The incorrect way of introducing new kittens

I just wanted to let everyone know the incorrect way to introduce kittens to your cats. I am currently fostering three kittens who I keep in a spare bedroom. Every morning before work I go in to feed them wet food and freshen up their water. This morning I saw their shadows below the door so I knew they were waiting for me. I opened the door only to have one kitten make a break for it down the hallway which is tile as another one starts to chase. I grab the second one and push him and the third back in the room as I close the door. I immediately look down the hall only to see the kitten at full speed sliding around the corner to come to a complete stop and immediately puff up. I hurry down the hallway only to find him a few inches from the face of one of my other cats. Needless to say nothing happened but I imagined the worse.

I think I will plan this out better in the future

Oh, that sounds like a fun morning for you!

My only idea for the future, especially if you'll keep fostering kittens, is to get a baby gate and put it across the door so that they have to stay in the room and you just step over it when you open the door.

It sounds like they could all eventually get along, if all that happened was a puffy kitten.

Good luck!

Good Luck. Keep Posted.

Then again... we got a 6 wk old (handed to me out of a cage outside the grocery store!) a year and a half ago, and I kept him in a separate room for a week or two because I was particularly worried about my adult male (one of 2, plus 2 females) cat possibly destroying him out of jealousy. Well, one day I just thought the kitten had to come into the rest of the house to at least do some sniffing, etc., esp. as the older (10 yr) cat wasn't around at the time. Well, I opened the door, watched the baby come out and then all of a sudden saw Plato just down the hall! Well, so did the baby, and he took off like a rocket, launched himself full tilt at Plato, and Plato just sat down, opened his arms, grabbed onto the baby and started purring! The baby ran away, turned around and did it again, and again, and again, and to this day they are best friends (in between dominance play fights!). But every situation's different, so of course you have to be careful.

well, you guys are the smart ones.

Me, I got handed Roxie about 5 weeks ago and just sat her down in the living room in front of my Polly and let her fend for herslef. (with a wachful eye) but still. She was 5 weeks old!!

I didn't know better though. Thank goodness, I just had a couple hissy, puffy felines for a day and by the second day, they were playing and licking.

WHEW!

okay, i've introduced 5 kittens to 5 adult cats in 5 years. and with the exception of the first kitten, i've let the rest just get to know each other.

the first kitten was my learnin' kitten. i had Sunny (the first kit) locked up in the bedroom for the first 2 weeks because Bear(who was 10 years old at the time) would hiss at her and she'd puff up do the whole boingy thing that kittens do. i was a mess for the whole two weeks. i was about 15 seconds away from giving Sunny away when i decided to throw caution to the wind and let her just approach Bear on her own terms. lo and behold...they hissed and puffed up and postured and didn't raise a paw to each other. within 24 hours, they were cleaning each other.

with the next kitten, Chloe, i plopped her on the floor in front of Bear. he looked at her, sighed and gave a half hearted hiss, as if to say, "aw crap mom! another one?" and walked away. my baby Bear died the next year, but the 'tradition' lives on.

brought Lilly(kitten, again) in about a month after Bear died, so she had Sunny and Chloe to reckon with...a few huffs and a few puffs, nothing serious.

then we adopted Rikki. another kitten. dealing with, by this time, 3 adult females. a little huffing, a little puffing.....they get along very well.

and our last rescue, Elly. we're back at the huffing and puffing stage, but we're slowly moving past it. but not one of the kittens (with the exception of Sunny 5 yrs ago) have been locked away from the adult cats.

what this whole long winded story is supposed to mean is that (and this is experience talking again....) adult cats most likely will not hurt kittens. i've never seen it happen. not saying it's not possible, but it's pretty unlikely.

How old were your kittens when you introduced them? Tiny tiny?

Polly took better to Roxie than to a young stray we took in and found the owners for.

The stray was about 4 months old. Roxie was only 5 weeks old.

Could the age of the kitten make a difference?

the kittens in my previous post ranged from 6 weeks to about 4 months.

Good luck, brennok. Sounds like you got yourself quite the adventure over there. Try to make the best of it!

Ha ha .... that's a pretty funny description ... I can just picture the kittens making a break for it!! But it sounds like you caught it before any lasting damage was done. I think you'll be fine.

Thanks everyone. Yeah I do plan on getting a baby gate on of these days. I keep slowly letting them out one at a time with my cats just so I can keep an eye on them. My calico runs away except for yesterday which she decided to chirp at one of the kittens which was amusing and bothersome at the same time. She is the one I think I am most worried about. My male tends to just stay away and my other female always goes up to sniff them. Then she hisses and tends to run a few feet away. The kittens could care less. When they escape they tend to just run past my cats. I would let all three out but it would be extremely tough to keep an eye on them. I am probably just being over concerned.

Well I let them all out today to try it out. Things went better than anticipated. My cats just growl and hiss then run away. One of the black and whites likes to rush my one cat then paw at her face. She of course only growls and hisses before running away. She did go up to the gray tabby to smell her then paw at her almost like to check to see what she was. It was weird since she doesn't do that with the black and white ones.

I also kinda just let the kittens explore and let the cats introduce themselves on their own terms. The only exception to that was right when I moved back to Maine and my mom put my sister's cat and my cat spike who lived together already into the laundry room with my adult female Phoebe and two 12 week old kittens. The laundry room is a small space for five cats especially when three of them were new comers. Must to my amazement nobody got hurt, they didn't even fight with each other, they were all too concerned with getting out of the small room. They all tolerate each other as well as Phoebe's babies (surprise to me she was pregnant when I moved back). Spike actually considers Phoebe his girlfriend... he is very concerned about where she is and whenever she cries he has to check out why, it's very cute.


p.s. Spike is nuetered, Phoebe will getting fixed as will all the kittens.

This thread is kind of encouraging to me, great story too--I can imagine what you describe very easily.

If you put up a gate, it does slow them down. I'm down to only five kittens in the room now, and I have a gate in front of the door. They just keep climbing over it. Pull one off, put him down, pull another off, another one is climbing up.

It's kind of cute though. It's hard to get the door closed. When I enter the room, open the door then stepping over the gate, I go well into the room so they follow me away from the door, and I can then close it without squishing a kitten.

After reading this, I'm almost inclined to let one out to actually meet my seven year old cat. Although she has taken to actually running away from them when I show her one from about six or seven feet away! It's funny too because she is hissing the whole time she is running!!

That tells you she's not ready to meet. When she displays curiosity in the kittens, then she's ready to meet. Right now she's not too happy about them yet, and if you force them on her, it's just going to reinforce that.

I'm so pleased I foud this thread!

We brought our two new babies (11 wks) home yesterday evening and our older boys just haven't been the same. The new ones are shut away in the bedroom and seem to be having a great time!

Our older boys really aren't sure about it and have been really grumpy growling in the corner of our bedroom. They've not been in the slightest bit interested in what's making all the noise behind the door. Treats aren't cutting it (which is really unusual) and they've even hissed at their toys a couple of times.

Will they eventually decide to find out what's behind the door? they're usually so interested in what's going on but not they're just grumpy!