Supervised time between resident and new

Well, today was the day.
To Recap - week 1 new cat (2 year old spayed female) was kept in a separate
room with her own food and litter box, resident cat (6 year old neutured
male) unaware of her presence
Week 2 - latch put on door so cats could see and hear each other but not
harm each other if they were so inclined, after two days the male cat
stopped any hissing and growling and would just lay down on his side at the
crack of door with his tail wagging but the female continues to hiss if she
thinks he is getting to close. For the last 2 days I put the resident cat
in his comfy room (closed) and let new cat roam the house for about 30
minutes.
Today (near end of week 2) - I let them meet with no barriers, first
sighting of each other in the kitchen made me a little nervous. The
resident cat didn't hiss at all but at first he looked a bit scared. But
not the case with the new female cat. If he got within her comfort zone,
she hissed right at him. He seems to either lay down, just sit there or
walk away. I wonder if he will revert to hissing in response. She did
return to her 'room' for what appears to be some level of comfort. After
about 30 minutes I thought that was enough for one day and once she was put
back into her room I close it and supervised time for the day was over.
After that the resident cat seemed to walk around the house for awhile very
hestitantly as if he expected to encounter her at any second. I don't want
to make him a nervous wreck.
I thought of trying this supervised time each day. Good idea?
Any hints on anything I could do to make it less stressful or better?

--
Message posted via http://www.catkb.com

in article , jr via CatKB.com at
wrote on 5/26/05 10:45 PM:

Well, today was the day.
To Recap - week 1 new cat (2 year old spayed female) was kept in a separate
room with her own food and litter box, resident cat (6 year old neutured
male) unaware of her presence
Week 2 - latch put on door so cats could see and hear each other but not
harm each other if they were so inclined, after two days the male cat
stopped any hissing and growling and would just lay down on his side at the
crack of door with his tail wagging but the female continues to hiss if she
thinks he is getting to close. For the last 2 days I put the resident cat
in his comfy room (closed) and let new cat roam the house for about 30
minutes.
Today (near end of week 2) - I let them meet with no barriers, first
sighting of each other in the kitchen made me a little nervous. The
resident cat didn't hiss at all but at first he looked a bit scared. But
not the case with the new female cat. If he got within her comfort zone,
she hissed right at him. He seems to either lay down, just sit there or
walk away. I wonder if he will revert to hissing in response. She did
return to her 'room' for what appears to be some level of comfort. After
about 30 minutes I thought that was enough for one day and once she was put
back into her room I close it and supervised time for the day was over.
After that the resident cat seemed to walk around the house for awhile very
hestitantly as if he expected to encounter her at any second. I don't want
to make him a nervous wreck.
I thought of trying this supervised time each day. Good idea?
Any hints on anything I could do to make it less stressful or better?

Sounds like you are doing great. Have you thought about adding a Feliway
diffuser? It helps with stress. But overall sounds very good.

What is a Feliway diffuser? How do you use it? Where do you get it?

--
Message posted via http://www.catkb.com

You can get it at pet stores or online. It is like those plugin fresheners
only it releases a synthetic hormone that helps alleviate stress in cats. I
find it very useful as my two get snippy with each other. I think it is
least expensive from www.valleyvet.com or www.petguys.com

"jr via CatKB.com" wrote in message
...
What is a Feliway diffuser? How do you use it? Where do you get it?

--
Message posted via http://www.catkb.com

Is there anything like that for women? I'd send Mary a case of them for her
computer room if she'd use 'em. LOL


Karen wrote:
You can get it at pet stores or online. It is like those plugin
fresheners only it releases a synthetic hormone that helps alleviate
stress in cats. I find it very useful as my two get snippy with each
other. I think it is least expensive from www.valleyvet.com or
www.petguys.com

"jr via CatKB.com" wrote in message
...
What is a Feliway diffuser? How do you use it? Where do you get it?

--
Message posted via http://www.catkb.com

I am going though the same situation right now except that resident cat is a
6 year old spayed female and new cat is 9 week old male kitten.

My resident cat (today it's been one week since they've been interacting)
and she is still hissing all the time, but only when the kitten is messing
with her. Otherwise they can sleep close to each other with no problems.
We still supervise them the whole time the kitten is around her. We leave
the kitten out most of the day and put him in his room at night.

Our resident cat walks around after we remove him pretty slowly thinking
that he's going to pop out at any moment. She otherwise acts fine, even
though her routine has changed (temporarily I hope). She is used to his
smell.

I would just continue what you are doing and try to increase the amount of
time they are around each other every day.

Good luck!
Paige