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Haven’t posted in a long time, but Chilli and Clove are doing well! We’ve recently (2.5 weeks ago) moved in with my aunt and her two cats, and are doing a slow introduction process. Wanted to gain any wisdom from members here.
Some notes:
-The two resident cats here are older (~13), both females, littermates, and both have health conditions to be considered.
-Cat1 has IBD and can only eat prescription food, no treats. Cat2 has hyperthyroid and asthma (including asthma attacks whenever she hisses too much). Both are picky and underweight as it is, so my aunt prefers that we don’t use food in the intro process, to prevent them refusing to eat out of stress / being jealous of my cats’ “yummier” food.
We did scent / site swapping, etc. We’ve gotten to the point of supervised time looking at each other through a baby gate, and try to play/brush/distract each cat on each side.
Chilli—no worries at all. She’s always been great with new cats. I have not even seen her hiss once. She is chill, respectful, and a little timid. She politely watches and then nicely leaves if hissed at.
Cat1—also not really worried. She’s thrown a few hisses but is very chill and self-confident, and only cares about napping and being loved on by people. She barely even glances at the new cats, and does not seek out interaction or care at all when they’re looking at her.
Cat2 and Clove is where we’ve run into some problems. Both have much more active, investigative, curious, anxious, and interactive personalities than Chilli and Cat1. At first both were obviously scared and hissing/puffing/swatting at each other through the gate. Cat2 is still scared and mostly avoids interaction unless tempted over by play or brushing time. But as Clove has become more confident in her own room, she’s gotten much more dominant and pushy, and is regularly right up against the baby gate looking out. When they’re both adequately distracted, there isn’t usually any hissing. But when Clove gets bored of the toy and catnip, she does some pretty intense staring and growling/yowling that has been ending in her aggressively smacking the baby gate between them.
I think if we removed the baby gate at this point, Clove would definitely chase and harass Cat2 (and possibly vice versa, if they were in a different part of the house, as Clove can be a huge wimp). But I’m not sure if we should be allowing them to stare and smack and hiss at each other through the baby gate, or if we should be super intentional about only allowing visual access for them when there’s
ample distraction on both sides. I have worked a lot on making Clove feel confident on her side of the gate, with playtime and treats and catnip and praise, but I’m kind of worried it’s worked TOO well and now she’s an aggressor because of it.
I’m also wondering how Chilli and Cat1 should be included in all this—might it help for those two to have some supervised time without the baby gate, since they’re probably ready for that, so that the other two cats can absorb the calm vibes between them? Or should we take everything at the fearful/aggressive cats’ pace?
Anyway, I’d welcome any insight or ideas for how we should proceed. I know 2.5 weeks isn’t long at all; I just want to make sure we’re going forwards and not backwards.
Some notes:
-The two resident cats here are older (~13), both females, littermates, and both have health conditions to be considered.
-Cat1 has IBD and can only eat prescription food, no treats. Cat2 has hyperthyroid and asthma (including asthma attacks whenever she hisses too much). Both are picky and underweight as it is, so my aunt prefers that we don’t use food in the intro process, to prevent them refusing to eat out of stress / being jealous of my cats’ “yummier” food.
We did scent / site swapping, etc. We’ve gotten to the point of supervised time looking at each other through a baby gate, and try to play/brush/distract each cat on each side.
Chilli—no worries at all. She’s always been great with new cats. I have not even seen her hiss once. She is chill, respectful, and a little timid. She politely watches and then nicely leaves if hissed at.
Cat1—also not really worried. She’s thrown a few hisses but is very chill and self-confident, and only cares about napping and being loved on by people. She barely even glances at the new cats, and does not seek out interaction or care at all when they’re looking at her.
Cat2 and Clove is where we’ve run into some problems. Both have much more active, investigative, curious, anxious, and interactive personalities than Chilli and Cat1. At first both were obviously scared and hissing/puffing/swatting at each other through the gate. Cat2 is still scared and mostly avoids interaction unless tempted over by play or brushing time. But as Clove has become more confident in her own room, she’s gotten much more dominant and pushy, and is regularly right up against the baby gate looking out. When they’re both adequately distracted, there isn’t usually any hissing. But when Clove gets bored of the toy and catnip, she does some pretty intense staring and growling/yowling that has been ending in her aggressively smacking the baby gate between them.
I think if we removed the baby gate at this point, Clove would definitely chase and harass Cat2 (and possibly vice versa, if they were in a different part of the house, as Clove can be a huge wimp). But I’m not sure if we should be allowing them to stare and smack and hiss at each other through the baby gate, or if we should be super intentional about only allowing visual access for them when there’s
ample distraction on both sides. I have worked a lot on making Clove feel confident on her side of the gate, with playtime and treats and catnip and praise, but I’m kind of worried it’s worked TOO well and now she’s an aggressor because of it.
I’m also wondering how Chilli and Cat1 should be included in all this—might it help for those two to have some supervised time without the baby gate, since they’re probably ready for that, so that the other two cats can absorb the calm vibes between them? Or should we take everything at the fearful/aggressive cats’ pace?
Anyway, I’d welcome any insight or ideas for how we should proceed. I know 2.5 weeks isn’t long at all; I just want to make sure we’re going forwards and not backwards.