madwelshcatwoman
Newbie
Posts: 2 
Animals I love: Cats
Pets I own: Leo, pudding, Phelix and recently joining the family Annie & Clarabel
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Post by madwelshcatwoman on Jun 23, 2013 17:51:21 GMT
Hi, I'm after some advice, we have just had two 8 week old female kittens, littermates, and are attempting to integrate them into our home. We already have 3 other cats, Pudding, a female aged 11, Phelix a male aged @14, and Leo, a male aged 8. They have all had a sniff and a look at the kittens, and Pudding and Phelix have responded with a lot of hissing, sissing and backing off, where as Leo has just sniffed and looked away. They are all avoiding me, as I am the one mainly dealing with the kittens and am usually the one who deals with them all and I'm getting growled at too! just wondering if this is normal behaviour for established cats when introducing kittens and if they will settle down and accept them. the kittens will be having their injections and be spayed when they are the right ages for this. I am taking them to the vets later this week when the older 3 go,for their annual check up and boosters. i do hope someone can reassure me as I am a little anxious about them all getting on. thanks Sarah  ?? |
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Post by tonib on Jun 23, 2013 23:09:33 GMT
How well did your 3 cats get on before the introduction of the kittens? Can you remember how you introduced them to each other?
What are you currently doing regarding introductions Na how long have you been doing it? It isn't surprising to get hissing etc for a while.
There a couple of schools of thought both of which work sometimes & don't on others.
1) Keep the new cats/kittens separate & gradually mingle the scents & swap where they are allowed to go so that they get used to the scent of each other & reinforce this by feeding the 2 groups the each side of a closed door so that the new scents are associated with pleasant things.
2) Carefully introduce them together from the start, monitoring what's going on & only intervening if there's trouble.
I've only added adult cats to the family never kittens & have usually used the 1st method. I had no problems except the last time when we got our 4th cat & that didn't go to well. Mainly due to the fact that our 3 cats were not a social group & had learnt to tolerate each other rather than really get on. Also the newcomer was a very active cat who has a very predatory style of play, whilst our other cats were less playful and also older & in the eldest suffering a bit from arthritis. There were other issues that compounded this & nearly 18 months later we are still having some problems but gradually getting there.
There are other members on the forum who have successfully introduced kittens so they may be better placed to answer you.
Good luck.
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Post by lotsofcats on Jun 24, 2013 9:34:01 GMT
Hi, welcome to your 2 new kittens. 2 years ago I had 2 female kittens that I introduced into the house with my other 3 cats (plus the kittens Mum). It was a little bit of a different situation to yours as the mother cat brought the kittens up in my cat shed and pen that I had to divide up from the other cats (my cats are indoor cats with access to a garden pen and shed). You will get a lot of hissing and growling to start with - yours are all acting normal in the situation. Make sure you fuss the other cats a lot and you spread the scent of the new kittens around by swapping blankets so that the older cats get used to them. It is a worry at first but give them a couple of weeks and it will be as if they have always been there. Enjoy your kittens, it is so exciting having 2 together, they are so funny. Love your cats' names.
I hope that we can see some photos soon.
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madwelshcatwoman
Newbie
Posts: 2
Animals I love: Cats
Pets I own: Leo, pudding, Phelix and recently joining the family Annie & Clarabel
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Post by madwelshcatwoman on Jun 24, 2013 22:19:02 GMT
Hi thanks for the help, it's so long since Leo, the youngest of my cats, and I will quickly quickly was a kitten.... 8 yrs that I'm not sure how the others reacted altho I'm sure pudding was as hissy :-)
Annie & Kiki the new arrivals are a little nervy but I am now going to be keeping them out of Leo's space and have set them up with a little bedroom in the porch with a bed and litter tray and some water and food hopefully they will be settled in there until the others come around and accept/tolerate them.
Have difficulty in keeping them very separate as our house is quite small and the downstairs is all one room n only 2 bedrooms both occupied but will try I'm sure we will strike a balance soon
Thanks for the advice though much appreciated
Sarah
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