Hi,
I first just want to say I've been lurking around this site for a while, reading up on the cat intro stories and found a wealth of knowledge and replies to those stories which has helped see things and interpret situations a whole lot better and immensely helped me no end in the intro process so thank you
I also read on here about cat music - I'm playing it now when they see eachother and I think im a bit more relaxed too
On to the very long post, sorry about that!
I'm hoping someone will be able to offer some advice on my intro -
I'm 2 months in to the intro process. I have 3 resident female cats, Beany, Boo and Shorty who are 10 years old, I've had them since kittens.
Beany and Boo are litter mates and I got Shorty about 6 months after them. None of them are bonded and Shorty and Beany kind of avoid eachother and have done since early on.
2 months ago I got a male kitten called Budley who was 9 weeks old at the time (he has just recently been neutered and they are all spayed)
I have taken everything slowly, scent and site swapping (no issues with scent at all), feeding behind doors and barriers etc.
After a few weeks we were feeding without any barriers and had the occasional hiss but no issues at all.
I about a week later I had supervised short visits with Boo first, Boo is a more laid back cat so I thought that it would make sense to try her first. Occasional hiss from Boo but that stopped pretty quickly.
I do have to watch Budley and Boo sometimes as he will start to play rough and Boo will hiss and make noises at him but he sometimes won't stop. After these tussles they are both all ok, no hiding or any different behaviour, I've even had them napping either side of me 10 mins after it as well.
I've bought Budley a flapping fish toy and also another toy that I will redirect him with so he can wrestle that and will try and play with him before they meet so some of his energy levels are lower.
Beany has been largely ok, a few hisses, a few swats but that's about it which was actually surprising to me as she was the one that didn't like Shorty at all in the beginning.
Budley has been a little bolder with Beany recently - she was sitting in her spot and he whacked her on the back and he laid down ready to play, she looked at him and then looked at me as if to say what in the fluff was that but paid him no attention and he hasn't done that since.
Shorty is the one I'm having issues with and the reason I'm here for some advice.
She has had no issues with scent but would hiss and growl at him when he was in his room with the door closed, this did calm down a bit so I moved on to visuals.
I bought a zipped screen door thing that you stick to the frame, and she would sit about 5 feet away, hiss and wouldn't take her eyes off him, wouldn't get that close and I couldn't distract her at all.
After a while she would still hiss a bit but could manage to distract her so I could see that it was slowly getting better, she just seems to hiss on sight of him.
I started very very short sessions with her but she would hiss growl and run away.
Sessions got slightly longer and she will still hiss and growl but will sometimes just turn her back on him or sit and groom for a bit before hissing and leaving.
Sometimes she will sprint off and when I go to see her she has her play face on, it sometimes feels like she wants to play but not around him, or the others for that matter.
I know from reading up on this site that if she felt threatened or if there were serious issues then she wouldn't take her eyes off him at all so it does seem ok and I know that hissing and growling are part of the process but Budley doesn't seem to be getting the hints from her at all.
He's getting more curious about her, she hisses and walks off, he follows, she turns and hisses and he follows so I try and stop him following by distracting as best I can.
Feeding is still fine, they have even touched noses a few times while they wait for me get their food, sometimes the nose touches is followed by a hiss from shorty but no reall issues.
I work from home so block off the upstairs while I'm working and limit Shorty's interactions during the day.
I wanted to get some advice as it feels like I've been at this stage for a while now and have a few questions -
During the process for all cats I would give them all treats when they would meet. Sometimes Shorty will hiss even before I can get a treat anywhere near her so I leave it a few mins and then give her a treat if she hasn't hissed in that time as I don't want it to seem like I'm rewarding the hissing, is this ok?
Shall I just continue what I'm doing at the moment, take it back any steps or do I let the intros with Shorty play out for a longer time?
Do you think that after time this will settle a bit more and Shorty will just tolerate and avoid him?
Apologies for the long post, I just wanted to get as much info out there and I'm hoping someone can advise.
Thanks.
