Apologies in advance for being lengthy.
We have a 1 yr old F (spayed) cat for about 7 months now. I'll call her M1. We adopted a second 3 yr old F (spayed) cat three weeks ago. Initially we kept the new cat, M2, in her own room but we started site swapping early because she would always want to follow us outside the room. They were able to eat within a couple feet of each other with the door open a crack. After a week, we put up a baby gate and before we could stop her, M1 jumped over and they met face to face. There was some initially hissing when either cat got too close to each other. But that first night, M2 gingerly explored more while M1 followed her around at a distance.
Since then, we have kept them both free roaming. M1 keeps trying to play and get close to M2 but M2 will low growl or hiss whenever she feels like M1 is too close. M1 now spends most of the days underneath beds in different rooms upstairs. I am able to feed them treats within about a foot of each other. They will eat peacefully. I can also play with both of them with a chaser toy. M1 will play, then I'll dangle it in front of M2 and she'll play. But she's still fairly skittish. They can also lay together in a room however it sort of feels like M1 is blocking M2 from the door. M2 sometimes will even flip on her back if M1 is laying a safe distance away.
Every time M2 ventures out, M1 will be interested. M2 gets scared and runs and M1 will chase. M2 has been exploring the downstairs lately at night when M1 goes to sleep with us. This morning, M1 followed me down and M2 was still downstairs at the time. She got nervous, and ran to the upstairs... which of course M1 chased her all the way. During this we can hear M2 hiss but we haven't found blood or signs of any bad fights.
I think this is all normal in the sense that M2 is just nervous in a new home and M1 is being overly playful? How do we help M2 become more comfortable so she can stand her ground more? My fear is that the more she runs, the more M1 chases and I don't want them to form the relationship where M1 is always chasing M2. It just seems like M2 is always hiding when M1 is around. As soon as she hears M1 coming up the stairs (bell on her collar), I hear her bell sounds as she runs under a bed.
Some other tidbits is that they both are eating and it seems like they are fine using each other's litter boxes. We have one on each floor. The only issue is M2 eats slower and takes breaks and it seems like M1 will eat both their food.
We have a 1 yr old F (spayed) cat for about 7 months now. I'll call her M1. We adopted a second 3 yr old F (spayed) cat three weeks ago. Initially we kept the new cat, M2, in her own room but we started site swapping early because she would always want to follow us outside the room. They were able to eat within a couple feet of each other with the door open a crack. After a week, we put up a baby gate and before we could stop her, M1 jumped over and they met face to face. There was some initially hissing when either cat got too close to each other. But that first night, M2 gingerly explored more while M1 followed her around at a distance.
Since then, we have kept them both free roaming. M1 keeps trying to play and get close to M2 but M2 will low growl or hiss whenever she feels like M1 is too close. M1 now spends most of the days underneath beds in different rooms upstairs. I am able to feed them treats within about a foot of each other. They will eat peacefully. I can also play with both of them with a chaser toy. M1 will play, then I'll dangle it in front of M2 and she'll play. But she's still fairly skittish. They can also lay together in a room however it sort of feels like M1 is blocking M2 from the door. M2 sometimes will even flip on her back if M1 is laying a safe distance away.
Every time M2 ventures out, M1 will be interested. M2 gets scared and runs and M1 will chase. M2 has been exploring the downstairs lately at night when M1 goes to sleep with us. This morning, M1 followed me down and M2 was still downstairs at the time. She got nervous, and ran to the upstairs... which of course M1 chased her all the way. During this we can hear M2 hiss but we haven't found blood or signs of any bad fights.
I think this is all normal in the sense that M2 is just nervous in a new home and M1 is being overly playful? How do we help M2 become more comfortable so she can stand her ground more? My fear is that the more she runs, the more M1 chases and I don't want them to form the relationship where M1 is always chasing M2. It just seems like M2 is always hiding when M1 is around. As soon as she hears M1 coming up the stairs (bell on her collar), I hear her bell sounds as she runs under a bed.
Some other tidbits is that they both are eating and it seems like they are fine using each other's litter boxes. We have one on each floor. The only issue is M2 eats slower and takes breaks and it seems like M1 will eat both their food.