Adopting a Kitten with a Year old Cat

[ohsnapsun]

Hi everyone! So I have a bit of a long story, my boyfriend and I adopted a kitten at 5 months that was his cat it lived with him but he lived with his parents and the kitten ended up not getting much time out of his room as my boyfriend spends all of his time in his room. He moved out recently and took our three year old girl with him and convinced me to take the kitten now almost two with me and it was bad news from the start. He did not adjust well to the new enviornment at all and was extremely stressed out so my boyfriends family offered to take him from me as they wanted a new kitten. Fast forward to now my boyfriend tells me to surprise me and apologize for getting me attached to his cat and then removing it he is adopting a kitten for me that I will get Saturday. I have read up on socializing a cat and I want this kitten to be really social because he had no idea he made a mistake with his other cat. I am a student and I work two jobs although I only work about 10 hours a week and I am also on a dance team we practice early in the morning and just dance at games but I'm not worried because the kitten will have a lot of time with my roommates they love cats and there are four of us all together. My question is this is a tiny kitten so I will have to keep her in my bathroom for a while. My roommates cat is about a tiny bit over a year and so social he lets anyone pick him up and loves on anyone and I babysat my boyfriends three year old cat the other day and he hissed and growled which is the first time I've ever heard that from
Him. If I'm keeping this kitten in my bathroom because she's tiny when should I let her out to play with the older cat and when should I introduce them also for those who say you should let kitty play with the other cat if you don't have much time to spend how can I do that without her getting lost in my apartment? I read articles that say you should take things slow with the kitten but I feel like it went so fast with our five month old before it was too late to socialize him so when should I start that? It's a lot I know but I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ohsnapsun]

Also, when is it okay for her to roam the apartment by herself? We have four rooms I'm afraid of her getting lost but I want her to get lots of interaction so I don't want to keep her cooped up! Ok last question for sure!

 

[MoochNNoodles]

We generally reccomend erring on the side of caution when it comes to introducing cats.  Its easier to take it slow in the beginning; than to have to back up and start over.  Every cat is different.  Some will take to a new cat (especially a kitten) right away and for others; patience is essential.  It may help that the new kitten is young and the other cat is friendly.  But you won't know until you have them together.  An alternative to the bathroom is a large wire dog crate.  I used one for my 2 when they were tiny because they could get under the doors at our old house!  The crate was large enough that it fit a small litter box in the back, a bed in the middle, some toys, and water in the front.  My girls are litter mates; so they had each other for company in there.  It ended up being a good solution for us.  I don't remember exactly how old they were when we stopped crating them to be honest.  

I think your new kitten will be fine as far as socializing him.  Especially if you have room mates who will be spending time with him.  How social a cat is depends a lot on their personality; not just how they are raised.  My soul-cat was very skittish by nature.  She was well socialized before coming to us; living in a home with 5-6 people and other cats and a dog.  She was handled; etc.  But she was always skittish and preferred my mother and I.  One of our other cats had an unknown background; but she was so friendly she'd probably have tried to befriend a robber if someone broke in the house. 

  So just keep that in mind.  Socializing is important; but it's only one part of the equation.  

Here are a few articles that detail the steps to introducing cats to cats:
[article="29726"]Introducing Cats To Cats  [/article][article="22385"]Cats As Individuals  [/article][article="32680"]How To Successfully Introduce Cats The Ultimate Guide  [/article]
Good luck! 

 

[ohsnapsun]

Thank you so much for your reply! I am not too worried about introducing my roommates cat as we have introduced many cats before and this was the first time I saw him hiss. I am worried about kitten having a playmate when I am gone as I wouldn't want to leave the year old and the kitten unsupervised and we have no means to get two kittens with four roommates although I wish I could. Apparently the boyfriend is taking me to look for the addition to the family and I want to know the best way for picking a kitten that would be more likely to stay social. The 5 month old kitten we adopted stayed in one room in the house for years and heard noises in the house but never knew what they were I am almost positive that attributed most to his skittishness he is a very friendly cat and loves everyone but HATES new situations. I don't want this for the new kitten as I am in college and will be moving some I want her to not be scared out of her wits! The one year old cat loves cats once he gets used to the smells so I know he will love a friend I just want to do the best for this kitten so she's not scared of new people cats and situations. Thank you so much for your help Im going to look into getting a dog pen!