Introductions

[mbjerkness]

My friend has two outdoor barn cats. Mama (spayed) and her son. Mama is very dominate. My friend would like to bring in one or two more barn cats for mice control. She is wondering if bringing a spayed female or two neutered males would be a better idea. Mama chased her son off. she is quite mean to him. He is basically feral, because of her behavior. Do you think she will accept another cat. Also how to introduce them ? recommendations please

 

[susanm9006]

Since she is a dominate cat she may not do well with another cat. She is going to have to go through very slow introductions with the mom and son - placing them on different rooms and letting each get familiar with their presence and scent before getting close to one another.

The alternative I think is to find a bonded pair that have previously lived indoors. Could be mother and child, two siblings that have grown up together, or just two cats that have lived together. I hope she is intending to give them a lifetime home?

 

[Mamanyt1953]

With proper introductions, she may actually do better with new cats. Instinct tells mama cats to push their babies away, and eventually drive them off to start their own lives, so some of that may well be coming into play.

My problem is that although I'm very familiar with introducing new house cats to one another, I've no clue how to go about it with barn cats, who are generally semi-feral, at best. We do have several members here who are experts with ferals and barn cats. I'm hoping that one of them will see this very soon!

 

[Talien]

In my experience it's actually been easier to get outdoor Cats to accept a new arrival than indoor, mostly because there's a lot more room. Cats like to claim territory and there's a whole lot less of that inside a house, but outside there's plenty of room. Cats that have been fixed are less likely to be aggressive over territory and are overall more accepting of new arrivals, at least as long as there's enough food to go around.