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- Sep 13, 2015
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Hi everyone,
About 3 weeks ago we adopted a new, very under socialized 7 month old kitten. Since adopting her, she has really come out of her shell. Now our next challenge is introducing her to our 11 month old resident cat. We have the new girl in the bedroom and we have read the articles, done scent swapping, feeding on the other side of the door, meetings through the baby gate, and just started feeding them in the same room together. After a while, we decided to start face to face introductions, which has been somewhat of a challenge.
When the two are on each side of the gate, there is no issue at all. When they are face to face, our resident cat is kind of rambunctious. She likes to paw at the new cat, is this aggression? When she does it, she doesn't look like she's swiping and she doesn't have her tail puffed or ears back and she isn't hissing. The new one used to back off, but now she will give it back from time to time. When she gives it back, this gets our resident cat all worked up and even more rambunctious. Another issue is that because the new one is so shy, she is easily startled by our resident cat, who will end up chasing her until we pick up our resident cat and remove her.
We're worried about our resident cat making the new one terrified of her, but we also realize that they need to learn each other and work things out if anything is going to change.
Other than the chasing, there isn't really any sign of aggression, other than the VERY occasional quick hiss. They'll even ignore each other from time to time to sniff around or get a treat. What would you recommend? Should we remove her from the room whenever she chases her? And if we do, will this just keep happening since nothing is ever worked out?
Just a side note, we also live in a one bedroom apartment, which isn't very big, would it be better to do introductions outside of the room to give the cats more area? Or would this just be too much for the new one who has only been outside our bedroom once?
Sorry for having a million questions, your help is MUCH appreciated!
Thank you!
About 3 weeks ago we adopted a new, very under socialized 7 month old kitten. Since adopting her, she has really come out of her shell. Now our next challenge is introducing her to our 11 month old resident cat. We have the new girl in the bedroom and we have read the articles, done scent swapping, feeding on the other side of the door, meetings through the baby gate, and just started feeding them in the same room together. After a while, we decided to start face to face introductions, which has been somewhat of a challenge.
When the two are on each side of the gate, there is no issue at all. When they are face to face, our resident cat is kind of rambunctious. She likes to paw at the new cat, is this aggression? When she does it, she doesn't look like she's swiping and she doesn't have her tail puffed or ears back and she isn't hissing. The new one used to back off, but now she will give it back from time to time. When she gives it back, this gets our resident cat all worked up and even more rambunctious. Another issue is that because the new one is so shy, she is easily startled by our resident cat, who will end up chasing her until we pick up our resident cat and remove her.
We're worried about our resident cat making the new one terrified of her, but we also realize that they need to learn each other and work things out if anything is going to change.
Other than the chasing, there isn't really any sign of aggression, other than the VERY occasional quick hiss. They'll even ignore each other from time to time to sniff around or get a treat. What would you recommend? Should we remove her from the room whenever she chases her? And if we do, will this just keep happening since nothing is ever worked out?
Just a side note, we also live in a one bedroom apartment, which isn't very big, would it be better to do introductions outside of the room to give the cats more area? Or would this just be too much for the new one who has only been outside our bedroom once?
Sorry for having a million questions, your help is MUCH appreciated!
Thank you!