New Kitten With Older Cat

[weemomma]

Evening update:

During my morning shower I discovered that Hariette might have been trying to play with Charlie briefly through the bathroom door. She was sitting on a box when I left the bathroom, but she most definitely put paws under the door at one point.

When I came home from work, she was out on my bed, lounging which is the first time she has done that since before Charlie came into the house. She let me clip her claws tonight as well. She also allowed me to pick her up this morning and hold her on her back. She is most definitely settled and calm.

I think the next step will be to graduate Charlie to the bigger bedroom and let the bathroom be an open room again. Then, we will start playing outside of the door with Hariette to get her happy since she doesn't do treats. Another little baby step in the right direction.

 

[kissthisangel]

Hi Weemomma, thanks for updating us! I know how helpful it can be to have somwehere to keep track of it all and had a thread here on TCS to do just that when I introduced my two (resident Mojo and kitten Charlie) ! Is there a room in your house where you could put Charlie where there is a door you can safely prop to an inch or so, or a glass door that will allow them to see one another, but only if they want to ( and not get at eachother). Give charlie a box to hide or play in, a foot apart from the door, so that if Hariette is behaving a little aggressive he can hide if he wants. Give Hariette the same the other side. This should let them interact at a pace they set without you being worried that either one will get hurt. It sounds like you're doing a wonderful job so far, especially since Charlie was unplanned.

I 100% reccomend the slow introduction thread, even if you don't follow step by step, you can take ideas from it to tailor it to your own needs.

Food for my two was a big motivator. Even though Mojo was free fed, I used Kiten Jerky to tease her to a gap in the door, her eating whilst my Charlie was playing marked a big step in their relationship. We were confident soon after to start supervised face to face introductions. This quickly lead to a full integration. You can work out what motivates each one, and then use that as a positive to aid your introduction.That said, you know YOUR cats. Don't rush it, and just go back to the previous configuration if something does go wrong.

keep us posted ~kiss.

 

[weemomma]

Evening update:

This morning there was a thunderstorm, which meant Hariette was hiding. She hates the sound of thunder, but she was out and about when I came home at lunch. She seems MUCH more comfortable exploring the house when I am home. She has even come to watch me interact with Charlie every so often. I think she is most definitely curious as to what he is doing here.

Charlie is simply being a kitten. He was a little scared to roam the house tonight, but he did it. I also gave him anew box to hide in when he is in the bathroom. He kept tipping his cat bed upside down and hiding underneath it, so he seems so happy with the hiding box. He does have intestinal worms, so until he gets vaccinated, he will not be around Hariette.

So far, everything seems to be going well.

 

[weemomma]

Update:

I decided today to see if Hariette would allow me to show her the kitten. Charlie purred the entire time because I was holding him and Hariette was sitting on the bed when I stood in the doorway. When she seemed calm, I would take a step forward and let her sniff my fingers. She gave one growl, but didn't run off. The kitten just purred the entire time as I held him. The entire interaction lasted about 5 minutes, but I feel like it was positive. She is now hiding in her favorite spot under the bed so I'll just let her be for a while.

On another note, Charlie has a habit of wanting to lick my chin and the licks turn to bites. I have been telling him no in a firm voice and pushing his face away from mine. It doesn't seem to have any effect on him. Is there another way to train a small kitten to not bite?

 

[kissthisangel]

Update:

I decided today to see if Hariette would allow me to show her the kitten. Charlie purred the entire time because I was holding him and Hariette was sitting on the bed when I stood in the doorway. When she seemed calm, I would take a step forward and let her sniff my fingers. She gave one growl, but didn't run off. The kitten just purred the entire time as I held him. The entire interaction lasted about 5 minutes, but I feel like it was positive. She is now hiding in her favorite spot under the bed so I'll just let her be for a while.

On another note, Charlie has a habit of wanting to lick my chin and the licks turn to bites. I have been telling him no in a firm voice and pushing his face away from mine. It doesn't seem to have any effect on him. Is there another way to train a small kitten to not bite?

Congratulations that sounds like awesome progress with both Hariette and the kitten! Hariette going back into her own routine is showing that she is accepting the new arrangement. Well done for taking it slow!

With regards to the licking and biting, you can try yelping like you're in a bit of pain when he starts involving his teeth. Try not to do it so loudly you scare him, but mom and littermates would make a noise to say "owwww" and you can try mimicking that. If you don't want him licking you, just put him down as soon as he licks and then play with him a few minutes later in another scenario this should help with the biting too. Offer him a treat when he is exhibiting "good" (whatever you want him to do) behaviour. Some cats are just very mouthy and we still recieve love bites from our 2YO from time to time, but they don't hurt, it's not in play and it's acceptable to us.

