New Cat Being Aggressive Toward Other Cat

[oceanmist]

We recently adopted a second cat, Piper. She is 2 years old and we were told she was good with the other cats at the shelter once her kittens were older. Our current cat, Cherry, is 7 years old and has been an only cat for 6 years. Before that she was in a shelter that let the cats interact in a huge room. She seemed to have no issues there but also wasn't one of the cats that stood out so we didn't get much information on her personality.

Cherry is a very sweet, but shy cat. She also has endless energy so we figured another cat might be good for her. Now I'm not too sure on the decision. I did tons of research on introductions and based off reactions, I've moved forward with interacting. Piper is very outgoing and was comfortable with our whole apartment within 2 days. I'm not sure if she ever had a home before so she still seems to be figuring it out. She's very friendly with us and at the shelter we were told she was fine with other cats.

So far, Piper has been the instigator. Cherry did a bit of hissing the first few days, but now doesn't seem to try any type of interaction. After doing a few meetings where we kept Piper occupied while Cherry watched her, I decided to put up a screen in the door of the "safe room". Cherry seems to just avoid it while Piper flings herself at the screen any time she sees Cherry. Other than that, Cherry is slowly getting back to her self.

Last night Piper slipped away from my boyfriend while we were trying to switch up where the cats were. She ran into the safe room where Cherry had been exploring and tackled her. They got a few swipes in before we got them apart. No blood drawn. After that Cherry seemed a lot more comfortable. She even finally started playing in the hallway outside the safe room door again. I've read some things that say to let them duke it out as long as blood isn't being drawn and I'm starting to think that might be a better idea? Cherry seemed way less stressed after even though she was the one being attacked.

I've never had two cats before and this whole introduction is stressing me out. Any advice?

 

[danteshuman]

It brings to mind that saying 'no blood no foul.' Meaning I think your cats were expressing dislike but weren't actively fighting. Heck my punk currently has a tiny scratch on top of his nose from what I can only assume was challenging our semi-feral. Still they get along... it is just occasionally the semi-feral beats him up a bit. I think it might be wise to lock 1 cat in the bathroom and the other in a crate while doing the switch off. 2 days or even 2 weeks is no time at all for cats to get used to each other. Then maybe in a week or two try putting them together with supervision. Only play with them, feed them & maybe get them high on catnip first... then let them be together with supervision. Also having a large piece of cardboard handy to block the line of sight if one cat gets aggressive will not hurt (I would say 4 feet by 4 feet.)

 

[oceanmist]

So we've kept them separate without doing any meetings for the past few days. They both seem to have calmed down a lot. Piper's personality is still developing and it's been nice having that develop while she isn't focused on beating Cherry up. They've both also been checking eachother out under the doors (yay for an apartment with doors that are two inches off the floor). Even Cherry has been hanging out and looking at Piper through the door.

I decided to go back to trying the scent swapping. Piper doesn't seem to need it (she just ignores anything that I put near her), but Cherry is all over checking out anything I give her. We also switched Cherry to the "safe room" and Piper is now sleeping in our room with us at night.

I've also ordered a Feliway diffuser that should (hopefully) be ready for pick up today.