Hello! So,I did a big mistake a week ago when I brought a new cat home. My older cat is 5 months and the new one is 4 months old. I got introduction advice from my friend and they basically told me to just let them be together and work it out. That the agressive behaviour is normal at this point and I should just watch and make sure there are no serious injuries. A big mistake. (both of the cats are males, my older one was castrated 2 weeks ago, the new one will be castrated next Friday) I watched them for 3 hours, the new cat didn't really care about my older cat but my older cat hissed at him, and growled and swatted him with his paw. Then the older cat started to attack the new one. I asked my friend if this is normal and they just said that it's just him showing who's the boss. The attacks continued literally every 30 seconds, if the new cat dared to move a muscle my older on was biting him somewhere, mostly on the neck or on the legs. My older cat was chacing him and biting and attacking and it was horrible to watch. The new one had so hard time protecting himself. Luckily there was no injuries or blood. After 3 hours both cats were a mess, panting and all but my older cat couldn't stop himself from attacking. At this point I was pretty much panicking myself and texted my friend that truly this cannot be normal, am I supposed to watch this the whole night?? Which she replied to seperate them for the night and continue at morning. I tried again at the morning and same thing, though now I seperated them immediately after the first attack. Then I started to google stuff and well, found out I did pretty much everything wrong. You can imagine my shame for letting them do that, I truly believed my friend and thought this was normal and that they'll stop when they have settled who is boss. So at the moment i'm trying to re introduce them with Jackson Galaxy's introduction technique.They have been seperated for 5 days, I feed them at the same time on other sides of the same door. They don't seem to care about each other too much, there are occasional paw swatting under door and intense stares when they see each others paws moving, these mostly happen at the feeding time. They don't really even spend time looking under the door, mostly do their own things, but I definetly am not going to show them to each other for at least another week. (and yes I have a pet gate for when it's time for next step of introduction) I swap their places few times a day so they can smell each other. I also bought feliway friends pheromone pack thingy. I went for an 1 hour car ride with my older cat to kinda "reset" his memory a bit. Scince he's the agressive one. My questions are, did I already ruin their relationship? Is there any hope left?
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Cat introduction gone wrong
- Thread starter Snuugel
- Start Date
Your friend wasn't that wrong. Kittens this young end up friends no matter what you do. Still, it wasnt the best way to do it. KIttens can be scared of you, of their new place, and of a new cat, for up to a week or so. Its best to keep a new kitten isolated for at least a few days while they get used to you, and link one of your rooms with a safe retreat. But a lengthy weeks long intro process is not necessary with kittens this age the way it can be with older cats.
Ultimately, though, its quite possible that one kitten would have been too scared to play right away anyway. While I'd back up and due a couple days of isolation in a safe room, things may not be that different when you put them together. They may need a couple of days to become friends. And will certainly play roughly on a mutual basis.
Someone will link the formal introduction guide. While it isn't necessary, if it makes you feel better, thats fine too. But there is no screwing up with kittens this young. So don't worry.
Ultimately, though, its quite possible that one kitten would have been too scared to play right away anyway. While I'd back up and due a couple days of isolation in a safe room, things may not be that different when you put them together. They may need a couple of days to become friends. And will certainly play roughly on a mutual basis.
Someone will link the formal introduction guide. While it isn't necessary, if it makes you feel better, thats fine too. But there is no screwing up with kittens this young. So don't worry.
Yes, I agree with the above, they are both young and should become buddies in time. Getting older now will be the problem. Get the new one neutered and get that over with. You would have to start all over with introductions when the new one came back from the vet smelling different. Get them sleeping blankets and rub each cat with the other cat's blanket to exchange smells. Get that gate up so they can see each other or exchange them in a dog kennel so they can see each other, they need to get used to each other's movements, but safely. Do NOT let them attack each other to the extent they did before, there is a possibility of real harm. Though if cats are really fighting, there is blood and hair everywhere. Get a stiff piece of cardboard to stick between them if they do start in. You could also get your older cat used to a harness now and have a leash on him when the new one comes out. They absolutely hate it at first, but leaving the harness on for longer and longer periods of time gets them used to it pretty quickly, a week or two. They need this breaking in time with a collar too, I had one cat that just fell over on her side and refused to move when I first started. These things just take time, it will happen, but it will take weeks to months, not days.
I agree that the surgery will probably undo any progress anyway, bc the vet will ask you to keep them separate for at least a week or so. The surgery with males isnt as big a deal as with females, but still, kittens playing will slow down the healing. And having another kitten jumping on ya when you have a cone on is surely very stressfull. So keep them separate until the surgery.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #5
Hi! Thank you all for your replies! I feel a lot better now. I was wondering if the vet visit is going to affect the progress. Perhaps I will try to move the surgery on some earlier day. (Btw sorry if I make some grammar mistakes, english is not my first language) Still bit more details about their fighting. Like I said, no blood or no fur flying, no screaming, hissing or growling (Older cat hissed and growled when they first met, before there was any fighting). Few meows from the younger cat if the older one bit too hard but that was pretty much it. I feel like at least the younger one took the fighting seriously, even though he was not the one attacking. He put his ears back and at some points kicked the older one with his back legs. Older one chased him into corners and stalked him many times, to me it looked agressive even though it was not on "I'm gonna kill you" level of agression. On my eyes it looked like he bit the young one hard, most terrifying was the fact that he bit mostly the young ones neck. But not a scratch on either cat.
I tried to distract them with treats a few times and the younger cat was happy to eat and didn't really care about the older one, while the older one had really hard time thinking if he should eat the treat or attack the young one.
*Sigh* but thank again for the answers, after the surgery, I will start the introduction again. I'll try to introduce them with the gate about 5 days after surgery? Sounds good? Or is it too fast?
I tried to distract them with treats a few times and the younger cat was happy to eat and didn't really care about the older one, while the older one had really hard time thinking if he should eat the treat or attack the young one.
*Sigh* but thank again for the answers, after the surgery, I will start the introduction again. I'll try to introduce them with the gate about 5 days after surgery? Sounds good? Or is it too fast?
That sounds good, though three days would probably work. I know rough play looks horrible, grabbing the neck is a show of dominance and a way of setting limits. Which new, young cats need. Believe me, he will fight back if he is getting hurt. The young one will run away and maybe even hide for a while. But as long as he comes back and does not run and hide every time the older one is seen, he is really not getting hurt and everything is normal.
Cats are predators,and the young of all predators play by practicing hunting, fighting, stalking and defence behaviors. On a good day, it might look like wrestling, but quite often there is lots of neck biting and other behaviors that scare the *&^! out of first-timers. Your reaction is normal, but not needed. A kitten that isn't growling or hissing while jumping on another one is basically guarrantied to be playing.
