Introducing new cat to 2 existing pets....

Hi folks.

This is my first post here, so treat me gently !

My son's moving to London, and can't take Bella, his grey half - Rag
Doll with him. I've volunteered to give her a good home. (She's 2
years old, and has recently been snipped.) It's a very affectionate,
lively little cat.

I've got 2 cats already (June, female 13 year old black, Smudge, 8
year old male black&white, both non-pedigree, and snipped).

I'm concerned about their initial reaction to each other, and I want
to minimise any jealousy between them.

I've obviously got to keep Bella in the house for a week or two to get
acclimatised to us, and then gradually introduce her to the outside.

Luckily it's quite rural here, and comparatively safe, being on a cul-
de-sac.

Are there any 'Do's & Dont's' in this situation ?

Do I feed them all together from the start ?

Thanks in advance.

Roo wrote:
Hi folks.

This is my first post here, so treat me gently !

My son's moving to London, and can't take Bella, his grey half - Rag
Doll with him. I've volunteered to give her a good home. (She's 2
years old, and has recently been snipped.) It's a very affectionate,
lively little cat.

I've got 2 cats already (June, female 13 year old black, Smudge, 8
year old male black&white, both non-pedigree, and snipped).

I'm concerned about their initial reaction to each other, and I want
to minimise any jealousy between them.

I've obviously got to keep Bella in the house for a week or two to get
acclimatised to us, and then gradually introduce her to the outside.

Luckily it's quite rural here, and comparatively safe, being on a cul-
de-sac.

Are there any 'Do's & Dont's' in this situation ?

Do I feed them all together from the start ?

Thanks in advance.

I don't know how I would feed all five of my cats together. Some are out.
Some are sleeping.... I feed the ones who are in the kitchen asking for
food. the others will get there sooner or later, or go out and catch
whatever, or get fed by the neighbors. They don't take well to
regimentation... I guess they aren't Army cats....

On Tue, 24 May 2011 15:31:34 -0700 (PDT), Roo
wrote:

Hi folks.

This is my first post here, so treat me gently !

My son's moving to London, and can't take Bella, his grey half - Rag
Doll with him. I've volunteered to give her a good home. (She's 2
years old, and has recently been snipped.) It's a very affectionate,
lively little cat.

I've got 2 cats already (June, female 13 year old black, Smudge, 8
year old male black&white, both non-pedigree, and snipped).

I'm concerned about their initial reaction to each other, and I want
to minimise any jealousy between them.

I've obviously got to keep Bella in the house for a week or two to get
acclimatised to us, and then gradually introduce her to the outside.

Luckily it's quite rural here, and comparatively safe, being on a cul-
de-sac.

Are there any 'Do's & Dont's' in this situation ?

Do I feed them all together from the start ?

Thanks in advance.

Some folks get lucky and just dump the new cat into the house. And it
works. Mostly it doesn't though. SLOW is the word here since cats can
be very territorial.

Read this:

http://maxshouse.com/introducing_cats.htm

Are there any 'Do's & Dont's' in this situation ?

Do I feed them all together from the start ?

No, do not let them together right now. Set up a separate room for
Bella and keep her in there. Your resident cats will be curious about
the cat in the other room. Get some towels and rub Bella's scent on
them and let your resident cats (RCs) smell her, and vice versa.

Go SLOWLY. This can take as little as a few days to several months,
depending on the cats' personalities. Eventually, you'll want to let
Bella out to explore the house room by room. Put your RCs in Bella's
room while you're doing this. Eventually, try feeding them on either
side of the room. Play under the door so they can touch paws. Wait
until all cats are comfortable with this until advancing to the next
step.

Get a couple Feliway diffusers--one for Bella's room and one for the
RCs.

Eventually, you can let Bella out for short periods. When you leave
the house for extended periods, shut her back in. You don't want to
have something bad happen while you're away.

I'm sure you will have a lovely integration. Just take it slowly and
let the cats take the lead.

Rene

dgk wrote:
On Tue, 24 May 2011 15:31:34 -0700 (PDT), Roo
wrote:

Hi folks.

This is my first post here, so treat me gently !

My son's moving to London, and can't take Bella, his grey half - Rag
Doll with him. I've volunteered to give her a good home. (She's 2
years old, and has recently been snipped.) It's a very affectionate,
lively little cat.

I've got 2 cats already (June, female 13 year old black, Smudge, 8
year old male black&white, both non-pedigree, and snipped).

I'm concerned about their initial reaction to each other, and I want
to minimise any jealousy between them.

I've obviously got to keep Bella in the house for a week or two to
get acclimatised to us, and then gradually introduce her to the
outside.

Luckily it's quite rural here, and comparatively safe, being on a
cul- de-sac.

Are there any 'Do's & Dont's' in this situation ?

Do I feed them all together from the start ?

