I get SO MANY questions about how to introduce cats...so here's what I have learned about new kitty introductions to other cats. Hopefully it will help you keep the peace in your home! Let us know in the comments if you have experience bringing a new cat in your house - good or bad!
What to do if the older cat refuses to eat around the kitten? Mine went on a hunger strike even with the kitten out of sight isolated in another room. Vet thinks it’s stress and not a medical issue.
Im introducing a new 10 month old male kitten to my 18 month old boy and the first few days were pretty tense, sleepless nights wondering if i had done the right thing. New boy is set up in base camp in spare bedroom as i have a bit of a busy schedule leading up to xmas. At first both cats would growl and hiss at the faintest scent of each other, but i started exchanging toys and bedding immediately and food and treats on either side of the door. My older boy actually started to warm up pretty quickly and wanted to initiate play but was being ignored by the kitten. I assumed he was just scared and still trying to settle in. This morning on day 9 i was able to let them both out for 90 minutes, they played pretty gently the entire time chasing and wrestling, and although its still very early days i felt a huge sense of relief that with hard work and a bit of luck it will pay off big time.
Good points. Another is no matter how much the new cat or the resident cat cries to get out of the room he/she is in, remember that you are not being cruel in keeping the new cat or occasionally the resident cat separate in another room. it is for the safety of all the cats. The new cat is just not liking being by itself and your resident cat is crying for the same reason in addition to wanting to see who is exploring the house.
Okay, please explain again how it is not cruel when you create situations in which you have your cats crying. You can sooth yourself all you want, but your cats have a problem and they are telling you about it. What!? Are you telling us you just IGNORE the crying? I would periodically go in and comfort them. By NOT answering their distress calls, well, what kind of message are you sending? Yeah, I'm no saint, and when I'm busy, well, at least I'd yell "You're Okay" so they at least know they've been acknowledged.
Yes, looking out for the safety of all the cats is important. The other cat may not be happy about having to go in another room for a while, but taking your time when introducing is crucial.
@@UpUpDnDnLtRtLtRtBAStart Huh!? What are you talking about. The Original Comment advises us all to separate new cats from old established cats, and then to ignore the consequences, and even if they are howling in distress, well, apparently our original commentor believes that what does not kiill a cat must make it stronger. To this I replied reasonably by saying that in my house, if any cats call out in distress, my policy is to respond with reassurance, at least communicating to that that their distress was actually giving me some distress, that their misery was in part my own misery. But what was your reply? That if I ever had children then I would know the value of positive abusiveness, that the World is innately Cruel and that who is better to teach this to them but their parents. You must be some kind of a Dog Person.
This video plus the success stories in the comments make me feel so much better about my current disaster situation. My 5 year old cat lost her brother to a fatal accident about 10 months ago, bonded since kittens.. I have fostered a few cats since then but none have been a match for her. Fell in love with my current foster kitten and trying desperately to get them introduced. I started feeling hopeless. I guess slow and steady wins the race. Reading about the perseverance from others in the comments helps a lot. I will try using a harness on my kitten as I hadn't thought of this before. Wish me luck.
I just need to say- Thank you for making this video. It’s been two weeks of me trying to ever carefully introduce my adult female cat, Clover, to our new male kitten, Calcifer. Prior, I had an extremely close bond with Clover. I’m talking like not only follow me everywhere, but curl up and purr in my lap any time I sat down, and settle to sleep on top of me every night. So you can probably imagine how shocked, anxious and hurt I was when she suddenly started lashing out, hissing, growling and attacking *me*, after we brought home Calcifer. Just the faintest hint of his scent on me, would cause her to act viciously aggressive. Of course, over the course of a week and with the bribery of food and her favourite toys, she became accustomed to me smelling of the other cat, and her terms with me improved enough for her not to lash out at me. I started to carefully site swap both of them, making sure they don’t see each other, and in the kitten’s base camp room, Clover would become very tense, hiss and growl at the spots that Calcifer likes to hang out the most at. But- she’d eat there anyway. Though not without growling and angry low “nhom nom” meows. She started sitting by the door, whenever I went to spend time with Calcifer, and meowing. And so, since it’s been two weeks since we brought the kitten home- with some help from my mum, who held the kitten in her arms and stood in the centre of the room, we decided to let Clover inside. It was the first time she actually sniffed around the room without hissing and growling. She looked up once and ignored Calcifer. But then, he started meowing (probably didn’t like being held for so long), and this was when Clover looked up, stared at him and meowed back. It sounded mean. Long, high pitched meows accompanied by a wagging tail and wide pupils, but her ears were pointed upright. To me, it sounded and looked a little aggressive. So when she turned around and ran away, I closed the door and called it a day. I only fed her by the door to Calcifer’s room, making sure to ask my mum to play with him right by the door too. Which Clover wasn’t at all bothered by, she ate her food and licked the bowl clean. It’s still an ongoing process, they still need time. But just… I guess I wanted to say that what you said in this video, are the answers to the questions that would keep me awake crying, because I couldn’t find the exact straightforward answers anywhere. Just the same bits of info repeated over and over. So yeah. Thanks for reassuring me that all the things I was so freaked out by, so worried about, are actually perfectly normal.
Thank you SO much for this video! This is the first one I’ve seen that shows footage of the cats not getting along (batting, hissing, play fighting) and it’s so reassuring. I was starting to really feel down about the process of introducing our 3 month kitten to our 13 year old resident cat. But after seeing this, I feel so much better! What I thought was real fighting and aggression, is just a normal part of the process. THANK YOU!
Thank u!! Just two days ago I took home a new kitten, my resident cat who has been living with me for half year, attacked him immediately and then also attacked me. Since then she started to get aggressive towards me and attack me every time I get close to her, it got me really worried that I made a mistake and there’s no hope for her to ever get used to him, but that video gave me hope. I really hope they will get along eventually bc I don’t know want to give up on the little one.
I just went through this. Last Thursday rescued a kitten from a shelter. I have a six-year-old meal cat that’s been with me since he was six months old. My cat is very laid-back. This little kitten had so much energy. I tried introducing them, but my cat hissed many times and did not back off. I was afraid of what he would do to the kitten. I panicked. I felt bad for my older cat. The next day I gave the kitten to my son. My cat wouldn’t come near me for several days. He was pretty pissed off. My son lives next-door I want to take the kitten overnight here and there. We are sharing custody lol don’t wanna lock it up in my room and I have a small apartment. I’m still gonna give it a try.
Great tips, I have just been feeding a stray adult. She came at night, so I couldn't see her well. 4 days ago she turned up with a kitten approx 6wks old. We took kitten in, mum fed went off. Amazingly easy, relaxed accepted by my 2 cats, playing in first hour, loved affection. Last night mum turned up with number 2! He's altogether different! I did the blanket thing but, the other way around, rubbed blanket over my cats & their paws & added it to the kittens bed/ enclosure. They met really well. My ginger ninja is so passive & secure, he just sat about a meter away for about an hour. He just waited patiently for the hissing & growling to stop. Kitten hid, then laid in front of him( paws hidden curled up) then kitten sat up & they sniffed each other. Obviously, I sat with them in case all hell broke loose. But, it went very well & this is only day one! My ginger is so calming! He won't tolerate intrusions by adult males or foxes, into his territory. But, somehow he knew these were babies & he has been beyond amazing! All going very well! Just wondering if mum will turn up with any more?
My God, you’re giving me so much hope, thank you so much for this very useful video. My resident 3 year old cat keeps hissing at the 7 months old new comer (how was so friendly and willing to make friends but now grows his tail and walks like a crab). I was thinking “that’s it, we messed up, they met too soon and now they’ll never forget this bad first impression”… but your video makes me hope things can still evolve 😅
Your videos are always the best. They make the most sense, seem the most knowledgeable, and most importantly, help me relax knowing things are going to be alright. Thank you!
When we got our newest cat, a female, about a year ago, our two friendliest big male cats were the ones with their noses out of joint. That surprised us. There was no hostility, but they were pouting and generally out of sorts for about a day. All of a sudden, they were buds with the new cat. It took less than 24 hours.
I'm struggling kind of hard here, bless you for all of your hard work and patience! I have a 12 year old male, (for him at 12 weeks from a shelter) a 2 year old female (got her at around 14 weeks from my backyard and yes she saw a vet immediately and both are fixed.) Found a 6 week old kitten at my side door and brought her in. She was hungry, dirty, cold, and no momma in sight. I gave her a flea bath, fed her, gave her a small room with a closed door and a warm soft cozy bed. She took me in about 2 hours ❤ My other cats, not so much. My boy growls under his breath at her (he is my sweetheart, never any problems) My girl went BALLISTIC!!! She is already spicy, good to me, my little BFF but she went crazy on new kitty. Hissing, spitting, and tried to hit her. New kitty is fine with all of this by the way 😂😅 since I'm holding her. So, male kitty stays away but is not very hostile to new baby, my girl is remaining in the basement all day on her own accord. Her litter is down there and her bed. Her food is upstairs and I refuse to take it to her. Let her come up. I am letting them smell each other by the blanket/towel method. We will see. Good luck to me please, any tips would definitely help this single cat momma of 3!! 😂😺😻😽
How is it going?… I took a stray baby in and my female cat is sooooo mad. Hissing at me, her, snarling, growling.. she already smacked her on the head 😕 the male isn’t doing so bad… please tell me it gets better..
@@cynthiarangel better than I thought lol They all like to play now although my female 3 year old still gets jealous and growls at her sometimes it’s going so much better! They all play and chase each other and smell noses 😊
@sprklsbeauty5618 that's amazing to hear!!! What's the technique here? I followed all the directions here and our senior resident cat is just not having it. Even the smallest glance of the kitten and she starts growling and hissing 😢
@@cynthiarangel honestly it was tough, I slept in the bathroom with the little one for 2 weeks because I didn’t want her to be alone. I made sure to keep her out of sight from my other kitties. Although sometimes they would get glimpses of her. I had them explore where she would sleep and then I would let the kitten explore the other rooms they would hang out in that way they’d get used to her scent. I then decided after 2 weeks to let them start to see each other more which was scary because there was a lot of hissing and growling involved from my resident cats side. The kitten was sweet and kept trying to smell noses with them, it took some time but eventually after a month they were able to at least walk past each other without any issues. It wasn’t easy in fact it was exhausting and I cried a lot lol but I recommend following Jackson galaxy’s guide on introducing cats, it helped me a lot 😪
We're on a third week. Things are getting calmer, but there are some hissing still.. even my new one leaned from the older one how to hiss 😂😂magic things - food and play play play!
This video gives me so much hope that my adult cat can get along with my 2 kittens. Most cat intro techniques require 2 people, with playing and feeding and that is not suitable for me. This video shows alternative techniques that will seriously help me with my cats. I have seen some little signs of them getting along with the use of tuna and puree treats, but I am still cautious with them. My kittens are curious and have no fear, so I am considering a cat harness to assist with the intro.
Hey there! You can’t imagine how helpful was you to me and my family. Long story short - we have three cats and after we take a bath with two of them the third one was scared to dead and start to fight with the other two. I was working 1 week fully from home and its seems that everything is ruin. The docs said that she need anti-depressants and that was the bottom for me, that was the time when I decide to watch and study something from internet, thats how I came to your channel. After watching your clips and changing a little bit this and that (because the cat wasn’t new), I was able to fully restore their relationship!!! From my whole family and from me, truly and deeply thank you!!!!! Can you imagine in that week that i was fully home, the frighten cat saw the other two and started vomiting 4-5 time in a row from stress … and now they are together once again. We still cannot believe it. Love you, xx, from Bulgaria.
What exactly did you change in their routines? We just got a new kitten almost 3 weeks ago. She's only 10 weeks old and we have another female 6 year old cat. At first there was hissing and a bit of swatting. We were keeping the kitten in our bedroom/bathroom with everything she needed. Seemed like it was going fine until kitten decided to play too rough with my cat and now she's terrified of her. She's going under the bed and that breaks my heart.
Just brought home two new kittens. They're sisters so they're already bonded. My housemate has two cats, a brother and sister. Her cats are acting weird, but not in a bad way per se. Her male is growling and watching the kittens play through the pet gate we set up. Her female runs and hides, but keeps returning so I think that's a good thing since that's pretty normal for her. Neither have been aggressive toward my housemate or me, but I think the male is jealous. My kittens are being very friendly toward them, so no issues there. So far so good, I guess? I hope things get better from here but the lack of aggression so far, apart from the growling, has been a good sign.
I just took in an older cat that her owner left behind after moving out, she is so sweet and independent. I like her a lot. She's the very first cat I've ever owned. A week before I took in this cat, I saw and fell in love with a 3 year old kitty at the humane society. I loved her at first interaction. She was so sweet and cuddly, but I couldn't adopt her that day. Only 2 days after taking in my older cat, I went out and adopted the 3 y/o kitten, thinking that it would be best to do it sooner rather than later, so they could both have a buddy whenever I'm not around. I live in a room with housemates and cat let them out of my room. So I thought keeping my new kitty in the walk-in closet would be fine to start with. Well, my older cat saw the kitty as she was getting out of the carrier because I failed to close the closet and she hissed and growled. At that moment I got soooooo scared, I started having a panic attack in that closet. I was hyperventilating and crying thinking 'Oh no, what did I get myself into? I can't do this!' After a few minutes I left the kitty in the closet and came outside and sat on the floor. My older cat was hiding under the couch but came to greet me. I started crying again and felt so alone and incompetent. The kitty cried all night inside the closet and I slipped in and out of sleep. I actually considered getting rid of both of my cats because I was freaking out about everything, thinking I don't have what it takes to have cats. I called my mom asked her to find someone to take in the older cat, then called some friends asking if they wanted the kitty. One of them said they might. I cried and cried again, feeling frustrated. Today is only day 3, but it feels like forever. I wish time would hurry up and my cats could be friends already! But I've been watching lots of videos about introducing them, and adoption remorse, and experiences with introductions, and what's normal, and I feel a little better. I want to see if I can make this work. I mean, I didn't want to, but I'm already doing it, so... why not just keep trying? It's scary, and frustrating, but sounds rewarding in the end. Thank you for videos like this. Just a little side note. My 3 y/o kitten is so confident and friendly, she is ready to come outside the closet; sometimes she tries to make a run for it! My older cat is the one who gets upset. Today is the first day I tried "site swapping" and my older cat was only there for like 1 minute before growling and hissing. I tried giving her a treat, which she refused, and then just swapped them back quickly. Good thing, my lil sister was over and helped me. I felt discouraged. My cat seemed so upset with me, she sat under the couch for a good few minutes, avoiding me. But then she came out and let me pet her, so that felt better. I guess I just needs lots and loooots of patience....
