I think I made a mistake!!!

I recently brought home a new kitten, Yoda (3 mths) for my older cat, Buddy (4 yrs), to have a playmate. Buddy is an awesome cat with a great personality, he is very well behaved, friendly and affectionate. He has now become very hissy and frequently makes low rumbleing noises at Yoda. This happens if Yoda is in his sight or around me. Yoda has no problems with Buddy and always wants to play or cuddle if Buddy will let him.
Yoda does stay in his room at night and when I am out of the house. They play together though at different periods in the day, when I am home and can let them be together. I have to go back to work full-time in one week so Buddy will be home again by himself. How will I know when they are ready to be together? And will Buddy go back to the wat he was?

It makes me sad to see him this way Buddy was a "moma's boy" and now I am worried he will alwasy be distant

I hope someone has some good advice!! I just stumbled on this site today. What a great place for advice and info!!!

Thanks
Uglytoad

It doesn't sound like a mistake. You haven't had to rush your cats off to the vet for bite wounds yet have you? They are rolling or tussling with each other? Stalking each other and then racing around the house to do battle? Then it sounds like it is going pretty normal. Buddy smells an alien scent right now, (no pun intended on Yoda's name) and he is reacting more to the smell than to the actual cat. You can use vanilla extract to make the cats scent smell the same. Put it on under their chin, between their shoulderblades and on the base of their tails.

Also, here is an article that might help you out

http://www.thecatsite.com/cat_behavi...oducing%20Cats

Welcome to TheCatSite!

I agree with Hissy (as usual). It doesn't sound like a mistake at all! So sit back and relax and read through the article Hissy gave you. I think it will help you feel more comfortable with introducing the two cats.

Yes, actually before I got Yoda, I went through that article. I have done it pretty much how it says and found it to be so very helpful! I use the same shampoo for their baths, should i still use Vanilla? I guess now it just takes time
Thanks!!!

As long as you're not having horrible fights with blood shed, things are going great! The hissing and growling will eventually go away.

We ended up using Feliway plugins to help with introductions for our third cat. Our youngest had the most difficult time with the new boy, and 6 months later occasionally hisses briefly. We also talked to everyone, explaining they are our special babies and we still love them, and how much they are going to love each other and have fun playing together, etc.

Good Luck! It's worth the time and effort

I wonder is having Yoda neutered at 4 mths would help? any suggestions to have him neutered, would it help him to stop marking? and would it help Buddy to understand there is no threat to him from another male?

uglytoad:

You sound like I did when I brought Joey into my home to join 3-year-old Squirt. Although my introductions went well, Squirt actually accepted his new brother long before he forgave me for bringing him into the house.

I felt badly for months, because Squirt's demeanor toward me really changed. Little by little, though, he came back around. That was 5 years ago. He is the momma's boy he always was, and bringing in the 2nd cat was the best thing I ever did.

Good luck with Yoda and Buddy. It will be fine.

Things are still hissy and spazy with Buddy and Yoda..except when they play...however today an orange cat came to the open window and Buddy had a fit. When I was finally able to get him down he "spazed" on Yoda who was sitting on the steps. I put yoda up in his room. Buddy calmed down about an hour after. He's now being very affectionate. I'm not sure if this is a good time to bring Yoda back down or not?
I know Buddy very well, but now with Yoda around there are things and signs I have never seen before. Would it have been better to get a female kitty instead of Yoda?

sounds to me like now you have a little "redirected aggression" on your hands, which i have been dealing with recently as well. i did a search on this site for redirected aggression and read through some of the results it gave me, and there was some pretty helpful advice and info. you should check it out.

what is the site??

Welcome to this site!!!

The link is http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...threadid=20837

Hopefully that helps! This happened a few times with Sunniday (who passed over the rainbow) and Zebra (new cat at that time). Sunniday wasn't too happy with Zebra then 2 times when Sunniday saw cats outside (feral or stray), she got really upset and attacked Zebra (redirected aggression at her cuz Sunniday couldn't attack the outside cats).

I had to put them in separate rooms for timeout, gave Sunniday a good talking about how she shouldn't take it out on Zebra then I carefully allowed them to be together in the same room and it worked out. I also had blinds shut on the windows while I was not there so Sunniday wouldn't see any outside cats.

It will take for the cats to adjust to each other. I'd recommend buying feliway- that really worked with my 4 cats when I was introducing them to each other. Also read http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=22301- that has fanastic tips for various behavior issues such as aggression, litter box problems, etc.

Good luck and hang in there! TCS will help u- this has helped me a lot!

If you could have seen my two year oldRosie) react to my new kitten(Sophie) on the weekend i brought her home!.

It broke my heart to see Rosie turn from a sweet, loving, affectionate furball that i had been used to, in to a hissing, growling, unfriendly cat.

But after a few weeks they were the best of pals

Take a look in fur pages "Rosie and Sophie pics" to see how they are now