Moving to new home & introducing 2 cats

thecamerageek

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In a few months I will be combining households with my mother and our respective cats. This will be a new home for both cats. I've been researching how to introduce cats to each other, and most of the advice I've found seems to assume that there is a resident cat. Are there any special concerns in a case where it's a new home for both cats?

I'm especially concerned that my cat, Saber, will hurt my mother's cat, Izzy.

Saber is a six year old male (altered), domestic shorthair. I've had him since he was a kitten, and for his entire life since kitten hood, he's lived in one place and been the only cat. Saber usually gets aggressive towards strangers, and I've learned to read his body language and remove him to another room when he gets agitated around other humans. I expect it to be worse with another cat.

My mother's cat is a 15 or so year old female calico (also altered), named Izzy. Besides being old, Izzy is morbidly obese, and had already been declawed when my mother got her seven or so years ago. She's a very sweet old lady (Izzy, I mean), and I doubt she could move fast enough to get away from Saber if he went after her.

We both love our cats and need this melding of households to be successful, so any advice will be appreciated.
 

catpack

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The basics of cat introduction would be the same.

I'd suggest getting both cats setup in your respective bedrooms and let that be their home base.

Start out by doing sight swapping. While one cat is in their room, the other has the option to roam the house and vice versa.

The important thing is to go at each cat's pace. It can easily take a few months to properly introduce cats and for them to be ok sharing the space.

Ultimately, though, there are a few cats that cannot or will not coexist with another cat. If this turns out to be the case with Saber, continuing to give each cat their own safe space and rotating who is in and who is out with not be a horrible compromise. Just make sure each cat gets adequate attention and that they have proper stimulation and they will both be fine.
 
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