Introducing kitten to resident cat, very nervous

cortana

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Hello! After consideration and research, my husband and I adopted a 4 month old kitten (male). We currently have a 4 year old resident cat (female). Both are spayed/neutered. We read online about how to slowly introduce them--kitten resides in guest room. While I know this is a very short time frame, we brought kitten home TODAY in a carrier, then let him roam the guest room. Our resident cat came out of our bedroom (which is close to the guest bedroom door), caught wind of the kitten, and turned around and hid under our bed. She has come out a little bit, tail down until she is near us. Then, her tail goes up, maybe swishing/twitching every so often. She then hid in our closet and--while i didn't SEE it happen--it looks like she may have peed just a little on the floor. A couple of hours later (still today, evening) she came out, tail down, and laid down under a window in our dining room. She would let my husband and I pet her, purring, while she was laying down. She is now under our bed again.

We have a Feliway wall plug, has been plugged in for twenty-four hours. We are attempting to show love and affection to our resident cat, but we are not trying to be forceful. When she is under the bed, we will speak to her, pet her when she is on the edge under the bed, but otherwise we try to let her have personal space until she feels comfortable coming out to be pet.

My question is this--is this normal behavior in a resident cat? We do not want to cause any harmful stress for her. She is essentially family, but we did want a second cat after seeing him in a kill shelter.  We plan on waiting 5 days before letting them visually see each other, and another five days after that to let them interact outside of a peek. Or, if that does not work, take it as slowly as needed. We are just concerned about our resident cat, we thought she would be more curious as I visited the shelter three times, after playing with the newly adopted kitten, and she was interested in how I smelled each time I came home. Now, she seems afraid. I just want to see if this is normal behavior, especially for the first day? We are very happy she made an appearance outside of the bedroom, but again we are concerned parents of a loving kitty.
 

NewYork1303

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This sounds totally normal! I just went through this with our resident cat and new kitten. When he picked up the fact that she was here, he was interested and also nervous. Some cats are different from others so yours is probably just starting with more of a frightened reaction. Your resident cat is just afraid since there is an intruder in her home. She will start getting used to the kitten more over the next few days. 

Here are articles about introductions;

 [article="32680"]How To Successfully Introduce Cats The Ultimate Guide​[/article]  

 [article="29726"]Introducing Cats To Cats​[/article]  
 
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cortana

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Thank you for the link, I will be reading it shortly! I appreciate the reply. I just hate seeing our resident cat like this, because I want her to be all purrs and cuddles, which instead she is hiding :/ I'm definitely trying to follow the proper steps, though. :)
 

molly22

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We had troubles for about 3 days when we introduced a 5 month old female to a 14 yr old male. Our male let out the loudest scariest growl that I have ever heard when little one was sitting in her pet carrier. We put her in the bedroom and he would be on the other side hissing and trying to slap her. Then I fed them on each side of the door which they seemed fine with. Slowly the hisses and slaps turned into pawing at each other. We did the Feliway plugin and I believe it helped. Then the first Monday I came home from with her still locked in the bedroom I walk in to find she had slipped under the door and they were both sleeping next to each other in the window. From time to time if kitten bumps into Smokie she'll get an earful but it's been pretty smooth otherwise.
 

NewYork1303

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Just make sure that you go slow so that the resident cat doesn't feel threatened. She will likely learn to tolerate the kitten or even befriend it with the proper introduction. My kitten came into my house almost two months ago. Her and my older cat now will sleep together and play together with no problems. Sometimes he bats at her if she is getting to be too much but for the most part they are really enjoying each other.
 

kitkat428

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This is what I am doing now as well. Our kitten we got a week ago is still in our spare bedroom. They have only seen each other with the kitten in the carrier.

Good luck to you! :)
 
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cortana

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Did your resident cat hide the first couple of days? Our resident cat (cortana) will come out every once in a while, but she avoids the door the kitten is in. Most of the time, she just hides in our bedroom.
 

NewYork1303

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He didn't hide, but did stay away from the room she was in and slunk around low to the ground like he was worried. He was fine when we were in our bedroom with him, but when he went out in the main house he would walk very carefully and meow a lot (he is a talker).
 
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cortana

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You bring me hope! That is what our resident cat is currently doing (minus the meowing).  She comes out every so often, not much but it's only the first 24 hours since we've had the new kitten. Thank you so much!
 

MoochNNoodles

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Cats are so unique.  It really sounds like your girl is one who is going to require some patience to accept her new house mate; so try to not get discouraged if it takes time.  
 
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