Cat won't accept new kitten all suggestions welcome

[sourcreamnchives]

Hi
We got a new kitten this week it's only been four days. New kitty is a boy. Eldest kitty is 1. Eldest cat hisses and growls whenever she sees him and now spends most of her time outside. I feel like she's left home. It's really sad. She's always been independent and hates a fuss but affectionate in her own understated way. We have introduced them slowly over days but the older cat seems so angry. Will this eventually resolve? Should we return the kitten? What is anyone else's experience of this?

How big is your house? I wouldn't necessarily expect two cats to get on so it's a brave choice to get another unless your house is big enough that they can each have plenty of their own space.

Hi yes it is a large four bedroom house with heaps of room we also have a dog who gets on with both.

It's a week. You need to accept it will take a LONG time and it may never happen with cats

My old girl Took a full six month to accept my pair of kittens but eventually they did eat and sleep together fine.

Get a feliway diffuser and make sure they have separate rooms to retreat too.

To start they need separate bowls. Beds and litter trays if the older cat uses one as well. These need to be In A separate room if possible. Keep the kitten restricted to one room in the house for now and gradually expand his territory as the older cat gets more used to him.

We had the same introducing a new kitty. As soon as our boy kitten was neutered my old lady girl cat and the kitten became besties. It was instant and they've not looked back since

My cat who is now 14 (female)still won't accept our new cat (we had her as a kitten) who is now 3. She is also female.
I have tried everything including plug ins etc. My son says I dodnt introduce them properly but I just think the older cat wouldn't have accepted any cat no matter how they were introduced.

What have you done so far in terms of preparing the house and living space for introductions?

This is good guidance to reduce conflict over resources

journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1098612X13477537

Essentially though cats are territorial and colonies are matrilineal so introducing a young male to the territory of an established female will be tough and isn't the best choice

My two were never really friends, but reached an amicable agreement where they just ignored each other!

We adopted a brother and sister pair from very young, but within a month they had decided on their own territories in the house and stuck to them, keeping out if each others way.
When the boy cat sadly died his sister came out of her shell again and got saddled into all the places she avoided when they were his.

I’d go get her in & look at Jackson galaxies you tube videos on slow intros, it’s a long process though, on day 4 they shouldn’t have even met yet.

Mine took years. It was a cattery owner who helped. I booked separate pods for them and she suggested putting them in a double. The strange place may unite them. If it doesn't she'll separate them. She told me they bonded within the day and remained friends when we brought them home two weeks later .

well, you said you introduced them slowly over days, and also said it has been 4 days!

So not enough time, too quick.

Put kitten in one part of house, and allow the older cat free run of the rest. as PP saide, litter tray and food bowls etc separate.
Allow them to see each other through a barrier. Do this for a couple of weeks, then slowly allow the kitten more space.

In the meantime, feliway, and lots of affection for the older cat.

We had two kittens and then ended up with the mum a couple of months later

It was awful to begin with - we were even trying to convince my DM to take the older cat.

However we were due to go on holiday so left the kittens in the kitchen and cat in the office. During the day the kittens had free roam of the rest of the house then at night the cat had free roam of the house. During my mums visits she allowed them to mix whilst supervised.

Amazingly when we returned from holiday the cat and kittens were absolutely fine together.

It's far too soon for intros. Kitten needs to be in one room, preferably not one where first cat goes, and then so slow scent swapping etc.

^ do slow scent swapping etc.

Send one of them to me!

Oh, and by the way....we need photos- it's the law!

It can take years and the degree to which she accepts him in her territory is hard to predict.
You can make it easier for her by creating shared spaces and other spaces that she can access just for herself so the kitten is not forced on her.
My male adult cat accepted my female kitten almost immediately and within weeks they were sleeping together and playing together. He is however more like a dog in character so it isn't really surprising the introduction went so welk:he is just a friendly cat.
My adult female cat on the other hand detested the kitten and only ever got to the stage of being in the same room at feeding time after 2 years. She just has a more independent and shy nature and is only affectionate with a few selected persons and with my adult male cat who is her brother. I don't think she would ever have got to living happily with another non related cat.

I've introduced two five month old boy cats (at different times) to my very very grumpy old lady cat, she hated them both to start with, and there was lots of hissing and the occasional spat, but now the older boy is her best friend, and she and the younger one co-exist by each pretending that the other one isn't there. I didn't do anything special, just left them to get on with it - I do have lots of rooms for them to keep their distance in, thankfully.

It takes weeks to introduce them. At 4 days, they shouldn’t have been in the same room. You have to start with them in separate rooms, then so they can see each other but not meet if possible, loads of swapping beds etc so they get the scent, then feeding them near each other but so there’s still a door between them and so on. Even doing all this, she might never accept them. We have a 5 year old female and two 3 year old brothers. She tolerates one of the boys (in that she ignores him), but she still hisses and swipes at the other. He has learnt to give her a very wide berth. Some cats just don’t want others in their territory and it seems a particular problem with females (plus mine is a tortie and they’re mad anyway!)

Don't give up after only 4 days!

I have successfully introduced a new kitten to an older cat in the house twice. The older cat will NEVER love the idea, and you can expect hissing and spitting at first (if not physical attacks). Keep them in separate rooms at first, with separate food bowls, litter trays etc, as other people have said. Let them out to sniff each other once a day but be around and ready to separate them if it gets nasty.

Eventually they will accept it - how well depends on the personalities of the cats, and personally I don't think gender has much to do with it. Our two females now get on really well, sleep in the same bed and wash each other's faces, but at the beginning the older cat was furious to see the kitten and we had lots of aggressive hissing.

I did it years ago with two moggies (a male and a female) and the older female would tolerate the male but they were never best friends.

One top tip I got from Cats Protection was to put an old towel in each cat's bed and swap them over every morning. Their primary sense is smell, so the towel the other cat has been sleeping on will be impregnated with the scent, and having it in their bed will get them used to it.

@Veterinari Many thanks for the informative link. It was a great read even though I don’t have any problems with my cat. I bookmarked it.

We got a 10 month old girl cat on Friday, we already had a 7 1/2 yr old boy cat.

She is in a separate room with her own food, litter, water, toys and bed.

We open the door during the day since day 3 and boy cat has been sniffing around her stuff to get used to the smell.

They have got close ish and there's been a few hisses from each of them but they are tolerating each other a lot more now.

4 days is way too quick, you should still be at scent swapping and feeding bowls at the door.

Has your 1 year old even lived with another cat?

I am at 2 weeks with mine and I've only just let them mix - but my 2 are both 4, and I know both have successfully lived with other cats. New cat is perfectly happy, old cat is having an all day sulk.

However it's taken 2 weeks of a lot of scent swapping, room swapping, short intros, food bribery, cuddles and reassurance of old cat to make it go as well as it has - today I've spent 30 min sitting with her to make sure she ate her breakfast and explain new cat wasn't going to steal it from her.

It's a lot of hard work and your existing cat has to be reassured that her home isn't being taken over.

I always find these threads incredibly interesting.

Maybe I've just been lucky but I just leave them to get on with it. I've never once bothered with scent swapping or keeping them apart for weeks on end. We have three unrelated cats (two males and a female) and when we introduced the newest one we had 48 hours with the odd bit of hissing and occasional growl and afterwards it was like they'd lived together forever. The same went when we introduced the older male to the female. No fights, no aggravation. They all sleep in a puddle together and share food, water and litter trays - and have done from about day two.

I know the trend is that you have to to take weeks introducing them painfully slowly, (I've seen Jackson Galaxy) but I do often wonder if we make things a lot more stressful than they need to be!