Introducing a kitten to a cat that has never seen another cat before

So I've got a 3 year old hand reared cat but recently my boyfriend agreed to get a 4 month old kitten. He's beautiful, sweet and affectionate. He's great with our dogs but my resident cat Kali is just freaking out and hiding. I've tried screen doors and treats and toys but she is just fixed on him. She doesn't wanna hurt him and she's not being aggressive she's just petrified of this new creature. I'm open to catifying the house, getting sprays or anything to reduce her stress. She hasn't eaten in 24 hours either.

Have you been keeping the kitten in a separate room? That should be the first step, so you cat can get used to the smell of a cat being in the house without having to deal with confronting the new cat. Normally a good intro technique is to then feed the cats on either side of the closed door, so they can associate the scent of the other cat with good things, but that clearly won't work yet.

It is essential that you get your cat eating something, anything she wants (like tuna or boiled chicken), soon because it can get dangerous for a cat enough very quickly. Keep the kitten out of sight until Kali is more comfortable. The kitten will be fine. Then, you can introduce items with the kitten's scent to Kali, like offering her a brush that you used on the kitten, or laying a towel that you rubbed all over the kitten near where Kali likes to sleep. I'd go very slowly, because it's so new to her. A Feliway multicat diffuser for the room Kali is in the most might also help.

Here's a guide for introducing cats: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/introducing-cats-to-cats

I'd focus the most on making Kali comfortable. Kittens are so adaptable that you won't have to worry about him as much.

Kali will get used to him, too, but if you cannot get her to eat on her own soon you will need to syringe feed her or call the vet. 

Thank you for some tips. Yes the kitten has had his own room and I've just been letting the kitten play with kali up high so she can observe (she also only has one eye). But it's also very hot so I don't like leaving him in there. Kali is very content to stay in a room and relax so I've been trying to get her to eat. I'll cook up some chicken or a bit of tuna soon

Sigh of relief, Kali took to her tuna very quickly I added some water too so she could get some hydration. I'm glad she's eating now though

Oh good that is a relief!

She only had a little bit. I think I'm going to allow her to stay in our room now that the kitten likes my mother's room and she doesn't mind the cuddles and I'll get him his own little cat tree for now. On the weekend my partner and I will be putting up cat shelves for Kali to watch and feel safe for when we start re-introducing the kitten to her. She seems frightened of Tiggrs (kitten) bell. Also if kali doesn't eat much tomorrow then she's off to the vet as she's had renal issues in the past. I do keep checking her gums and hydration by tenting her skin but would rather an all clear by the vets also they may be able to help her out with her stress.

I have 3 cats, Zazzie (age 3) kiwi (age 1) and Tesla (age 3-4 months).

So Zazzie has had to put up with the introduction of 2 new kitties in her territory (she had also never been around other cats, all her littermates died of feline distemper, she had it and almost died too. But we cought it just early enough to save her. The other families who adopted her littermates weren't so lucky). But anyway, when we introduced Zazzie to Kiwi, we let zazzie come over and sniff Kiwi's cat carrier, with kiwi safely inside the carrier. Zazzie hissed at her a lot, and growled, but she showed no real signs of agression toward her. So we let her out under watchful eyes. Zazzie continuesmd to hiss and then as soon as Kiwi got out of the carrier, Zazzie went and hid from her as if she were scared of her!

Overnight we kept kiwi in a seperate toom with her own food and litterbox. This was the way it went for a week or so. Then we started letting them roam the house together. There was still hissing but the growling had stopped. And Zazzie seemed more curious about kiwi than anything. She would go up ti her, politely sniff her and then hiss at her haha. But after about 2 weeks they were fine with each other and even started playing together.


When Tesla was introduced 2 months ago, Zazzie hissed and growled at him. And Kiwi hissed and growled and hid from him like Zazzie did with her. This time though, Zazzie just seemed more annoyed and less scared. Tesla would try to play with her and she'd hiss and look at him like "What do you think you're doing?"

Kiwi hated Tesla though. She wasnt too agressive towards him. But she hated us for bringing him into her territory as well. She would completely ignore us. And she even ignored her food during feeding time. She wouldn't eat unless we brought her bowl into a seperate room so she didnt have to eat with Tesla. After about 3 weeks, she's fine with him now and they play together.


Tldr: with cats, I think it just takes time. And most cats will learn to coexist with each other in time. Some may take a few weeks, some may take longer. But eventually, they usually start to leave each other alone.