Integrating a new cat

[Beep]

Hi, has anyone any ideas for me that might help with this?

We got an 18month old cat two weekends ago. He had been thrown out by his owners and had nowhere to go. He was living in the hedgerows and sleeping on a bird table at night, and crossing a busy road to find food.

We already have two old ladies (approx 18 years old) and were very careful in how we introduced the new kid on the block.

We shut the living room door so that they have the living room and kitchen, and the cat flap to the back garden. The new boy had the bathroom and bedroom. After a day of him becoming used to the rooms, we introduced them from a distance. There was a little hissing and spitting from the girls but everything went well.

After approx 1 week we started to take him into the other 'wing' to introduce him to the other rooms but he wanted to go back to the bathroom/bedroom. Things are getting better, we now have the doors open so they can come and go as they please and they get much closer to each other before there is a Mexican stand-off.

He feels very comfortable in the bedroom but we want to get him more used to the living room and kitchen. The other cats are fed in the kitchen and he is fed in the bedroom. As soon as the other cats go near his food he won't touch it from there on. We need to keep the food separate as they have special senior food which is not good for him, and their food is too rich for him.

Any ideas on how we can get him to spend more time with us in the living room? We have shut the other cats in the kitchen but he doesn't seem keen on the living room and cries to go out to the bedroom.

We don't wnt him to feel that he is a prisoner in the bathroom/bedroom part but also don't want to make him nervous or scared of the living room.

~He is very affectionate and loves playing. He likes our company and yowls when we move to the living room. He comes in to have a look, sees one of te other cars and walks out again. He sits on the window sills looking outside but isn't climing the walls to try and get out

if anyone has an ideas on what you think wouldl be the best way to intergrate them more and get him into the living room please let me know.

Thanks

 

[tinks86]

Hi, has anyone any ideas for me that might help with this?

We got an 18month old cat two weekends ago. He had been thrown out by his owners and had nowhere to go. He was living in the hedgerows and sleeping on a bird table at night, and crossing a busy road to find food.

We already have two old ladies (approx 18 years old) and were very careful in how we introduced the new kid on the block.

We shut the living room door so that they have the living room and kitchen, and the cat flap to the back garden. The new boy had the bathroom and bedroom. After a day of him becoming used to the rooms, we introduced them from a distance. There was a little hissing and spitting from the girls but everything went well.

After approx 1 week we started to take him into the other 'wing' to introduce him to the other rooms but he wanted to go back to the bathroom/bedroom. Things are getting better, we now have the doors open so they can come and go as they please and they get much closer to each other before there is a Mexican stand-off.

He feels very comfortable in the bedroom but we want to get him more used to the living room and kitchen. The other cats are fed in the kitchen and he is fed in the bedroom. As soon as the other cats go near his food he won't touch it from there on. We need to keep the food separate as they have special senior food which is not good for him, and their food is too rich for him.

Any ideas on how we can get him to spend more time with us in the living room? We have shut the other cats in the kitchen but he doesn't seem keen on the living room and cries to go out to the bedroom.

We don't wnt him to feel that he is a prisoner in the bathroom/bedroom part but also don't want to make him nervous or scared of the living room.

~He is very affectionate and loves playing. He likes our company and yowls when we move to the living room. He comes in to have a look, sees one of te other cars and walks out again. He sits on the window sills looking outside but isn't climing the walls to try and get out

if anyone has an ideas on what you think wouldl be the best way to intergrate them more and get him into the living room please let me know.

Thanks

Hi, I can sympathise - although we have the opposite problem! We have a 14 week old kitten, and he is quite nervous and loves being in our company. So when we are in the living room, so is he, and he starts to try and climb up on our leather dining chairs I am trying to find ways to get him to stop! Any tips???
I know we were speaking to someone recently who had just taken a kitten into a house where there were already 2 cats, and it did take them a while to accept each other, but after about 6 weeks they seem to be ok. If you haveonly had him 2 weeks it may take a bit longer.
Also when we first had our kitten as he had been abandoned he didn't trust us at all, so perhaps building up some trust between the new cat and yourselves might make him feel more comfortable in staying in the room with you? Just a thought

 

[natalielongstaff]

I think he may take a little longer to get used to you all, keeping all doors open as much as possible will help a lot

 

[OneLittleSpark]

OK, I'll come and pitch in what I can. We have had a house full of cats since I was about 10, so I'm used to having a whole pack (that doesn't sound like the right collective noun, as it implies some sort of harmony and co-operation ). The most we've had at one time was 9, but we're down to only 5 at the moment. We've also had a load of strays adopting us, as we're out in the countryside. It got to the point where as soon as we'd accepted that one stray was staying, and had given it a name, another one turned up . That of course, lead to a cat becoming called 'He Who Must Not Be Named' later Voldemort .

