Cat introductions

Zapperzy

I have a nearly 9 year old cat, bunty. I'v started enough threads on her here most of ye know all about her, she's a grumpy aul stresshead :P The OH has a 6 month old kitten, Jesse, complete opposite, she very rarely sits still and is constantly exploring and has her head stuck in everything trying to play with it Jesse goes whereever himself goes, between his own house, his homeplace and my homeplace. Bunty lives with me in my homeplace. We're probably going to get a place together in the coming months and both cats are hopefully coming with us, that's where the problem is.

Bunty has never lived with another cat, her hair stands on end when she sees one outside the window. Jesse originally lived outside with 2 other kittens and an adult cat so was well used of cats. When himself comes out here Jesse comes with him and stays in the bathroom set up with litter tray and what not. Took first few introductions very very slowly through the door progressing to opening the door a crack to allow nose sniffing. She might only come out for a night or two once a week or fortnight usually. Have progressed onto allowing short stints of supervised time together. I have a feliway diffuser plugged in outside the bathroom door in the hallway.

The problem is Jesse is so playful she keeps pouncing on Bunty or jumping on her tail. She's obsessed with her. There can be a lot of boxing going on, claws are in and no biting but Bunty is quite vocal. At what stage do you separate them? I do put Jesse back into the bathroom when she starts getting very rough and hyper but I don't know am I doing right or should I leave them to it. I do distract her with dangly toys and she's quite happy to play away with these while Bunty watches on.

Here's two typical interactions between them, the first is at the upper end of the scale, the height of friction is a bit of yowling and some boxing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doRS4nrIAwI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sLYvgdHvug

So do I carry on as is with introductions here? What should I do when they both move to neutral territory in a new house?

SillyMangoX

I'm not sure I have much advise but I have to say they look very like Dude and Cream interaction wise. It's kind of a "I'm fascinated by you and kind of want to play but don't come near me" type thing! My guys can get quite 'rough' as in there's been a lot of growls and complaining out of Cream but like yours, there's no claws involved it's just batting at each other. Dude is very like Jesse in that he wants to play with Cream all the time and wants to be in all his business and sometimes it does get quite annoying for Cream. Dude is already bigger and a bit stronger so when he pins Cream down there's where we intervene. Actually, that's where I get officer Peach to intervene! She's the prison officer and if things get out of hand I put her on the floor beside them, she stares at Dude and maybe hisses and that's the end of his nonsense! I'd lend you the officer but that could make things worse :P I find though if Cream has room to run away easily like if we are outside on our walks he is very tolerant of Dude and even invites him to play, so make sure there's lots of escape routes and high places for poor aul bunty to hide out that Jesse can't corner her. Also, putting down some catnip between my guys gets them to both roll around together happily and they will often groom each other and things will be peaceful while they are stoned. And finally tiring them both out with mutual play like with our DaBird toy really drastically cuts down the play fights but allows them to spend quality bonding time together.

We had a situation with Peach and Dude initially, she did not like him at all and would hiss, spit and beat him up at every opportunity (he's actually afraid of her) but since they all started sleeping together in the utility room she's a lot more tolerant of him. We had a 'Dude and treat' system going for a while, I'd bring dude into the room with her and if she hissed I'd ignore her but of she did nothing she got a high value treat. We eventually kept moving closer and closer with her getting a treat every time she ignored him or interacted without hissing, and eventually got to the stage where I could leave him down beside her and she would just sniff him. When he had his accident and was separate from the other 2 it relapsed and she hated him again, but when the power went out and we had no heating I left the 3 of them together overnight to keep each other warm and since then she's been tolerant again. In fact she actually groomed him this morning which I was shocked at!

So basically if that's all too long (sorry I ramble :P): mutual play, lots of escape routes and perches, and immersion together seemed to work for us! (That's after the initial proper introductions which you've been doing already!)

