Adding a new stray to household

My front porch stray cat has now been moved to the back porch. She is being treated with lysine for herpes. Anyway, I have had her for three weeks and have had to shut her up in the cat cage at night to keep her out of the bean fields. (coyotes, bobcats, and foxes). Anyway. She is now on the screened in back porch in the cat cage. My two domestic cats come onto the porch two times a day for their feedings. They eat inside their pet carriers. This new cat just hisses and spits at them while they are trying to be friendly. Is there anything I can do to try to insure things go well with trying to get them to like each other. Both domestic cats are neutered males, one 7 years old and one ten. The new cat is a female about 2 to 3 years old. All suggestions are welcome.

Originally Posted by Bugaboo1

My front porch stray cat has now been moved to the back porch. She is being treated with lysine for herpes. Anyway, I have had her for three weeks and have had to shut her up in the cat cage at night to keep her out of the bean fields. (coyotes, bobcats, and foxes). Anyway. She is now on the screened in back porch in the cat cage. My two domestic cats come onto the porch two times a day for their feedings. They eat inside their pet carriers. This new cat just hisses and spits at them while they are trying to be friendly. Is there anything I can do to try to insure things go well with trying to get them to like each other. Both domestic cats are neutered males, one 7 years old and one ten. The new cat is a female about 2 to 3 years old. All suggestions are welcome.

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As a stray....she may have had to defend herself against other cats and such, it may take a long time for her to adjust to your cats. I would give her time and allow her to have a place where she can get 'away' from your boys if she doesn't want to interact with them.

Katie

i agree with giving a quick hiding spot for her to escape to. Also, you might try adding a few amusing toys in her view that the boys can play with, to make them seem less threatening and to arouse her curiosity about them. Right now, they are consuming food in her territory which probably seems threatening to her feeling of well being. Bless them for being friendly and kudos for you on taking her in please keep us posted - any and all successes can be very encouraging for others here who are trying to rescue ferals & strays.

I wanted to give an update on introducing Mattie to two existing cats. This week we put her in the yard with the cats and stayed there with them. She hissed and spit at them. Speedboat is trying hard to make friends. Part of the week, we put them all on the back porch and sat there with them for maybe an hour or so. Brooms were nearby in case we needed them. At first Mattie just hid under the furniture. Now she growls a little under her breath, but we can see she is becoming more tolerant of Muffin and Speedboat. I still would not trust them alone. Speedboat is a pushover, but Muffin is more aggressive. I am just trying to go slow and let them see each other some. So far there has been no fur flying, only hissing and some growling. Still open to suggestions from anyone out there who has done this before.
By the way, they all eat now at the same time on the porch, so I feel that is some progress.

Seems going on well. Some hissing is common even among friendly kind homecats if they meet a new inhabitant.

Such is the duty of a cat.

Proceed like you do. Cautious but with optimism.

I just wanted to give an update here about Mattie. We have progressed to the point where she is staying in the backyard with the other two cats all day. At night I am letting her sleep on the back screened porch where they all eat. She sleeps in a big cage, big enough for a litter pan and a bowl of water. The first day they stayed in the yard together, Mattie had a spot of blood under her chin. It has healed nicely. Mattie hisses at them some. So far they have not shown any sign of interaction. Maybe I am too anxious, but I am wondering how long it will take for them to get to like each other. Anyone have any ideas here about that.