclimating her to him and getting her to associate a good thing(food) with him that, may make her less scared. You would want to start by feeding susie upstarts but maybe some spot where she can see mike eating as well downstairs and gradually bring their feeding places closer and closer together. Also I have had luck putting the cats with in arms length of each other and petting the both of them so they can listen too each other purr and see each other again associating something good with Susie seeing Mike. There are lots of threads here on cat introductions someone else can chime in on finding you a link and I am no help.

Than

hexiesfriend said:

You can start maybe by putting mike in a carrier and letting Susie investigate him while he is in the carrier. Also I think them eating together can be a start to acclimating her to him and getting her to associate a good thing(food) with him that, may make her less scared. You would want to start by feeding susie upstarts but maybe some spot where she can see mike eating as well downstairs and gradually bring their feeding places closer and closer together. Also I have had luck putting the cats with in arms length of each other and petting the both of them so they can listen too each other purr and see each other again associating something good with Susie seeing Mike. There are lots of threads here on cat introductions someone else can chime in on finding you a link and I am no help.

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Thank you for your reply. I think we might give them a go of eating near each other. Maybe put one cat at the top and the other and the bottom lol x

I think you are doing very well for less then a month! My female did the same thing for almost a year, then something happened and all of a sudden she gained confidence and started coming out and even swatting at the others. I think you just need more time. It sounds like you are doing everything all right.  The above advise is very good. All the luck!

T

Di and Bob said:

I think you are doing very well for less then a month! My female did the same thing for almost a year, then something happened and all of a sudden she gained confidence and started coming out and even swatting at the others. I think you just need more time. It sounds like you are doing everything all right.  The above advise is very good. All the luck!

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Thank you! She has became more confident and she does chase him around a bit, but we just want her to get back to herself of sitting with us downstairs on a night etc.

My partner is starting to get very impatient with the situation and has even mentioned getting rid of mike but there is no way that we are doing that. I've told him it's going to take time and not happen overnight x

Hello and welcome to The Cat Site!

Your best bet for answers would be to start a thread in our Behavior Forum:

http://www.thecatsite.com/f/5/behavior

Good luck! :cross: