Resident cat and new kitten.

[Laurama91]

So...ive never done this before. Our resident cat, chester, growled and hissed upon first meeting. He seems to be batting the new kitten quite often. He will be ok until the kitten makes a sudden movement and has chased the kitten twice which has resulted in kitten hiding under the bed.

They are both currently asleep on the bed with me. Do I take this as a good sign? Photo is current situation. Kitten on my knee, chester in the house

Looks like progress! How long have you had the kitten?

Only since Friday. The lady from the rspca said to separate for 2 days. I have taken time off work and me and my partner have been taking turns at spending time with each cat. Then allowed them together for short periods. I tried the feed either side of the door but chester just wouldn't eat when he could hear kitten at other side.

Chester is also obsessed with licking new kittens bum. I think chester wants to play but new kitten is tiny. He is 12 weeks old but was found with his mum and litter in someones shed and wasn't been fed properly so hasn't grown like he should.

Both on the bed is amazing!

I really think he's playing. Just the size difference makes you worry. I think he is same size as when we brought chester home at 8 weeks. So about 3 weeks behind. He's so thin too.

We are in the same position but not got to that close stage yet. We are still working on scent swapping. Any close interaction involves hissing from DCat. All looking good for you.

The lady at the rscpa told me to expect hissing, swatting etc and to not tell resident cat off for this. He growled and hissed at first. He has swatted the poor little thing loads but new kitten was very submissive. We have an ottoman bed and kitten is small enough to get under so has used this as an escape when needed.

Not going to lie, I felt very overwhelmed and did sit and have a cry the first night as I thought I had ruined my relationship with chester. He wouldn't let me pick him up. He hasn't come for a proper cuddle yet.

Have you done the swap rooms?

We have them in different parts of the house most of the time. We are giving DCat lots of attention and opportunity to sniff out the kitten. DKitten is 9 weeks old so full of energy and scare DCat a lot with all the jumping. They have been in the same room but mostly when they haven't realised!

Paying my dues with DKitten photo.

I read/watched about swapping rooms so scents get swapped like that. Even if its for a short period

We put dkitten in dcat's bedroom with extra bowls and tray....
Few days in...

We have DKitten downstairs in DCats 'room' at the moment so good to hear that's a positive move.

This is my boys. Grey and white is Chester he is 13 months. White and tabby we think is AJ. Rspca called him Andrew which is my partners name so kitten is Andrew junior 😂

I've watched a lot of Jackson galaxy videos on YouTube when I've been unsure. And Google everything 😂 fingers crossed for you

We thought we were doing the right thing by taking everything slowly, scent swapping, keeping them apart blah blah blah. Upshot was no matter what we've tried they simply tolerate eachother at the most. Ignoring eachother is the best we get. Usual interaction if there is any is the younger one (now 2.5yrs old!) chasing and aggressively jumping on the older one.
I think it comes down to their temperament ultimately. Youngest cat was a bossy kitten who apparently dominated his siblings and in retrospect we should've gone for a quieter kitten who would possibly have kept a respectful distance.

I think yours will probably end up being pals if they're sleeping on the same bed after a couple of days!

We had a terrible time initially when introducing a new cat. We had a slightly different scenario as we had adopted the kittens and then found out that no one wanted the mum so decided to adopt her too. We thought it would be easy as they were related but it really wasn't. We even considered giving the mummy cat to my parents. We had a holiday booked so my mum and sister were coming everyday to look after them. This actually solved all our problems and we returned from holiday to 3 happy cats.

So we had two rooms - the kittens in one and the cat in the other. In the morning they would be allowed to mix for a short supervised period and then they would swap rooms. In the evening they were allowed another short supervised mix and then the rooms were swapped again. My mum and sister did this for the 10 days we were away. Worked amazingly well.

I think they might just enjoy winding each other up 😂 chester did give him a tap after this

That's how the kitten will learn boundaries. I think they'll be firm friends.

Absolute besties now... Unless he is really trying to suffocate her!!

Unfortunately my partner has come out in rashes. We are going to give it until the end of the week see if there's any improvements. He did get slight rashes when we got chester but I think with chester constantly grooming the kitten it's flared up again

Hi there,

I am in the same boat here. I have a 1 year old and almost 3 month old. He plays too rough with the kitten sometimes, and bites his neck.

Did it get any better? and have you left them alone yet?

Hi, unfortunately I can't answer you question. My partner came out in a rash (only change in the house was the kitten) and I had to take the kitten back to the rspca. I was gutted and cried for 2 days 😭

Although I don't remember my cat ever biting. He gave the kitten a good few swats. But I knew the kitten was fine really as when the other was being to rough he hid, but came straight back a minute later.

So sorry @Laurama91 ! But it wasn't meant to be, and that gorgeous little scrap will be on his way to his new forever home very soon I'm sure?
Hope your hubby is feeling better soon and Chester comes for a fuss to help you in your sadness 💐

Thank you. We didn't even manage to keep him for a week but he stole a place in my heart in that short time. He didn't get a home for a few weeks and I felt so guilty. I still get a little choked up when I speak about him sometimes and have a few photos that I look back on.
Chester was a little poorly for a month or so. I'm not sure if from stress from the kitten coming or leaving. But he's back to his normal naughty self now. In fact he woke me up at half 2 this morning for some food 😂
Just to add for people who make negative comments about the rspca. Our one us run by volunteers. And this lady let me sit in her home for as long as I needed, bloody crying, when I took him back and comforted me. She was even worried about me driving home. I was able to send her messages even after to check on the kitten. I'm hoping his new owners send them an update as they put these on facebook occasionally.