Zapperzy

Thanks SM Catnip is a good idea actually, Bunty responds well to it and it might encourage her to play a bit around her, could cover Jesse in catnip see what happens Jesse was having no response to it a few months ago but I think they have to be a few months old to have an effect, I dread to think of her on catnip, she's already a terror she doesn't stop running around :P

Guess I'l just carry on with caution, there's no hair standing on end, no claws or teeth. And it's to be expected a little tension from a nearly 9 year old cat (what's that in cat years? ) who's suddenly being terrorised by a teenager

morgana

We had a very similar situation last summer introducing a new kitten to our two 11 and 9 year old resident cats. You are doing exactly what we did, take it slow, when you have your new place, make sure either has a safe room or spot and get them used to each other. They should come to a grudging arrangement at first eventually getting to relative harmony. Our kitten was/is obsessed with the other two as well and was always at them until it learned catiquette :P. She now chases them occasionally, and the tap to the hind quarters of the other. :P
They are getting along fine now, I don't think they will be best buddies but the older two tolerate the kitten now and even nose-greet her. The elder of the two seems to sort of tolerate her tagging along when she goes out, cat caravan in motion lol.

Pumpkinseeds

Supervised slow introductions are the way to go. Our 3 year old cat Poppy wasn't too thrilled with our foster kitten Molly. Molly being a kitten has no sense at all and thinks every cat is her friend, despite all the hissing and spitting the other 3 do at her when she's trying to swing out of their necks or tails.

I don't know how true it is, but I remember reading once that it can be easier to introduce cats when they move to a new home, like what you may be doing, since it's new territory and Bunty won't have marked it all as hers. Hope all goes well, if all else fails there's Royal Canin Calm dry food. I keep evangelising about it but I just can't believe the difference in my cats since last Thursday when they started it.

Zapperzy

I just found a single piece of bunty's cat poo in my bedroom doorway, which is beside the bathroom that Jesse stays in which she was on friday night. I don't think the introductions are going as well as I had thought I don't think she's ever poo'd outside of her tray before.

Is it possible that she'l just never accept another cat? Is there anything else I can do?

Pumpkinseeds

Zapperzy wrote: »

I just found a single piece of bunty's cat poo in my bedroom doorway, which is beside the bathroom that Jesse stays in which she was on friday night. I don't think the introductions are going as well as I had thought I don't think she's ever poo'd outside of her tray before.

Is it possible that she'l just never accept another cat? Is there anything else I can do?

I keep evangelising about Royal Canin Calm, but it has been a massive help with our 4. We were having a really big problem with aggression from Felix to Toby and both of them spraying all over the house, with Felix randomly peeing in the house, all out of character for him. We started them on the RC Calm and we noticed a difference in a few days.

It had been so bad people kept telling us to rehome 1 of the cats which we just couldn't do. It works in the same way as Zylkene and is a natural product designed to help stressed cats. It's in dry form and we get it from either Zooplus uk or Amazon. The spraying and urinating in the house has stopped and they can walk past each other without the growling, howling and posturing that was going on. There haven't been any fights either, and the fights were serious 'I want to kill you' fights.

Zapperzy

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I keep evangelising about Royal Canin Calm, but it has been a massive help with our 4. We were having a really big problem with aggression from Felix to Toby and both of them spraying all over the house, with Felix randomly peeing in the house, all out of character for him. We started them on the RC Calm and we noticed a difference in a few days.

It had been so bad people kept telling us to rehome 1 of the cats which we just couldn't do. It works in the same way as Zylkene and is a natural product designed to help stressed cats. It's in dry form and we get it from either Zooplus uk or Amazon. The spraying and urinating in the house has stopped and they can walk past each other without the growling, howling and posturing that was going on. There haven't been any fights either, and the fights were serious 'I want to kill you' fights.

Do you feed them just the RC calm or as a mix of foods? I wouldn't mind giving it a try but it's ingredients are pretty poor compared to what she's on at the moment, suppose it wouldn't hurt her to try it for a while anyways. The zylkene didn't work as well for you from what I can remember? Bunty was on that before too.

I tried catnip, first gave it only to Bunty. Think it made matters worse until it wore off. Jesse had a great time rolling in it on the mat though.

Pumpkinseeds

Nutrition wise the RC Calm isn't as good as the Applaws, I'm hoping it'll only need a few months of the RC and then I'll start mixing in the Applaws and see how things go. The Zylkene helped for a while, the problem with it is that you give it to them once a day and it wore off well before the next dose of it. They're free fed dry food so they're nibbling away at it and the coverage is much better.

They also get a bit of wet food in the morning and at night. We give them treats of cooked chicken pieces, raw chicken breast, raw mince and tinned wild salmon during the week, never the packets of cat treats. I've given them catnip as a distraction when things have been edgy, the loose stuff from Tesco mostly as the Yeeowie one made them aggressive.