New Kitten Question

[djkitties]

Hi

I have a cat at home and bringing home a kitten in a couple of weeks. I will be using my bedroom as the "safe room" during the introduction time. I am getting various things including an extra litter box and scratching post for the bedroom.

My question is should I put the stuff like litter box and post out for my current cat to use/see before I bring home the new kitten or should I wait and put it out new for the kitten.

Do you think a resident current cat would like to have his scent on everything first or should I wait and have the new kitten use some things like the extra litter box first?

Thanks

 

[latriciastar]

when we introduce a new kitten we use a very small box for them and then as soon as they are integrated into the house, we remove that box and show them the large box frequently. never had an issue transitioning!  we usually take just a couple of days to do this process of allowing the cats to sniff each other under the door, etc. and each day we would bring the kitten out, but hold him while the other cats sniffed and hissed. and when they did hiss or swat, we didnt punish, instead we showed them love and that the kitten was of no harm. always seems to work for our brood!

 

[katluver4life]

I wouldn't worry about swapping scents as far as the litter box is concerned. You should keep them both (the boxes) even after introductions go well. The kitten will need a small one for himself for a bit. Make sure you use non clumping litter though, as kittens tend to play in litter and have been known to eat litter. Eating clumping litter can cause a blockage. Letting your resident cat use the kittens scratching post first wouldn't hurt. Kittens though, usually adapt faster to other cats, then older cats do to kittens. So swapping the post back after the kitten has used it would be better. The article here on TCS http://www.thecatsite.com/a/introducing-cats-to-cats may help. Do introductions slowly and all should go well. Make sure to give your resident cat a lot of attention and praise.