Kittens not getting on with other kitten

Hello there I hope someone can offer me some advice on this little situation we have with our 3 new kittens at home. They are the only cats in the house. I have read some other threads on introducing cats to each other but this is a little different as these are all kittens, roughly the same age as each other, and no real resident cats in the house.

Well, Saturday of last week (24th June) we picked up our two new Siamese kittens from the breeder, (13 weeks old, lilac boy and seal girl - brother and sister, not yet spayed/neutered) and they have spent the week settling into the home. At first they were quite timid and spent a few hours hiding, gradually coming out to play and getting to know us, which took a couple of days. For the rest of the week they have been having so much fun, playing and running around etc. They are both very friendly, well socialised, loving little things.

Yesterday our Maine Coon kitten arrived, (15 week old neutered male) and with the Siamese upstairs in my bedroom we let him explore downstairs and he settled in immediately. Purring constantly and playing with us, wanting to be held, absolutely great. So a couple of hours later I brought the Siamese kittens down in their cat carrier to meet the maine coon. Oh dear. As soon as they saw him it was arched backs, fur standing on end, hissing and growling. The female Siamese was extremely upset. The maine coon wasn't bothered at all, he just wanted to play! I had to seperate them all immediately. I put the siamese together and they started to hiss and growl at each other! Totally unexpected. They all had to be put into seperate rooms. The siamese made friends by the evening and were sleeping on my bed together as usual at night.

Today I have tried to integrate them more, the doors seperating the rooms downstairs are made of glass so they can see each other when they are in the different rooms. I've tried feeding them either side of the door, putting a piece of string between the gap under the door that they can both play with, with limited success. The siamese see the maine coon, and they growl and hiss. Then they growl and hiss at each other.

What I don't get is that the siamese have only been here a week, and they are behaving as if they own the house and have done so for some time. I feel sorry for the maine coon because he just wants to play and they are so mean to him. There have been no fights, the siamese slink away under the chairs if they feel too close to him. Then they fall out with each other! Oh a real mess.

Thanks for reading this incredibly long post!!

Ok, people who've been through this situation - and there are enough people here that TCS can probably replicate any situation exactly! - will be along soon, so sit tight.

In the meantime, though, I'll make a couple of comments which I hope help: first of all the siamese probably have already claimed the house as their territory even though to you it's only been a week.

Have you tried the real vaniella (not the artiflical kind) trick? You stick it on the chins and back of the necks of all the kitties to make them smell the same - if you haven't tried it, I would - check the old introducing threads for the exact instructions, as I've never used it myself.

Anyway, good luck!

You can buy a couple Feliway plug ins. But it has just been a week, give them some more time. If htey are just hissing and growling that is fine. The males are going to want to work out who is alpha and as long as there is no bloodshed then let them be work it out themselves.

(on a different note, the kittens are getting close to 4 months and your female cat get pregnant at 4-6 months even with the brother and sister being so close, just keep that in mind. You might want to at least get the males neutered soon before you have a bunch of moggie kittens running around

They're totally normal kittens. This is what they do, hiss and growl and cause a fuss when they meet someone new. In rescue, once everyone is vaccinated I toss litters together. It's good for their socialization.

Some kittens will romp with members from another litter immediately as though they've always been together, while others will be standoffish and cause a fuss. I let them work it out, it's part of their hierarchy system and important they learn it. Unless you see fur flying and extreme aggression on anyone's part, they'll be fine. It just might take them a week to 10 days to become comfortable around each other.

You also need to understand that Maine Coons have extremely different personalities than Siamese. He's likely going to be the more timid of the group. Siamese are notorious for wanting to be the alphas, a position which suits them well. They can also be very needy when they're not feeling like "top cat".

Personally, I wouldn't continue to separate them, it might just cause more anxiety on their part, especially being in a new home.

Thanks for your replies.

All three of them have been in the front room for the last few hours. It's a large room so there's plenty of space for them to hide and play in. Generally what's been going on is that the maine coon has the run of the floor and the toys, while the siamese are watching him from the edge of the couch. The siamese allow the maine coon (his name is Beacan) to come within a couple of metres of them, then the growling begins! There was a bit of aggro just then as Beacan jumped onto the couch to say hi to Leo (the lilac point) then Leo lashed out at him. What I don't understand is why the siamese then turn on each other?

Beacan is so laid back it's unbelievable. While all this is going on he just comes to us and purrs!

I was going to get some of the feliway spray today - though it's frightfully expensive! I was informed that the plug in takes a week to two weeks to become effective - is it worth buying it as the cats may well be getting along by that time? Is the plug in or spray better in your opinion?

I've just tried the vanilla trick, so we'll see how that works.

Jen - Beacan was neutered by the breeder before we got him. The siamese aren't yet, the earliest our vet does them is about 5 months old though!