- Joined
- Jan 27, 2021
- Messages
- 20
- Purraise
- 22
My wife and I adopted our first kitten, a British shorthair male, last year. He arrived in the home on the 3rd of December. Seeing as how needy our first one is, we felt he could do well with a companion to keep him company for when we are busy with work, household chores, a movie etc.
so our second one arrived in our home on the 16th of January, some 10 days ago. Despite warning my wife about how to introduce them and having setup a spare bedroom as safe haven, she felt she wanted to show our resident kitten the new one and popped him right next to him in the basket. Although visibly worried our resident kitten did not lash out, he just backed away from the new one a bit and when I saw what was happening as I entered the living room I took the new one to his safe zone.
I tried beginning with the door feeding strategy, however the two of them would neigh immediately eat near the door without either of them showing any signs of stress, the little one might’ve looked up once during finishing his meal. I did this about 3-4 times bowls eventually against the door.
the little one growing tired of his room within a day, wanted to explore right away so apart from scent swapping between the two bedrooms with some socks etc. I let them out in turns to explore the living room and ground floor area. Although the new one is still finding his way he’s eyeing more and more confident especially when I’m behind him showing him the way through the house.
when letting our resident go through the home, I could see him sense the new kittens smell but he didn’t hiss growl spit or make any other noise that would indicate his dislike.
so we decided let’s put them face to face and see how it goes about 5-7 days in. With their one month age gap our resident cat is a lot bigger then the little one so when they engaged in play he quickly overpowered him. I think the force he used was too excessive and our new boy quickly retreated to hiding spots. This is pretty much every interaction between them. However when I feed them together, I can have the bowls literally adjacent to each other and them sitting next to each other without a problem. They’d even take turns eating from the same bowl without any hissing or growling..
I feel fairly lost right now because outside of eating it seems our resident cat wants nothing more then to play play or hunt, whatever it is and the little one engages him briefly and decides every time to run away, he never initiated the “play” either.
other useful information, both of them had not been neutered yet. The oldest was helped yesterday so we are still waiting for his hormone levels to drop right now to see if that could lift the tension a bit or his desire to always engage in hunt/play.
I have tried tiring him out before letting them in the same area but he somehow always has energy to spare when he sees the new kitten in the room.
Any advice would be much welcome. There is always the option to wait and take it slow but I feel if they can eat from the same bowl without any signs of stress, fear, or anger there might be something else I am overlooking as to why our oldest keeps engaging the way he does.
so our second one arrived in our home on the 16th of January, some 10 days ago. Despite warning my wife about how to introduce them and having setup a spare bedroom as safe haven, she felt she wanted to show our resident kitten the new one and popped him right next to him in the basket. Although visibly worried our resident kitten did not lash out, he just backed away from the new one a bit and when I saw what was happening as I entered the living room I took the new one to his safe zone.
I tried beginning with the door feeding strategy, however the two of them would neigh immediately eat near the door without either of them showing any signs of stress, the little one might’ve looked up once during finishing his meal. I did this about 3-4 times bowls eventually against the door.
the little one growing tired of his room within a day, wanted to explore right away so apart from scent swapping between the two bedrooms with some socks etc. I let them out in turns to explore the living room and ground floor area. Although the new one is still finding his way he’s eyeing more and more confident especially when I’m behind him showing him the way through the house.
when letting our resident go through the home, I could see him sense the new kittens smell but he didn’t hiss growl spit or make any other noise that would indicate his dislike.
so we decided let’s put them face to face and see how it goes about 5-7 days in. With their one month age gap our resident cat is a lot bigger then the little one so when they engaged in play he quickly overpowered him. I think the force he used was too excessive and our new boy quickly retreated to hiding spots. This is pretty much every interaction between them. However when I feed them together, I can have the bowls literally adjacent to each other and them sitting next to each other without a problem. They’d even take turns eating from the same bowl without any hissing or growling..
I feel fairly lost right now because outside of eating it seems our resident cat wants nothing more then to play play or hunt, whatever it is and the little one engages him briefly and decides every time to run away, he never initiated the “play” either.
other useful information, both of them had not been neutered yet. The oldest was helped yesterday so we are still waiting for his hormone levels to drop right now to see if that could lift the tension a bit or his desire to always engage in hunt/play.
I have tried tiring him out before letting them in the same area but he somehow always has energy to spare when he sees the new kitten in the room.
Any advice would be much welcome. There is always the option to wait and take it slow but I feel if they can eat from the same bowl without any signs of stress, fear, or anger there might be something else I am overlooking as to why our oldest keeps engaging the way he does.