Oh dear

ZIggy has been given access to the house for the first time tonight (she has been here for 2 weeks now), and at first Tom was in the cats room, so everything was fine. Now he is out, Ziggy wont stop hissing and spitting at him. There's no point giving her Feliway as she is in the bathroom, so no plug. Am trying to remember where the bottle of RR is, think it might have to be used a lot, especially considering that Tom is thick and looks at females spitting at him. Anything else I can do? I am hoping to get her to tolerate other cats, or she will have to be homed as an only cat, and that can be hard. She is 12, so I am not sure if I will be able to convince her other cats are nice!!

Hissing and spitting is to be expected when the cats first meet....and it will likely go on for a while. As long as one is not physically attacking the other, I would not be concerned. (Even when one cat swats at the other I wouldn't be concerned....only if it is a full-fledged bodily attack would I fear for the worst!)

good luck.

I suppose so, I just hate it when none of the cats in the house get on!! I will give it a bit longer and see how they get on - it sounded worse than normal hissing and spitting though, I was expecting her to attack him. Only prob is he is so big, I can't risk him going for any of them.

Well, she has met everyone else now, and if last night was anythign to go by, she will have to be homed as an only cat. She will spit and growl at a cat that is the opposite side of the room, normally if they look at her, but sometimes not. She also appeared as though she was going to lunge at two of them. I am going to keep giving her access at the same time as the others though, and see if it has any effect

Have you been exchanging their scents by rubbing them both with the same towel? Or have you used the vanilla trick? What have you done to help them accept each other? You may have explained it in another thread, but if so, all of us have not read that other thread. You might want to just summarize.

Originally Posted by twofatcats

Have you been exchanging their scents by rubbing them both with the same towel? Or have you used the vanilla trick? What have you done to help them accept each other? You may have explained it in another thread, but if so, all of us have not read that other thread. You might want to just summarize.

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Good luck-you'll need it. I tried to add a 12 year old female scottish fold that had been an only cat in with my male-she would freak out and hiss and spit and him, so he'd kick her ass. And this is after 5 days of door between them separation, exchanging the bedding to get used to the smells and letting the new cat out when old cat shut in. It didn't work out-I think 12 years of being an only cat was just too much to overcome.

Hi booktigger.
It is possible to get an old cat to get used to other cats.
My cat is now 15 but we started bringing new cats when he was 10 years old.
He started growling and hissing, as most cats do when a new kitty is brought home but with time he got used to it.
Now I have to say he is the friendliest cat of the bunch and has even found a companion from all my 5 cats [the friendship only started 2 years ago]. I haven't managed any of my cats to get along except Tom with another cat.

So there you go.. its possible. Please continue working it out. Maybe they won't be the best of friends but they could at least tolerate each other.
It takes patience and time, specially because your old cat has been used to living alone for so long.

5 years ago I didn't have much access to the internet [if any at all], therefore I didn't know much about introducing new cats. The only thing I did was seperate them when a fight started, allow them to snif each other and keep them apart the first few weeks. I also never forced them to meet, it was always on the cats terms.

best of luck to you and your kitties.

I haven't really done a lot re exchanging scents as she is a foster, so is only here till we find her forever home - she originally was only supposed to be here for a couple of days, but the shelter now can't take her (I prefer oldies to be in a home environment anyway). I always isolate fosters for 2 weeks, just in case they start with cat flu or have fleas, but I did leave the door to her room slightly open a couple of times, which meant other cats came and investigated and got spat at. The main prob is I have never had as many cats as this for this length of time, my limit is normally 5, and I have 6 in at the mo, they have all been here varying lengths of time, so they are all at different stages (i.e. Tom has access to the whole house 24/7 and outdoor access, the lodgers have access to the whole house all eve and overnight, she has access to the whole house for a few hours each night). I am only trying her out with other cats as I know it will be easier to home her if she can go to a home with other cats, otherwise homing a 12 year old as an only cat wont be easy. The other problem I have is I only have 2 out of 6 that get on (they have lived together), Ginger stays out of the house to avoid people, Pebbles bats some of them (she will let tom on the bed, but if he gets too close she bats him, so he is now scared of her, despite her weighing 3.58kg and him 8.6kg!!), Tom loves females but they dont like him, so as a result he gets spat at and sits there looking at them!!