New kitten, angry resident cat

melissa

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My mom got a new kitten on Tuesday and her cat Chrissy, who is about 2 years old, hates him. I know it takes a while to adjust, but Chrissy is being pretty rough with the little guy. She swipes at him every time he walks by, with claws out. Shes been sulking for two days even though my mom has been giving her lots of extra attention and reassurance. How can she ease Chrissy's animosity towards the new addition ( his name is Deuce
) so they can live together peacefully? Poor Deuce is so eager to play with Chrissy and she is so mean to him. To add, mom used to have a cat that she got around the same time as Chrissy (she got hit by a car a while back) and Chrissy never came to the point where she would tolerate her either. Is there some problem that we should look for? Are some cats 'loners' ? Was she not properly socialized with other cats as a kitten? She came from the SPCA. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 

adymarie

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cats, by and large are solitary creatures & we humans force them to interact. Your best bet may be to slowly acclimatize them. Start off by having Deuce locked in a room by himself (his own litter, food, etc). After a few days, open the door and put him in a roomy cage in the room and allow Chrissy to sniff without risk of reprecussion. Make sure Chrissy get extra attention as she may feel left out. Let him out of the room and have supervised interactions, but don't yell at Chrissy if she swipes him.
 

lorie d.

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We had a similar behavior problem with Midnight
when we adopted Snowball as a young kitten. For the first two or three days when Snowball was in his new home, Midnight
sat in one corner of the kitchen next to her food and water bowls. She left her corner of the kitchen to use the litterbox only. If Snowball tried to approach Midnight
in her corner, she would growl and hiss at him, and Snowball would sit in front of her with his back turned. After a couple of days of this behavior, Snowball approached Midnight
purring very loudly. This time Midnight
turned her back on Snowball instead of hissing and growling. After that, the two cats were able to interact with each other. Maybe some cats need time to work things out for themselves.
 
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