It might help if she is introduced slowly. Do you have a seperate room with toys, cat tree, litter tray, food, water and cat bed she could be in for the first week or so? Then slowly introduce everyone, making frequent visits throughout the day to play and offer a few treats. She will feel safer and get used to her environment before trying to cope with new home and family at the same time. Good Luck. @@gndora7
Me and my wife decided to adopt 2 cats after extensive research on having a perfect home for 2 little furry souls! We rescued one Ragamuffin type kitten from a guy that had 13 kittens and 1 adult female out of control (wink wink). She was a little feral or sad or ill (maybe all 3) because she would show extreme signs of a wallflower cat (a cat that hides and hugs corners / walls). Then as weeks passed by and many trips to the vet happened - she started growing before our eyes and be pretty and very healthy. She would sleep on my neck, would munch on my earlobe and purr for hours on end (so adorable and attached). After we decided she is 100% healthy and vaxed - we wanted to bring her a sister kitten because often she would ask for attention and both me and my wife would be in meetings online. We want her to have all the attention and play time she needs so it would make sense to have a companion! So we went to a shelter and adopted this little black furball that actually chose us (the only cat that looked me straight in my eyes and meowed sweetly). Picked her up, she sniffed me and that's when I knew we wanted her! 3 weeks pass by and she's also been vaxed and cured of whatever she had. We're home and we thought we'd just introduce them straight (we thought - hey, both are friendly and playful and nice so what can go wrong??). Not much went wrong, all 4 ears were pointing up, tails waggling and up too, but the resident cat would just chase her and slap her repeatedly. That's when we realized we have to separate them for a day or two, reintroduce them and see then. So we did that, site swapping and everything. Painful really but in the end we agreed to trust the process for them to have a good friendship. We fed them with a glass door between them that we boarded up so there's no eye contact and they felt each others' presence - they started scratching the underside of the door and seeing each others' paws + meowing on top of that. 2nd day in the night we fed them at the glass door but without the cardboard. All fine, no hissing, no growling, ate their food with brief pauses for eye contact. We boarded up with a sense of success for the night and were looking forward to doing the same again in the morning. 3rd day: wife slept badly so I had to do the entire thing (yes I failed, it was 6am, both cats were scratching the cardboard on the glassdoor and it was quite obnoxious. So I fed them without the cardboard and again - all good, a bit of eye contact, they ate their food and then scratching the cardboard - and I thought hmmmm....let's give them 5 mins of contact and see what's up. It was great that the little one had time to learn our place in and out for 2 days straight because that gave her confidence. The resident larger cat again started slapping the little one which gave me a bit of anxiety but the little one slapped back and started chasing the larger one! That's when I realized - ok, this is balanced, it's not that bad. They reached a stage where the large one would just hop on the smaller one and she would meow in an annoyed tone rather than in pain because then the roles would just reverse. I am writing this 6 hours after they have had all the contact, they've run in every corner of our flat for 5 straight hours (feeding time in the middle) and now they are asleep in the same cat bed. I realized that they were just playing, the resident cat was just so excited to have a friend and someone to play with on a more or less same level that she could not contain herself. For me what worked is the initial separation, the feeding with a solid object in between, site swapping and if all goes well - same time eating with visual contact. It's very important to set a feeding schedule and YOU AS THE OWNER feed the cats as opposed to just plopping a bunch of food and they go whenever. No. You are in control of this, you dictate when eating time is and you feed them slightly apart in the beginning and slowly bring the bowls together (just to be sure). I gave them 2 meters of distance and the little one ran straight to the large one's bowl and took a cheeky bite out (large cat wasn't too bothered) but that was really funny lol. They're friends, they sleep close to each other, maybe I'll post an update on how night time is with them...dreading it a bit to be honest.
Thank you! I took in a kitty who had been dumped at a feral cat colony for over a year 😢 I think him being able to trust my 3 cats is going to take some time. This video helped me relax knowing i'm doing things right and to not get frustrated. the welcoming committee, Wilson, is always glued to the door outside the room, so we let him in. New kitty is relaxed and doesn't seem phased when he is on the bed, but when they are on the same level, new kitty hisses and growls...but his body language is relaxed..so i'm a little confused, but we will try to work our way up ❤ P.s. New kitty was neutered only two weeks ago, and i believe it takes 60 days for testosterone to leave the body 😊 so i'm hopeful his possibly territorial growling will calm down.
Ahhhh... My newly inherited kitten was my dad's and now joining our family. She was in heat, has since been spayed. Despite very, very slow cat-to-cat intros, my two resident cats (all girls 😧) are still hissing...new kitten has been in the house for SIX WEEKS post spay!
Some cats adjust faster than others to a new addition to the family, but in my experience they do adapt & come to love each other. Some pet owners don’t have the space & patience to gently introduce a new cat/kitten to their older cat(s). The most important thing is to protect all your pets from bites & scratches.
Thank you for this video. I wish I had seen it before we got another cat (I am 73 and neither my husband nor I have ever had a cat, so new to us) We had a catch and release cat dropped off at our home, she was young and very fearful and we could not touch her for a long time. Finally she came around. After a while we thought she would enjoy a cat companion, so when kittens became available we got one, we loved her right away, but our resident cat hated her, and the kitten wanted to play but NO from our other cat. This kitten is a Pixie Bob which is hybrid partial Bob cat, we did not seek out this breed, it just happened that way. These cats are kind of known for not getting along with other cats, however, the original cat has been the aggressor, actually, both growl, and hiss at each other. We have had the new, now adult kitten/cat for about two yrs now and they are still enemies !!
In 40 years of cat ownership, we've never had serious problems introducing new cats to the residents. Maybe we've been lucky? One person suggested, having a large house as we do, the cats always have plenty of space to be alone and away from one another if desired. But they also sleep together quite frequently in the same bed. Right now we have five. They tussle a little now and then, but basically get along just fine. They all have pretty mild personalities, too. Maybe that helps.
I've had problems with my Half Ferals, former Parking Lot cats. They are the most insecure about their Territory. The worst was Angie who'd find some ground level 'cave' and stay fortified in there. She'd do that for more than a month. Well, THAT would make the other cats nervous. When Angie did begin limited explorations, well, my Little Siamese Tommy, took to hiding from her. She just wouldn't adjust to being inside, and I didn't want Tommy to be screwed up on her account, so I kicked her outside and I feed her once a day in the Mornings... I go out and exercise on the Balcony while she eats. Then, I once lost a Feral I had for years when another feral I brought it made her feel too insecure about her territory and she started 'Fortressing'... hiding in defensible floor level positions. She would no longer come out to eat. So I was going to turn her into an outdoor cat also, but I never saw her again... when she lost Territory, she decided to just take it down the road a few hundred yards. A third cat I had problems with actually worked out for a few years -- Calico Peggy. It took awhile but she was one of the Family. But, remember Angie, well, Peggy was her mother, and when Angie began to explore, well, Peggy got out the door and moved Territories, down one set of Apartment Complexes. After a month I got her and carried her home, but she couldn't pick up where she left off. The Parking Lots had gotten a lot rougher since she had been a kitten, with more cats and dogs, and so she was going up High, finding defensible perches. So I just opened the door for her and she left. I saw her just this morning. At least she came back to including these Apartments in her Territory. But, yeah, my Door is Angie Territory and I don't think those two will ever get along.
I did a lot of this with my cats, took me about 2.5 weeks. I gave treats to reinforce all good behavior and also followed the rules of positives only happen together 1. Play 2. Treats 3. Love always together.
thankyou so much for this video. we are introducing a new cat and our resident cat hissed, she has NEVER hissed or shown aggression before :'( i was so so so worried and stressed out, now i know this can be normal, i feel more determined x
very helpful. I have a 9 year old cat who is quite sedentary. I'm planning on getting an active Bengal kitty. This video gives me hope. I also have a dog who loves cats. So that's going to be interesting.
I was put in a less than ideal situation. I have two cats who never really got along, they merely tolerate one another. Over the years I've fostered over 60 cats and my tortie who is 8 wasn't thrilled but got used to all of them over time, even liking some. I moved to a much smaller place and agreed to help foster two kittens with a rescue I had never worked with before. The rescue was a nightmare to deal with. They did not deworm the kittens and ignored my pleas about their bloody diarrhea. One of the kittens was adopted but the other one stayed. I had bought panacur on my own which resolved the diarrhea so I started to have the solo kitten spend some time with my cats but they never liked her at all. She wasn't getting any interest though. No applications or anything despite my constant social media posts about her. The rescue suggested she go to their facility where potential adopters can see the adoptable cats but once I realized she would spend most of her time in a cage my heart broke and I thought about her nonstop. I asked the rescue if I could foster her again and they basically said that I either adopt her or she stays in the cage. They said it's not fair to her to have to keep adjusting and how she had a really hard time adjusting to the cage. Well of course!! But why they felt that she would have a hard time adjusting back to her foster home she had spent 7 weeks at made no sense to me. She was only gone for 2 weeks. I could not live with her being there so I adopted her. But the issue is of course my older cat hates her so much and is constantly stressed and growling. I live in a tiny place with 3 cats and everywhere my oldest turns, the kitten is there. She now is getting stressed by her brother who she lived with for 5 years. I feared this would happen and it's why I wanted to just foster. Anyway, I feel such guilt over considering rehoming her. I do not want her back at the rescue as they did not provide adequate vet care. Also I would not have chosen to adopt a cat that didn't get along with my residents. It was just a bad situation with no good options. Ideally they would start to get along but it's not fair to my two cats. They are all very stressed. I am actually considering buying a home due to this situation. If I rented a bigger place, the rent would cost more than a mortgage. But it's all very emotion-driven decisions to get to a resolution. I really need help with this situation. I do put my kitten in a separate room every night to give my residents a break. I miss the harmony that my home had before this situation.
We recently adopted two kittens, a 3mo girl and a 6mo boy. I think we might’ve made the mistake of putting them on the same room together as soon as we brought them home. The calico hissed a bit at the other cat and we assumed that she was scared because she came from a litter and was alone with an unknown cat who was very curious about her at first. We decided to separate them and we slowly started to let them explore the house on their own without seeing each other, then we started to slowly exchange toys and blankets and everything seemed to be going along well. They went into each others’ rooms every other day to sniff the scent but didn’t have direct contact. The older cat is allowed a bit more space but the other one is a bit too small yet so she is let out with supervision while the other cat is in another room. Today tho, that changed, the older cat was on his free time but the little cat scurried out of her room when the door was opened so we could get in to give her food, and as soon as he saw her the older cat went at her. There were some growls and hisses and batting but no biting as far as we could see. We managed to get them apart and into separated rooms but I’m afraid of how we’re going to introduce them now 😢
When we brought our stray kitty indoors, we kept him in the bathroom for two days with supervised visits with our small male cat whom showed the most interest in him when he was still out doors. Finally we let him explore the house. There was no hostility from the other cats. They accepted him right away but I do think they had grown accustomed to seeing him on the back porch and in the yard for about 6 months before we brought him in. They would rub noses and touch their paws together through the screen door, too. Our oldest cat, a female, looked up once at him when he was given the run of the house and went back to sleep, totally unphased! It was really kind of funny!
We had a very brilliant cat named Joey that could turn knobs and open doors. There were a few times he even attempted to use the toilet like we did when we he was younger. One day, we caught an older male feral kitten. He was entirely wild. I had to use gloves, and I still could not tame him. We had initially kept the kitten away worried that Joey might attack him but, soon Joey heard him meowing and decided to use his door opening trick. They immediately bonded. When I came over, the kitten hissed and bit me again but, this time, Joey hissed at the kitten and popped him on the head a single time. The kittens ears went back, and after that, the kitten was fine and soon came to love our attention rather than fear it. Joey succeeded where we had failed. Joey tamed him. Our cats are outdoor/ seasonally indoor cats. We live in a lightly rural wooded area and don’t get to spend as much time with our cats as we’d like. Now we have a new wild kitten but, taming has been an even slower process.
Took about 6 weeks to get my 5 year old cat to get somewhat comfortable with my new 6 month old kitten. The new kitten has very intense energy and wanted to be friends and play.....but the older cat took a long time to come around. I was careful to give the older cat her space and go slow. Its much harder to do when you live in a small house!
I am going through the same situation. My 8,5-year-old cat (female) and her new companion 4,5 month 4-and-a-half-month-old kitten (male) are not getting along. We are in a small apartment and though we can keep them separated it is a total nightmare. They coexist next to each other, eat close by and sleep on the same bed. That part took less than a week. The problem is that the kitten is so hyperactive and always tries to attack/ambush/play with the older one. We play with him and keep him busy but things are quite tough for the older one. She simply is not interested and very agitated by the whole thing. I guess patience and a sense of rhythm are needed but oh boy, there are days that I am losing it!
@@martataylor2006 Don't you wish cats would just get along like most dogs do? Maybe once our young cats get older they will settle down and not antagonize the older one so much. Good luck! 😺
This gives me a bit of hope. We’re on day 19 of trying to slowly introduce a 6 month old spayed female to our 2 boys, bonded neutered brothers age 2. It’s not going very well at the moment but we’re taking it slowly so it’s good to know that things could improve after a few more weeks. One boy has met her through a screen with mixed results but the other goes crazy just when he picks up her scent, growling and hissing and attacking his brother. It’s very stressful even in a larger home, but hopefully in time it’ll get better.
@@AMC-G-k1b It's mega stressful, believe me, I know. My resident cat will be 9 years old next year June '24. The vet suggested a kitten as she was showing some signs of depression, so we got one. Now I know why old cats don't like the young hyper kitties. All considered she allows him on the bed with her and they eat together as well but we go through daily hissing occasional swipes and a few growls. No fights or aggression but no interest in the new kitten. Maybe with time things will settle down. Sounds like your cats are pretty young, give it some time and take each day as it comes.
