Hi there,
First time poster, long time lurker. I've read though all of the related threads, and watched all of the videos - so firstly thank you to everyone for sharing that information!
Myself and my partner are having some challenges with introducing a new kitten to an existing resident cat. The existing cat, Sherlock, is a 6 year old male neutered shorthaired tabby (he's about 12lbs / 5.5kg). He is an indoor/outdoor cat (goes out frequently during the day, naps in the house and stays in at night). In terms of personality, he would be wary of strangers and other cats, people say he is 'aloof', he is very calm with us in the house and likes to be around us, but not necessarily on our laps. He sometimes plays but prefers for us to go out into the garden with him to play (he'll wait in the garden for us to come out), but otherwise he is a fairly regular and independent cat. He has always been the only cat in the house, and was found as an abandoned kitten by the recue from where we adopted him.
The new kitten we adopted from a local rescue is Ripley. She is a 5 1/2 month old female black and white shorthaired kitten (due to be spayed next month). She is wonderful and has settled in brilliantly - very affectionate and very playful. Purrs all of the time, especially when she's looking for rubs or is eating her food. We have had her for about 2 months now.
So far we have followed the introduction steps mentioned on here (she has her own room where she is most of the time, we've done the closed door, open door with screen, feeding opposite sides of screen, feeding together, short supervised time together), and it seems to have gone ok so far. Sherlock (resident) hasn't shown much interest in her during the stages, apart from attempting to sniff once or twice. We are at the stage now where they can eat with their bowls quite close together in the same room. We arrange play with them at opposite sides of the room either before or after eating, but this is where we're not sure if we're doing the right thing.
It usually goes like this:
My main question is: does it sound like he is being aggressive, are we right to break it up when we do? As someone who has not had cats before, it's been quite stressful and distressing to see him "attack" her, when she isn't really doing anything wrong. We've tried to let it go on for a bit, but the maximum we've been able too is about 15 mins before we think that he's being too aggressive towards her.
I know it's very difficult to give advice when you can't see them in action (I'll try and film next time, but for now here are some photos) but any advice would be really helpful at this stage.
First time poster, long time lurker. I've read though all of the related threads, and watched all of the videos - so firstly thank you to everyone for sharing that information!
Myself and my partner are having some challenges with introducing a new kitten to an existing resident cat. The existing cat, Sherlock, is a 6 year old male neutered shorthaired tabby (he's about 12lbs / 5.5kg). He is an indoor/outdoor cat (goes out frequently during the day, naps in the house and stays in at night). In terms of personality, he would be wary of strangers and other cats, people say he is 'aloof', he is very calm with us in the house and likes to be around us, but not necessarily on our laps. He sometimes plays but prefers for us to go out into the garden with him to play (he'll wait in the garden for us to come out), but otherwise he is a fairly regular and independent cat. He has always been the only cat in the house, and was found as an abandoned kitten by the recue from where we adopted him.
The new kitten we adopted from a local rescue is Ripley. She is a 5 1/2 month old female black and white shorthaired kitten (due to be spayed next month). She is wonderful and has settled in brilliantly - very affectionate and very playful. Purrs all of the time, especially when she's looking for rubs or is eating her food. We have had her for about 2 months now.
So far we have followed the introduction steps mentioned on here (she has her own room where she is most of the time, we've done the closed door, open door with screen, feeding opposite sides of screen, feeding together, short supervised time together), and it seems to have gone ok so far. Sherlock (resident) hasn't shown much interest in her during the stages, apart from attempting to sniff once or twice. We are at the stage now where they can eat with their bowls quite close together in the same room. We arrange play with them at opposite sides of the room either before or after eating, but this is where we're not sure if we're doing the right thing.
It usually goes like this:
- We put their food down, about 1 feet apart facing each other, with Sherlock in the room. He starts to eat away
- We lead Ripley into the room, and she heads straight for her bowl. Sherlock glances up but doesn't seem to bothered.
- Sherlock usually eats about 75% of his food, then wanders off a few steps to have a quick bath
- Ripley sees this and wanders off after him to play.
- Sherlock sits back and bats a little in the air as Ripley bats at him. If this happens we give each of them a treat.
- Ripley comes closer, and Sherlock goes to bite her under the neck. Ripley either falls on her side or else he wrestles her to the ground.
- There's a meow from both and they both stop and sit there for a second. Ripley then goes to play again, and Sherlock again tries to swipe or bite at her.
- Ripley gets the message and backs away a little, Sherlock follows and sometimes tries to bite at her or swipe her, and Ripley hides behind the leg of a chair or in one of the cat trees.
- At this stage, either when the wrestle happens with biting/aggressive swatting, or when Sherlock corners Ripley, we come in and break it up with a cushion and lead one of the them out of the room. This whole thing usually lasts only about 15mins.
My main question is: does it sound like he is being aggressive, are we right to break it up when we do? As someone who has not had cats before, it's been quite stressful and distressing to see him "attack" her, when she isn't really doing anything wrong. We've tried to let it go on for a bit, but the maximum we've been able too is about 15 mins before we think that he's being too aggressive towards her.
I know it's very difficult to give advice when you can't see them in action (I'll try and film next time, but for now here are some photos) but any advice would be really helpful at this stage.
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