Want a kitten... what will Sparky say?

Sparky is like 11 or so, very spry, very cute. I want a kitten, but Sparky is THE cat and he might be offended!!!! help

 

if you take the integration really slow it could be successful.
What we reccomend with siamese rescue is to keep the 2 cats separate for up to 2 weeks (no less than 10 days).
This not only lets them get used to the smell of each other but also gives you time to see if the newcomer might be ill in any way - parasites, upper respirator infection, etc.
Switch their beds every few days so they can get the scent of each other.
When I integrate my fosters I let my resident cats meet them with a baby gate between first.
Then I give the fosters a few minutes out and start increasing the time.
Most important for me is to let my resident cats know they still come first...
Good luck and just take it slowly even though you might be curious to see how the 2 get along. Slow is better with cats.

 

Best of luck to you. I understand that older cats will accept kittens better than they will accept an adult cat. We've had luck doing that.

We've tried introducing adult cat to adult with terrible consequences.

When we took in Socks and Mittens, we had an older cat and he did fine. He seemed to like being a father figure to them. He even taught them how to catch critters (I wish he hadn't of done that). :lol:

 

thanks to you both

thanks for that!

 

I agree with everything Mary said. Slow intros seem to be the least stressful on everyone and work out well for a majority of cats.

 

When we got Artemis (at 8 weeks), we kept him isolated in a room for a week. Then we let Moe (5 years) sniff at him through the door and get used to his scent. Then we started letting Artemis otu of the room for short sessions, all the while petting Moe and showing her that she was our favourite, and ignoring Artemis (ignoring is probably the wrong word...). There was minimal hissing and growling, and it only took a few days of this until we felt we could let Artemis stay out of his room all the time.

The key is to take it slow, show the adult cat that you still love them, and be patient!

 

thanks :mrgreen:

 

yes...slow intros are the way to go. also...when the new cat is in the closed off room...you can take a towel or something of your cats and put it in the new cats room, and vice verse...

i also took and string and tied a toy on the ends, then let them play with it under the door...one would pull the string and the other would pull it back. its good to get them playing together initiallly, even if its under the door.

when i introduced max and mikey...max was just about beside himself....he ended up barging his way into the bedroom....i couldnt keep him out, he wanted to meet mikey soooo bad. they were best friends from the beginning.

christopher had a more difficult transition with mikey....he loved both of my cats, but he was very aggressive with mikey every morning...then they were best friends during the day....it was wierd...but eventually they settled in...and all are very very compatible with each other....

i think its also temperment. when you get a new cat...make sure it has a similar temperment. if you have a shy cat, getting an aggressive kitten would be overwhelming to the older cat.

max was so high energy, and played all the time, he needed companions that were the same energy level....otherwise i think he would have overwhelmed a more passive cat....