We just brought our new 4 month old kitten home 5 days ago. The first day they were in totally separate rooms, but I started mingling their scents and put vanilla on both. The second day, was almost the same, except in the afternoon, I started to prop the door open so they could see each other a bit. My resident cat, Shelly, growled and hissed every time Miles the new cat came too close to the door. I did this for a couple of days, all the time mixing their scents, brushing them with the same brush, letting them sniff each other's bed, etc.
Yesterday was actually pretty good. I let Miles out to the rest of the house and they mostly tolerated being in the same room. There was some growling and hissing, and a bit of swiping, but nothing serious. A couple of times they even touched noses for a 1/2 a second! Miles was out for almost the entire afternoon.
Today though, when I let Miles out, Shelly has been chasing him and hissing and swiping him more. Still nothing too serious, no cat fights, and they're not obsessively staring or stalking each other. As I'm writing this, Shelly is mostly just leaving Miles alone. Is this normal? Should I just let them work it out, or is Shelly being too aggressive and they still need to be separated for longer?
Yesterday was actually pretty good. I let Miles out to the rest of the house and they mostly tolerated being in the same room. There was some growling and hissing, and a bit of swiping, but nothing serious. A couple of times they even touched noses for a 1/2 a second! Miles was out for almost the entire afternoon.
Today though, when I let Miles out, Shelly has been chasing him and hissing and swiping him more. Still nothing too serious, no cat fights, and they're not obsessively staring or stalking each other. As I'm writing this, Shelly is mostly just leaving Miles alone. Is this normal? Should I just let them work it out, or is Shelly being too aggressive and they still need to be separated for longer?