Hi, I apologize if this topic has already been posted about. I’m not very “forum savy”.
I have two cats I’m trying to reintroduce, and would love some advice.
Backstory:
I got my current cat Woodchip, a male Siberian Forest Cat from a breeder on December 30th 2023. He’s currently a year and a half old and neutered. He has a history of being easily overstimulated. So I try to keep him on a routine of playing twice a day for about 30 mins each session. And training at night with treats. This has helped his behavioral problems he had before.
He has multiple window beds, a cat tree, plenty of toys, plenty of squirrels and rabbits to watch outside and on the tv where I play cat tv videos for him as well. He was showing signs of boredom, so my husband and I made the decision to get another kitten from the same breeder on January 25th of this year. She is 4 months old, almost 5. Her name is Pepper. We haven’t spayed her yet, but plan on getting her to the vet next month once our insurance for her starts. We both work from home, and can’t play 24/7 with our current cat. So we wanted to get him a friend before he got too old and it would become more difficult to introduce them.
We set my office room up as her home base and garnished it with a window hammock, 2 cat beds, some toys and a shirt from my husband and myself so she could get used to both our scents. We slowly integrated and swapped things that smelled like my current cat, and things that smelled like her. Scent swapping, as Jackson Galaxy calls it. We started feeding them on either side of the door and then placed a baby gate on the door with towels over it. We slowly raised the towels as they were eating each day, and everything seemed to be going fine. They were both smelling each other, and curious of one another.
Eventually we took the gate down and introduced them with toys and treats. Trying to maintain the positive reinforcement with each encounter. And at first they played like kittens. They would chase each other back and forth. And if our current cat was too aggressive with the kitten, she would vocalize it, and he would back off. It seemed as if they were finding their boundaries and communication with each other. Until about 5 days into having them together without a gate or separation. Suddenly my current cat started getting more aggressive with the kitten. Chasing her like prey and biting her. I’ve had to separate them.
I feel absolutely defeated by this, and having to start over. I feel like we may have moved too fast with the initial introduction and not provided enough resources to each them separately. Especially my current cat. Like shelves in their common play area so he can get up and away from her. But my husband and I aren’t seeing eye to eye about it. I’ve done a fair amount of research preparing for this and trying to understand the current situation. But these are only my assumptions based off what I’ve learned.
At the moment, I’ve started at square 1 again. The kitten is back in base camp. Which I feel absolutely terrible about because she was so happy to be out and exploring the house. She is eager to be friends with my current cat. But as I said before, I think a lot is lost in translation as they haven’t found a common ground for communication yet. And my current cat is a “napoleon boy”. He velcro’s himself to me everyday. So he can be moody if my attention is elsewhere, or if I stray from his everyday routine.
I would love an outside opinion. Some advice as to what I can do to make their reintroduction successful. Since they’re from the same breeder, they share family lineage. Not that this would make them automatic friends. But possibly being raised by the same mom would give them similar socializing? I’m not certain how they carry on with that. But it gives me hope…
(Pics attached to introduce my kittehs)
I have two cats I’m trying to reintroduce, and would love some advice.
Backstory:
I got my current cat Woodchip, a male Siberian Forest Cat from a breeder on December 30th 2023. He’s currently a year and a half old and neutered. He has a history of being easily overstimulated. So I try to keep him on a routine of playing twice a day for about 30 mins each session. And training at night with treats. This has helped his behavioral problems he had before.
He has multiple window beds, a cat tree, plenty of toys, plenty of squirrels and rabbits to watch outside and on the tv where I play cat tv videos for him as well. He was showing signs of boredom, so my husband and I made the decision to get another kitten from the same breeder on January 25th of this year. She is 4 months old, almost 5. Her name is Pepper. We haven’t spayed her yet, but plan on getting her to the vet next month once our insurance for her starts. We both work from home, and can’t play 24/7 with our current cat. So we wanted to get him a friend before he got too old and it would become more difficult to introduce them.
We set my office room up as her home base and garnished it with a window hammock, 2 cat beds, some toys and a shirt from my husband and myself so she could get used to both our scents. We slowly integrated and swapped things that smelled like my current cat, and things that smelled like her. Scent swapping, as Jackson Galaxy calls it. We started feeding them on either side of the door and then placed a baby gate on the door with towels over it. We slowly raised the towels as they were eating each day, and everything seemed to be going fine. They were both smelling each other, and curious of one another.
Eventually we took the gate down and introduced them with toys and treats. Trying to maintain the positive reinforcement with each encounter. And at first they played like kittens. They would chase each other back and forth. And if our current cat was too aggressive with the kitten, she would vocalize it, and he would back off. It seemed as if they were finding their boundaries and communication with each other. Until about 5 days into having them together without a gate or separation. Suddenly my current cat started getting more aggressive with the kitten. Chasing her like prey and biting her. I’ve had to separate them.
I feel absolutely defeated by this, and having to start over. I feel like we may have moved too fast with the initial introduction and not provided enough resources to each them separately. Especially my current cat. Like shelves in their common play area so he can get up and away from her. But my husband and I aren’t seeing eye to eye about it. I’ve done a fair amount of research preparing for this and trying to understand the current situation. But these are only my assumptions based off what I’ve learned.
At the moment, I’ve started at square 1 again. The kitten is back in base camp. Which I feel absolutely terrible about because she was so happy to be out and exploring the house. She is eager to be friends with my current cat. But as I said before, I think a lot is lost in translation as they haven’t found a common ground for communication yet. And my current cat is a “napoleon boy”. He velcro’s himself to me everyday. So he can be moody if my attention is elsewhere, or if I stray from his everyday routine.
I would love an outside opinion. Some advice as to what I can do to make their reintroduction successful. Since they’re from the same breeder, they share family lineage. Not that this would make them automatic friends. But possibly being raised by the same mom would give them similar socializing? I’m not certain how they carry on with that. But it gives me hope…
(Pics attached to introduce my kittehs)
