You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
We have 2 lovely young lady, rescue cats that we've had for a couple of years and who are really settled with us. A while ago and intact tomcat (who we assumed was a stray) started turning up in our garden and we started feeding him (I asked on here about his chances of having [url= https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/feline-aids-fiv-vets-assemble/ ]Feline Immunodeficiency Virus[/url]).
Anyway, he suddenly stopped coming and we thought now more about it only to accidentally come across him on our local Cats Protection League website. To cut a long story short he apparently lived just up the road from us but his owners, who came from abroad, returned abroad, handing him, and 2 other cats, over to the CPL. We enquired how he was doing and discovered that he was in good health and had been neutered, but that they were struggling to re-home him. It might be a mistake but we've taken him on to try and settle him with us (he knows the territory and us and had met our girls in the garden previously where they sniffed, and generally ignored, each other - there were no signs of aggression which is something).
We've just brought the fella home today and he's isolated in a spare room with toys, a bed and a litter tray and is a bit nervous and hissy and we're a bit nervous about how our girls will react. The CPL lady suggested introducing him as soon as our girls register that he's around and show an interest, but a lot of online resources seem to recommend keeping them apart for a while and 'scent swapping' items such as beds and blankets first.
He's much larger than our two and we're worried about him hurting them, on the other hand there's two of them and they can get out through the cat flap if they want to but he can't if they turn on him.
It's early days and we can return him if it all goes pear shaped (although hopefully it'll be fine) and slow & steady seems the way, but I was wondering if anyone here had had experience of introducing a new cat to existing ones?
One of our neighbours had just introduced a puppy to their two cats, which seem potentially more problematic so hopefully we'll get there in time.
We got a male kitten when our older she cat was 8 at the time.
She was always a bit high maintenance, but she was terrified of the tiny bundle of fur even though he was nothing but curious and playful.
It's worked out in the end, but it wasn't quick - maybe 2-3 months before she would just ignore him.
I'd be wary of letting the 2 residents bolting through the cat flap though.
He’s much larger than our two and we’re worried about him hurting them
That's not how cats work.
The smaller the cat the more concentrated the malicious evil. They'll rip him to shreds.
but a lot of online resources seem to recommend keeping them apart for a while and ‘scent swapping’ items such as beds and blankets first.
That sounds far more sensible imo. I'm surprised that the CPL lady suggested otherwise, IME CPL are by far best source of cat advice, much better than the RSPCA. Perhaps she was just an inexperienced volunteer.
The CPL (although they are called just Cat Protection these days) produce really excellent free pamphlets on a whole range of cat related issues. I would search their website for advice which is likely to be more reliable than local volunteers.
I also highly recommend plugin Feliway during the tense early period.
https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/brand-a-to-z/brand-f-147107--1/feliway
For cats smelling another cat is almost the same as seeing another cat, scent swapping is a good idea but it will cause stress, Feliway should help to reduce that.
I don't know if your existing cats use litter trays but if they do three cats should have at least two trays. Cats can feel uncomfortable about sharing trays.
Well worth taking your time and making the introduction as stress free as possible imo, for lasting positive results.
Your new cat will be behaving differently to how he behaved previously before when he turned up in your garden as now he will be feeling highly stressed.
Good luck.
but a lot of online resources seem to recommend keeping them apart for a while and ‘scent swapping’ items such as beds and blankets first.
That sounds far more sensible imo. I'm surprised that the CPL lady suggested otherwise, IME CPL are by far the best source of cat advice, much better than the RSPCA. Perhaps she was just an inexperienced volunteer.
The CPL (although they are called just Cat Protection these days) produce really excellent free pamphlets on a whole range of cat related issues. I would search their website for advice which is likely to be more reliable than local volunteers.
I also highly recommend plugin Feliway during the tense early period.
https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/brand-a-to-z/brand-f-147107--1/feliway
For cats smelling another cat is almost the same as seeing another cat, scent swapping is a good idea but it will cause stress, Feliway should help to reduce that.
I don't know if your existing cats use litter trays but if they do three cats should have at least two trays. Cats can feel uncomfortable about sharing trays.
Well worth taking your time and making the introduction as stress free as possible imo, for lasting positive results.
Your new cat will be behaving differently to how he behaved previously before when he turned up in your garden as now he will be feeling highly stressed.
Good luck.
Done introductions twice and both times has gone ok. First time kept them apart for a week, the second time she escaped the room during the second night. Scent swapped but not sure it made a difference. Even once introduced keep food separate for a while so they don’t feel threatened when eating.
Spend lots of time in the room with the new one just letting it get used to you. I used to sit on the floor at her level and watch stuff on the computer. She’d come over for attention on her terms.