Anyway, that long and rambling introduction asserted my qualifications on the subject, now on to something useful. It sounds like things are fairly peaceful at the moment, which is a very good sign indeed. It helps that your older cats are female, and the younger male, as they won't feel like they're encroaching on each other's territory so much. That said, our Sam is a stroppy little madam! The main thing they'll need now is the space, time and encouragement to get to know each other, and adjust their lives to suit the extra family member.

If your girls are still kittens at heart, and enjoy playing string games, it might be nice to start a game in the living room, and see if the little'un joins in. You have to be very careful with this, though, as some cats can get a little 'over competitive' and start hissing at anyone who comes near their 'prey' (yup, that's Sam again!). Another way to encourage them to be around one another is to give them a few nice treats together. You'll have to be scrupulously fair in divvying them out, or you'll get temper tantrums, but you want to create as many positive associations as possible.

Things will probably be a little unstable for a while, as they'll have to reorganise their pecking order. Don't try to get too involved in this, unless they get too confrontational, as this is one thing they have to sort out by themselves. Our boss cat in the house is Hiawatha, and any new cat has to show him due respect to have a quiet life. He's fairly amiable, as long as nobody tries to take over the top spot, and he even lets Aquilla wash his ears for him . It's good that your boy is fairly young, as he will be able to learn that the ladies are at the top of the household (as it should be ), but you may notice a few frictions as he gets older and starts to want to play alpha male. Don't worry too much about this, your girls will probably just let him pretend to be the boss, while they go off and do their own thing (that's how it works in our house, anyway)

If you do get a really tense stand-off or a hissing match, try to defuse the situation by making firm but non-threatening noises, like tutting or going 'tsh'. If they actually come to blows, try and work out who the instigator was (don't trust them in interrogation though, they'll never tell you the whole story ), and send them outside to think about what they've done. We had a patch of trouble between a few of ours and Orion (Aquilla's brother, now sadly, no longer with us ), and it got to the stage where Sam would automatically take herself outside to think about what she'd done when she chased him, without us needing to send her off!

The only times we've really had any disagreements between ours, have been either when someone new came in, and threatened 'Watha's leadership; or when one of them ran away (Orion did this a lot, and the others just thought he looked like too much fun not to chase ). As your ladies are of a respectable age, and your boy is still rather little, you shouldn't have too many issues in either category. It definitely sounds like things are going well, anyway.

As for encouraging him in to the other rooms, go for little and often. Take him into the living room for a few minutes each day, preferably without the girls there at first, and give him some positive associations. Perhaps start off by not shutting him in to the room, just leave the door open and tempt him in with toys or treats. If he likes string games, start playing in one of his 'safe zones' then slowly lead him into the living room. Keep him busy, so he doesn't notice where he is too much, and try to make it his choice to be there. Have some tasty treats on hand, so that he builds up the connection that 'living room = nice stuff', but don't overwhelm him. As he likes affection, having cuddles near the door might help him as well, so he can see he can leave if he wants to, but chooses to stay for the fuss and cuddles . Once you've got him used to the room without the ladies in, encourage him in when they are settled and sleeping, so he gets used to them being there.

With the food thing, it might be best to keep feeding him in the bathroom until he's a little happier in the other rooms. Once he's comfortable in the kitchen, establish feeding times for all three of them. As the ladies need different food to him, you can put separate bowls down at certain times, then pick them up again when they've finished eating. This will mean that they can't just come and go as they please for food, so will be a little keener to eat when they get the chance . This system can work well enough; for a while my aunt and uncle had three cats, all on different foods, and all wanting to eat each other's .

Sorry this is somewhat of an essay, I'm a bit of a mad cat lady, and can rabbit on about them for hours (unlike our cat Yoko, who just goes out rabbiting )!

Hope this is of some help!

 

[wifey]

Get some Feliway spray available in chemists now this eases any anxiety it's an artificial hormone very like the smell of a kitten's mum very calming. Small sprays are about £15-20 I think. Have a tray for each cat plus one if you have a couple of cats and make sure there's easy access for them to be used. Lots of games and thing to play with for all cats keep them happy like birds on fishing rod type toys and long fingered gloves, lots of interaction less of the claws in the hands. Let the cat come to you and only handle gently for a short time until it's used to you. then the bonding will begin. Leave the doors open but close the windows until the cat gets used to your home they always find the best peaceful places to sleep and hide. Ours favours our bed when DH gets out of it and our wardrobes anywhere high really but he comes to us when he wants to and loves sharing the sofa particularly if we're watching a dvd