I recently took in a stray and her newborns and now the kittens are about 4 weeks old. I am planning on adopting 2 of the kittens, but I don't know when I should introduce them to my Chihuahuas. I have 3 Chihuahuas that are on average about 10 yo. One is relatively grumpy but has low energy (diagnosed with arthritis). The other two are more barkers but have never attacked anyone or anything. The momma cat has seen one of my dogs through the crack of the door but my dog didn't see her. Momma cat was growling and hunched. I have a feeling we will not be able to make her get along with the dogs. But when is it ok to start introductions for the kittens? I want them to get along and don't want to wait too long to make the intros. I know I should be doing each dog at a time but at what age is it appropriate to introduce the kittens?
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When To Introduce Kittens To My Chihuahuas
- Thread starter mlaumuse
- Start Date
In my opinion, as soon as possible. When Felix was younger, I introduced him to many different species of animals. Today, he is very accepting of new cats and other animals into my house. Especially in his territory as long as they are respectful of it. I'm reverse of you. I have 2 cats and am now introducing my puppy to them. It's going well so far. Mostly with Felix because he's more accepting. Not so much with Smokey. It really depends on the resident cats personality. But in your case, the resident dogs. Start with small introductions in a controlled environment. Maybe put the kittens in a playpen and have the dogs circle and smell them. Reward your dogs when there is no sign of aggression of aggravation. Then, in an empty room (another controlled environment), remove the pen but still keep some distance between the animals. That's how I'd do it anyway. Let me know how it goes! Or what you plan on doing! Hope this helps!
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I have just gone trough a similar scenario. Two chihuahuas (one grumpy, almost 13 years old. The other one is 8 years old and very curious, but will bark at anything). We introduced them to our new kitten the same way we introduced the kitten to our older cat. We kept them separated most of the time for the first couple of weeks, only offering glimpses of the kitten now and then from a distance and allowing them to smell the room where we kept the kitten while the kitten was out of the room.
I would always hold the kitten with me standing and the dogs on the floor, just to have more distance between them.
Most of the time, the kitten was hissing at them and the dogs would then bark. We stopped the barking and the hissing as soon as possible by taking the kitten to a separate room every time and tried again later. It took two weeks to get the kitten to stop hissing and the dogs to basically ignore her, although I did catch them sunbathing together this morning!
Another thing that seemed to help was to try all of this just after taking the dogs for a walk. As for the age to introduce the kitten, ours was about eight weeks old and our older cat was about the same age when we introduced him to the dogs.
I would always hold the kitten with me standing and the dogs on the floor, just to have more distance between them.
Most of the time, the kitten was hissing at them and the dogs would then bark. We stopped the barking and the hissing as soon as possible by taking the kitten to a separate room every time and tried again later. It took two weeks to get the kitten to stop hissing and the dogs to basically ignore her, although I did catch them sunbathing together this morning!
Another thing that seemed to help was to try all of this just after taking the dogs for a walk. As for the age to introduce the kitten, ours was about eight weeks old and our older cat was about the same age when we introduced him to the dogs.
