Greetings to all cat fellows,
We have a ten year old spayed Kitty(Kali) and recently we rescued another female kitten(Dinkle). When we found her she was about one month old.
When the kitten first came home we had them separated and tried to introduce them gradually.
I have tried the introduction steps but they don't apply that much to Kali.
I tried letting them eat near each other on each side of the door, by Kali only sometimes accepted to eat near her.
Now I let her eat far from the kitten because sometimes when she gets stressed she vomits after eating.
We also tried to play with them one person with each cat, but Kali still feels uncomfortable with the kitten being in the room.
One the other hand, when the kitten is in the same room because she really wants to play with her she goes towards Kali and Kali gets annoyed, mewos in a different way to warn her to not approach her, if the kittens does approach her she hisses and from time to time she swats.
Also, Kali has access to the balcony and the neighbor's house, so she just prefers to leave in general. She does like to be out, but now with the kitten she prefers to stay in the balcony or be next door more.
In general, she doesn't really want to do anything with the kitten. I don't want to force her do anything she doesn't want, but there's been one and a half month already, so I do try now to not let her go out that fast. Since she hasn't really attacked her I started thinking that maybe they need to spend a bit more time in the same space, so Kali sees she's not a thread. They are always supervised, I talk a lot to Kali, I give her some treats, and in general I give her a lot of attention.
In general Kali loves people, but doesn't like cats or dogs much. Although before when she lived my mom she went out a lot and she had an adult female friend cat, but they respected each other's space. When we fed the other cat outside the door though, Kali would get annoyed.
Also when she is with us and the kitten is not present she is very relaxed.
The kitten at night sleeps in her crate in a room where Kali can't see her, but I also tried for a couple of nights to leave the crate in our bedroom. I wanted to see if Kali sees her sleeping and not being "annoying" will still hiss at her. Both times I woke up by her annoyed meow and a bit of hissing. I called on the bed and gave her some treat to helo her relax. The first night she slept on the bed for a while with me, but the second night she preferred to go away after the treat.
My impression in general is that:
1.she is quite territorial
2. She fears the kitten
3. She hasn't lived with another cat for a long time, so she feels discomfort
4. The kitten hasn't learned how to be around another cat and doesn't understand boundaries between them
I am trying to this right, but I am a bit lost. All the articles I read and videos I watched make it seem easy, but in our case it seems quite difficult, and to be honest it's quite tiring and worrysome for me.
Soon we will travel with both of them for the summer and I worry even more.
Any advice or constructive criticism is welcome.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I tried feliway, but it didn't work much. Recently my vet also gave me Kalmvet for the trip and she adviced me to keep giving the pills to Kali for some time, since it can work as an anti- anxiety pill, too.
We have a ten year old spayed Kitty(Kali) and recently we rescued another female kitten(Dinkle). When we found her she was about one month old.
When the kitten first came home we had them separated and tried to introduce them gradually.
I have tried the introduction steps but they don't apply that much to Kali.
I tried letting them eat near each other on each side of the door, by Kali only sometimes accepted to eat near her.
Now I let her eat far from the kitten because sometimes when she gets stressed she vomits after eating.
We also tried to play with them one person with each cat, but Kali still feels uncomfortable with the kitten being in the room.
One the other hand, when the kitten is in the same room because she really wants to play with her she goes towards Kali and Kali gets annoyed, mewos in a different way to warn her to not approach her, if the kittens does approach her she hisses and from time to time she swats.
Also, Kali has access to the balcony and the neighbor's house, so she just prefers to leave in general. She does like to be out, but now with the kitten she prefers to stay in the balcony or be next door more.
In general, she doesn't really want to do anything with the kitten. I don't want to force her do anything she doesn't want, but there's been one and a half month already, so I do try now to not let her go out that fast. Since she hasn't really attacked her I started thinking that maybe they need to spend a bit more time in the same space, so Kali sees she's not a thread. They are always supervised, I talk a lot to Kali, I give her some treats, and in general I give her a lot of attention.
In general Kali loves people, but doesn't like cats or dogs much. Although before when she lived my mom she went out a lot and she had an adult female friend cat, but they respected each other's space. When we fed the other cat outside the door though, Kali would get annoyed.
Also when she is with us and the kitten is not present she is very relaxed.
The kitten at night sleeps in her crate in a room where Kali can't see her, but I also tried for a couple of nights to leave the crate in our bedroom. I wanted to see if Kali sees her sleeping and not being "annoying" will still hiss at her. Both times I woke up by her annoyed meow and a bit of hissing. I called on the bed and gave her some treat to helo her relax. The first night she slept on the bed for a while with me, but the second night she preferred to go away after the treat.
My impression in general is that:
1.she is quite territorial
2. She fears the kitten
3. She hasn't lived with another cat for a long time, so she feels discomfort
4. The kitten hasn't learned how to be around another cat and doesn't understand boundaries between them
I am trying to this right, but I am a bit lost. All the articles I read and videos I watched make it seem easy, but in our case it seems quite difficult, and to be honest it's quite tiring and worrysome for me.
Soon we will travel with both of them for the summer and I worry even more.
Any advice or constructive criticism is welcome.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I tried feliway, but it didn't work much. Recently my vet also gave me Kalmvet for the trip and she adviced me to keep giving the pills to Kali for some time, since it can work as an anti- anxiety pill, too.
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