Got a new cat Lilith who is 1 year old. My other one Diablo is 4 and a bit jealous but I feel they are doing great. The first week she was in a room, after we let it half open so they could see each others from a safe distance. Now it's been a bit more than 2 weeks but I feel its going great, they hiss at each others often, and sometimes they fight for 1 sec, but sometimes they smell each other and make nose kisses. They can eat together, I actually think thats the only moment when they get really close without any stress. But in the meantime they can sleep peacefully on the same room without looking at each others. Last night I woke up and both were in bed. Well, they eyed contact when I stood up and fought after but still XD I feel like being just patient is the only way to make it better. After all they not gonna kill each other. Lilith is a bit more scared than Diablo, he s like the boss of the house and I feel he s more like making her understand his rules. But most of the time they can share the space without going into any trouble. They even chill outside on the sun at less than 1 meter from each other, so for me its a good sign. Lilith is more playfull, and when she wants to chill she can go under the sofa to sleep. But the more the time passes, the less she does it. The only thing I dont know is if he can be Jealous, because he seems to hiss more at her when we pet her or him. Like "get away from my human you silly" 😆 But we ll wait, 2 weeks is not long tbf.
We’re going on almost a year with our introduction. We’re going to start over following this video. Scent swapping goes fine but the new cat has a lot of energy and approaches our resident cat too quickly during face to face. Things are fine when harnessed but bad otherwise
Same here! Lol our male cat approaches too aggressively and our female cat is much more hesitant. And when we try to engage them they cant keep theyre eyes off eachother even if we did the whole other side of the door and eating and what not lol It's been over a year and we haven't had much progress lol
I feel your pain and admire your perseverance. I'm on a trial adoption with my kitten and it's been about a month with no progress on introduction.. I have to decide whether I should commit to him and making it work, and you've helped give me a bit more courage to do so!
@@KittenSchool Dear Caroline, what about introducing KITTEN SCHOOL on other cat Channels? You really should get more comments for your very good and interesting videos. If you comment on big Turkish cat channels like Adorable Paws with the username kitten school, subscribers around the world will be interested. They know, that they only have to touch your profile picture and will get to your channel then.
Looking for help & suggestions… The new cat is 10 and never lived with other cats. It’s been 2 weeks and there’s still a ton of growling from the new one & this crotchety old cat looking like she is about to pounce. The 2 resident cats are super chill - one of them is a “special” cat who has no sense of danger & doesn’t understand hissing or growling at all. The other is 3x her size and very cool, only hisses when the new one looks about to attack or if he is surprised by her. … If it were up to me, I’d let the old fangless cat go ahead and try to swat at either of the residents… but every time she hisses, my roommate calls her and coddles her. … It’s been nearly 2 weeks. I’m being as patient as I can but it’s hard with the mixed signals. We still have a blanket blocking under the door. Idk how to make the new human comfortable enough to remove it.
My friend got a kitten and we got the cat from the place and took it home. We gave it 24 hours before trying to introduce my friend's other two cats. The one cat that my friend has is usually my favorite because he’s the most playful, nice, and comes and rubs up against me and plays with me. However, he immediately hissed as soon as we introduced the kitten to him. The other cat I thought wasn't going to do as well because he usually just hides under the bed and runs away from people. Surprisingly, he did better than the other cat and didn't hiss or act aggressive.
I’ve been having the outside kitty slowly trust me over a few months. She finally moved in and I’m on month 1 of her separated from my kittos . 3 of my cats don’t hiss anymore but one HATES her 😭😭 staying patient, wish us luck
Really trying to be patient here. We're at 2 months and 1 week with our two new kittens, and our resident 10-year-old cat, who lived with another cat for the first 5 years of her life, is having NONE of it. We have done a VERY slow introduction: kittens in their own home base, cat/kittens eating on either side of the door, site swaps, visual contact through a screen or crate, and lastly supervised short 10-15 minute visits with us attempting to entertain the kittens and ply the resident cat with treats. Our resident cat growls and hisses when seeing them from a distance, and swips at the kittens if one of them gets anywhere close. I don't know how much slower we could have taken this. The kittens spend most of their time downstairs, and the resident cat gets upstairs, with daily site swaps and supervised visits, and they're still eating on opposite sides of the doors, with food or treats only given to the resident cat when the kittens are near. We're at our wit's end and don't know what else to try. Please help!
I sympathize with you - personally I believe it is unfair to older resident cat to put up with toddlers - imagine being 75 in a room full of pre schoolers for hours/hours
Day 1: They were actually ok. The 1 yr old was ok and friendly. The kitten was playful. The old cat was following her around. They play supervised. Day 2: Still ok. Playing together. my ginger has always been very sweet and kind. I even left them in one area but I put my new kitten in her cage. there were some hissing but resident ginger was ok. I got home, played with them. Everything was perfect. i thought i was lucky coz i didnt have to go through all the old cat new cat drama. and then i noticed the litter box the kitten was using was a little too small as she couldnt turn around and do her business. So I decided to buy my ginger cat a new one and use the old litter box for the new one. Everything went great. Until... I put that old litter box of my resident cat inside my new kitten's cage. (cage is huge with layers). That's when all the horror stories of cat drama unfolded. I allowed the new kitten play with the resident. The kitten went up the sofa where i was also sitting. kitten was just seating beside me. My resident cat started meowing and then all of a sudden pinned the kitten's neck down really hard and i could really see those teeth. so i had to break it and he (old cat) started to actually try to bite me. He was in a hunting position. he tried doing it twice. i had to get up with the kitten and put her back to her cage. the resident cat is just sitting and waiting infront of the kitten's cage patiently. he even went all over it and stayed at the top and wanting to grab the kitten inside. I decided to fully separate them and never let the kitten out. Just a while ago when i was about to go to bed, my cat came at me and tried to bite my leg. i got sad coz i was starting to see this predator side of him to either me and the kitten. i dont want him to turn to an evil cat. he is known to be sweet and kind and gentle. I know it was my fault. So I had to start over and do it the right way. Removed the old litterbox from the kitten's cage. I let the resident cat eat first and shower with attention and love. If i do playtime with the kitten, i do it in another room. I dont let them play for now. Just enough that they see each other. the only thing thay separates them the cage's door. I will update any progress. it will be Day 3 tomorrow. I hope i can still correct this. Lesson learned: Follow the experts
My resident cat is 12 years old and I’ve been thinking about adopting a kitten. Resident cat came to us as a kitten about a year after we got our male cat. He was the dominant one and roughhoused with her a lot and tried to steal her food, but she loved him and seemed pretty depressed when he passed about 6 years ago. To this day she still seems much more needy without him. I thought it would be nice to get aquatinted with a new kitty as she gets older and that maybe it would help keep her active/more youthful. But I also don’t want to stress her out. Then the other day, I was at the pet supply store where they feature shelter cats and I fell in love with a kitten. She is also female and a little less than a year old. I’m told she has a non-aggressive temperament towards other cats. Again, resident kitty is 12 and also a female, she is extremely laid back and sweet. Wondering if the chances of them getting along would be good even with them both being female and the large age difference? I’m thinking hard about it but want to decide while I still have a chance to adopt this kitten.
I brought home 2 new 8 wk old kittens.. introduced cold turkey because 1 of our resident cats who is actually new (1 month) didn't have a mean bone in his body.. happy go lucky kind of cat. Not a good idea! Now I don't know what to do yet! I feel like I've lost my sweet boy, I hope he doesn't stay like this and I'm very tempted to rehome these 2 kittens I've only had for less than 24 hours.
That's a very helpful video again, dear Caroline! Thanks a lot. 💕 Did you ever foster a deaf (white) cat? If so, I would be very interested in your experience.
Please help. I got a new kitten ( 7 weeks old ) and i really need advice. My older cat ( almost a year old ) hisses at us after we play with the kitten. The kitten is isolated in the bathroom for now but the older cat refuses to go anywhere but the loungeroom. Please give me advice, im worried for my baby. She barely eats or drinks considering she is a very chubby cat. She doesnt go in her favourite spots anymore either. We give her treats and try to make them socialise. Ive also noticed that she is meowing more often too. Hissing and growling at us when we come out from the bathroom after playing with the kitten.
Unfortunately, the harmony isn't always there even if you follow all these great tips. I had a 3 year old female in 2008 and brought in a new kitten. The older cat went on a hunger strike and we spent a week giving her medicine and force feeding her to save her life because she was going to go into liver failure. It was horrible. We had to keep these cats separated for the rest of her life to prevent it from happening again. But I'm now always nervous when I get a new cat about something like this happening.
That's really too bad. It seems stories are all over he place. We've never had a problem introducing new cats to our residents but once when we were kids we bought home a stray kitten. Our mother's female cat would not accept him and was very hostile to the point where the kitten was afraid to roam the house. Sadly, we gave the kitten to a friend, but he lived a long and happy life with them.
Wow! that was bad! I had a new cat, a hand socialized cat that was out in the parking lot for two years before I brought her inside, and she would just Fortress Up and make all the other cats nervous with her paranoia. When I saw it was causing my Little Siamese Tommy to go into hiding, well, I thought 'enough is enough' and tossed the Parking Lot Cat outside again. But I wonder why you decided to accept such a really horrible situation. Yeah, the Pet Stores and the Kennels make a big deal about Pledging Adoption and Forever Homes BUT it's got to work! Years back I brought in this one hand socialized Feral Feeding Station Cat. She was both hand socialized as a kitten, but she was abandoned by her owners and THEN became the Alpha of my Feeding Station. She was an amazing cat. I called her Betty. The Feeding Station ended when kids with Pellet Guns began daily hunting. I brought Betty inside to save her life. But she drove one well adjusted former Feral out of my house with her Alpha behavior. Also, well, Betty took over all the affectionate quality times in regards to me, she made my sofa a bed HER territories and my previous Favorite Cats were marginalized. Yeah, after a couple of years Betty just all of a sudden DROPPED OVER DEAD. I guess she had been shot, but the pellet took a few years to finally 'hit something' vital. Then I realized how all the other cats must have really hated her, because I could see how they adjusted to her death by getting closer to me. Really, Betty cause more harm than good. I LOVED that cat, but after her, I thought, well, one cannot commit to getting a New Cat until one runs a trial. The New Cat has to make it work or that is NOT their new Home.
Oh wow, Steven, it does sound like you went through a lot bringing in a new kitten! I'm so sorry it didn't work out with them, but kudos to you for working it out so that you could keep both cats. So scary!
It does seem to usually be the females that are the most resistant to new cats. I know my video tends to be on the Pollyanna, "it will all work out"! side, but MOST of the time it does eventually settle down into some kind of peace (with occasionally spats here and there). I want people to at least try hard before giving up, so I try to have a very optimistic outlook. But yes, there are those times when you get a cat who just will NOT accept another kitty. It's been hard for Malou, and she still struggles, but for the most part she has accepted that our newer cats are here to stay. Thanks for the comment!
@@KittenSchool We haven't gotten another cat since our female came in over a year ago. She's everyone's friend and very outgoing, but I don't know how she'd react to a new cat. She assimilated to the 4 resident cats when she arrived in no time.
My neighbors found an abandoned kitten which they brought to me because they have several large dogs. So far my 2 year old rescue hates the kitten so I'm frazzled. I'm on day 5 already. I'll back up to step one and see what happens. The kitten is getting healthier daily so worse case scenario she will go to a new home. I appreciate your guidance and I just subscribed.
I have a 10 year old male, who has lived with another male who unfortunately died. They got along fine, even though they for sure were som dominance issues from time to time. Now i felt he was lonely, so after two years we got a kitten. She has been here for 4 weeks and its a roller coaster of emotions. Its despair, and hope. In the beginning they were playing and having lots of fun, now all of sudden our old cat has started to ignore her and hisses and growls everytime she comes near. He want nothing to do with her, and has changed personality from a loving kitty to s grumpy old man 😔 he sometimes baths her but thats it. i just want them to like each other and it feels so far away, all videos says "it can take days, weeks!" And were going in on month 2 now....were trying to backtrack now and separate them but the kitten goes wild and criiiies all day! She is almost 4 months old.
It sounds like the kitten is either annoying the older cat by constantly bothering him or they've had some sort of bad experience with each other while you weren't around. I recently got another kitten to keep my 8 year old cat company, they surprisingly get along great but sometimes he will tell her enough is enough. Another thing that could be an issue, since the kitten you mentioned is 4 months old, is that she is probably big enough to reach any height the older cat can which means he cannot get any reprieve from her. The only things I can thing of to help with this, other than relocating one of them or waiting it out, is to either keep the kitten busy more so she exhausts that almost endless kitten energy or get another kitten her age so they can play and tire each other out.
We had a failed introduction that ended in tragedy because our older cat became very mean to both us and the new cat. Sadly, the shelter would only take her for euthenasia. We tried for months to get it to work doing things mostly like this video. It was getting dangerous for everyone. Now we're hoping it will work better with a sweet cat my husband's mother gave him. I'm hoping it's not too soon for Pugsley (the new cat from before). He seems a little traumatized from the vicious attacks from before. I'm afraid we're a bit slow and she got at him a few times before we could break it up. :(
This is what I'd be afraid of - many people don't think ahead 😢 & return the kitties - at least you didn't do that. I try to encourage people not to force boomers with genz 😅
I've brought many cats into my home in the last 10-15 years, but never before have I seen this one particular cat of mine react so poorly. Usually I can introduce kitties with little prep and after some sniffing and a little swatting things calm down. Not so with this situation. I'm still trying to do scent exchange, and frankly I'm just feeling overwhelmed. The kittens are on edge, probably from having their environment changed a few times since their rescue, and one has even found her way up into my basement ceiling. There's a clear path down, but so far she's not interested in coming back down. Thankfully I can see her right here from the computer, though it's still stressful.
our 4 month old growls and hisses at her new 1 month old sibling, we're hoping she can come around later. We've separated them now and we'll get them better associated together before we have them meet again.
I currently have a 6 month old kitten. This past Friday we rescued another kitten who was 6 weeks old. At first she was hissing, meowing, pawing at us and the kitten. Eventually she came around on day 3. Which would be Monday. Tuesday was the last time our previous cat “Luna” had anything to eat. We go to give her food and she’ll paw around it and walk away. Fast forward to today. She ate 6 treats this morning. Won’t eat anything else. I’ve tried wet, dry, wet treats, dry. She’s a super healthy kitty so I don’t see it being anything health wise. She’s 6 months and very healthy. She’ll play, sleep, just won’t eat. Sometimes she’ll seem abound and have her ears pointed backwards as if she’s annoyed. It’s only been a week. The kitten loves Luna but I’m starting to think I have to rehome the new kitten. What’re your thoughts? ❤
So what became of the situation? I would have suggested the idea of feeding them a few feet away from each other, scent swapping. If all else failed, feed existing/resident cat in her own room just so she can eat. They incur liver damage when they don't eat after a few days.
