New family members

Just need some tips i rescued two female kittens 10 weeks old. I hace a about a 9 year old cat male fixed. female 1 year old fixed and a 3 year dog . The kittys are joining the family

Thamk you for any advice

miss qwen said:

Just need some tips i rescued two female kittens 10 weeks old. I hace a about a 9 year old cat male fixed. female 1 year old fixed and a 3 year dog . The kittys are joining the family

Thamk you for any advice

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Hi!  What sorts of tips are you looking for?  behavioral tips like for introductions?  Medical tips?  Behaviorly, for now you should keep them in a separate room with food, litter and water and give tyhe resident cats some time to get used to them.  Below is my guide to doing cat introductions.  It's very important to give the resident cats all the help they will need to accept the new kittens, and if you rush it, it could become a bad situation.

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There are several steps to a successful introduction, the goal being BFFs, not enemies or angry at you (especially the resident cat).  A careful introduction raises the stress level in incremental steps, allowing both cats, especially the resident cat time to acclimate to the stressor before being introduced to the next level.  You are going to move the "bar" closer and closer to the resident cat until the final step, a supervised face-to-face, becomes  a fender bender and not a car crash

Step one: Complete separation, putting the new cat is a small room like a bathroom with food, litter and water.  Do not let the cats see each other - too much stress too soon.  Give the new cat time to adjust.  Give both cats time (a week+/-) to get used to this.  They will know each other is there.  Start feeding the resident cat nearer to the door, adjusting daily until he is at the door eating. Do voluntary scent exchange by rubbing the new cat's cheeks on a sock and then offering the sock as a gift to the resident. Don't force him to smell the sock, don't rub it on him. Observe his behavior and allow it.   Rub a clean sock on his cheeks and offer it to the new cat.  Continue to do this but never force either cat to interact with the other cat's sock.

You can now optionally do a territory swap or you can wait until you are well into step two.  A territory swap is what it sounds like - the new cat gets a couple of hours in the resident cat's territory, without the resident cat there (more on where to put the resident cat below).  The main purpose of this is to give the new cat a chance to explore the rest of the home without the pressure of having the other cat to interact with.  Unless the cat is very timid she will likely do a lot of exploring, and this will act to reduce her stress as she will start to acclimate to the rest of the home.

Now with respect to the resident cat, you can put him in the new cats room, he will get a lot of her scent, but this could be more stressful on him than is useful and should be done on a case by case basis observing your cat.  If he gets upset in the new cat's room, consider isolating him in one other room that the new cat doesn't get to explore just yet.

You can do these swaps more than once and each time should prove helpful.  You can even continue them in Step 2, if you started them during step 1.

When they are reasonably calm with everything in step one go to:

Step Two:   Allow the cats to see each other without complete physical contact.  Two baby gates stacked on top of each other in the open door is a great way.  Cracking the door open and blocking it into position so they can't get through the door is another way.  With many cats the stress of this will make them revert, but it would have been much worse if you had started with this step.  Continue as if this was step one, but now with them seeing each other.  When they are both calm, no hissing or growling, you can go to:

Step Three: After eating meals and feeling satisfied (full stomach = less aggressive) and trimmed nails, you can start to do brief supervised introductions face to face.  Watch their body language and reactions and increase their time together until you are confident that they can manage on their own.

In General, treat the resident cat like he is King.  Don't do things to make him jealous. Don't discipline either cat for showing aggression, punishing them for what they feel is a normal behavior (and is normal for them) just raises the stress.  And follow your cats' lead on the speed of the introduction, there are no rules other than to listen to them.

Once the introduction is accomplished, you may not be done as they may have simply reached the point where now they have to learn to live with and like each other, and that can take quite some time, with active and positive support from you, never disciplining either cat for acting out, but keeping everything positive by encouraging play together, distraction when that doesn't work, etc.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/introducing-cats-to-cats

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/cat-behavior/introducing-your-cat-new-cat

http://www.catbehaviorassociates.com/a-simple-little-trick-to-use-during-new-cat-introductions/

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Thank you so much for the info