New Kitten introduction

Hello All,

I have a 3 year old cat named Maggie. I have had her just under one year and she has been the only cat in the house. Yesterday i brought home a 5 month old kitten named Sasha. She is very accustomed and peaceful with other cats. The Kitten seems fine, a bit scared but my Maggie is staying in the bedroom and hissing and growling whenever she sees the new cat. She does this even when they are very far away from each other. IS this normal behaviour? I thought she would at least go about the house as normal and hiss when they crossed paths but it seems like Maggie is just staying in the bedroom. PLEASE HELP!

When I was still living with my parents, we had one cat, Roxanne. My father thought she was getting lonely so he went out and got two kitten playmates for her. She didn't appreaciate as much as he thought she might and acted the same way your cat is acting right now.

My dad went out and bought books and read up on cat behavior and the suggestion that seemed to help us more than anything else was playing with all the cats at once. Roxanne was around 3 or 4 years by that time but when she saw that laser pointer she went nuts and so did they kittens. It took my father a few tries but they ended up all playing together, jumping on each other, etc. They're not a perfect family now but they definitely tolerate one another more.

Our cats have taken as little as a few days to get used to each other and as long as a few months. It'll vary based on each cat. We've had Figaro for about two months now...and Minnie still doesn't like him. She used to hiss really bad at him and hit him, jump on him, etc...but she's FINALLY at a point where she doesn't attack him.

When we got Jazmine, it was about 3-4 months before the cats started living comfortably.

A lot of people use the isolation method of introducing new cats...but our method has just been throwing them into the bunch and let them get used to the environment while getting used to the others (and the others getting used to them). It's worked well for us.

ETA: I would encourage them when they see each other, and I would eventually try to get them playing in the same area (wand toys work very well for us). That normally helps us get them together faster.

Originally Posted by Crystal211

A lot of people use the isolation method of introducing new cats...but our method has just been throwing them into the bunch and let them get used to the environment while getting used to the others (and the others getting used to them). It's worked well for us.

ETA: I would encourage them when they see each other, and I would eventually try to get them playing in the same area (wand toys work very well for us). That normally helps us get them together faster.

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Crystal211,

You use the same complex method I do.

lol, works everytime!