How much hissing is "ok" from resident cat (intro to new cat)

[VinnyNyx]

Hi! We have a lovely resident cat Nyx who we've had for almost 5 years since she was a kitten (~5 weeks). She grew up with my adult cat Vincent, who tragically passed away unexpectedly when she was about 6 months old. She has been a single cat living happily with us..........UNTIL DECEMBER 26TH

December 26th we got new cat Talos (estimated 3-4 years old, vetted for good with other cats from shelter). He is such a sweetie pie and totally chose us for his family. Unfortunately, Nyx doesn't seem to like this choice.

We have been doing the slow introduction process, but we can't seem to progress past Nyx not hissing or growling at Talos. Talos is totally fine with her existence. We tried to go into the baby gate with blanket over it phase, and Nyx just won't stop hissing/growling any time she approaches the gate. We give her treats, play with her outside the gate, but she just won't participate. We can't really get the two of them to eat at the same time (Talos eats his wet food immediately and completely in one sitting, Nyx tends to take an hour to eat all her food). We have feline pheromones diffusers, that do seem to have helped a little.

We are stepping back to complete closed door, but need advice! Is there just a level of hissing that is deemed "acceptable" from one cat to another? The hissing is non-stop at this time, she has never even approached the gate without hissing or growling to check it out. But is there a time where if she hisses like, once, but the rest of the time she doesn't, can we proceed with the introduction then? Most websites I've seen say wait to move on until there has been a full day with no hissing, but I don't foresee that happening any time soon...

 

[vince]

If they don't get to physically contact each other, Nyx will keep hissing because they won't develop a common smell. You can help this along by scent swapping. You can take a towel and rub one, then the other in sequence. Then, do it the other way around. If you can let each cat explore the other's space without contacting the other cat, this will help as well.

This does take time in some cases. Don't despair.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Oh, you're very early on, yet, and this is no time to be discouraged! Although many cat experts will say that "ideally there will be no hissing," that's "ideally," and rarely happens. Hissing is nothing more than a heated discussion, and sometimes a cat's gotta say what a cat's gotta say. I absolutely agree with V vince that at some point, you need to site-swap. Let each cat spend time in the other's area, alone. This does two things. It lets them be immersed in the scent of the other cat and become more used to it, and it mingles the scents of both cats all over your homes, so that all territory smells like shared territory.

But if your girl needs to express herself a bit, let her get it out of her system. So long as there are no actual fights (and if there is no blood or pee on the floor, and no fur in the air, it is not an actual fight), all is well.

 

[honeychurro]

I recommend scent swapping with brush that you used for resident cat. If your resident cat hisses when she smells, just place the brush where your cat likes to go and put some treats around it. Eventually, she will get used to her scent and be ok with smelling. Then you can try brushing her (which will have scent of your new cat) vice versa. (This is what I did with my 9yr resident cat recently b/c I got a new kitten which she initially hated... )

If you cat does not play or take treats or anything, you just need to give her time. It just means your cat is too nervous or afraid to eat or play.

Also, if your cat hisses, don't give her treat or play with her (right after your cat hisses) It will encourage her to hiss more. Just give treats when she is quiet and perhaps "watches" her.

 

[ArtNJ]

Personally, I think the eating on opposite sides of the gate thing really misleads a lot of people. A stressed cat generally won't eat or accept treats. You can back the food up further, but if you have to back it up far enough that the cat isn't stressed, then what are you really accomplishing?

As far as hissing a lot at the gate, thats kind of what its there for. So they can get it out, see that nothing bad happens, and things can improve in time. Now if the cat is rushing the gate and madly attacking, or so stressed that its not eating, giving itself hot spots, etc, then I think the raising the towel trick is very useful. But generally, just let them hiss.

Since its been three weeks, I respectfully disagree with the other posters and don't think scent swapping is going to do much. After three weeks, they know each others scent is my thinking. I'd go back to the gate step and just let the cat hiss. So what? Thats what the step is there for.

 

[VinnyNyx]

Thank you all! I am so grateful. I occasionally also read websites that were saying, "If your resident cat doesn't accept the new cat, you should consider giving the new cat back to the shelter." And because these are the same websites that were giving the "don't let them see each other until resident cat hasn't hissed for one day," I started to worry that Nyx is just rejecting new and will never accept Talos! Hearing everyone say that everything they've read is normal is very reassuring.

(for the record, the thought of returning Talos to the shelter is almost unfathomable to me unless the two of them eventually get into constant physical altercations)

 

[ArtNJ]

That advice is probably a little too rigid, but in general if the cat is hissing a lot at a particular step, that does mean that step is still doing work. And if a step is still doing work, then not moving on makes sense. So I think you'll find its more useful to think about whether a step is still doing useful work rather than a rigid rule. But in general, if there is a ton of hissing with the door closed, that could well indicate that step can still do more work. By contrast, if there is a hiss once in a while, that may not mean much at all. Some cats are really free with hissing. I had an indoor/outdoor cat that would hiss when the door opened if it was raining.

 

[vince]

Mine are all bonded, but the oldest is a grumpy Gus. He hisses at the others when he's disturbed. It's just all hot air on his part. Cats can get along if there's hissing or even a bop or two to the head. I wouldn't worry that much, but keep trying with the intros.

I once even trained a cat to hiss when petted. It was a high school psychology experiment. Mom didn't take to kindly to that, so I stopped reinforcing the behavior and kitty stopped hissing. If you can determine the exact behavior between the two that starts the hissing, you're in a better position to help eliminate it.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

And, I repeat, you are early on in the process. We have had successful introductions that took MONTHS...and not just one or two. A couple took nearly a year. Those cats were rarely best buds, but learned to live together peacefully. And just the presence of another cat in the house can be beneficial, even if they don't each think that the other hung the moon.