What's your advice for when a new kitten wants to play with an older cat and keeps chasing him and won't leave him alone, but the older cat doesn't seem to realise it's play and seems to genuinely think it's a fight? I've tried everything to get my 12 week old kitten to calm the heck down for 2 minutes when she spends time with her brother and not surprisingly she will not. :D
I am having a similar experience with new kitten--they are so darn playful! A coworker suggested catnipping all the cats and repeatedly over the course of days. I'm going to try it!
Same situation here too. New kitty, Sunshine, is 3 months old and almost 3 lb. The highest energy kitten I've ever seen. Very smart, social and pretty fearless. I got him as my 8-year-old, 16 lb cat, Oliver desperately needed a buddy. Sunshine figured out how to get past me as I was coming in the door within a couple weeks. I'm not so fast moving. Having never been in this situation before and not finding this video until now after multiple escapes, I thought I'd watch how it played out. Oliver was quietly sitting by the door at this point and seemed interested in getting acquainted. Sunshine quickly jumped on Oliver. Looked like kitten play to me. Oliver hissed n ran away. Eventually Oliver started to respond with swats that slowed Sunshine down. They became more aggressive , never hurting each other , but scaring me. I started to separate them with toys and after I found the appropriate video put Sunshine back in his base camp. Sunshine jumps on Oliver just a couple times a day now and I immediately put him in base camp as Oliver always looks at least a little like he'll respond. I've been letting him out again after 10-30 minutes. Is this appropriate? Oliver has licked the kitten a couple times during these wrestling matches /fights, whatever they are and again today when they were sitting next to the same scratch post. Am I right to consider this a sign of affection? Now Most of the day they are cohabitating peacefully with some nice brief interactions , but mostly doing their own thing. Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated
Do you play daily with the older cat? maybe your older was not socialized long enough with his sister and brother and did not play enough? I would encourage more play and maybe try some silvervine.
I made the mistake of setting up cold turkey. One of our cats who has been here 1 month is a sweet boy, not a mean bone in his body and very playful.. about 6 mos old. So I figured he would love his new buddies.. brought home 2-8 wk old kittens and nope, he is growling, hissing and swatting at them. Doesn't seem real thrilled with me either. I hope I didn't ruin my sweet boy who gives me love and kisses.. I'm tempted to rehome the 2 kittens who have been here for less than 24 hours.
I know the feeling. My resident cat “screamed “ on sight of the new cat. However, a few months later she is tolerant of the newbie, not hostile, not playful either😊 there’s no blood & guts.
@@animallover4955 I ended up rehoming them, thankfully together.. I couldn't take them being scared. I was already attached to them but for their sakes, I gave them up.. I miss them little buggers! :(
same here, im 9 weeks in, the problem with my older cat is that she was never with any other cats, not even her mom, who abandoned her, the kitten on the other hand only wants to play with her but we are now at around 5 minutes till its getting aggresive so again we seperate.. they eat eachothers food, they eat treats together, but thats about it.. im tired but i wont give up, i somewhere read somebody was doing the separation for over a year.. i really hope that wont be the case here
Hows it going now that it's been 6/7 months? I hope it's improved !! We're about 11 weeks in and our older cat is still aggressive to the new kitten ( we followed the steps meticulously with scent swapping, feeding either side of a door then a pet gate and reinforcing with treats) but we have not yet tried supervised playtime.
What if your resident cat is a blind senior? I can’t seem to get the blind cat to understand that the kitten is around unless they are verrrry close and then my blind cat is very grumpy about it. Also my kitten keeps trying to play with my blind cat and sneaking up on her and scaring her. I do my best and protect her and separate them when this happens.
IF your resident older cat (over 10) isn't it wiser for all concerned to possibly wait until you say goodbye to the resident cat - then get kittens for everyone's sake. Some do not have the patience & sadly return kitties 😻😔😊
I have 3 adult cats. I rescued an abandoned 5wk old kitten some weeks back.. He's been staying strictly in my bedroom until he has shots and is successfully de-wormwd (and a little bigger). He's coming up on 12weeks old soon. Do you recommend introducing each older cat to the kitten on his territory (my bedroom) or theirs (the rest of the house)? Great video - thank you!
Guys....can you help? So we lost Mittens at 18 it was a shock. We doubted 2 cats Prancer that are 2/3 & Vixenv5(I believe older). Well me and my mother each had one we bonded with differently. Well 8 months later Vixen passed suddenly. It was an honor to be her forever home after a year in a shelter. Well Prancer got so depressed. As are we. We got a 12 month old. We are doing the Jackson Galaxy & Other methods but Prancer hides and hisses when Binx wants to play. They have eaten 4 feet apart. They're introduction went well. It helps having Binx. I'm grieving I'm stressing. I jist 😢 want Prancer to be happy and now he's back to when we got him!
My older cat is ok with the kitten but she swiped at her today because she was using the older cat's toys. She doesn't want her going in her food bowls or her litter box either. At least I know what sets her off.
We have a 5month old kitten we just recently got but out 4year old cat doesn’t like her at all we were told to introduce them instantly by the person we got them from and as you can imagine it has not helped! Now our oldest cat is spending almost all her time outside and rarely comes back inside and when she is inside she’s growling and hissing and running at the kitten we don’t know what to do but don’t want to give up either of the fur babies Please help!
Hi so I just got a new kitten back in August and my roommate already has a female cat for about 4-5 years. They don’t get along too well because the kitten likes to chase her and she’s territorial and usually hides or goes to her room to avoid him. What should I do to help change their behaviors towards each other?
Hi thankyou for the advice! I have a 3 year old ginger male and a male kitten I got at age 6 weeks. He’s now 8 months and gone from sweet kitten to a major bully! I give time outs when behaviour is bad but it’s not helping.. please help
This isn’t tru I’ve had my cat since she was born bought another one in this year and they still don’t get along . The one I bought bully’s the cat I’ve been had now I have a kitten I rescued and the cat I’ve been had hisses and scratches at her . The other one just hisses while my kitten just looks at them wondering why they’re acting that way. Kitten isn’t neutered but other 2 are. Could that be a problem?????
I have a male cat who is 5 years old, he is very sweet and gentle with all the new adopted cats - except for one female who is about 1 year old. He became very nervous and very fierce when we tried to introduce them to each other, he looks at her with hate and is always very angry Trying to attack her as much as possible. The last thing that happened that ever made me separate them, when I tried to stop him from attacking her, he bit me so badly and that was the first time he ever scratched or bit me. Any advice??
I got a very cute very very active little Persian kitten? She’s two months old.😮 the younger cat I have really wants to be friends? The two older cats are just gently observing? But the little kitten is hissing and doesn’t want any part of the older cats or the younger one I have.?
Hey question my boy he’s 10 months has been play fighting quite rough with my husband since a baby now we have a new 9 week old kitten he is rough with her he tries to tackle her and bite her neck we separate him doing that and he backs off and lays down or even just walks away and watches her from about a foot away but then will do it again if not monitored with me sitting right inbetween them. Is this normal is this hurting her? And a she too young still? She doesn’t hiss or yelp when this happens and sometimes it looks delicate but sometimes he gets Carrie away I think due to the rough and tumble he’s been doing with my husband. How can I address this? TIA
2 weeks ago today we rescued a 4 month old female kitten and, we have a 2.5 yr old female cat. I still cant get them to get along ,my resident cat seems to want to run after the kitten and then it sounds like they are fighting very vocal and doesnt sound good ,. ive tried separate rooms and, room swapping .Ihave a pet gate with a sheet over it , closing of our kitchen for kittren but my resident cat has jumped and climbed over to go after the kitten i dont want to have to find a new home for this poor kitten its been through enough she is so sweet and finally warming up to me . (also my resident cat lived here with our senior cat for 2 years b4 we had to put him down they got along great ??) thanks Mark any help would be greatly appreciated
I could do with some advice with my 10 week old, 8yr old and 10 Yr old Scent swapping went OK but visual contact isn't going well. My eldest runs away and the other older cat growls at the kitten. They've never made attempts to sniff under the door it had to be towels etc. The kitten has been friendly towards them both but they don't seem too pleased. What can I do?
My cat keeps hiding and running from the kitten and a look for her she is hissing at me I try again to show her but she keeps running and hiding it’s been a week the kitten in my room 😭😭😭😩😩😩 I don’t know what to do I put the kitten in the carrier and my older cat keeps hissing at her I don’t know how long I should put the kitten on the carrier
Hi hi I have 3 cats None of them get along. The oldest is 12. She started beating the one after her who is 3 no I found a kitten in December after my very first cat who was 13 died. The first 3 won't to bad the would just have random spats. But now I have to separate the all since December. The 12 and 3 years ould eat together but that's it . The 13 year old preety much lives outside and just comes in to eat. What can I do?
I have a rescued street cat who is not friendly with other cats he is about 5 , I now just acquired an 8 week old kitten and my older cat hates it and wants nothing to do with it growls and hisses constantly and even screams if it gets to close…. The kitten has no sense of danger lol .. I personally think my older cat is scared of the kitten
Well, I tried many of these tips, but I still have a situation, 7 months after bringing new kitty home. In my case, I tried to put 2 adult males together (one 12 and one 7), but my resident cat still looks for every opportunity to attack. We had a bad one back in February and I LITERALLY had to go to hospital for a bite that nearly went septic. I still have to keep them separate and be on guard whenever the bedroom door is open and they're in the same space without something solid between them. Not sure if there is a solution to this, but I keep trying. Considering getting a kitten for the newer cat so he at least has someone to play with who isn't going to try and beat him up. But it could also complicate the whole situation.
@@Jossefitnessqueen it's going great, they are both living together happily and share the entire house, they even clean each other's ears. I love it when the boys are in harmony.
@@kevinl2894how did u do it? I have 2 old cats, male and female, but they arent liking the new kitty at all. its only been 10 days...so soon yet im just so anxious for them to like eachother
So it’s been week and a half of having new kitten… I’ve been following all the rules, but now, while older one doesn’t hiss, doesn’t puff up, seems very curious, but then when together, she pounces on the kitten and bites, doesn’t seem hard or harmful, but doesn’t look pretty… what do I do…? Allow them to do their thing? The baby is so tiny tho it scares me quite a bit to be honest…
I have a 1-year-old male cat that I’m trying to introduce to a new 2-month-old female kitten. My male cat doesn’t hiss or growl, but he has been biting the kitten’s neck, and I can’t tell if it’s play, aggression, or aggressive play that my adult cat can’t control. The little kitten hisses and tries to fight back, but I can’t figure out what my male cat is trying to do. Do you have any advice? When should I draw the line? I’m worried that my male cat might accidentally or intentionally hurt the kitten by overusing his strength.
I have a question 🙋🏽♀️ What if I started the introduction process wrong and tried the cold turkey way. how do I go about getting my older cat (Bella) to accept my almost 2 month old kitten? ( cloud ) also, could both of them being female make the process trickier?
My Senior Cat (male 12 years) dont like the new kitten (female a little bit over 3 Month) ... she is now almost 1 Month here and it doesnt look good. Not really serious behavior beside today my senior cat starded to drool a loot (i guess he was so much under stress). I hope so much that he will love her. wish me luck .__.
What if I messed up step one and let them meet right away and am no going to the door thing cus my older cat hissed at a toy today that smelled like the new kitten. For context they are 1 year and the other is 3 months both females
I am taking care of 4 week old kitten. Feral mother left it once born. Anyway I have a 5 year old female cat. She is not the nicest cat on regular days. She acts like she hates this kitten. I’m scared. Don’t know what to do.
we have a New kitten thats not scared of the one year old female we have. But the female hisses and backs away. I am afraid to let them interact. Wont the big one hurt the small one out of fear? We are in a two week getting to know eachother now where they eat together
I really want to get a 2nd cat but my current cat kind of has a biting and scratching problem with me and no matter how many videos I watch and tactics I try he still does it sometimes. Im afraid he’d do that with a little cat too so I want to be very cautious cause he is only a year old so maybe he sees it as playing and will mellow out when he gets older but he is my first cat so maybe I am not handling him correctly but I want to give him a little sibling but im nervous he would attack a little sibling.
My new kitten and my older cat get along fine but in the evenings the little one chases the older around the house and the older cat is terrified and wants out of the house. I tried to play with the kitten so it will become tired but I can't do that all night every night. what do I do? the older Is an exotic shorthair and the young is a mixed breed.
I get SO MANY questions about how to introduce cats...so here's what I have learned about new kitty introductions to other cats. Hopefully it will help you keep the peace in your home! Let us know in the comments if you have experience bringing a new cat in your house - good or bad!
1hyhy
My cat is mad at me not the new cat, what do I do?
My cat is mad what do I do
What to do if the older cat refuses to eat around the kitten? Mine went on a hunger strike even with the kitten out of sight isolated in another room. Vet thinks it’s stress and not a medical issue.
Im introducing a new 10 month old male kitten to my 18 month old boy and the first few days were pretty tense, sleepless nights wondering if i had done the right thing.
New boy is set up in base camp in spare bedroom as i have a bit of a busy schedule leading up to xmas.
At first both cats would growl and hiss at the faintest scent of each other, but i started exchanging toys and bedding immediately and food and treats on either side of the door.
My older boy actually started to warm up pretty quickly and wanted to initiate play but was being ignored by the kitten. I assumed he was just scared and still trying to settle in.
This morning on day 9 i was able to let them both out for 90 minutes, they played pretty gently the entire time chasing and wrestling, and although its still very early days i felt a huge sense of relief that with hard work and a bit of luck it will pay off big time.
Good points. Another is no matter how much the new cat or the resident cat cries to get out of the room he/she is in, remember that you are not being cruel in keeping the new cat or occasionally the resident cat separate in another room. it is for the safety of all the cats. The new cat is just not liking being by itself and your resident cat is crying for the same reason in addition to wanting to see who is exploring the house.
Okay, please explain again how it is not cruel when you create situations in which you have your cats crying. You can sooth yourself all you want, but your cats have a problem and they are telling you about it. What!? Are you telling us you just IGNORE the crying? I would periodically go in and comfort them. By NOT answering their distress calls, well, what kind of message are you sending? Yeah, I'm no saint, and when I'm busy, well, at least I'd yell "You're Okay" so they at least know they've been acknowledged.
Yes, looking out for the safety of all the cats is important. The other cat may not be happy about having to go in another room for a while, but taking your time when introducing is crucial.
Thank you for this I’m so stressed out and my new kitten 8 weeks cries and cries .. separating her and my 5 year old orange boy
So hard 😢
@@leovolontif you’ve ever raised a kid you know there are phases of rebellion during disciplining not torture.
