posted on October 5, 2000 09:22:11 PM new
Well, you guys have really done it now! The "pet personalities" thread and all the cute pictures made me want kittens, which my husband and I have been talking about on and off for a while now. I went to the petshelter.org site and absolutely fell in love with two kittens in my area! I called their foster mom and I'm meeting her at the shelter on Saturday morning.
I'm excited! I worry about how my cat is going to take this, though, with two new little boy cats coming into the house which has been hers and hers alone. Of course she will always be The Queen, but she's somewhat shy and I'm worried that she won't accept the kittens, or that she'll avoid everyone entirely and hide under a bed somewhere.
Cat people, what have been your experiences with introducing new cats into the household? I've read that it's best to get younger cats of the opposite gender, which is what I'm doing. I've also read that it helps to wipe the first cat with a wet paper towel, then rub it on the new cat so he smells like her, so I think I'll try that. Any other advice?
posted on October 5, 2000 09:38:45 PM new
I've had good luck with short meetings at first with MAJOR supervision. Just because things seem to be going well doesn't mean they are (Had one ferret who was looking really friendly with the new ferret. Lots of sniffing.....next thing I know, old ferret had grabbed new ferret and is dragging him under the couch! New ferret is none to pleased. Old ferret looks at me like, "WHAT? It's my toy isn't it?" ).
I've found that holding the old animal and having someone else hold the new animal when they first lay eyes on each other helps.
posted on October 5, 2000 10:16:14 PM new
In the last 2 years, we've added Libby (6 month old kitten), Buster (4 year old male), Penny (very very tiny kitten), Birm (9 year old male who had been living outside all his life and the inside cats knew him already), and most recently Dilly.
Introductions depend on the personalities of everybody involved, and no one solution works every time. Two of the new cats felt more comfortable being in a room by themselves for days (or, in the case of Buster, weeks) before coming face-to-face with a resident cat. One kitten just barreled right in, walked up to the resident cats and said "howdy do, wash me and snuggle with me, okay?" (took her 3 days to win over Galahad, but only 15 minutes to win over Libby) and two just sort of melted in and it was like they'd always been here.
posted on October 5, 2000 10:26:09 PM new
I've had really good luck introducing kittens to the brood. Now adults, that's a whole 'nother story!
When we had 2 adult males and were in the process of adopting the 3rd, Charlie entered the scene. She was a tiny, maybe 6-week old kitten. I wanted to try an experiment to see how they would do with a baby. So we 'borrowed' her from my mom. It worked great! Everytime she squawked even a little, all 3 boys would come running from different directions. It was a scream. We had three men and a baby.
Needless to say Mom never did find out where she came from (she just wandered into the house one day) and we kept her. She grew up fearless and I think it's because she has 4 daddies (And she's pissed because she's not the only girl anymore )
~~MouseSlayer is not a cat =^..^= ~~
Yes, I'm MouseSlayer everywhere. It's a great name, so I use it!
posted on October 6, 2000 12:15:25 AM new
Rainybear,
Here is a webpage with tons of helpful information. The general URL is:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/9352/owners.html About two-thirds of the way down, you'll find a bunch of links to articles on "Introducing A New Cat Into Your Household." They should give you a lot of tips and strategies.
Good luck, and I hope you show us pictures of the happy crew when they're all settled in.
posted on October 6, 2000 12:43:00 AM new
RainyBear, we've had very good results by keeping the newcomer(s) separated from the old-timers for at least a week to let them get used to the smells and investigate under the doors. By the time we actually let them spend time together, they're used to the smells. And we've done it s-l-o-w-l-y and it takes about a month for life to be normal, but everyone seems to survive, even if they end up not liking each other.
posted on October 6, 2000 06:21:18 AM new
psst! take your cat's 'blankie' and rub it on the kittens so that her scent is on them
and another thing: put some butter on top of the kittens' heads then quickly introduce them to your cat.
If she started to groom them (because of the butter) then slowly she's beginning to accept them... Then tell her that the kittens are part of the family now... so that she don't feel left out.
I used to do that when introducing the orphaned kittens to the momma cat
[ edited by toomanycomics on Oct 6, 2000 06:22 AM ]
(And she's pissed because she's not the only girl anymore 
)