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After hours and hours of trawling through previous posts and other websites I thought I would join up here and seek some help from some of the senior experts on cats.
I took in a kitten last October who was found abandoned by a river at 5/6 weeks old and suffering very badly from cat flu. I hand reared him and after a second (touch and go) dose of cat flu managed to nurse him to full health. This made the bond between us very close and he would often come up and seek cuddles despite being a ‘big boy’ now. He is a real big sturdy cat and has recently (3 weeks ago) been neutered. He’s also now roaming outside (under the watchful eye of a GPS tracker right to my mobile) and is trying to establish my garden as territory from another determined male. He is called Jax and is around 10 months old now so essentially a teenager in cat terms.
I thought long and hard about introducing another kitten to our home, in the hope that he would enjoy company and also in the long run have a companion to help hold our garden as their territory. Jax is also a pathetic hunter – I have established this from hours of watching him attempt to catch a little fledgling. His nasal passage seems to have been damaged with the cat flu and he does a serious amount of loud sniffing which I imagine is giving his position away! Anyway 10 days ago I adopted a little female kitten who I sourced as compatible with his personality after more countless hours of research. I set her up (Izzie) in our bathroom with all of her own brand new items and isolated her until she was vet checked and given a flea & worm treatment. I started off by trying to rub her with a sock and vice versa to attempt scent neutralisation as a first step.
However this was blown out the window because little Izzie is like something from the Olympics. Myself nor my husband can get into the bathroom to play with/sort out her things without her darting out of the room and running at Jax. If she isn’t running at him she runs into his things and rolls around in his bedding. This seems to have caused him now to not want to be outside at all, as if he wants to defend his entire house from this little flash of lightening. I was told when adopting her that she was older than 8 weeks, but the vet seems to think she may only be 6 weeks. She is a tiny little thing with these really long legs! She is much further advanced than he was at the same age (assumingly because she is fit and healthy) but it’s causing chaos as I cannot implement the slow and gradual process that I wanted through introducing them.
Some of the behaviours that have occurred so far are:
Apologises for this extremely long post, I wanted to get as much info down as possible! Any suggestions or opinions on their interactions would be greatly appreciated
I took in a kitten last October who was found abandoned by a river at 5/6 weeks old and suffering very badly from cat flu. I hand reared him and after a second (touch and go) dose of cat flu managed to nurse him to full health. This made the bond between us very close and he would often come up and seek cuddles despite being a ‘big boy’ now. He is a real big sturdy cat and has recently (3 weeks ago) been neutered. He’s also now roaming outside (under the watchful eye of a GPS tracker right to my mobile) and is trying to establish my garden as territory from another determined male. He is called Jax and is around 10 months old now so essentially a teenager in cat terms.
I thought long and hard about introducing another kitten to our home, in the hope that he would enjoy company and also in the long run have a companion to help hold our garden as their territory. Jax is also a pathetic hunter – I have established this from hours of watching him attempt to catch a little fledgling. His nasal passage seems to have been damaged with the cat flu and he does a serious amount of loud sniffing which I imagine is giving his position away! Anyway 10 days ago I adopted a little female kitten who I sourced as compatible with his personality after more countless hours of research. I set her up (Izzie) in our bathroom with all of her own brand new items and isolated her until she was vet checked and given a flea & worm treatment. I started off by trying to rub her with a sock and vice versa to attempt scent neutralisation as a first step.
However this was blown out the window because little Izzie is like something from the Olympics. Myself nor my husband can get into the bathroom to play with/sort out her things without her darting out of the room and running at Jax. If she isn’t running at him she runs into his things and rolls around in his bedding. This seems to have caused him now to not want to be outside at all, as if he wants to defend his entire house from this little flash of lightening. I was told when adopting her that she was older than 8 weeks, but the vet seems to think she may only be 6 weeks. She is a tiny little thing with these really long legs! She is much further advanced than he was at the same age (assumingly because she is fit and healthy) but it’s causing chaos as I cannot implement the slow and gradual process that I wanted through introducing them.
Some of the behaviours that have occurred so far are:
- If Izzie is in the cat carrier and brought to a room for Jax to sniff around she goes absolutely crazy and tries to claw him through the door to the point where she is distressed and I stop the process.
- Jax lies at the bathroom door and makes a strange little cry/meowing noise towards it. The only thing is he displays the same sort of movements which he does at my own bedroom door when he wants me to come out. He pushes against the door and then rolls around outside it.
- Jax appears to hate me for 90% of the time. He no longer wants interaction with me presumably because I have turned his whole world upside down. In the morning time only will he jump up on my knee and rest his head on my shoulders as normal – but he will not tolerate me having a sock on my hand while the petting is underway. So I can’t gather his scent onto it.
- We had one nose bump between the two which I felt was a great sign but it was then followed by a lot of chasing. Izzie is obsessed with tails so will bop his anytime it’s on display. This causes more chasing. She is also trying to make herself seem big and will submit almost immediately anytime he catches her. These submit positions come with paw swiping (I think with claws out) at him – this then is like a flag for him to try biting her. From what I can see his claws and normally in.
Apologises for this extremely long post, I wanted to get as much info down as possible! Any suggestions or opinions on their interactions would be greatly appreciated