Thanks in advance.

Some folks get lucky and just dump the new cat into the house. And it
works. Mostly it doesn't though. SLOW is the word here since cats can
be very territorial.

Read this:

http://maxshouse.com/introducing_cats.htm

and some are unlucky and they never get along.

i'm familiar with how to introduce cats together, and have 6 of my own that
i've accumulated over the past 12 years (a new one about every 2-3 years)
that get along well.

i'm 6 months into trying to introduce a very petite foster pixie bob into my
pack of 6. two of them get along, 2 are mildly annoyed. 1 is pretty ****ed
off and chased the foster around but didn't do much when she catches it. the
last (a 23lb'er) wants to kill. the 5-6 times they've had actual contact,
i've had to clean up all 3 bodily emissions afterwards, along with
accumulating various deep slashes and bite marks on my wife and myself.

because of this, i have to keep them seperated by closed (and solid) doors,
and even still, they attempt to fight under the doors. i had to make draft
preventers out of old pool noodles and some scrap cloth. before i did that,
one of them stuck a paw under the door and stood up, snapping one of the
bones in her leg.

i swap cats between the rooms every other day, so they still get the scents
of each other, but i haven't gotten any closer to a resolution in 6 months.

i'd turn the foster back in to the rescue i work at to ease the situation,
but she had been there for 2 years and the closest anyone got to her was
about 10'. after about a month in my house, she'll roll over and beg for a
tummy rub and sleeps cuddled in my armpit, so has been rehabilited enough
that i don't want her to lose it back in the 50 or so loose cats in the
shelter.

regards,
charlie
cave creek, az

Roo wrote in rec.pets.cats.health+behav:

Hi folks.

This is my first post here, so treat me gently !

My son's moving to London, and can't take Bella, his grey half - Rag
Doll with him. I've volunteered to give her a good home. (She's 2
years old, and has recently been snipped.) It's a very affectionate,
lively little cat.

I've got 2 cats already (June, female 13 year old black, Smudge, 8
year old male black&white, both non-pedigree, and snipped).

I'm concerned about their initial reaction to each other, and I want
to minimise any jealousy between them.

I've obviously got to keep Bella in the house for a week or two to get
acclimatised to us, and then gradually introduce her to the outside.

Luckily it's quite rural here, and comparatively safe, being on a cul-
de-sac.

Are there any 'Do's & Dont's' in this situation ?

Do I feed them all together from the start ?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Roo! Welcome aboard.

I have a different view from the others here but that is ok. I do not
automatically segregate cats but then I used to have 4 (sometimes more)
in foster at once and they'd find homes pretty fast. Rarely less than
2.

Cats that have been 'single cat in the home' may not like other cats
right away. Some cats are also 'only cats' meaning they never will
adapt well to another (though may tolerate them).

My start was to bring the new one, often unknown in any background
other than shots from the rescue, in a carrier and set it in an out of
the way 'not favorite corner' and then just watch.

You get the rare one where they start nose poinking through the grill
right away in curiosity and purr at each other. I'd wait an hour or so
then and open the door just a little and let the new cat push it open
wen ready to enter the room then just keep an eye on it. If
freefeeding, I'd make sure the bowl was full all the time and let them
figure it out. Thats your 'perfect scenario' introduction.

Now a little deeper. Normally you are gonna get hissing and anger from
the existing cats and fear from the new one. You let them smell though
the carrier for a bit but remove the carrier right away to a 'safe
place' if the existing cats start showing claws and especially if they
seem to be ganging up on the newbie. At this stage, they may only be
settling 'pecking order' but it can be more serious.

In any house, there is at least 1 room the cats don't use much. Use
that one for the new cat. Let it free behind a closed door but make
the room have lots of 'hidey holes'. This is not a long term item. If
you have to segregate the cats for more than a week before they can get
along reasonably, there are issues. More than 3 weeks and this is a
problem.

Dont be confused though by the normal 'find my spot in the pecking
order' (for dogs this is called pack leader issue). There normally
*will* be a fight or two over that but it's short and mostly involves a
lot of hissing and chasing until the loser hides in a hidey hole. Have
lots of them about in all rooms.

I mostly rescue ferals now. Current one is a very strong 'only cat' so
we have 2 rescue dogs instead of 3 cats. Grin, she's taught the 14
year old beagle bitch that she's boss and 'thats that'. I know enough
after 30 years at this, to know my current cat can *not* be ever mixed
with another cat. It's not the oil and water one of the others
recently posted between 1 of 3 residents, but a complete 'I will kill
any other cat who comes into my abode'.

*sigh* I love my Daisy-chan but she's got a behavioral rap sheet a mile
long (grin). No amount of separation in rooms will fix her on this.
Conversely, she's happy to check out any dog and accept them in her
home for a day, a week, or forever.