@@UpUpDnDnLtRtLtRtBAStart Huh!? What are you talking about. The Original Comment advises us all to separate new cats from old established cats, and then to ignore the consequences, and even if they are howling in distress, well, apparently our original commentor believes that what does not kiill a cat must make it stronger. To this I replied reasonably by saying that in my house, if any cats call out in distress, my policy is to respond with reassurance, at least communicating to that that their distress was actually giving me some distress, that their misery was in part my own misery. But what was your reply? That if I ever had children then I would know the value of positive abusiveness, that the World is innately Cruel and that who is better to teach this to them but their parents. You must be some kind of a Dog Person.
This video plus the success stories in the comments make me feel so much better about my current disaster situation. My 5 year old cat lost her brother to a fatal accident about 10 months ago, bonded since kittens.. I have fostered a few cats since then but none have been a match for her. Fell in love with my current foster kitten and trying desperately to get them introduced. I started feeling hopeless. I guess slow and steady wins the race. Reading about the perseverance from others in the comments helps a lot. I will try using a harness on my kitten as I hadn't thought of this before. Wish me luck.
How’s it going? My resident cat is so angry with me for getting another cat😢😢
Any updates?
I just need to say- Thank you for making this video. It’s been two weeks of me trying to ever carefully introduce my adult female cat, Clover, to our new male kitten, Calcifer.
Prior, I had an extremely close bond with Clover. I’m talking like not only follow me everywhere, but curl up and purr in my lap any time I sat down, and settle to sleep on top of me every night.
So you can probably imagine how shocked, anxious and hurt I was when she suddenly started lashing out, hissing, growling and attacking *me*, after we brought home Calcifer. Just the faintest hint of his scent on me, would cause her to act viciously aggressive.
Of course, over the course of a week and with the bribery of food and her favourite toys, she became accustomed to me smelling of the other cat, and her terms with me improved enough for her not to lash out at me.
I started to carefully site swap both of them, making sure they don’t see each other, and in the kitten’s base camp room, Clover would become very tense, hiss and growl at the spots that Calcifer likes to hang out the most at. But- she’d eat there anyway. Though not without growling and angry low “nhom nom” meows.
She started sitting by the door, whenever I went to spend time with Calcifer, and meowing. And so, since it’s been two weeks since we brought the kitten home- with some help from my mum, who held the kitten in her arms and stood in the centre of the room, we decided to let Clover inside. It was the first time she actually sniffed around the room without hissing and growling. She looked up once and ignored Calcifer. But then, he started meowing (probably didn’t like being held for so long), and this was when Clover looked up, stared at him and meowed back.
It sounded mean. Long, high pitched meows accompanied by a wagging tail and wide pupils, but her ears were pointed upright.
To me, it sounded and looked a little aggressive. So when she turned around and ran away, I closed the door and called it a day.
I only fed her by the door to Calcifer’s room, making sure to ask my mum to play with him right by the door too. Which Clover wasn’t at all bothered by, she ate her food and licked the bowl clean.
It’s still an ongoing process, they still need time.
But just… I guess I wanted to say that what you said in this video, are the answers to the questions that would keep me awake crying, because I couldn’t find the exact straightforward answers anywhere. Just the same bits of info repeated over and over.
So yeah.
Thanks for reassuring me that all the things I was so freaked out by, so worried about, are actually perfectly normal.
Hey! How are the cats doing now?
Would love to hear an update!
Please give an update!! I’m in this exact situation and I’m stressing!!
Update
@@keanonpbupdate
Thank you SO much for this video! This is the first one I’ve seen that shows footage of the cats not getting along (batting, hissing, play fighting) and it’s so reassuring. I was starting to really feel down about the process of introducing our 3 month kitten to our 13 year old resident cat. But after seeing this, I feel so much better! What I thought was real fighting and aggression, is just a normal part of the process. THANK YOU!
Me too 😢😢😢 I’m stressed af
Thank u!! Just two days ago I took home a new kitten, my resident cat who has been living with me for half year, attacked him immediately and then also attacked me. Since then she started to get aggressive towards me and attack me every time I get close to her, it got me really worried that I made a mistake and there’s no hope for her to ever get used to him, but that video gave me hope. I really hope they will get along eventually bc I don’t know want to give up on the little one.
I just went through this. Last Thursday rescued a kitten from a shelter. I have a six-year-old meal cat that’s been with me since he was six months old. My cat is very laid-back. This little kitten had so much energy. I tried introducing them, but my cat hissed many times and did not back off. I was afraid of what he would do to the kitten. I panicked. I felt bad for my older cat. The next day I gave the kitten to my son. My cat wouldn’t come near me for several days. He was pretty pissed off. My son lives next-door I want to take the kitten overnight here and there. We are sharing custody lol don’t wanna lock it up in my room and I have a small apartment. I’m still gonna give it a try.
How did it all work out?
Great tips, I have just been feeding a stray adult. She came at night, so I couldn't see her well. 4 days ago she turned up with a kitten approx 6wks old. We took kitten in, mum fed went off. Amazingly easy, relaxed accepted by my 2 cats, playing in first hour, loved affection. Last night mum turned up with number 2! He's altogether different! I did the blanket thing but, the other way around, rubbed blanket over my cats & their paws & added it to the kittens bed/ enclosure. They met really well. My ginger ninja is so passive & secure, he just sat about a meter away for about an hour. He just waited patiently for the hissing & growling to stop. Kitten hid, then laid in front of him( paws hidden curled up) then kitten sat up & they sniffed each other. Obviously, I sat with them in case all hell broke loose. But, it went very well & this is only day one! My ginger is so calming! He won't tolerate intrusions by adult males or foxes, into his territory. But, somehow he knew these were babies & he has been beyond amazing! All going very well! Just wondering if mum will turn up with any more?
My God, you’re giving me so much hope, thank you so much for this very useful video. My resident 3 year old cat keeps hissing at the 7 months old new comer (how was so friendly and willing to make friends but now grows his tail and walks like a crab). I was thinking “that’s it, we messed up, they met too soon and now they’ll never forget this bad first impression”… but your video makes me hope things can still evolve 😅
Your videos are always the best. They make the most sense, seem the most knowledgeable, and most importantly, help me relax knowing things are going to be alright. Thank you!
When we got our newest cat, a female, about a year ago, our two friendliest big male cats were the ones with their noses out of joint. That surprised us. There was no hostility, but they were pouting and generally out of sorts for about a day. All of a sudden, they were buds with the new cat. It took less than 24 hours.
Male cats tend to yield to lady cats and let them get away with stuff.
I'm struggling kind of hard here, bless you for all of your hard work and patience! I have a 12 year old male, (for him at 12 weeks from a shelter) a 2 year old female (got her at around 14 weeks from my backyard and yes she saw a vet immediately and both are fixed.)
Found a 6 week old kitten at my side door and brought her in. She was hungry, dirty, cold, and no momma in sight. I gave her a flea bath, fed her, gave her a small room with a closed door and a warm soft cozy bed. She took me in about 2 hours ❤
My other cats, not so much.
My boy growls under his breath at her (he is my sweetheart, never any problems) My girl went BALLISTIC!!! She is already spicy, good to me, my little BFF but she went crazy on new kitty. Hissing, spitting, and tried to hit her. New kitty is fine with all of this by the way 😂😅 since I'm holding her.
So, male kitty stays away but is not very hostile to new baby, my girl is remaining in the basement all day on her own accord. Her litter is down there and her bed. Her food is upstairs and I refuse to take it to her. Let her come up. I am letting them smell each other by the blanket/towel method. We will see. Good luck to me please, any tips would definitely help this single cat momma of 3!! 😂😺😻😽
How is it going?… I took a stray baby in and my female cat is sooooo mad. Hissing at me, her, snarling, growling.. she already smacked her on the head 😕 the male isn’t doing so bad… please tell me it gets better..
@sprklsbeauty5618 how has it been going? I'm currently in this exact situation 😫
@@cynthiarangel better than I thought lol They all like to play now although my female 3 year old still gets jealous and growls at her sometimes it’s going so much better! They all play and chase each other and smell noses 😊
@sprklsbeauty5618 that's amazing to hear!!! What's the technique here? I followed all the directions here and our senior resident cat is just not having it. Even the smallest glance of the kitten and she starts growling and hissing 😢
@@cynthiarangel honestly it was tough, I slept in the bathroom with the little one for 2 weeks because I didn’t want her to be alone. I made sure to keep her out of sight from my other kitties. Although sometimes they would get glimpses of her. I had them explore where she would sleep and then I would let the kitten explore the other rooms they would hang out in that way they’d get used to her scent. I then decided after 2 weeks to let them start to see each other more which was scary because there was a lot of hissing and growling involved from my resident cats side. The kitten was sweet and kept trying to smell noses with them, it took some time but eventually after a month they were able to at least walk past each other without any issues. It wasn’t easy in fact it was exhausting and I cried a lot lol but I recommend following Jackson galaxy’s guide on introducing cats, it helped me a lot 😪
We're on a third week. Things are getting calmer, but there are some hissing still.. even my new one leaned from the older one how to hiss 😂😂magic things - food and play play play!
This video gives me so much hope that my adult cat can get along with my 2 kittens. Most cat intro techniques require 2 people, with playing and feeding and that is not suitable for me. This video shows alternative techniques that will seriously help me with my cats. I have seen some little signs of them getting along with the use of tuna and puree treats, but I am still cautious with them. My kittens are curious and have no fear, so I am considering a cat harness to assist with the intro.
AWESOME Video. I just adopted a 12 week old Orange Tabby boy, named Zeek. I have a 12 yr old Orange Tabby named Max. This is a super helpful video!
Hey there! You can’t imagine how helpful was you to me and my family. Long story short - we have three cats and after we take a bath with two of them the third one was scared to dead and start to fight with the other two. I was working 1 week fully from home and its seems that everything is ruin. The docs said that she need anti-depressants and that was the bottom for me, that was the time when I decide to watch and study something from internet, thats how I came to your channel. After watching your clips and changing a little bit this and that (because the cat wasn’t new), I was able to fully restore their relationship!!! From my whole family and from me, truly and deeply thank you!!!!!
Can you imagine in that week that i was fully home, the frighten cat saw the other two and started vomiting 4-5 time in a row from stress … and now they are together once again. We still cannot believe it. Love you, xx, from Bulgaria.
What exactly did you change in their routines?
We just got a new kitten almost 3 weeks ago. She's only 10 weeks old and we have another female 6 year old cat. At first there was hissing and a bit of swatting. We were keeping the kitten in our bedroom/bathroom with everything she needed. Seemed like it was going fine until kitten decided to play too rough with my cat and now she's terrified of her. She's going under the bed and that breaks my heart.
Feeding them also shows that resources are abundant and not limited, cats tend to think a new cat is taking food and affection away from them.
Just brought home two new kittens. They're sisters so they're already bonded. My housemate has two cats, a brother and sister. Her cats are acting weird, but not in a bad way per se. Her male is growling and watching the kittens play through the pet gate we set up. Her female runs and hides, but keeps returning so I think that's a good thing since that's pretty normal for her. Neither have been aggressive toward my housemate or me, but I think the male is jealous. My kittens are being very friendly toward them, so no issues there. So far so good, I guess? I hope things get better from here but the lack of aggression so far, apart from the growling, has been a good sign.
I just took in an older cat that her owner left behind after moving out, she is so sweet and independent. I like her a lot. She's the very first cat I've ever owned. A week before I took in this cat, I saw and fell in love with a 3 year old kitty at the humane society. I loved her at first interaction. She was so sweet and cuddly, but I couldn't adopt her that day. Only 2 days after taking in my older cat, I went out and adopted the 3 y/o kitten, thinking that it would be best to do it sooner rather than later, so they could both have a buddy whenever I'm not around. I live in a room with housemates and cat let them out of my room. So I thought keeping my new kitty in the walk-in closet would be fine to start with. Well, my older cat saw the kitty as she was getting out of the carrier because I failed to close the closet and she hissed and growled. At that moment I got soooooo scared, I started having a panic attack in that closet. I was hyperventilating and crying thinking 'Oh no, what did I get myself into? I can't do this!' After a few minutes I left the kitty in the closet and came outside and sat on the floor. My older cat was hiding under the couch but came to greet me. I started crying again and felt so alone and incompetent. The kitty cried all night inside the closet and I slipped in and out of sleep. I actually considered getting rid of both of my cats because I was freaking out about everything, thinking I don't have what it takes to have cats. I called my mom asked her to find someone to take in the older cat, then called some friends asking if they wanted the kitty. One of them said they might. I cried and cried again, feeling frustrated.
Today is only day 3, but it feels like forever. I wish time would hurry up and my cats could be friends already! But I've been watching lots of videos about introducing them, and adoption remorse, and experiences with introductions, and what's normal, and I feel a little better. I want to see if I can make this work. I mean, I didn't want to, but I'm already doing it, so... why not just keep trying? It's scary, and frustrating, but sounds rewarding in the end. Thank you for videos like this.
Just a little side note. My 3 y/o kitten is so confident and friendly, she is ready to come outside the closet; sometimes she tries to make a run for it! My older cat is the one who gets upset. Today is the first day I tried "site swapping" and my older cat was only there for like 1 minute before growling and hissing. I tried giving her a treat, which she refused, and then just swapped them back quickly. Good thing, my lil sister was over and helped me. I felt discouraged. My cat seemed so upset with me, she sat under the couch for a good few minutes, avoiding me. But then she came out and let me pet her, so that felt better. I guess I just needs lots and loooots of patience....
Hi any update? I'm bring a new kitten home in 2 days
We’re on Day 2! 😩 I thought I was ready. I was not. Staying patient through this process ❤
Any updates?
OH, YEAH. We've been there for about 2 yrs now. Good luck !!
How are you doing with your pet i just got a new 9months cat and shes aggressive to all me my children and my older cat 😭💔 how to tame her
It might help if she is introduced slowly. Do you have a seperate room with toys, cat tree, litter tray, food, water and cat bed she could be in for the first week or so? Then slowly introduce everyone, making frequent visits throughout the day to play and offer a few treats. She will feel safer and get used to her environment before trying to cope with new home and family at the same time. Good Luck.
@@gndora7
@@gndora7watch Jackson galaxy:)
Me and my wife decided to adopt 2 cats after extensive research on having a perfect home for 2 little furry souls!
We rescued one Ragamuffin type kitten from a guy that had 13 kittens and 1 adult female out of control (wink wink). She was a little feral or sad or ill (maybe all 3) because she would show extreme signs of a wallflower cat (a cat that hides and hugs corners / walls). Then as weeks passed by and many trips to the vet happened - she started growing before our eyes and be pretty and very healthy. She would sleep on my neck, would munch on my earlobe and purr for hours on end (so adorable and attached).
