I’ve kept my cats separate for 8 months.

[breity]

My partner and I adopted a FIV+ cat back in January. We have been trying to slowly introduce the cats to each other. We keep them in separate rooms and rotate nights that each cat gets to sleep in our bed. My resident cat whenever in supervised contact with the new cat wants to chase the cat into the bedroom. It seems playful and my new cat is still timid to play in person but they do play under the door or through the sliding glass door. Also if they are both waiting for their morning food my resident cat is waiting for his food and won’t chase the new cat because he’s hungry. They also eat fairly close to each other without any food aggression. So I feel like I’m getting mixed signals.

I’m just worried with my resident cat chasing the new cat that he will get too scared and bite my resident cat. The new cat has shown no aggression besides a warning hiss. Should I give up and find my new cat a new home? Was I a fool for bringing an FIV+ kitty into my home?

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice!

 

[ArtNJ]

Cats very rarerly bite each other, and you'll usually get plenty of warning signs first. On top of that, a cat that is too scared to play back will almost never display any aggression -- they are too scared.

I know very little about FIV, but from a pure introductions/likelyhood of biting perspective, your worry is unnecessary, and there is a good chance these cats could make progress if given meaningful time together.

 

[breity]

Cats very rarerly bite each other, and you'll usually get plenty of warning signs first. On top of that, a cat that is too scared to play back will almost never display any aggression -- they are too scared.

I know very little about FIV, but from a pure introductions/likelyhood of biting perspective, your worry is unnecessary, and there is a good chance these cats could make progress if given meaningful time together.

Okay this is encouraging! I will definitely make an effort to give them more time together! Thank you!

 

[cataholic07]

An IFA or pcr test was done to confirm the FIV? Lots of people go based on snap tests only unfortunately for the diagnosis which is wrong often.

 

[breity]

An IFA or pcr test was done to confirm the FIV? Lots of people go based on snap tests only unfortunately for the diagnosis which is wrong often.

Yes, we had bloodworm done after the adoption with our vet to confirm.

 

[breity]

Yes, we had bloodwork done after the adoption with our vet to confirm.

 

[Cozzy]

Ive got a resident FIV cat and then adopted a non FIV little sister for him. I was incredibly worried about this as well but all turned out fine. My intro went quite quickly and now they are together all the time. They play fight a lot, chase each other around and can get very rough but they've never bitten to break the skin.