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- May 19, 2016
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I recently moved across country with three cats - my husband's two cats, who were living with his parents, and my cat, who was living with us prior to the move. We could not introduce the cats prior to the move because of our living situation.
We expected introductions to take some time, particularly since their first exposures to each other were so stressful (30 hours of driving in a uhaul cab over the period of three days was bound to be unsettling), but four months later we are still having issues.
My cat (Ella) was previously in a single-cat-household, and she is now getting along fine with one of the other cats, but is both terrified of and aggressive toward one cat (Milo). Milo is a fearful cat, and only recently became comfortable with moving around in the apartment - he was previously terrified of the living room and spent all his time in a bedroom.
We have tried repeatedly to introduce Ella and Milo only to have both cats seem calm until Milo moves - once Milo decides to retreat or move away, Ella chases him, screams at him, and instigates a fight. We recently purchased a large dog crate to help facilitate exposure and desensitize them to each other, but after a couple weeks of forcing them to spend time together (taking turns with who will be in the crate, and using calming pheromones to help the process along), we still have the same problem as soon as the crate is not part of the picture. So long as Milo doesn't move, everything is fine, but the moment he does, she turns into a hunter. I keep her on a leash when we try anything without the crate to prevent a fight.
Should I continue trying to desensitize them with the crate? Does every time they fight or have a negative reaction to each other reset the desensitization? It feels like we aren't making any progress with the crate - they just ignore each other, and it feels like we are undoing any progress we've made when we remove the crate from the situation.
Note: we are only exposing them to each other for two to three hours at a time, and we give them breaks. At night they sleep in separate rooms.
Thanks very much for any advice =)
We expected introductions to take some time, particularly since their first exposures to each other were so stressful (30 hours of driving in a uhaul cab over the period of three days was bound to be unsettling), but four months later we are still having issues.
My cat (Ella) was previously in a single-cat-household, and she is now getting along fine with one of the other cats, but is both terrified of and aggressive toward one cat (Milo). Milo is a fearful cat, and only recently became comfortable with moving around in the apartment - he was previously terrified of the living room and spent all his time in a bedroom.
We have tried repeatedly to introduce Ella and Milo only to have both cats seem calm until Milo moves - once Milo decides to retreat or move away, Ella chases him, screams at him, and instigates a fight. We recently purchased a large dog crate to help facilitate exposure and desensitize them to each other, but after a couple weeks of forcing them to spend time together (taking turns with who will be in the crate, and using calming pheromones to help the process along), we still have the same problem as soon as the crate is not part of the picture. So long as Milo doesn't move, everything is fine, but the moment he does, she turns into a hunter. I keep her on a leash when we try anything without the crate to prevent a fight.
Should I continue trying to desensitize them with the crate? Does every time they fight or have a negative reaction to each other reset the desensitization? It feels like we aren't making any progress with the crate - they just ignore each other, and it feels like we are undoing any progress we've made when we remove the crate from the situation.
Note: we are only exposing them to each other for two to three hours at a time, and we give them breaks. At night they sleep in separate rooms.
Thanks very much for any advice =)