Still stuck on phase 1 of kitten intro

[wthellcat]

So we have had our kitten, Seamus, for about a month now. We are mostly keeping him in our office since our 9 year old current cat, Kitty, is very territorial.

I previously posted on here to ask for advice and what we learned from that was to scale it back and slow down.

At this point we are doing room swaps, scent swaps, and feeding them near the same door. Kitty can put up with seeing Seamus through maybe a half-inch crack in the door while she eats (they are about 5 ft apart), but otherwise still hisses when she isn't stuffing her face.

I'm feeling very bad about keeping Seamus locked up in a 10'x10' room all day and night, especially since both the GF and I work and can't even spend most of our time in his room with him when we are home.

When should we move to the next step? Does Kitty have to stop hissing?

We were thinking of putting Seamus in a large dog cage (with a hiding box) in our living room while we are there so Kitty can see him safely. Is that a good idea?

This feels very much like it has no end in sight and it really makes things tough. Any more help you guys can provide would be very appreciated.

 

[petcrazy76]

Does Kitty just hiss at Seamus or does she try to attack him too? Is Seamus scared of Kitty?

When my cats started fighting last year, my husband and I would feed them in the same room when Angel was still hissing at Peanut. My husband sat with Angel and petted her (so she associated the good feeling with seeing Peanut) and also was ready to catch her if she tried to run at Peanut. I did the same to Peanut but my goal was to keep him from hiding. It was hard the first few times, but they seemed to improve faster then when they were just peeking through the door.

We also tried separating them with a baby gate while they ate but Peanut was too scared to go near the gate so that didn't work well for us.

Besides food we also put them together supervised with a little catnip for each. That worked well for us too.

I would try a gate or something similar instead of a cage. That way someone could sit with Kitty and one of you with Seamus and pet them while they got a better view. If you put Seamus in a cage there is no way to comfort him and make him feel good if Kitty gets too upset.

That's what worked for us. It took us 2 months to reintroduce cats that used to be best buds. Our vet suggested putting them in the same room as long as each of them had a person to pamper them and that seemed to help them. The first few times were hard though.

 

[wthellcat]

Thanks for the reply!

So after a couple of weeks we had a couple nights where we briefly introduced them and got Kitty to "relax" by basically keeping the treats flowing while they were within sight of each other. They actually got to the point where they were both in the open and about 2-3 feet from each other and eating treats, so we got a little bold and let Seamus peruse the rest of the house. Kitty wasn't happy and definitely did chase him, swat him, and stand over him.

We were arguing over whether this was normal dominance type behavior (and thus whether or not we should let it play out) or if it was bad. Ultimately we decided it was not good (even though he wasn't hurt, and he did act submissive). I don't think he is scared of Kitty, but he is now slightly more wary near the door.

It sounds like maybe we should do the baby gate like you're saying, and if we do get to the point where they are technically in the same room we should *not* let kitty hiss and chase Seamus. I'm just worried that if we stop her she is going to get even more upset.

Anyway... thanks again for the reply!!!

 

[petcrazy76]

If you have to stop her, just keep the loving feelings going. Keep petting her or scratching her so she doesn't focus on the fact that you stopped her.

Let me know how it goes if you try a baby gate.