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- Aug 27, 2013
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I have a 9-month old kitten and wanted to get her a companion before it would be even more difficult...spayed, adopted at around 3 months old. She can be a bit..wired...and is not super affectionate, but does snuggle at night and will allow a few chin scritches. And she certainly wants to be wherever you are. Despite our efforts to train her, she has no gauge on what is "too hard" and when she gets excited will scratch or bite indiscriminately.
We adopted a 4-month old male, neutered kitten who looks very Maine Coon-ish and will probably grow up to be a big boy. He is VERY laid-back and loves belly rubs. I thought (perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly) that he would be a good counterpoint to my girl kitten.
He's been here for almost two weeks, and aside from an initial introduction gone wrong (I listened to my mother's advice to just let him out with her, despite stacks of experts saying this was exactly the wrong thing to do!) where she stalked him around and then he snuck up and pounced on her, and she hissed in response - great first impression - it's been going sort of ok.
We have a large apartment, but the floor plan is very open. The only rooms that can be closed off are the bedroom and the bathroom. Since my girl kitten always sleeps with us at night, we were reluctant to put him in there, but after he cried all night alone in the bathroom I decided there wasn't a choice. Girl kitten's nose was out of joint for a little, but I or my husband have been sleeping out in the living room with her and she snuggles up there with one of us (which is fine by me since then he doesn't wake me when he gets up for work at 3:30 am!). We also got two Feliway diffusers to cover the apartment and it seems to be mellowing out girl kitten, who actually licked and rubbed against my hand the other day. She is never that affectionate!
I have been feeding them opposite the door and we are now at the point where I can crack the door several inches and they eat with no hissing or ears back. He, of course, didn't care to begin with, but it's a step for her.
He has already on a couple occasions bolted from the bedroom and run up to her, and she has spent several seconds sniffing him before I can scoop him up without hissing. I have been doing "smell exchange" with a cloth rubbed on his cheeks and chin and then on her, and under her food bowl.
Today, they were playing "paws," I guess, tapping at each other through the crack. At one point girl kitten rolled onto her back and then was putting her paw through the crack and batting. No hissing at all until I think he got her pretty good and she didn't like that. Is this a good sign? Any advice on the "next step?" When to take it? Was that posturing bad? He is literally 1/3 of her weight so I don't want to have her beating up on him all of the time, especially since she does not hold back at all.
Also any advice on clipping the claws of girl kitten would be lovely...forget scratching, she will BITE if you touch her paws. I only manage to clip a few while she's sleeping, but she is so hypersensitive I usually only get two in at a time if I'm lucky.
We adopted a 4-month old male, neutered kitten who looks very Maine Coon-ish and will probably grow up to be a big boy. He is VERY laid-back and loves belly rubs. I thought (perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly) that he would be a good counterpoint to my girl kitten.
He's been here for almost two weeks, and aside from an initial introduction gone wrong (I listened to my mother's advice to just let him out with her, despite stacks of experts saying this was exactly the wrong thing to do!) where she stalked him around and then he snuck up and pounced on her, and she hissed in response - great first impression - it's been going sort of ok.
We have a large apartment, but the floor plan is very open. The only rooms that can be closed off are the bedroom and the bathroom. Since my girl kitten always sleeps with us at night, we were reluctant to put him in there, but after he cried all night alone in the bathroom I decided there wasn't a choice. Girl kitten's nose was out of joint for a little, but I or my husband have been sleeping out in the living room with her and she snuggles up there with one of us (which is fine by me since then he doesn't wake me when he gets up for work at 3:30 am!). We also got two Feliway diffusers to cover the apartment and it seems to be mellowing out girl kitten, who actually licked and rubbed against my hand the other day. She is never that affectionate!
I have been feeding them opposite the door and we are now at the point where I can crack the door several inches and they eat with no hissing or ears back. He, of course, didn't care to begin with, but it's a step for her.
He has already on a couple occasions bolted from the bedroom and run up to her, and she has spent several seconds sniffing him before I can scoop him up without hissing. I have been doing "smell exchange" with a cloth rubbed on his cheeks and chin and then on her, and under her food bowl.
Today, they were playing "paws," I guess, tapping at each other through the crack. At one point girl kitten rolled onto her back and then was putting her paw through the crack and batting. No hissing at all until I think he got her pretty good and she didn't like that. Is this a good sign? Any advice on the "next step?" When to take it? Was that posturing bad? He is literally 1/3 of her weight so I don't want to have her beating up on him all of the time, especially since she does not hold back at all.
Also any advice on clipping the claws of girl kitten would be lovely...forget scratching, she will BITE if you touch her paws. I only manage to clip a few while she's sleeping, but she is so hypersensitive I usually only get two in at a time if I'm lucky.
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