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- Aug 20, 2016
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Hi
We have a 10 years old cat (Sombra) and adopted a 9 weeks kitten (Kai) from a local shelter about 2 weeks ago.
Sombra has been really stressed throughout all the introduction and we always waited for her to calm down a bit to go into the next step. We placed Kai into our room with his bowls, litterbox, bed, toys and everything he'd need and fed them on both sides of the door. Sombra didn't like that and stopped eating or tried eating whenever she felt Kai wasn't near, so we changed our strategy and moved her main bowl back to where it was with some dry food there and started giving her treats and some wet food near the door. It took a couple of days but that worked and she started prefering hanging around the door than going back to her bowl and had no problem accepting treats. When it was meal time she actually went to the door's bowl instead of hers and didn't mind if Kai was at the other side.
During all this time Sombra never hissed or growled at Kai, not even when she didn't want to eat there.
Around a week later we changed both cat's blankets. She didn't have any problem with that either and was sleeping on it as soon as we gave it to her. She even sleeps there with her belly up. Seeing this we start letting them see each other while eating. Again, no hisses or growls from any of them. Sombra didn't want to get very close but she's reasonably close (like 50cm) so all seems good.
Seeing this we let Kai roam around the house for a bit and he loved it. Now he tries to escape his room everytime we open the door and he's FAST. He managed to escape a couple of times but Sombra didn't really seem to care untill he went into her room. Then she hissed at him and hid under the bed. Before this escape we had also let Sombra go into our room once (without Kai inside), and all she did was sniff around, hid under our bed for a while and leave.
Now, since they seemed like they were fine seeing each other during mealtimes we decided to try supervised interaction and all hell broke loose. Kai tries to approach Sombra ALL THE TIME and she hisses and growls at him whenever he gets close, and she gets so stressed that she refuses to play or eat anything. Kai will back out and will try again when she seems more relaxed, starting the cycle again. During all this Sombra won't take a single treat and will ignore every attempt to play with her. He follows her everywhere, he even tried to enter a box she was in and even tried to follow her to her litterbox. Still, they wouldn't fight, just hisses and growls from her.
A couple of days back she plainly refused to eat for 8 hours and spent all the day on the same spot not reacting to anything; we were really worried but as soon as we went to bed she went to eat and the next day she was back to normal. Then that day Kai tried to play with her while she was seating on the couch and was met again with more hisses and growls, he insisted and she got really scared and hissed while she threw her paw at him. She didn't use her nails and didn't harm him, basically she slapped him. After that she was even more nervous around him.
Seeing that, we cut again to shared mealtimes and letting Kai roam around for a bit when she's in her room so he leaves his smell in the living room. Now she started accepting some wet food IF she sees Kai is eating too or we're holding him (he tries to eat her food and the hisses/ growls start again and she refuses to eat and leaves) but she won't even finish it. Kai after that slap changed his ways and does not try to approach her as much, but she still gets very nervous.
Maybe we hurried it but it seemed it was going fine. Now we don't really know how to continue from here. She doesn't mind sleeping on the same spot Kai has been sleeping or playing before, but as soon as she sees him "free" near her she hisses and growls, and remains nervous for a while after Kai went to his room. Right now I went to leave Kai some dry food and cuddled him a bit, and went to cuddle her and she hissed at me. It's the first time she does this and I'm afraid she'll never get used to him.
We placed a Feliway Friends diffuser on the living room 4 days ago but it doesn't really seem to effect them and ordered a cat tree so she can escape from him to a place where he can't reach her (it should arrive in a couple of days). We also make a point to give Sombra attention and playtime so she doesn't feel left out and keep all the routines we had with her, but she will only play if it's been hours without any contact with Kai
We have a 10 years old cat (Sombra) and adopted a 9 weeks kitten (Kai) from a local shelter about 2 weeks ago.
Sombra has been really stressed throughout all the introduction and we always waited for her to calm down a bit to go into the next step. We placed Kai into our room with his bowls, litterbox, bed, toys and everything he'd need and fed them on both sides of the door. Sombra didn't like that and stopped eating or tried eating whenever she felt Kai wasn't near, so we changed our strategy and moved her main bowl back to where it was with some dry food there and started giving her treats and some wet food near the door. It took a couple of days but that worked and she started prefering hanging around the door than going back to her bowl and had no problem accepting treats. When it was meal time she actually went to the door's bowl instead of hers and didn't mind if Kai was at the other side.
During all this time Sombra never hissed or growled at Kai, not even when she didn't want to eat there.
Around a week later we changed both cat's blankets. She didn't have any problem with that either and was sleeping on it as soon as we gave it to her. She even sleeps there with her belly up. Seeing this we start letting them see each other while eating. Again, no hisses or growls from any of them. Sombra didn't want to get very close but she's reasonably close (like 50cm) so all seems good.
Seeing this we let Kai roam around the house for a bit and he loved it. Now he tries to escape his room everytime we open the door and he's FAST. He managed to escape a couple of times but Sombra didn't really seem to care untill he went into her room. Then she hissed at him and hid under the bed. Before this escape we had also let Sombra go into our room once (without Kai inside), and all she did was sniff around, hid under our bed for a while and leave.
Now, since they seemed like they were fine seeing each other during mealtimes we decided to try supervised interaction and all hell broke loose. Kai tries to approach Sombra ALL THE TIME and she hisses and growls at him whenever he gets close, and she gets so stressed that she refuses to play or eat anything. Kai will back out and will try again when she seems more relaxed, starting the cycle again. During all this Sombra won't take a single treat and will ignore every attempt to play with her. He follows her everywhere, he even tried to enter a box she was in and even tried to follow her to her litterbox. Still, they wouldn't fight, just hisses and growls from her.
A couple of days back she plainly refused to eat for 8 hours and spent all the day on the same spot not reacting to anything; we were really worried but as soon as we went to bed she went to eat and the next day she was back to normal. Then that day Kai tried to play with her while she was seating on the couch and was met again with more hisses and growls, he insisted and she got really scared and hissed while she threw her paw at him. She didn't use her nails and didn't harm him, basically she slapped him. After that she was even more nervous around him.
Seeing that, we cut again to shared mealtimes and letting Kai roam around for a bit when she's in her room so he leaves his smell in the living room. Now she started accepting some wet food IF she sees Kai is eating too or we're holding him (he tries to eat her food and the hisses/ growls start again and she refuses to eat and leaves) but she won't even finish it. Kai after that slap changed his ways and does not try to approach her as much, but she still gets very nervous.
Maybe we hurried it but it seemed it was going fine. Now we don't really know how to continue from here. She doesn't mind sleeping on the same spot Kai has been sleeping or playing before, but as soon as she sees him "free" near her she hisses and growls, and remains nervous for a while after Kai went to his room. Right now I went to leave Kai some dry food and cuddled him a bit, and went to cuddle her and she hissed at me. It's the first time she does this and I'm afraid she'll never get used to him.
We placed a Feliway Friends diffuser on the living room 4 days ago but it doesn't really seem to effect them and ordered a cat tree so she can escape from him to a place where he can't reach her (it should arrive in a couple of days). We also make a point to give Sombra attention and playtime so she doesn't feel left out and keep all the routines we had with her, but she will only play if it's been hours without any contact with Kai