After we decided she is 100% healthy and vaxed - we wanted to bring her a sister kitten because often she would ask for attention and both me and my wife would be in meetings online. We want her to have all the attention and play time she needs so it would make sense to have a companion!
So we went to a shelter and adopted this little black furball that actually chose us (the only cat that looked me straight in my eyes and meowed sweetly). Picked her up, she sniffed me and that's when I knew we wanted her!
3 weeks pass by and she's also been vaxed and cured of whatever she had.
We're home and we thought we'd just introduce them straight (we thought - hey, both are friendly and playful and nice so what can go wrong??). Not much went wrong, all 4 ears were pointing up, tails waggling and up too, but the resident cat would just chase her and slap her repeatedly. That's when we realized we have to separate them for a day or two, reintroduce them and see then. So we did that, site swapping and everything. Painful really but in the end we agreed to trust the process for them to have a good friendship. We fed them with a glass door between them that we boarded up so there's no eye contact and they felt each others' presence - they started scratching the underside of the door and seeing each others' paws + meowing on top of that.
2nd day in the night we fed them at the glass door but without the cardboard. All fine, no hissing, no growling, ate their food with brief pauses for eye contact. We boarded up with a sense of success for the night and were looking forward to doing the same again in the morning.
3rd day: wife slept badly so I had to do the entire thing (yes I failed, it was 6am, both cats were scratching the cardboard on the glassdoor and it was quite obnoxious. So I fed them without the cardboard and again - all good, a bit of eye contact, they ate their food and then scratching the cardboard - and I thought hmmmm....let's give them 5 mins of contact and see what's up.
It was great that the little one had time to learn our place in and out for 2 days straight because that gave her confidence. The resident larger cat again started slapping the little one which gave me a bit of anxiety but the little one slapped back and started chasing the larger one! That's when I realized - ok, this is balanced, it's not that bad. They reached a stage where the large one would just hop on the smaller one and she would meow in an annoyed tone rather than in pain because then the roles would just reverse.
I am writing this 6 hours after they have had all the contact, they've run in every corner of our flat for 5 straight hours (feeding time in the middle) and now they are asleep in the same cat bed. I realized that they were just playing, the resident cat was just so excited to have a friend and someone to play with on a more or less same level that she could not contain herself.
For me what worked is the initial separation, the feeding with a solid object in between, site swapping and if all goes well - same time eating with visual contact. It's very important to set a feeding schedule and YOU AS THE OWNER feed the cats as opposed to just plopping a bunch of food and they go whenever. No. You are in control of this, you dictate when eating time is and you feed them slightly apart in the beginning and slowly bring the bowls together (just to be sure). I gave them 2 meters of distance and the little one ran straight to the large one's bowl and took a cheeky bite out (large cat wasn't too bothered) but that was really funny lol. They're friends, they sleep close to each other, maybe I'll post an update on how night time is with them...dreading it a bit to be honest.
I just want to say thank you for this video. It’s one of the more detailed videos I’ve come across! Very helpful.
Thank you! I took in a kitty who had been dumped at a feral cat colony for over a year 😢 I think him being able to trust my 3 cats is going to take some time. This video helped me relax knowing i'm doing things right and to not get frustrated. the welcoming committee, Wilson, is always glued to the door outside the room, so we let him in. New kitty is relaxed and doesn't seem phased when he is on the bed, but when they are on the same level, new kitty hisses and growls...but his body language is relaxed..so i'm a little confused, but we will try to work our way up ❤ P.s. New kitty was neutered only two weeks ago, and i believe it takes 60 days for testosterone to leave the body 😊 so i'm hopeful his possibly territorial growling will calm down.
Ahhhh...
My newly inherited kitten was my dad's and now joining our family. She was in heat, has since been spayed. Despite very, very slow cat-to-cat intros, my two resident cats (all girls 😧) are still hissing...new kitten has been in the house for SIX WEEKS post spay!
Some cats adjust faster than others to a new addition to the family, but in my experience they do adapt & come to love each other. Some pet owners don’t have the space & patience to gently introduce a new cat/kitten to their older cat(s). The most important thing is to protect all your pets from bites & scratches.
The harness is SUCH a good idea!! I'm going to try this, I hope it works out!
Thank you for this video. I wish I had seen it before we got another cat (I am 73 and neither my husband nor I have ever had a cat, so new to us) We had a catch and release cat dropped off at our home, she was young and very fearful and we could not touch her for a long time. Finally she came around. After a while we thought she would enjoy a cat companion, so when kittens became available we got one, we loved her right away, but our resident cat hated her, and the kitten wanted to play but NO from our other cat. This kitten is a Pixie Bob which is hybrid partial Bob cat, we did not seek out this breed, it just happened that way. These cats are kind of known for not getting along with other cats, however, the original cat has been the aggressor, actually, both growl, and hiss at each other. We have had the new, now adult kitten/cat for about two yrs now and they are still enemies !!
In 40 years of cat ownership, we've never had serious problems introducing new cats to the residents. Maybe we've been lucky? One person suggested, having a large house as we do, the cats always have plenty of space to be alone and away from one another if desired. But they also sleep together quite frequently in the same bed. Right now we have five. They tussle a little now and then, but basically get along just fine. They all have pretty mild personalities, too. Maybe that helps.
I've had problems with my Half Ferals, former Parking Lot cats. They are the most insecure about their Territory. The worst was Angie who'd find some ground level 'cave' and stay fortified in there. She'd do that for more than a month. Well, THAT would make the other cats nervous. When Angie did begin limited explorations, well, my Little Siamese Tommy, took to hiding from her. She just wouldn't adjust to being inside, and I didn't want Tommy to be screwed up on her account, so I kicked her outside and I feed her once a day in the Mornings... I go out and exercise on the Balcony while she eats. Then, I once lost a Feral I had for years when another feral I brought it made her feel too insecure about her territory and she started 'Fortressing'... hiding in defensible floor level positions. She would no longer come out to eat. So I was going to turn her into an outdoor cat also, but I never saw her again... when she lost Territory, she decided to just take it down the road a few hundred yards. A third cat I had problems with actually worked out for a few years -- Calico Peggy. It took awhile but she was one of the Family. But, remember Angie, well, Peggy was her mother, and when Angie began to explore, well, Peggy got out the door and moved Territories, down one set of Apartment Complexes. After a month I got her and carried her home, but she couldn't pick up where she left off. The Parking Lots had gotten a lot rougher since she had been a kitten, with more cats and dogs, and so she was going up High, finding defensible perches. So I just opened the door for her and she left. I saw her just this morning. At least she came back to including these Apartments in her Territory. But, yeah, my Door is Angie Territory and I don't think those two will ever get along.
I did a lot of this with my cats, took me about 2.5 weeks. I gave treats to reinforce all good behavior and also followed the rules of positives only happen together 1. Play 2. Treats 3. Love always together.
This helped alleviate my anxiety thank you
thankyou so much for this video. we are introducing a new cat and our resident cat hissed, she has NEVER hissed or shown aggression before :'( i was so so so worried and stressed out, now i know this can be normal, i feel more determined x
very helpful. I have a 9 year old cat who is quite sedentary. I'm planning on getting an active Bengal kitty. This video gives me hope. I also have a dog who loves cats. So that's going to be interesting.
I was put in a less than ideal situation. I have two cats who never really got along, they merely tolerate one another. Over the years I've fostered over 60 cats and my tortie who is 8 wasn't thrilled but got used to all of them over time, even liking some. I moved to a much smaller place and agreed to help foster two kittens with a rescue I had never worked with before.
The rescue was a nightmare to deal with. They did not deworm the kittens and ignored my pleas about their bloody diarrhea. One of the kittens was adopted but the other one stayed. I had bought panacur on my own which resolved the diarrhea so I started to have the solo kitten spend some time with my cats but they never liked her at all. She wasn't getting any interest though. No applications or anything despite my constant social media posts about her.
The rescue suggested she go to their facility where potential adopters can see the adoptable cats but once I realized she would spend most of her time in a cage my heart broke and I thought about her nonstop. I asked the rescue if I could foster her again and they basically said that I either adopt her or she stays in the cage. They said it's not fair to her to have to keep adjusting and how she had a really hard time adjusting to the cage. Well of course!! But why they felt that she would have a hard time adjusting back to her foster home she had spent 7 weeks at made no sense to me. She was only gone for 2 weeks. I could not live with her being there so I adopted her.
But the issue is of course my older cat hates her so much and is constantly stressed and growling. I live in a tiny place with 3 cats and everywhere my oldest turns, the kitten is there. She now is getting stressed by her brother who she lived with for 5 years. I feared this would happen and it's why I wanted to just foster.
Anyway, I feel such guilt over considering rehoming her. I do not want her back at the rescue as they did not provide adequate vet care. Also I would not have chosen to adopt a cat that didn't get along with my residents. It was just a bad situation with no good options. Ideally they would start to get along but it's not fair to my two cats. They are all very stressed.
I am actually considering buying a home due to this situation. If I rented a bigger place, the rent would cost more than a mortgage. But it's all very emotion-driven decisions to get to a resolution. I really need help with this situation. I do put my kitten in a separate room every night to give my residents a break. I miss the harmony that my home had before this situation.
We recently adopted two kittens, a 3mo girl and a 6mo boy. I think we might’ve made the mistake of putting them on the same room together as soon as we brought them home. The calico hissed a bit at the other cat and we assumed that she was scared because she came from a litter and was alone with an unknown cat who was very curious about her at first. We decided to separate them and we slowly started to let them explore the house on their own without seeing each other, then we started to slowly exchange toys and blankets and everything seemed to be going along well. They went into each others’ rooms every other day to sniff the scent but didn’t have direct contact. The older cat is allowed a bit more space but the other one is a bit too small yet so she is let out with supervision while the other cat is in another room.
Today tho, that changed, the older cat was on his free time but the little cat scurried out of her room when the door was opened so we could get in to give her food, and as soon as he saw her the older cat went at her. There were some growls and hisses and batting but no biting as far as we could see. We managed to get them apart and into separated rooms but I’m afraid of how we’re going to introduce them now 😢
When we brought our stray kitty indoors, we kept him in the bathroom for two days with supervised visits with our small male cat whom showed the most interest in him when he was still out doors. Finally we let him explore the house. There was no hostility from the other cats. They accepted him right away but I do think they had grown accustomed to seeing him on the back porch and in the yard for about 6 months before we brought him in. They would rub noses and touch their paws together through the screen door, too. Our oldest cat, a female, looked up once at him when he was given the run of the house and went back to sleep, totally unphased! It was really kind of funny!
We had a very brilliant cat named Joey that could turn knobs and open doors. There were a few times he even attempted to use the toilet like we did when we he was younger. One day, we caught an older male feral kitten. He was entirely wild. I had to use gloves, and I still could not tame him. We had initially kept the kitten away worried that Joey might attack him but, soon Joey heard him meowing and decided to use his door opening trick. They immediately bonded. When I came over, the kitten hissed and bit me again but, this time, Joey hissed at the kitten and popped him on the head a single time. The kittens ears went back, and after that, the kitten was fine and soon came to love our attention rather than fear it. Joey succeeded where we had failed. Joey tamed him. Our cats are outdoor/ seasonally indoor cats. We live in a lightly rural wooded area and don’t get to spend as much time with our cats as we’d like. Now we have a new wild kitten but, taming has been an even slower process.
Took about 6 weeks to get my 5 year old cat to get somewhat comfortable with my new 6 month old kitten. The new kitten has very intense energy and wanted to be friends and play.....but the older cat took a long time to come around.
I was careful to give the older cat her space and go slow. Its much harder to do when you live in a small house!
I am going through the same situation. My 8,5-year-old cat (female) and her new companion 4,5 month 4-and-a-half-month-old kitten (male) are not getting along. We are in a small apartment and though we can keep them separated it is a total nightmare. They coexist next to each other, eat close by and sleep on the same bed. That part took less than a week. The problem is that the kitten is so hyperactive and always tries to attack/ambush/play with the older one. We play with him and keep him busy but things are quite tough for the older one. She simply is not interested and very agitated by the whole thing. I guess patience and a sense of rhythm are needed but oh boy, there are days that I am losing it!
@@martataylor2006 Don't you wish cats would just get along like most dogs do?
Maybe once our young cats get older they will settle down and not antagonize the older one so much.
Good luck! 😺
This gives me a bit of hope. We’re on day 19 of trying to slowly introduce a 6 month old spayed female to our 2 boys, bonded neutered brothers age 2. It’s not going very well at the moment but we’re taking it slowly so it’s good to know that things could improve after a few more weeks. One boy has met her through a screen with mixed results but the other goes crazy just when he picks up her scent, growling and hissing and attacking his brother. It’s very stressful even in a larger home, but hopefully in time it’ll get better.
@@bahba9247 thanks. I hope things will improve with time.
@@AMC-G-k1b It's mega stressful, believe me, I know. My resident cat will be 9 years old next year June '24. The vet suggested a kitten as she was showing some signs of depression, so we got one. Now I know why old cats don't like the young hyper kitties. All considered she allows him on the bed with her and they eat together as well but we go through daily hissing occasional swipes and a few growls. No fights or aggression but no interest in the new kitten. Maybe with time things will settle down. Sounds like your cats are pretty young, give it some time and take each day as it comes.
Got a new cat Lilith who is 1 year old. My other one Diablo is 4 and a bit jealous but I feel they are doing great. The first week she was in a room, after we let it half open so they could see each others from a safe distance. Now it's been a bit more than 2 weeks but I feel its going great, they hiss at each others often, and sometimes they fight for 1 sec, but sometimes they smell each other and make nose kisses. They can eat together, I actually think thats the only moment when they get really close without any stress. But in the meantime they can sleep peacefully on the same room without looking at each others. Last night I woke up and both were in bed. Well, they eyed contact when I stood up and fought after but still XD I feel like being just patient is the only way to make it better. After all they not gonna kill each other. Lilith is a bit more scared than Diablo, he s like the boss of the house and I feel he s more like making her understand his rules. But most of the time they can share the space without going into any trouble. They even chill outside on the sun at less than 1 meter from each other, so for me its a good sign. Lilith is more playfull, and when she wants to chill she can go under the sofa to sleep. But the more the time passes, the less she does it. The only thing I dont know is if he can be Jealous, because he seems to hiss more at her when we pet her or him. Like "get away from my human you silly" 😆 But we ll wait, 2 weeks is not long tbf.
love love love love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We’re going on almost a year with our introduction. We’re going to start over following this video. Scent swapping goes fine but the new cat has a lot of energy and approaches our resident cat too quickly during face to face. Things are fine when harnessed but bad otherwise
Same here! Lol our male cat approaches too aggressively and our female cat is much more hesitant. And when we try to engage them they cant keep theyre eyes off eachother even if we did the whole other side of the door and eating and what not lol It's been over a year and we haven't had much progress lol
I feel your pain and admire your perseverance. I'm on a trial adoption with my kitten and it's been about a month with no progress on introduction.. I have to decide whether I should commit to him and making it work, and you've helped give me a bit more courage to do so!