Feliway helps but get the “Friends” version. Apparently helps them bond. Could tell the difference when our first one ran out without us noticing.
Slow steps is the key, but at some point you just have to go with it. Two girls will easily knock a boy cat into shape. Females have always been the boss cat in our house.
Thanks for the tips. Scent swapping seems a good way to go and we're hoping that our 2 girls still remember his scent from the garden. We've also seen it suggested that a second step might be to tie the door of the spare room slightly ajar so that they can see & smell each other without being able to shred each other.
Thanks for the link ernie, I'll have a good read of that.
The girls haven't used a litter tray since they started going out (and they both spend way more time out of doors than in) but our new chap has his own tray in his room.
We do have so Feliway pump spray that we use when the girls need to go to the vet and we picked up a Feliway 'Optimum' plug-in diffuser a few days ago, which is up and running.
Hopefully it won't be too traumatic for any involved (including us) and the girls often spend the day sleeping in the greenhouse in the garden so have plenty of options if they need space.
We have 4 cats and had two previous ones who overlapped with two of the current four. It's always been very easy to add a new cat in. Keep them in a separate room for a few days, then let them meet the other cats through a door you hold ajar just enough so they can't get in using treats as an incentive. Then at food time, let them all eat in the same room. We've never had more than a few minutes of hissing then they sort of accept it and just get on with each other.
We also used Feliway stuff which is supposed to calm them down by pumping out calming pheromones.
As your two have met the other one before there's a good chance they remember him. One of ours ran off for three months and upon his return the others just instantly recognised him and it was as if he'd never gone.
I think that it's more stressful for us than the cats, we're wrecks. Our 2 girls are fairly stand-offish (I don't think that they were properly socialised & picked up as kittens) so you can't fuss or give them attention except on their, rather limited terms and we're terrified of upsetting them.
The new cat is completely different and wants constant attention and purrs like a machine gun. He's still in isolation and we've done some scent swapping. I've also got a frame with netting over it to put in the doorway so they can meet through a barriers. We're just not sure how it's going to work out.
..wants constant attention and purrs like a machine gun.
Bless him. Sounds like a setup which could work well - he gets the attention he craves, and the other two get to remain aloof and distant, which they prefer. Everyone's a winner.
A cat's reaction to a strange cat scent is a good indication of the likely result of a physical encounter.
Gaps, if you have them, under room doors can be a good way to introduce cats to each other without the risk of physical violence or excessive stress. It will also give you a fair indication how they are likely to react to each other face to face.
The best advice I can give you is this:
Time.
We got two kittens at the back end of last year to come live in a new house with a 7-year old cat who historically doesn't play well with other cats (it's why we got two, our logic was that they could oin each other rather than Mollie). When we brought them home as tiny little fluffballs she was like, "what have you done?" hissing and spitting like a king cobra.
As it turned out, we had to isolate them in the spare room for the first few weeks as one of them really wasn't a well kittie. It quickly became clear that Sienna was neurologically damaged and "cover the floor with a tarpaulin" not well physically.
When we got them checked out and finally did let them mingle Mollie was having none of it, whenever they came anywhere near her she'd hiss at them and run off. We tried the Feliway stuff, the Friends one initially and then the all-new ultimate thing whatever it's called, Optima or something. I was deeply sceptical because confirmation bias / correlation ≠ causation, "I had a bad cold so I buried a toad in my garden and just two weeks later my cold had totally disappeared!" sort of affair, but I'd read a couple of reviews in the vein of Footflaps' comment above so figured it was worth a try. Could be a revelation, could be I've just wasted £20, but I couldn't not try something. If nothing else it was worth it to appease my partner rather than hear "you should have..." for the following months. 😄 In honesty, all I could say with 100% confidence that it gave me was a slightly warm plug socket.
The point at which Mollie started spot-weeing on our brand new bedroom carpet, something she's never done before, was the point that we thought "what have we done?" and we were starting to avoid having uncomfortable conversations about rehoming the kits.
Then... gradually Mollie kinda got over it. One day she'd stay in the same room as them. There was a lot of almost obstinate "I'm damn well sitting in this room, this is my room" when she could just have left if she didn't like it. There was a lot of hissing. But the bolder of the two kittens just wanted to be friends, she constantly pushed the boundaries. She'd edge ever closer, slowly... slowly... I remember the first day there was actual physical contact, Freya put a paw onto Mollie's back and Mollie about went into low Earth orbit. Then we had F and M sharing our bed, albeit at opposite sides. Over the months I've sent more "well, this is progress!" cat photos to my partner than I care to recall.
Today, like eight months on from when we first brought the kittens home, kits and cat are almost friends. We still get the odd toys-out-of-pram moment from Mollie but they've like actually played together and everything.
