- Joined
- Feb 11, 2019
- Messages
- 28
- Purraise
- 43
Hello everyone, my story starts classically with :I have two kittens, I want to put them together and not sure if I am doing the right things or if I am interpreting correctly their signs.
First about the cats(photos attached):
I have an 8 months old male kitten (black and white) and his name is Loki. He is an orphan stray saved at 1 month old. He is friendly, purring and cuddling with family, but he will never back down from a starring contest, even with us. Not really scared by hissing or loud voice. He is a devil at the vet. Thus I kind of think he has a more dominant personality, very curios and loves only a few he trusts. (I assume this is important for my introduction challenge).
And I also have a now 4 months old stray, his name is Thor... again found alone outside at ~1,5 months, after 24h of waiting and crying for help (some eye problems and some mild-flu .. but all gone now). He is the more shy one, runs and hides away .. love-able but not really fond of touching and loud noises(as it scares him and runs away).
Both are not neutered, waiting for as close to one year as possible.
Secondly what I've been doing so far:
They live in separate rooms ( living room Loki and bedroom Thor). I've firstly covered all vaccines and made sure they are as healthy as two stray-kittens with little to none prior-medical-history can be.
- Then started scent swapping by exchanging their bed blankets. A lot of sniffing both side, but in the end they slept in their little beds over the others scent.
- After this sniffing each other at the door(little one doesn't care, but Loki sniffs more and looks under door, kind of a stare... but he isn't seing the other, just sensing him)
- And continued with feeding; if hungry they will both eat .. 15cm away from each other, just door in-between(again the little one does not care at all, the 8 month one ... is more alert and when hearing a noise looks at door direction for 2-5 seconds and then continues eating);
- Last big step was yesterday. I've put Thor into his carrier and let them sniff each-other in a mid-ground (a.k.a. kitchen). Loki came at 10 cm from the carrier, both sniffed each other. At fist Loki was very alert/scared and didn't let me approach him(if i did he tried to swap away at me) and even make a very low growl ... but I've moved the little one a bit further way and he stopped. Kind of fixating, ears tilted forward, but looked at toys and even ate 2-3 mouths of his favourite dry food treat. The little one did not stare that much, even turned around in the carrier, backside facing Loki. In the end they even bumped noses once trough the carrier "fence" like material.
I am planning on putting also the big one in a carrier and repeating this process a few times until they ignore each other more.
I am afraid of the following: Loki (8months) is dominant while Thor is more submissive from what I see. But if Thor runs and triggers predator behaviour in Loki? I think I am also more worried than I should be... but don't know.
p.s. didn't want to put this in an existing thread in order not to hijack it; but if needed I can just adhere to an existing introduction discussion;
Loki:
Thor:
First about the cats(photos attached):
I have an 8 months old male kitten (black and white) and his name is Loki. He is an orphan stray saved at 1 month old. He is friendly, purring and cuddling with family, but he will never back down from a starring contest, even with us. Not really scared by hissing or loud voice. He is a devil at the vet. Thus I kind of think he has a more dominant personality, very curios and loves only a few he trusts. (I assume this is important for my introduction challenge).
And I also have a now 4 months old stray, his name is Thor... again found alone outside at ~1,5 months, after 24h of waiting and crying for help (some eye problems and some mild-flu .. but all gone now). He is the more shy one, runs and hides away .. love-able but not really fond of touching and loud noises(as it scares him and runs away).
Both are not neutered, waiting for as close to one year as possible.
Secondly what I've been doing so far:
They live in separate rooms ( living room Loki and bedroom Thor). I've firstly covered all vaccines and made sure they are as healthy as two stray-kittens with little to none prior-medical-history can be.
- Then started scent swapping by exchanging their bed blankets. A lot of sniffing both side, but in the end they slept in their little beds over the others scent.
- After this sniffing each other at the door(little one doesn't care, but Loki sniffs more and looks under door, kind of a stare... but he isn't seing the other, just sensing him)
- And continued with feeding; if hungry they will both eat .. 15cm away from each other, just door in-between(again the little one does not care at all, the 8 month one ... is more alert and when hearing a noise looks at door direction for 2-5 seconds and then continues eating);
- Last big step was yesterday. I've put Thor into his carrier and let them sniff each-other in a mid-ground (a.k.a. kitchen). Loki came at 10 cm from the carrier, both sniffed each other. At fist Loki was very alert/scared and didn't let me approach him(if i did he tried to swap away at me) and even make a very low growl ... but I've moved the little one a bit further way and he stopped. Kind of fixating, ears tilted forward, but looked at toys and even ate 2-3 mouths of his favourite dry food treat. The little one did not stare that much, even turned around in the carrier, backside facing Loki. In the end they even bumped noses once trough the carrier "fence" like material.
I am planning on putting also the big one in a carrier and repeating this process a few times until they ignore each other more.
I am afraid of the following: Loki (8months) is dominant while Thor is more submissive from what I see. But if Thor runs and triggers predator behaviour in Loki? I think I am also more worried than I should be... but don't know.
p.s. didn't want to put this in an existing thread in order not to hijack it; but if needed I can just adhere to an existing introduction discussion;
Loki:
Thor: