Hello! After consideration and research, my husband and I adopted a 4 month old kitten (male). We currently have a 4 year old resident cat (female). Both are spayed/neutered. We read online about how to slowly introduce them--kitten resides in guest room. While I know this is a very short time frame, we brought kitten home TODAY in a carrier, then let him roam the guest room. Our resident cat came out of our bedroom (which is close to the guest bedroom door), caught wind of the kitten, and turned around and hid under our bed. She has come out a little bit, tail down until she is near us. Then, her tail goes up, maybe swishing/twitching every so often. She then hid in our closet and--while i didn't SEE it happen--it looks like she may have peed just a little on the floor. A couple of hours later (still today, evening) she came out, tail down, and laid down under a window in our dining room. She would let my husband and I pet her, purring, while she was laying down. She is now under our bed again.
We have a Feliway wall plug, has been plugged in for twenty-four hours. We are attempting to show love and affection to our resident cat, but we are not trying to be forceful. When she is under the bed, we will speak to her, pet her when she is on the edge under the bed, but otherwise we try to let her have personal space until she feels comfortable coming out to be pet.
My question is this--is this normal behavior in a resident cat? We do not want to cause any harmful stress for her. She is essentially family, but we did want a second cat after seeing him in a kill shelter. We plan on waiting 5 days before letting them visually see each other, and another five days after that to let them interact outside of a peek. Or, if that does not work, take it as slowly as needed. We are just concerned about our resident cat, we thought she would be more curious as I visited the shelter three times, after playing with the newly adopted kitten, and she was interested in how I smelled each time I came home. Now, she seems afraid. I just want to see if this is normal behavior, especially for the first day? We are very happy she made an appearance outside of the bedroom, but again we are concerned parents of a loving kitty.
We have a Feliway wall plug, has been plugged in for twenty-four hours. We are attempting to show love and affection to our resident cat, but we are not trying to be forceful. When she is under the bed, we will speak to her, pet her when she is on the edge under the bed, but otherwise we try to let her have personal space until she feels comfortable coming out to be pet.
My question is this--is this normal behavior in a resident cat? We do not want to cause any harmful stress for her. She is essentially family, but we did want a second cat after seeing him in a kill shelter. We plan on waiting 5 days before letting them visually see each other, and another five days after that to let them interact outside of a peek. Or, if that does not work, take it as slowly as needed. We are just concerned about our resident cat, we thought she would be more curious as I visited the shelter three times, after playing with the newly adopted kitten, and she was interested in how I smelled each time I came home. Now, she seems afraid. I just want to see if this is normal behavior, especially for the first day? We are very happy she made an appearance outside of the bedroom, but again we are concerned parents of a loving kitty.