Picked up a starving male stray, about a year and a half it seems, year old female cat angry.

brian perkins

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Hello everyone. I am new to this forum and are a new cat owner as well. I was walking home from the gym today with my girlfriend when we noticed this stray cat that was very weak. We felt bad and brought it home with us, and we fed him and gave him water. We are gonna get him checked out by the vet this week so we can make sure we treat him if he has any issues. Anyway, we have him in a cage right now just because he has been an outside cat for so long and we don't know if he is carrying diseases. However when we brought him in, our female cat which we have had for about a year now became incredibly defensive, hissing at my girlfriend and I whenever the scent of the new cat crosses paths. How long until my female cat will overcome this? I want this new cat to be able to live in unison with her. He doesn't seem affected by her, she is just very defensive towards him. He has a very calm personality, but to be honest, she is a very conservative cat. Help a fellow cat lover out :)
 

losna

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Hello!

There is no definitive answer to the 'how long' question, it varies by cat and circumstance. Some cats get along right away, others take considerably longer. The advice you will see is that you should allow your cats to determine the length of time during each stage of introduction.

In my signature you can see a guide to properly introducing cats, there are a series of steps to go through to ensure the best outcome.

The best way to start is to put the new cat into a closed room until they get used to each other's presence in the house or apartment, and then progress to scent swapping with socks or towels or something like that. But this guide is very helpful and informative, I suggest giving it a read and posting here with any specific questions you may have!
 

evamilly

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When I took in a stray (called princess, she has been with us for just over a year now) I kept her in the spare bedroom with her food, water, litter tray, and an igloo type cat bed so that she had somewhere to hide! I was worried about how my other cat Eva would take to her since she doesn't like cats, she loves the neighbours dog but that's another story lol. Anyway after 2 weeks I started to leave the door to her room open, she gradually moved herself into my bedroom- after a few months. She now sleeps on my bed.

We did the swapping of scents on towels whilst they were separated but to be honest they both seemed to ignore these

We used feliway defusers - I think these help.

Initially tried to feed them both near each other with the door to room closed but this didn't seem to help much they seemed stressed out, so we abandoned this idea.

But mostly we just separated them for a couple of weeks then let them get on with it, we had a little bit of hissing at first but no fighting.

A year on they are not exactly buddies, but they tolerate each other, they have devided the house up in to territories Pirincess stays upstairs, Eva stays downstairs mostly. They occasionally cross paths and touch noses which is lovely to see.

So my advice would be to keep the stray in his own room for a bit to get used to you and his knew home then leave the door open whist you are home so he can wander, let them work things out at their own pace- which they will in the end.

Defo get the new one to the vet, and treat for fleas and mites prior to any introductions.

Good luck with it all, and keep us posted.
 
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