Introducing A New Kitten

[shiaena]

Hello all! It's been so long since I've been on this site!

Recently, Espa turned a year old (in April, my little baby is growing so fast!), and we've noticed that toys no longer excite her and she solely wants to get her little fur butt in trouble. So, we decided to finally get her a little playmate, a little female kitten. Nobody in the neighborhood were giving away any kittens at the time, so we decided to hit the local shelters and see the adorable little kitties they had. We fell in love with this small supposedly 5 month old Calico colored kitten, she was immediately docile, I named her Kali.

When coming home, my mom thought it was a smart idea to introduce Kali in her crate to Espa, which we did. We thought they'd do fine together, Espa's pretty docile and passive. But we got an outcome we weren't expecting, Espa's tail immediately lowered and she skittered away into her room with her tail down. We let the kitten out and let her play in the livingroom, away from Espa, and tried to have Espa come near her, to no avail. The kitten played with toys that had Espa's scent on it just fine, and barely reacted to the sight of Espa at all!

So we took another course of action, we put the kitten in my mom's room with food, water, litter, and everything, to establish her little safe room there. We put a babygate there, and left the door open for Espa to investigate.

So, day 1 of Kali's arrival, and Espa is freaked. Kali is as happy as she can be, marking the heck out of me (and not mom oddly enough), meowing and playing with everything. Meanwhile, if Espa hears, smells or senses Kali in anyway, she's cowering back in her room. We try to touch her (Even after cleaning our hands), and she growls. She no longer eats her wet food from us, or at all, so feeding her near the door is completely out of the question. She's only at ease when Kali's door is closed and Kali is away from sight and silent.

Kali needs a little interaction and I believe she deserves some exploration, she may be a kitten still but she already knows her litter box and feeding stations enough. But I don't know what to do! I know it takes tons and tons of patience to introduce two cats together, but Espa will no longer even let me near her, and I'm especially afraid of her marking ANYTHING with pee.

Long story short, it's a bit of a frustrating mess here with the cutest little kitten and grumpiest cat. I bought some feliway on Amazon, so hopefully that may work to calm them down? I'm not sure what else to do, I just want them to get along already! I did all my research but nothing prepared me for such stubbornness!

 

[NewYork1303]

I know very few cats that are alright with each other from day one. The kitten needs to stay secluded so that Espa is able to get confidence back about her territory. It is really challenging to do this, but going slow is very important. For now, work just on getting Espa interested in being back in her normal territory eating and doing everything normal. You can't move forward until she is. She must have confidence before moving forward at all.

 

[verna davies]

Each time I've had a new kitten it's taken about a month for the other cat to accept the new one. It takes plenty of patience and reassurence to both but you will get there. The best advice I had was that it was up to me to teach them to play with each other. Relax and enjoy the experience.

 

[danteshuman]

Yeah Salem "introduced" himself to Dante by wrapping his ENTIRE mouth around the wee kitten's neck! After that it was supervised visits for a long while. Until the kitten got bigger a couple months later. Now days Dante (the then kitten) is a punk to Salem all the time. Using him as a living toy if he gets bored. They actually get along great when they aren't fighting over my attention/prime lap space

The point is how a relationship starts isn't how a cat relationship is going to end. Also though I love my little punk; I think Salem often wishes I hadn't gotten him a playmate

 

[pantalimon]

We're also going through kitten introduction right now, and I think that maybe you started off a little too quickly and stressed Espa out. I would try to seperate them completely with a solid door (not just baby gate) and start a very gradual introduction- try rubbing Kali with a blanket and leave it on the floor for Espa to sniff. When she's reacting well to the towel (no hissing or growling) try to slowly feed her closer and closer to the door (and offcourse feed Kali on the other side too). Move forward to opening a crack in the door and letting them see each other only when they can happily eat close to the door. It's a process that can take weeks- I know it's hard, but you need to understand that Espa's world has been turned over and her own territory no longer feels safe to her. In my opinion she needs you now more then Kali- spend as much alone time with her as you can (even if she doesn't want petting- sit close to her, speak to her, try to play with her favorite toys and persuade her with yummy treats). I agree with what was written before- only when she feels safe again could she start opening up to Kali. Hope I helped a little and good luck!

 

[shiaena]

Thank you everyone for your responses. We'll definitely be intigrating these methods to introducing Kali and Espa together. Whenever Espa doesnt hear Kali or anything, she's as normal as ever, so at leadt theres no real resentment! We'll start over and start slow!