We've had Puss, a 4 year old tuxedo, for about a year. We got him from a friend who was moving away. He lived with another cat there, but when we visited, he seemed to be rather bullied by it.
About 3 days ago we took in another tuxedo. He looks like he's about 2 years old. He had lived with my mother-in-law, roaming with about 10 other cats out in the large yard. We had him neutered and given all his injections and flea treatment before we took him.
We put the new cat in the spare room with a litter box, food and water. Puss was curious, kept sniffing under the door and scratching to get in and see what was going on. We exchanged their scents, Puss was very curious, kept sniffing; new cat didn't seem very interested. So after 2 days we tried them out for 10 minutes together.
They would walk up to each other, sniff noses then walk away again. They both seemed a bit stressed, but there was no hissing or growling, and no swiping of paws. So far, so good.
I had heard you should keep the new cat separate for at least a week, but being the softie I am I felt awful keeping this little fella shut up in the spare room. So this evening we had them both out in the same room together. They would sniff each other, give each other wary looks, and slink about warily. One cat would use the other's litter box and eat the other's food, then they went off to their respective areas and settled down.
Are we rushing things a bit? Are we just lucky that the these two seem to tolerate each other pretty well? How can we reduce the stress? Will it get better once we can let new cat outside again (we're going to give it about 2 weeks)?
About 3 days ago we took in another tuxedo. He looks like he's about 2 years old. He had lived with my mother-in-law, roaming with about 10 other cats out in the large yard. We had him neutered and given all his injections and flea treatment before we took him.
We put the new cat in the spare room with a litter box, food and water. Puss was curious, kept sniffing under the door and scratching to get in and see what was going on. We exchanged their scents, Puss was very curious, kept sniffing; new cat didn't seem very interested. So after 2 days we tried them out for 10 minutes together.
They would walk up to each other, sniff noses then walk away again. They both seemed a bit stressed, but there was no hissing or growling, and no swiping of paws. So far, so good.
I had heard you should keep the new cat separate for at least a week, but being the softie I am I felt awful keeping this little fella shut up in the spare room. So this evening we had them both out in the same room together. They would sniff each other, give each other wary looks, and slink about warily. One cat would use the other's litter box and eat the other's food, then they went off to their respective areas and settled down.
Are we rushing things a bit? Are we just lucky that the these two seem to tolerate each other pretty well? How can we reduce the stress? Will it get better once we can let new cat outside again (we're going to give it about 2 weeks)?