Nice clear explanations , Caroline. Really enjoy your videos . Best wishes from across the pond again.😸🤓
Kitten School and Flatbush Cats are the best kitty sites on You Tube, IMHO.
Wow to be put in the same category as Flatbush Cats, that's a seriously amazing compliment. Thank you!
@@KittenSchool I meant what I said and kudos to you for acknowledging another You Tube channel is also great! 😊
@@KittenSchool Dear Caroline, what about introducing KITTEN SCHOOL on other cat Channels? You really should get more comments for your very good and interesting videos. If you comment on big Turkish cat channels like Adorable Paws with the username kitten school, subscribers around the world will be interested. They know, that they only have to touch your profile picture and will get to your channel then.
@@1940limited Jackson Galazy is also the best
This was so reassuring! Thank you!
4:17 did you see how the two cats looked at each other after one of them got smacked. that was like they were agreeing that was uncalled for.
Thank you for making this!
Looking for help & suggestions…
The new cat is 10 and never lived with other cats. It’s been 2 weeks and there’s still a ton of growling from the new one & this crotchety old cat looking like she is about to pounce. The 2 resident cats are super chill - one of them is a “special” cat who has no sense of danger & doesn’t understand hissing or growling at all.
The other is 3x her size and very cool, only hisses when the new one looks about to attack or if he is surprised by her.
…
If it were up to me, I’d let the old fangless cat go ahead and try to swat at either of the residents… but every time she hisses, my roommate calls her and coddles her. …
It’s been nearly 2 weeks. I’m being as patient as I can but it’s hard with the mixed signals. We still have a blanket blocking under the door. Idk how to make the new human comfortable enough to remove it.
My friend got a kitten and we got the cat from the place and took it home. We gave it 24 hours before trying to introduce my friend's other two cats. The one cat that my friend has is usually my favorite because he’s the most playful, nice, and comes and rubs up against me and plays with me. However, he immediately hissed as soon as we introduced the kitten to him. The other cat I thought wasn't going to do as well because he usually just hides under the bed and runs away from people. Surprisingly, he did better than the other cat and didn't hiss or act aggressive.
I’ve been having the outside kitty slowly trust me over a few months. She finally moved in and I’m on month 1 of her separated from my kittos . 3 of my cats don’t hiss anymore but one HATES her 😭😭 staying patient, wish us luck
Did the kitties end up getting along? We are on month three and our older cat still despises our new kitten and we are feeling hopeless :(
1:51 this is an exact clone of my cat. 99% identical in every way 🤣
Really trying to be patient here. We're at 2 months and 1 week with our two new kittens, and our resident 10-year-old cat, who lived with another cat for the first 5 years of her life, is having NONE of it. We have done a VERY slow introduction: kittens in their own home base, cat/kittens eating on either side of the door, site swaps, visual contact through a screen or crate, and lastly supervised short 10-15 minute visits with us attempting to entertain the kittens and ply the resident cat with treats. Our resident cat growls and hisses when seeing them from a distance, and swips at the kittens if one of them gets anywhere close. I don't know how much slower we could have taken this. The kittens spend most of their time downstairs, and the resident cat gets upstairs, with daily site swaps and supervised visits, and they're still eating on opposite sides of the doors, with food or treats only given to the resident cat when the kittens are near. We're at our wit's end and don't know what else to try. Please help!
Please let me know if you find a solution. I'm in a similar situation. It's been two weeks and it's stressful for everyone to continue the isolation.
I sympathize with you - personally I believe it is unfair to older resident cat to put up with toddlers - imagine being 75 in a room full of pre schoolers for hours/hours
Day 1: They were actually ok. The 1 yr old was ok and friendly. The kitten was playful. The old cat was following her around. They play supervised.
Day 2: Still ok. Playing together. my ginger has always been very sweet and kind. I even left them in one area but I put my new kitten in her cage. there were some hissing but resident ginger was ok. I got home, played with them. Everything was perfect. i thought i was lucky coz i didnt have to go through all the old cat new cat drama. and then i noticed the litter box the kitten was using was a little too small as she couldnt turn around and do her business. So I decided to buy my ginger cat a new one and use the old litter box for the new one. Everything went great.
Until... I put that old litter box of my resident cat inside my new kitten's cage. (cage is huge with layers).
That's when all the horror stories of cat drama unfolded.
I allowed the new kitten play with the resident. The kitten went up the sofa where i was also sitting. kitten was just seating beside me. My resident cat started meowing and then all of a sudden pinned the kitten's neck down really hard and i could really see those teeth. so i had to break it and he (old cat) started to actually try to bite me. He was in a hunting position. he tried doing it twice. i had to get up with the kitten and put her back to her cage. the resident cat is just sitting and waiting infront of the kitten's cage patiently. he even went all over it and stayed at the top and wanting to grab the kitten inside. I decided to fully separate them and never let the kitten out.
Just a while ago when i was about to go to bed, my cat came at me and tried to bite my leg. i got sad coz i was starting to see this predator side of him to either me and the kitten. i dont want him to turn to an evil cat. he is known to be sweet and kind and gentle.
I know it was my fault. So I had to start over and do it the right way.
Removed the old litterbox from the kitten's cage. I let the resident cat eat first and shower with attention and love. If i do playtime with the kitten, i do it in another room. I dont let them play for now. Just enough that they see each other. the only thing thay separates them the cage's door.
I will update any progress. it will be Day 3 tomorrow. I hope i can still correct this.
Lesson learned: Follow the experts
What happened after? This is where I'm at too . . .
My resident cat is 12 years old and I’ve been thinking about adopting a kitten.
Resident cat came to us as a kitten about a year after we got our male cat. He was the dominant one and roughhoused with her a lot and tried to steal her food, but she loved him and seemed pretty depressed when he passed about 6 years ago. To this day she still seems much more needy without him.
I thought it would be nice to get aquatinted with a new kitty as she gets older and that maybe it would help keep her active/more youthful. But I also don’t want to stress her out.
Then the other day, I was at the pet supply store where they feature shelter cats and I fell in love with a kitten. She is also female and a little less than a year old. I’m told she has a non-aggressive temperament towards other cats. Again, resident kitty is 12 and also a female, she is extremely laid back and sweet. Wondering if the chances of them getting along would be good even with them both being female and the large age difference? I’m thinking hard about it but want to decide while I still have a chance to adopt this kitten.
Did you do it. I’m regretting getting an 8 year old to be friends with my 15 year old. It’s only been a week but Is not going good
Re-exam your plans - 50/50 chance it'll work out - fair to the older cat - NO, my opinion
I brought home 2 new 8 wk old kittens.. introduced cold turkey because 1 of our resident cats who is actually new (1 month) didn't have a mean bone in his body.. happy go lucky kind of cat. Not a good idea! Now I don't know what to do yet! I feel like I've lost my sweet boy, I hope he doesn't stay like this and I'm very tempted to rehome these 2 kittens I've only had for less than 24 hours.
How did it turn out? Did your cat accept the kittens?
That's a very helpful video again, dear Caroline! Thanks a lot. 💕
Did you ever foster a deaf (white) cat? If so, I would be very interested in your experience.
Please help. I got a new kitten ( 7 weeks old ) and i really need advice. My older cat ( almost a year old ) hisses at us after we play with the kitten. The kitten is isolated in the bathroom for now but the older cat refuses to go anywhere but the loungeroom.
Please give me advice, im worried for my baby. She barely eats or drinks considering she is a very chubby cat.
She doesnt go in her favourite spots anymore either. We give her treats and try to make them socialise. Ive also noticed that she is meowing more often too. Hissing and growling at us when we come out from the bathroom after playing with the kitten.
Unfortunately, the harmony isn't always there even if you follow all these great tips. I had a 3 year old female in 2008 and brought in a new kitten. The older cat went on a hunger strike and we spent a week giving her medicine and force feeding her to save her life because she was going to go into liver failure. It was horrible. We had to keep these cats separated for the rest of her life to prevent it from happening again. But I'm now always nervous when I get a new cat about something like this happening.
That's really too bad. It seems stories are all over he place. We've never had a problem introducing new cats to our residents but once when we were kids we bought home a stray kitten. Our mother's female cat would not accept him and was very hostile to the point where the kitten was afraid to roam the house. Sadly, we gave the kitten to a friend, but he lived a long and happy life with them.
Wow! that was bad! I had a new cat, a hand socialized cat that was out in the parking lot for two years before I brought her inside, and she would just Fortress Up and make all the other cats nervous with her paranoia. When I saw it was causing my Little Siamese Tommy to go into hiding, well, I thought 'enough is enough' and tossed the Parking Lot Cat outside again. But I wonder why you decided to accept such a really horrible situation. Yeah, the Pet Stores and the Kennels make a big deal about Pledging Adoption and Forever Homes BUT it's got to work! Years back I brought in this one hand socialized Feral Feeding Station Cat. She was both hand socialized as a kitten, but she was abandoned by her owners and THEN became the Alpha of my Feeding Station. She was an amazing cat. I called her Betty. The Feeding Station ended when kids with Pellet Guns began daily hunting. I brought Betty inside to save her life. But she drove one well adjusted former Feral out of my house with her Alpha behavior. Also, well, Betty took over all the affectionate quality times in regards to me, she made my sofa a bed HER territories and my previous Favorite Cats were marginalized. Yeah, after a couple of years Betty just all of a sudden DROPPED OVER DEAD. I guess she had been shot, but the pellet took a few years to finally 'hit something' vital. Then I realized how all the other cats must have really hated her, because I could see how they adjusted to her death by getting closer to me. Really, Betty cause more harm than good. I LOVED that cat, but after her, I thought, well, one cannot commit to getting a New Cat until one runs a trial. The New Cat has to make it work or that is NOT their new Home.
Oh wow, Steven, it does sound like you went through a lot bringing in a new kitten! I'm so sorry it didn't work out with them, but kudos to you for working it out so that you could keep both cats. So scary!
It does seem to usually be the females that are the most resistant to new cats. I know my video tends to be on the Pollyanna, "it will all work out"! side, but MOST of the time it does eventually settle down into some kind of peace (with occasionally spats here and there). I want people to at least try hard before giving up, so I try to have a very optimistic outlook. But yes, there are those times when you get a cat who just will NOT accept another kitty. It's been hard for Malou, and she still struggles, but for the most part she has accepted that our newer cats are here to stay. Thanks for the comment!
@@KittenSchool We haven't gotten another cat since our female came in over a year ago. She's everyone's friend and very outgoing, but I don't know how she'd react to a new cat. She assimilated to the 4 resident cats when she arrived in no time.
My neighbors found an abandoned kitten which they brought to me because they have several large dogs. So far my 2 year old rescue hates the kitten so I'm frazzled. I'm on day 5 already. I'll back up to step one and see what happens. The kitten is getting healthier daily so worse case scenario she will go to a new home. I appreciate your guidance and I just subscribed.
Any updates?
I have a 10 year old male, who has lived with another male who unfortunately died. They got along fine, even though they for sure were som dominance issues from time to time. Now i felt he was lonely, so after two years we got a kitten. She has been here for 4 weeks and its a roller coaster of emotions. Its despair, and hope. In the beginning they were playing and having lots of fun, now all of sudden our old cat has started to ignore her and hisses and growls everytime she comes near. He want nothing to do with her, and has changed personality from a loving kitty to s grumpy old man 😔 he sometimes baths her but thats it. i just want them to like each other and it feels so far away, all videos says "it can take days, weeks!" And were going in on month 2 now....were trying to backtrack now and separate them but the kitten goes wild and criiiies all day! She is almost 4 months old.
It sounds like the kitten is either annoying the older cat by constantly bothering him or they've had some sort of bad experience with each other while you weren't around. I recently got another kitten to keep my 8 year old cat company, they surprisingly get along great but sometimes he will tell her enough is enough.
Another thing that could be an issue, since the kitten you mentioned is 4 months old, is that she is probably big enough to reach any height the older cat can which means he cannot get any reprieve from her. The only things I can thing of to help with this, other than relocating one of them or waiting it out, is to either keep the kitten busy more so she exhausts that almost endless kitten energy or get another kitten her age so they can play and tire each other out.
We had a failed introduction that ended in tragedy because our older cat became very mean to both us and the new cat. Sadly, the shelter would only take her for euthenasia. We tried for months to get it to work doing things mostly like this video. It was getting dangerous for everyone. Now we're hoping it will work better with a sweet cat my husband's mother gave him. I'm hoping it's not too soon for Pugsley (the new cat from before). He seems a little traumatized from the vicious attacks from before. I'm afraid we're a bit slow and she got at him a few times before we could break it up. :(
You got your older cat euthanized because it wouldn't accept your new kitten? Will you get that cat euthanized if it doesn't accept your next new cat?
This is what I'd be afraid of - many people don't think ahead 😢 & return the kitties - at least you didn't do that. I try to encourage people not to force boomers with genz 😅
Good but unfortunate learning lesson for some
I've brought many cats into my home in the last 10-15 years, but never before have I seen this one particular cat of mine react so poorly. Usually I can introduce kitties with little prep and after some sniffing and a little swatting things calm down. Not so with this situation. I'm still trying to do scent exchange, and frankly I'm just feeling overwhelmed. The kittens are on edge, probably from having their environment changed a few times since their rescue, and one has even found her way up into my basement ceiling. There's a clear path down, but so far she's not interested in coming back down. Thankfully I can see her right here from the computer, though it's still stressful.
our 4 month old growls and hisses at her new 1 month old sibling, we're hoping she can come around later. We've separated them now and we'll get them better associated together before we have them meet again.
I currently have a 6 month old kitten. This past Friday we rescued another kitten who was 6 weeks old. At first she was hissing, meowing, pawing at us and the kitten. Eventually she came around on day 3. Which would be Monday. Tuesday was the last time our previous cat “Luna” had anything to eat. We go to give her food and she’ll paw around it and walk away.
