Help-found new kitten!

[jsmla]

Hi everyone! This is my first post and I'm really worried! Here's what's going on:

In July of 2008 my daughter's boyfriend was working in a vet clinic when an abandoned newborn kitten was dropped off. We agreed to foster it until it was old enough to be adopted. He was only days old so we bottle fed him and tried to fill in for his real mother as best we could. Needless to say that kitten (Iggy) is still with us

Today Iggy is a healthy adult male cat. He has been neutered. Til now our only problems with him have been a few play-aggression issues which, from what I've read, seem to be fairly common with kittens abandoned/orphaned at such a young age. In general he is friendly and playful but not super affectionate. He gets along very well with our two dogs.

Iggy is now around 17 months old and yesterday my husband found a very young kitten that appears to be either feral or abandoned. The kitten doesn't seem wild-very friendly and comfortable with people and both of our dogs (Annie/border collie/12 yrs and Jack/Shih Tzu/6 yrs). He hasn't been to the vet yet-we've got a Wednesday appointment-so I'm not letting anyone get too close. The dogs, so far, are fine with him.

So, question #1

How old do you think our new lttle guy is?
It's eyes have almost completely changed from blue to green. It's walking well (if a bit clumsily) and can climb out of the litter box and up the back of our sofa. He/she is eating canned cat food mixed with a little milk replacement mixed in. The tail still seems a bit on the short side though.

Question #2 (and the REAL problem)

At first Iggy (the older cat) seemed more curious than anything. This morning, however, he began hissing and growling at both the kitten and me. Iggy has always tended to play a bit rough but today he seems different, very upset and NOT playing around. I tried to pick him up like I do all the time and he attacked me. This wasn't a play type attack-Igs was deady serious! I'm trying to follow the information I've gotten on various web sites about introducing a new cat-different feeding and sleeping areas, different litter boxes, etc. When I can't carefully watch the kitten he is in a cat carrier.

Iggy will still come into the room where the new cat and I are but he gets very aggressive if I try to approach him.

What do I do? We like this new kitten but I don't want to lose my Iggy in the process!

Thanks and sorry so long!

Jennifer

 

[stephanietx]

Congrats on your new kitty. First of all, you probably should separate the new kitty in a bathroom, spare bedroom, or laundry room until it's been cleared of all contagious diseases and fleas by the vet. Then, work on re-introducing the new kitty to the rest of the house. Read the Introducing New Cats to the House post from the sticky at the top of this forum, http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67321 .

Your old kitty and new kitty are trying to work out the dominant cat issue. You might want to invest in a few Feliway diffusers to help Iggy calm down. After all, his domain has been invaded by a foreigner and he's defending his territory.

 

[strange_wings]

With cats, always take it slow. The reason Iggy went after you is probably because you smelled different. When you hold the new kitten, at least lay a towel down in your lap. You also need to remember that it is possible to spread viruses and parasite eggs on your clothing to another cat. So ideally, you change clothes or be very careful holding the kitten and always wash your hands. After the kitten checks out ok from the vet you don't have to worry as much.

For now on anytime Iggy is riled up, don't pick him up. As you've said he's always been a bit rough so he's not going to take to being restrained very well and is more likely to lash out at you. Give him his space.

I have one that doesn't get aggressive, but he does get very annoyed and stressed over strange smells. He'll hiss and growl and nothing can console him - I just leave him alone to get over it. Usually by the next meal time he'll have forgotten any incident completely.

As for the kitten's age. We'd really need a picture or at least the kitten's weight to make a close guess.

 

[cheylink]

Originally Posted by stephanietx

Congrats on your new kitty. First of all, you probably should separate the new kitty in a bathroom, spare bedroom, or laundry room until it's been cleared of all contagious diseases and fleas by the vet. Then, work on re-introducing the new kitty to the rest of the house. Read the Introducing New Cats to the House post from the sticky at the top of this forum, http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67321 .

Your old kitty and new kitty are trying to work out the dominant cat issue. You might want to invest in a few Feliway diffusers to help Iggy calm down. After all, his domain has been invaded by a foreigner and he's defending his territory.

It is very important to protect your pets as well as the kitten till cleared by a vet. They can pass disease, worms, parasites to your other animals. Best to keep the kitten separated

 

[jsmla]

Thanks for the replies!

We have been keeping new kitty and Iggy separate. They've never actually come face to face-it's me that he's attacking! The only room that works for the kitten is, unfortunately, Igs' litter box room. I moved his box and he's using it so that's okay. Iggy does seem a bit calmer today and he slept in my bed last night so I guess he just needs to get used to things.

I do have another question. Iggy has never been around another cat. He was found when he was only a few days old. Someone had put the whole litter in a garbage bag and thrown it in a ditch and Igs was the only survivor. He has some very quirky and un-catlike behaviors. Sometimes he seems more like a dog! Do you think that will effect how he reacts to a new kitty?

Baby kitty is seeing the vet in a couple of hours. We had to put it off due to an out-of-town commitment.

Jennifer

 

[strange_wings]

My cat, Sho, was an only cat for a while. He did, and still does, have some odd body language. Tomas, who I found as a kitten, was more accepting of this because he didn't really know any different. However I'm running into some problems now with other adult cats and Sho. His body language is a bit different from theirs and it makes them uncomfortable around him, which makes him uncomfortable around them.

I can't retrain Sho to be a different cat, so they'll just have to get used to each other - for the most part they all do ignore each other when possible.


Chances are, if you bring a kitten in that is younger it may adapt better to Iggy's oddness than an older cat might.

I found a litter of dump kittens years ago, too. There was an illegal dump between my husband's (then bf) parents house and town. We were driving by it one evening when I saw little eye shines and yelled at him to stop. We preceded to round up four 12wk old kittens. We found homes for all of them (one within two hours), so I don't understand why anyone thought they needed to be dumped to end up as coyote snacks.

A few months after that I found a lone, very tame, 4 week out near his house in the country...

I hope your kitten's vet visit goes well. Iggy should calm down with time, but some kitties are just a bit easier to rile up than others.

 

[jsmla]

Iggy is doing much better today. I can pick him up and he's condescending to sit in my lap at the moment-very much his old self-he's always been more of the kind of cat that you play with rather than snuggle. The kitten came home from the vet with a clean bill of health. I still haven't let them meet yet. I just hate to freak Igs out again.

Jennifer