Resident cat attacks new addition

[turtledovelove]

We adopted a cat from overseas last September. She's 2 years old and very full of character shall we say! Feisty and slightly feral! In December I decided I wanted to adopt a second cat. She's 1 year old with a polar opposite temperament. Gentle, sweet natured and not an aggressive bone in her body.

Issue we have is resident cat hates her with a passion and will try to attack her at any given opportunity. We obviously keep them separated as much as we can. They both go outdoors but newer cat stays out all day, if we're not around, keeping her distance.

I so desperately wanted to have 2 cuddly cats who were lovely company for each other. But we are far from that.

I guess what I really need to know is will resident cat always resent new cat and attack her. As much as I love them both so dearly, I do wonder if the kindest thing would be to surrender new cat back to the adoption centre. I don't want to make her scared of other cats. When she first arrived she wasn't worried about resident cat and would walk near her etc. That was until resident cat went for her after some weeks and the whole situation has spiralled. I feel so sad and guilty.

I would be so grateful for any advice and experience on this please. 🙏🏼

Did you slowly introduce the new cat to the household, keeping them completely separate for the first two weeks and gradually introducing each other's scent over the next couple of weeks before they even laid eyes on each other?

It’s perfectly probable they will dislike each other, or at least the older cat will always resent and attack any new cat.

Adult cats are generally solitary by nature and are rarely pleased by a new arrival. They don’t want or need another cat’s company if they haven’t grown up with it; this is particularly true of the bloody minded ones.

You can try all the usual suspects - separate rooms, Feliway diffusers, valerian, putting things that smell of the other cat slowly in the environment, feeding dishes very far apart and so on.

However, my experience has been that if they don’t get on after a few months the pattern is set. They will learn to divide the house up, one going out as the other comes in etc. But there will be tensions and regular spats, and will never curl up together as pals.

We have three unrelated adult cats living together quite happily so it can be done and plenty of adult cats enjoy the company of others - they're not as solitary as people would have you believe.

However having said that, all cats are different and if I had a cat that was "feisty and pretty feral" I'm not sure I'd introduce another cat into their territory - it seems a bit like asking for trouble.

I think if after three months the cats are still fighting then I don't think it's fair on either of them to try and push through it.