Importantly NEVER present your limbs/ face as a toy. It can help to draw your boundary of which behaviours you deem acceptable and then stick to them, repeating the same (nos , owwws, yelps, and put- downs) each time. If you find your cat is using you to play / teeth etc then long wand toys can assist the seperation to show the you are not a toy but the thing on the end of the wand is.

Lastly ( sorry for such a long post!) If your kitten is mouthing you and licking you, It could be beneficial to get them something soft like mom's coat would have been because they might still be in the suckling mindset and it might give them a bit of comfort whilst they're growing up and stop them from doing it to you quite so much.

 

[danteshuman]

A super soft knitted blanket or even a scarf should do the trick

 

[weemomma]

Update:

We had an epiphany tonight. I had picked up a new bag of treats when I was at Walmart the other day. They are soft and made of turkey. Since Hariette was so sick three years ago, she has had ZERO interest in treats. I bought them for Charlie and Katie. I decided to have her try them AND SHE ATE THEM ALL UP. I think I'll have some ammunition when it comes time to introduce them face to face for real.

She has been running around tonight like a kitten, playing with her favorite toys. Charlie has been a crazy man, playing in his bathroom without a care in the world.

I think part of Hariette's apprehension lately has been the state of the house as well. It has been a disaster for a while. I have been going through a depressive episode, but the past week, I have been working hard to clean all of the rooms and get rid of clutter and trash. It is finally clean and there is more room for kitties to roam. Everyone seems to be feeling better.

 

[kikilove]

So, it's been a long time since I have posted on this board!

Yesterday, I found a kitten in the over 100 degree heat in a parking lot. He is super friendly and cuddly and I decided to bring him home. I already have two cats at home, one whom lives in the garage and the other who lives in the main house with me. The cat in the main house is 10 years old this November and has pretty much been alone since her companion died three years ago.

Last night, kitten hissed at older cat but older cat did not seem to mind kitten. This morning, older cat hissed at kitten and kitten didn't seem to mind older cat. This evening, I was playing with kitten in the bedroom with older cat hiding in the window. Older cat peeked out to see what was going on, watched us for about 10 minutes and then retreated. I held kitten while letting older cat see kitten and both cats started hissing. Immediately, I took kitten back to the bathroom where he has been staying.

Now, older cat is hissing at me and wants nothing to do with me. We snuggle all the time and she is telling me to go away in her own little way. She grew up with other cats. Have I waited too long to introduce another cat into our lives? Kitten is very loving and I would sincerely hesitate to rehome him. He is an angel. I don't want older cat to feel as if she is being replaced however.

For the moment, I am crying in bed while older cat sits in the window to ignore me. I bought one of those feline hormone deffuser to maybe see if that helps but it won't be delivered until next week. It's been a long time since I've had a kitten in the house. I've always been told that it's easier to introduce a kitten into a household with an older cat.

Someone please tell me that older cat won't hate me forever.

 

[weemomma]

Update:

This morning Hariette was with me when I woke up at 6. When I woke back up at 8, she had moved to the mattress under the bed. She doesn't seem interested in coming out this morning. She definitely ate food over night and everything else seems fairly normal in her world, but it's not usual that she's not out in a window when I'm getting ready for the day. It's a little worrying but she is also a very strong willed cat. I'm sure things will be fine this evening when I get home and I'll be sure to give her extra snuggles.

 

[weemomma]

Update:

Hariette is sitting on me right now. We had a good night all around. It was a bit outside of our normal routine because I had some family come that wanted to meet Charlie. Before the arrived, I noticed Hariette was in the dining room while I sat in the kitchen with Charlie. I fed Charlie treats and put a few near Hariette. She was interested in the treats, not so interested in Charlie, but curious. She didn't eat the treats before she left, but I made sure to get them to her when she retreated to the window. We got her some new pet grass too, so she's a happy little girl in the extra bedroom.

 

[kissthisangel]

That's awesome! New things and new treats for them too

 

[weemomma]

Wow. It's been a while!

Charlie got his first round of vaccines. He is 3 months old according to the vet. He is in super kitten mode, wanting to play with everything right now. He is still in semi quarantine until he gets his next round of vaccines and the dreaded neuter. We also have to get rid of some worms, but we are well on the road to being worm free soon.