Fast forward to today. She ate 6 treats this morning. Won’t eat anything else. I’ve tried wet, dry, wet treats, dry.
She’s a super healthy kitty so I don’t see it being anything health wise. She’s 6 months and very healthy. She’ll play, sleep, just won’t eat. Sometimes she’ll seem abound and have her ears pointed backwards as if she’s annoyed. It’s only been a week. The kitten loves Luna but I’m starting to think I have to rehome the new kitten.
What’re your thoughts?
❤
Any updates?
So what became of the situation? I would have suggested the idea of feeding them a few feet away from each other, scent swapping. If all else failed, feed existing/resident cat in her own room just so she can eat. They incur liver damage when they don't eat after a few days.
What's your advice for when a new kitten wants to play with an older cat and keeps chasing him and won't leave him alone, but the older cat doesn't seem to realise it's play and seems to genuinely think it's a fight? I've tried everything to get my 12 week old kitten to calm the heck down for 2 minutes when she spends time with her brother and not surprisingly she will not. :D
Any updates?
I am having a similar experience with new kitten--they are so darn playful! A coworker suggested catnipping all the cats and repeatedly over the course of days. I'm going to try it!
Its part of being an annoying kitten. You can try the introductions after playing with the kitten hard for a while so its more tired.
Same situation here too. New kitty, Sunshine, is 3 months old and almost 3 lb. The highest energy kitten I've ever seen. Very smart, social and pretty fearless. I got him as my 8-year-old, 16 lb cat, Oliver desperately needed a buddy. Sunshine figured out how to get past me as I was coming in the door within a couple weeks. I'm not so fast moving. Having never been in this situation before and not finding this video until now after multiple escapes, I thought I'd watch how it played out. Oliver was quietly sitting by the door at this point and seemed interested in getting acquainted. Sunshine quickly jumped on Oliver. Looked like kitten play to me. Oliver hissed n ran away. Eventually Oliver started to respond with swats that slowed Sunshine down. They became more aggressive , never hurting each other , but scaring me. I started to separate them with toys and after I found the appropriate video put Sunshine back in his base camp. Sunshine jumps on Oliver just a couple times a day now and I immediately put him in base camp as Oliver always looks at least a little like he'll respond. I've been letting him out again after 10-30 minutes. Is this appropriate? Oliver has licked the kitten a couple times during these wrestling matches /fights, whatever they are and again today when they were sitting next to the same scratch post. Am I right to consider this a sign of affection? Now Most of the day they are cohabitating peacefully with some nice brief interactions , but mostly doing their own thing. Any suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated
Do you play daily with the older cat? maybe your older was not socialized long enough with his sister and brother and did not play enough? I would encourage more play and maybe try some silvervine.
Gonna meet my new kitten this Thursday!! I am curious how my older cat will react when I bring her home 😂
I made the mistake of setting up cold turkey. One of our cats who has been here 1 month is a sweet boy, not a mean bone in his body and very playful.. about 6 mos old. So I figured he would love his new buddies.. brought home 2-8 wk old kittens and nope, he is growling, hissing and swatting at them. Doesn't seem real thrilled with me either. I hope I didn't ruin my sweet boy who gives me love and kisses.. I'm tempted to rehome the 2 kittens who have been here for less than 24 hours.
I know the feeling. My resident cat “screamed “ on sight of the new cat. However, a few months later she is tolerant of the newbie, not hostile, not playful either😊 there’s no blood & guts.
@@animallover4955 I ended up rehoming them, thankfully together.. I couldn't take them being scared. I was already attached to them but for their sakes, I gave them up.. I miss them little buggers! :(
What about separate litter boxes? Thx
Yes, slow and steady wins the race, but now our older cat has been struggling now for four weeks with the new roommates. Is that too slow?
same here, im 9 weeks in, the problem with my older cat is that she was never with any other cats, not even her mom, who abandoned her, the kitten on the other hand only wants to play with her but we are now at around 5 minutes till its getting aggresive so again we seperate.. they eat eachothers food, they eat treats together, but thats about it.. im tired but i wont give up, i somewhere read somebody was doing the separation for over a year.. i really hope that wont be the case here
Hows it going now that it's been 6/7 months? I hope it's improved !! We're about 11 weeks in and our older cat is still aggressive to the new kitten ( we followed the steps meticulously with scent swapping, feeding either side of a door then a pet gate and reinforcing with treats) but we have not yet tried supervised playtime.
Thank you for this video
What if your resident cat is a blind senior? I can’t seem to get the blind cat to understand that the kitten is around unless they are verrrry close and then my blind cat is very grumpy about it.
Also my kitten keeps trying to play with my blind cat and sneaking up on her and scaring her. I do my best and protect her and separate them when this happens.
IF your resident older cat (over 10) isn't it wiser for all concerned to possibly wait until you say goodbye to the resident cat - then get kittens for everyone's sake. Some do not have the patience & sadly return kitties 😻😔😊
I have 3 adult cats. I rescued an abandoned 5wk old kitten some weeks back.. He's been staying strictly in my bedroom until he has shots and is successfully de-wormwd (and a little bigger). He's coming up on 12weeks old soon. Do you recommend introducing each older cat to the kitten on his territory (my bedroom) or theirs (the rest of the house)?
Great video - thank you!
Guys....can you help?
So we lost Mittens at 18 it was a shock. We doubted 2 cats Prancer that are 2/3 & Vixenv5(I believe older). Well me and my mother each had one we bonded with differently. Well 8 months later Vixen passed suddenly. It was an honor to be her forever home after a year in a shelter.
Well Prancer got so depressed. As are we. We got a 12 month old. We are doing the Jackson Galaxy & Other methods but Prancer hides and hisses when Binx wants to play. They have eaten 4 feet apart. They're introduction went well. It helps having Binx. I'm grieving I'm stressing. I jist 😢 want Prancer to be happy and now he's back to when we got him!
My older cat is ok with the kitten but she swiped at her today because she was using the older cat's toys. She doesn't want her going in her food bowls or her litter box either. At least I know what sets her off.
We have a 5month old kitten we just recently got but out 4year old cat doesn’t like her at all we were told to introduce them instantly by the person we got them from and as you can imagine it has not helped! Now our oldest cat is spending almost all her time outside and rarely comes back inside and when she is inside she’s growling and hissing and running at the kitten we don’t know what to do but don’t want to give up either of the fur babies
Please help!
I'm having same problem
Hi so I just got a new kitten back in August and my roommate already has a female cat for about 4-5 years. They don’t get along too well because the kitten likes to chase her and she’s territorial and usually hides or goes to her room to avoid him.
What should I do to help change their behaviors towards each other?
Mommy cats do it in a minute...cat whap...whap..whap...keep your paws to yourself!
Hi thankyou for the advice! I have a 3 year old ginger male and a male kitten I got at age 6 weeks. He’s now 8 months and gone from sweet kitten to a major bully! I give time outs when behaviour is bad but it’s not helping.. please help
This isn’t tru I’ve had my cat since she was born bought another one in this year and they still don’t get along . The one I bought bully’s the cat I’ve been had now I have a kitten I rescued and the cat I’ve been had hisses and scratches at her . The other one just hisses while my kitten just looks at them wondering why they’re acting that way. Kitten isn’t neutered but other 2 are. Could that be a problem?????
I wish so much I had watched these videos years ago.
I have a male cat who is 5 years old, he is very sweet and gentle with all the new adopted cats - except for one female who is about 1 year old.
He became very nervous and very fierce when we tried to introduce them to each other, he looks at her with hate and is always very angry Trying to attack her as much as possible.
The last thing that happened that ever made me separate them, when I tried to stop him from attacking her, he bit me so badly and that was the first time he ever scratched or bit me.
Any advice??
I got a very cute very very active little Persian kitten? She’s two months old.😮 the younger cat I have really wants to be friends? The two older cats are just gently observing? But the little kitten is hissing and doesn’t want any part of the older cats or the younger one I have.?
Hey question my boy he’s 10 months has been play fighting quite rough with my husband since a baby now we have a new 9 week old kitten he is rough with her he tries to tackle her and bite her neck we separate him doing that and he backs off and lays down or even just walks away and watches her from about a foot away but then will do it again if not monitored with me sitting right inbetween them. Is this normal is this hurting her? And a she too young still? She doesn’t hiss or yelp when this happens and sometimes it looks delicate but sometimes he gets Carrie away I think due to the rough and tumble he’s been doing with my husband. How can I address this? TIA
2 weeks ago today we rescued a 4 month old female kitten and, we have a 2.5 yr old female cat. I still cant get them to get along ,my resident cat seems to want to run after the kitten and then it sounds like they are fighting very vocal and doesnt sound good ,. ive tried separate rooms and, room swapping .Ihave a pet gate with a sheet over it , closing of our kitchen for kittren but my resident cat has jumped and climbed over to go after the kitten i dont want to have to find a new home for this poor kitten its been through enough she is so sweet and finally warming up to me . (also my resident cat lived here with our senior cat for 2 years b4 we had to put him down they got along great ??) thanks Mark any help would be greatly appreciated
What if I already made the mistake of introducing them too early? What do I do 😭😭
Go back and start again from scratch as if it’s a new introduction. That’s according to Jackson Galaxy anyway. Good luck.
I could do with some advice with my 10 week old, 8yr old and 10 Yr old
Scent swapping went OK but visual contact isn't going well. My eldest runs away and the other older cat growls at the kitten.
They've never made attempts to sniff under the door it had to be towels etc. The kitten has been friendly towards them both but they don't seem too pleased. What can I do?
Got a kitten and my 13 year old cat is still not pleased to be around the kitty after 5 days . It's going to take time I think
Aww crap my cat is 13 and I want to get a friend for her but I'm worried
My cat keeps hiding and running from the kitten and a look for her she is hissing at me I try again to show her but she keeps running and hiding it’s been a week the kitten in my room 😭😭😭😩😩😩 I don’t know what to do
I put the kitten in the carrier and my older cat keeps hissing at her I don’t know how long I should put the kitten on the carrier
Hi hi I have 3 cats None of them get along. The oldest is 12. She started beating the one after her who is 3 no I found a kitten in December after my very first cat who was 13 died. The first 3 won't to bad the would just have random spats. But now I have to separate the all since December. The 12 and 3 years ould eat together but that's it . The 13 year old preety much lives outside and just comes in to eat. What can I do?
I have a rescued street cat who is not friendly with other cats he is about 5 , I now just acquired an 8 week old kitten and my older cat hates it and wants nothing to do with it growls and hisses constantly and even screams if it gets to close…. The kitten has no sense of danger lol .. I personally think my older cat is scared of the kitten
Well, I tried many of these tips, but I still have a situation, 7 months after bringing new kitty home. In my case, I tried to put 2 adult males together (one 12 and one 7), but my resident cat still looks for every opportunity to attack. We had a bad one back in February and I LITERALLY had to go to hospital for a bite that nearly went septic. I still have to keep them separate and be on guard whenever the bedroom door is open and they're in the same space without something solid between them. Not sure if there is a solution to this, but I keep trying. Considering getting a kitten for the newer cat so he at least has someone to play with who isn't going to try and beat him up. But it could also complicate the whole situation.
How is it going now?
@@Jossefitnessqueen it's going great, they are both living together happily and share the entire house, they even clean each other's ears. I love it when the boys are in harmony.
@@kevinl2894how did u do it? I have 2 old cats, male and female, but they arent liking the new kitty at all. its only been 10 days...so soon yet im just so anxious for them to like eachother
It just took a lot of patience and letting them work things out their own way. Things are really great now, they love being around each other
Mine aren’t getting along at all! Does it make a difference when the new cat gets desexed?
So it’s been week and a half of having new kitten… I’ve been following all the rules, but now, while older one doesn’t hiss, doesn’t puff up, seems very curious, but then when together, she pounces on the kitten and bites, doesn’t seem hard or harmful, but doesn’t look pretty… what do I do…? Allow them to do their thing? The baby is so tiny tho it scares me quite a bit to be honest…
Im not giving up! But its over 1.5 week and my 1yeat cat doesnt like my kitten HELP😢
I have a 1-year-old male cat that I’m trying to introduce to a new 2-month-old female kitten. My male cat doesn’t hiss or growl, but he has been biting the kitten’s neck, and I can’t tell if it’s play, aggression, or aggressive play that my adult cat can’t control. The little kitten hisses and tries to fight back, but I can’t figure out what my male cat is trying to do. Do you have any advice? When should I draw the line? I’m worried that my male cat might accidentally or intentionally hurt the kitten by overusing his strength.
I have a question 🙋🏽♀️
What if I started the introduction process wrong and tried the cold turkey way. how do I go about getting my older cat (Bella) to accept my almost 2 month old kitten? ( cloud ) also, could both of them being female make the process trickier?
How did it go for you? 🥰
please let me know cuz im in the same situation
@@sportykinggg7096 hey, are they friends mow?
My Senior Cat (male 12 years) dont like the new kitten (female a little bit over 3 Month) ... she is now almost 1 Month here and it doesnt look good. Not really serious behavior beside today my senior cat starded to drool a loot (i guess he was so much under stress). I hope so much that he will love her. wish me luck .__.
What if I messed up step one and let them meet right away and am no going to the door thing cus my older cat hissed at a toy today that smelled like the new kitten. For context they are 1 year and the other is 3 months both females
I am taking care of 4 week old kitten. Feral mother left it once born. Anyway I have a 5 year old female cat. She is not the nicest cat on regular days. She acts like she hates this kitten. I’m scared. Don’t know what to do.
I am in the exact same situation but she is a 3 week old kitten
What harness are you using?
we have a New kitten thats not scared of the one year old female we have. But the female hisses and backs away. I am afraid to let them interact. Wont the big one hurt the small one out of fear? We are in a two week getting to know eachother now where they eat together
I really want to get a 2nd cat but my current cat kind of has a biting and scratching problem with me and no matter how many videos I watch and tactics I try he still does it sometimes. Im afraid he’d do that with a little cat too so I want to be very cautious cause he is only a year old so maybe he sees it as playing and will mellow out when he gets older but he is my first cat so maybe I am not handling him correctly but I want to give him a little sibling but im nervous he would attack a little sibling.
My new kitten and my older cat get along fine but in the evenings the little one chases the older around the house and the older cat is terrified and wants out of the house. I tried to play with the kitten so it will become tired but I can't do that all night every night. what do I do? the older Is an exotic shorthair and the young is a mixed breed.