P.s As I'm writing this they are currently sleeping about 2 feet away from each other, sometimes I get so confused with the behaviour
I first just want to say I've been lurking around this site for a while, reading up on the cat intro stories and found a wealth of knowledge and replies to those stories which has helped see things and interpret situations a whole lot better and immensely helped me no end in the intro process so thank you
I also read on here about cat music - I'm playing it now when they see eachother and I think im a bit more relaxed too
On to the very long post, sorry about that!
I'm hoping someone will be able to offer some advice on my intro -
I'm 2 months in to the intro process. I have 3 resident female cats, Beany, Boo and Shorty who are 10 years old, I've had them since kittens.
Beany and Boo are litter mates and I got Shorty about 6 months after them. None of them are bonded and Shorty and Beany kind of avoid eachother and have done since early on.
2 months ago I got a male kitten called Budley who was 9 weeks old at the time (he has just recently been neutered and they are all spayed)
I have taken everything slowly, scent and site swapping (no issues with scent at all), feeding behind doors and barriers etc.
After a few weeks we were feeding without any barriers and had the occasional hiss but no issues at all.
I about a week later I had supervised short visits with Boo first, Boo is a more laid back cat so I thought that it would make sense to try her first. Occasional hiss from Boo but that stopped pretty quickly.
I do have to watch Budley and Boo sometimes as he will start to play rough and Boo will hiss and make noises at him but he sometimes won't stop. After these tussles they are both all ok, no hiding or any different behaviour, I've even had them napping either side of me 10 mins after it as well.
I've bought Budley a flapping fish toy and also another toy that I will redirect him with so he can wrestle that and will try and play with him before they meet so some of his energy levels are lower.
Beany has been largely ok, a few hisses, a few swats but that's about it which was actually surprising to me as she was the one that didn't like Shorty at all in the beginning.
Budley has been a little bolder with Beany recently - she was sitting in her spot and he whacked her on the back and he laid down ready to play, she looked at him and then looked at me as if to say what in the fluff was that but paid him no attention and he hasn't done that since.
Shorty is the one I'm having issues with and the reason I'm here for some advice.
She has had no issues with scent but would hiss and growl at him when he was in his room with the door closed, this did calm down a bit so I moved on to visuals.
I bought a zipped screen door thing that you stick to the frame, and she would sit about 5 feet away, hiss and wouldn't take her eyes off him, wouldn't get that close and I couldn't distract her at all.
After a while she would still hiss a bit but could manage to distract her so I could see that it was slowly getting better, she just seems to hiss on sight of him.
I started very very short sessions with her but she would hiss growl and run away.
Sessions got slightly longer and she will still hiss and growl but will sometimes just turn her back on him or sit and groom for a bit before hissing and leaving.
Sometimes she will sprint off and when I go to see her she has her play face on, it sometimes feels like she wants to play but not around him, or the others for that matter.
I know from reading up on this site that if she felt threatened or if there were serious issues then she wouldn't take her eyes off him at all so it does seem ok and I know that hissing and growling are part of the process but Budley doesn't seem to be getting the hints from her at all.
He's getting more curious about her, she hisses and walks off, he follows, she turns and hisses and he follows so I try and stop him following by distracting as best I can.
Feeding is still fine, they have even touched noses a few times while they wait for me get their food, sometimes the nose touches is followed by a hiss from shorty but no reall issues.
I work from home so block off the upstairs while I'm working and limit Shorty's interactions during the day.
I wanted to get some advice as it feels like I've been at this stage for a while now and have a few questions -
During the process for all cats I would give them all treats when they would meet. Sometimes Shorty will hiss even before I can get a treat anywhere near her so I leave it a few mins and then give her a treat if she hasn't hissed in that time as I don't want it to seem like I'm rewarding the hissing, is this ok?
Shall I just continue what I'm doing at the moment, take it back any steps or do I let the intros with Shorty play out for a longer time?
Do you think that after time this will settle a bit more and Shorty will just tolerate and avoid him?
Apologies for the long post, I just wanted to get as much info out there and I'm hoping someone can advise.
Thanks.
P.s As I'm writing this they are currently sleeping about 2 feet away from each other, sometimes I get so confused with the behaviour