TL;DR - it was stressful as shit and we genuinely thought at one point that we'd have to rethink, but we got there. It just took several months.
And because TTIUWP,
Freya (calico) and Sienna (ginger) at 1 month and 4 months:
Mollie:
A couple of other notions I'll float.
Don't go all New Baby Syndrome. Your existing cats still need the same amount of affection that they always did. More so, even.
Mollie was my partner's cat originally, she rescued her* long before we got together. Before we even really seriously contemplated new kittens,** my line in the sand was "Mollie comes first" because as observant readers might notice from the photo above she's had enough trauma in her life already. I adore the not-really-so-much-kittens-anymore but as my GF said to me more than once, "you're Team Mollie aren't you."
Whatever you do, please don't neglect the incumbents in favour of the new. I have a high confidence that you'll have a mare of a time if you do; they need more fuss right now, not less.
(* - Assign names to "her" as you see fit)
(** - as opposed to the other kind of kittens?)
Some great tips, thank you and lovely pictures Cougar.
Our new chap, buddy, suddenly developed a nasty case of diarrhoea (he's a big boy, so there was a lot of it) along with a desire to stop using using the litter tray he was happy with, so I spent a fair part of yesterday scrubbing the carpet and feeling rather ill myself. He's still got a jippy tum but is back using his tray (Our Luna had this problem when She first moved in - probably just the upset). He's on dry food and isolated until it settles.
Penny has met him through a mesh over the doorway; they've touched noses and there was a spot of hissing and growling, but no fluffed up tails or outright aggression.
Luna's not a social cat (neither of the girls are really, I don't think they were properly socialised as kittens - we didn't get them until they were older) so we generally only see Her at meal times. She's not been introduced but has had a good sniff of his scent.
We're taking it slowly and hopefully things won't be too traumatic.
Thanks again for all the tips.
Penny
[img] https://db3pap002files.storage.live.com/y4m8irq9n_AyPb7mSJiaIxmX94WtmHVc7gYk54Cjgd0IC_KqaiWUjeJXUCFYRqzxgeeYN04XVNnlbYYkTXc1KXCvHOXFTpH3MbYQNQG7auqU3dg3m0IqEFaDpGKjhkd2n6HnZdptdAYIwSoDTPR5-8FL7UTXsvyj7NczhOQ1RWEBjI?width=2355&height=1902&cropmode=none [/img]
Buddy (when he used to visit our garden).
Are you sure the dry food isn't the cause of diarrhoea? IME it can be. In fact any change in diet, even just a brand change, may cause diarrhoea. It is generally recommended that diet changes should be gradual over several days. Nice pictures!
Thanks Ernie, he's on a bit of a diet due to his size and we were recommended to give him 1/3 sachet of wet food (Felix) mixed with biscuits, which we did twice a day. The biscuits he's been having were brought on from the lady who was fostering him so he should be on a fairly familiar diet.
When Luna had similar trouble our vet recommended a dry diet which seemed to work so that's what we thought we'd try. Luna's long haired so acted like a paint brush, which was unpleasant, She also had full access to everywhere too!
Penny's meeting with Buddy didn't go so well this morning with hissing & growling on Her part. Buddy just ignored Her and lay down (he seems remarkably chilled).
I really appreciate everyone's input, it sounds like it might be a protracted affair, but hopefully workable.
It just takes time. We had FIVE cats until recently (our old one passed away). Scent transfer is essential, i.e. stroke one, then the other.
We've a ginger rescue that arrived when our oldest cat was getting on - TBH had no trouble at all as the old cat was a bossy tortie, and just ignored him. The rescue loves a cuddle and purrs like a machine gun too. The other three are Ragdolls, and are just laid back. Two came together, so were introduced straight away as kittens, then we had another (same parents) a year later.
We were able to just introduce them straight away as kittens - much of it being down to the breed being so chilled out.
You get a bit of hissing etc at first but they soon settle down. Ours all get on quite well, especially as they are house cats (they have an external run).
we were recommended to give him 1/3 sachet of wet food (Felix) mixed with biscuits
Point of note here, look at ingredients.
As I touched on earlier, we had issues with little Sienna which caused me to look at cat food content. The good stuff is mostly made of actual meat but over twice the price of everything else, like £11 a box rather than £3.50. I'd need to check to be certain on figures, but off the top of my head Whiskas is something like 50% meat and Felix is shockingly low like about 5%.
We feed Mollie (older cat) Felix alongside a complete-food biscuits, it's what she likes and is used to, and mostly she just licks off the jelly anyway. For growing kittens I threw a stake in the ground, "they're not eating that shit" and switched them over to Whiskas. It's the same price as Felix and contains actual food.
Pouches over cans is a fool's errand anyway, the only reason I buy pouches is because my OH would pull her face if I didn't.