Hariette had her old lady blood work done and the vet said everything is absolutely beautiful. She is a healthy weight, she is a healthy girl, and we are working to get rid of the fleas. The entire house has been sprayed once and will be sprayed again in a couple of weeks. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the nasty bugs.

As for introductions, Hariette is most definitely interested in this kitten. She will randomly appear when he is out roaming under supervision with me. This evening, she stood in the dining room and watched when he roamed the kitchen. When he approached her, he lowered himself to the ground on the first hiss and then scurried away on the second. She is definitely showing that she is in charge, which is what I wanted. They met face to face the other day without any hissing, which I see as a positive step as well. I still feel as if I'm a few months away from allowing them to roam together for any amount of time unsupervised, but I think we'll get there.

Curiously, my garage cat, Katie, has expressed a lot of interest in coming indoors. To me, it's too much of a change for everyone to suddenly allow Katie to come inside. She is still semi feral. I think once everything settles, we will let her come in to explore from time to time until she feels comfortable. I intend to buy a cat tree for the living room so maybe this will become some kind of common ground.

All in all, I feel really positive about everything.

 

[weemomma]

So, everything is pretty much as it was. However, now Charlie gets some time in the evening to roam the house with Hariette locked in her favorite room. I've been watching videos and Jackson Galaxy talks a lot about stopping free feeding and doing meal times to get them acquainted.

Hariette has always free fed. I worry a lot about her retaining weight. I wonder if it is acceptable to move her food bowl from the current location to a spot closer to where the kitten is staying so that she can associated food with Charlie but still be able to free feed. Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[weemomma]

So things have kind of regressed. Charlie gets about two hours of house time in the evening when Hariette is locked in her room. She hides under the bed and I feel really bad for her. She has also lost some weight and hasn't really eaten food the past day or so. I'm really hoping that there is nothing seriously wrong with her as we just went to the vet and everything came back fine. Pees and poops are just right for her so I'm hoping she simply didn't like the replacement food that she had to eat before her fancy food came in the mail today.

She has started hissing and growling when Charlie is at the door. I'm at the point that I just want to throw open the doors and let them both sort it out, but I don't want to put stress on her. Charlie still needs his neuter, but I'm waiting for the funds to come open to do that. I'm hoping that solves a lot of our dominance issues.

 

[weemomma]

We have had a major set back. Suddenly Hariette wants NOTHING to do with the kitten. No seeing him, no hearing him, no smelling him, nothing. She has been acting mopey the past two days, so I think she might not be feeling well. She just got a brand new flea treatment and that seems to have helped some. I'm not looking into Feliway or something similar but I am really Leary of spending so much money on a product that may or may not work.

 

[weemomma]

So, this situation has suddenly turned very very urgent.

As of right now, it has been 24 hours since I have seen Hariette eat. She ate a very small amount of tuna for me this evening, but she has shown no interest in her kibble or her treats. I have small dishes of food throughout the house of different types of kibble if she has any interest to eat. She has been more interested in sleeping in the other bed room all evening.

About an hour ago, I woke up to try and entice her to eat something for me. She wasn't interested, but after I left her alone, she came into the bedroom with me and is currently snuggled against my side.

The only thing that has changed is that Charlie now gets two hours of play time in the house while Hariette stays in the bedroom of her choice. So, his scent is now being spread through the house. She seems so unsure and anxious of the situation. I just spent 10 minutes walking through the house with her as she hesitently checked her litter box (only pee from her today, no poop) and then made her retreat to the bedroom.

I treated her for fleas yesterday because she seemed absolutely miserable with an infestation. Her temp is on the higher side of normal. Color is still good. She's purring. She's grooming. She has lost some weight and gained some back. I am fully prepared to take her to the vet and absolutely gutted that she has suddenly decided not to eat. I lost as cat to liver failure three years ago and I know how quickly things can turn.

I do have a Feliway defuser coming tomorrow. My plan is to plug it into the bedroom where her food bowl is. I don't want to have to move the litter box because that is the only reason she is going out into the house at the moment.

Any and all suggestions are welcome at this time. I am at a loss of what more to do for her.

 

[mani]

It is really unlikely that she would starve herself completely. How is it going today?

Moving the food bowl closer sounds fine to me too.

 

[weemomma]

She is eating very little and still no pooping. She has lost a pound in total from the beginning of the month. I am hoping to get her into the vet tomorrow. She would have gone today, but they were closed.

 

[mani]

Good that you're taking her to the vet. Has the Feliway arrived?

 

[weemomma]

It has and it is plugged in. Of course, it's too early to tell anything.