So I’ve gotten some great info and advice just lurking here – I think we’re on the right track, but have a few questions and would certainly appreciate any additional tips!
BF and I each have 2 cats. We’ve been slowly introducing them for a few months now. BF has two (fixed) males, around 8 y/o (Ozzie and Guppy). I have a male and a female (also both fixed) around 10 y/o (Buddy and Anna).
To this point, all intros have happened at my apartment. We’ve done the “thru a closed door” phase, and the “thru baby gates” phase (each for several weeks). The initial reaction was all curiosity on his cats’ part, and plenty of typical territory-defensive hissing and growling from mine.
A few weeks ago, we started allowing them to interact directly. My two were very hissy and standoffish at first, but slowly began letting the boys get closer to them (Buddy’s “personal space area” is still a bit wider than Anna’s).
Unfortunately, I think we may have goofed last weekend by changing the venue before everyone was fully comfortable. I had to stay at his apartment last weekend and we decided to take Buddy and Anna over there. While my two were still in the easily-freaked-out, exploration phase, Ozzie escaped his baby gate confinement and started following them around, and then sort of rushed up behind Buddy and gave him an unprovoked smack on the backside when he wasn’t even looking.
At that point we re-separated them, and didn’t resume together-time until they came back to my place. But since then, Ozzie has been a bit more prone to being aggressive – a seemingly unprovoked slap to Anna yesterday (he may have just found himself a bit too close), and a very minor slap-fight with Buddy when they crossed paths in my very small kitchen last night.
We want to handle this early, before it escalates. Ozzie is very sweet but also very much a dominant cat – he loves Guppy but will occasionally do the neck-biting, dominant behavior.
A few important notes – Guppy is chronically ill (IBD and chronic pancreatitis) and a single bite of the wrong food, or a treat, can trigger a flare-up. So we have to feed them separately, and don’t even keep treats in the house. And he had a weird/bad reaction to Feliway, so we had to unplug the diffusers after a few days.
So if anyone could offer perspective on Ozzie’s behavior, and how to work with it, it would be greatly appreciated. We’re both locked into separate leases, so we have the luxury of time to get these intros right.
(And of course, general advice on intro’ing multiple pairs of bonded cats would be very welcome!)
BF and I each have 2 cats. We’ve been slowly introducing them for a few months now. BF has two (fixed) males, around 8 y/o (Ozzie and Guppy). I have a male and a female (also both fixed) around 10 y/o (Buddy and Anna).
To this point, all intros have happened at my apartment. We’ve done the “thru a closed door” phase, and the “thru baby gates” phase (each for several weeks). The initial reaction was all curiosity on his cats’ part, and plenty of typical territory-defensive hissing and growling from mine.
A few weeks ago, we started allowing them to interact directly. My two were very hissy and standoffish at first, but slowly began letting the boys get closer to them (Buddy’s “personal space area” is still a bit wider than Anna’s).
Unfortunately, I think we may have goofed last weekend by changing the venue before everyone was fully comfortable. I had to stay at his apartment last weekend and we decided to take Buddy and Anna over there. While my two were still in the easily-freaked-out, exploration phase, Ozzie escaped his baby gate confinement and started following them around, and then sort of rushed up behind Buddy and gave him an unprovoked smack on the backside when he wasn’t even looking.
At that point we re-separated them, and didn’t resume together-time until they came back to my place. But since then, Ozzie has been a bit more prone to being aggressive – a seemingly unprovoked slap to Anna yesterday (he may have just found himself a bit too close), and a very minor slap-fight with Buddy when they crossed paths in my very small kitchen last night.
We want to handle this early, before it escalates. Ozzie is very sweet but also very much a dominant cat – he loves Guppy but will occasionally do the neck-biting, dominant behavior.
A few important notes – Guppy is chronically ill (IBD and chronic pancreatitis) and a single bite of the wrong food, or a treat, can trigger a flare-up. So we have to feed them separately, and don’t even keep treats in the house. And he had a weird/bad reaction to Feliway, so we had to unplug the diffusers after a few days.
So if anyone could offer perspective on Ozzie’s behavior, and how to work with it, it would be greatly appreciated. We’re both locked into separate leases, so we have the luxury of time to get these intros right.
(And of course, general advice on intro’ing multiple pairs of bonded cats would be very welcome!)
