Please Help Me I Dont Know What To Do

[bluebirdy]

I fostered a group of kittens (adopted our pair from them) and, near the end of our fostering (the rest were mostly scheduled for adoption) the foster coordinator asked if I could take another kitten in. She was the same age as my fosters and had been fostered with her brother and sisters but they had all been adopted. I learned very quickly that, though the kittens may be the same age, if they were not familiar with one another you needed to start from scratch (actually even if you're dealing with siblings that have been apart for a time then you need to start from scratch too when they are very young). One of my females hissed and growled constantly at this other young girl. The others wanted to play with her, but she tended to act antisocial. Luckily the others had already been introduced to the rest of the house so they mostly stayed outside the bedroom where the new young girl was. Eventually most of them came around, but my female was never a fan.

If the little boy is ready to be out I would say take him out and let the little girl be by herself with short supervised visits. You can use introduction techniques like scent swapping etc.

 

[verna davies]

My cousin and me spent 2hrs with her today and the male, she finally started playing but with occasionally growling if he got too close.

I'm gonna be so exhausted if she does this for 2wks lol

Yes but it will be so worth it. Now is one of the most important times of her life of her life, get it right and she will be a loyal friend to you. Well done for giving her the time. Keep us up to date on your progress and post lots of photos please.

 

[karrotlover]

Okay, I'm going to take a different stance here. Maybe if you feel THIS overwhelmed about the prospect of a slow introduction and the necessary changes in behavior, maybe the best thing to do is to return her to the shelter. For both you and for the kitten. She is a kitten, so she probably will not have any problem getting adopted again -- hopefully to a home where there aren't any other animals to frighten her OR humans who would be more okay with her taking her time, or have more rooms to allow for slow introductions. You said you got the kittens to be companions to the resident cat. What was the reason you got the 2 kittens as opposed to just 1? Would 1 kitten be just fine as a companion for your resident cat? It is natural to be overwhelmed at the prospect of caring for multiple animals, because it CAN definitely be overwhelming. You don't need to put yourself through this much stress. Yes it would be stressful to the kitten to be returned to the shelter again, but hopefully if that happens it will just be a temporary hump before landing in a forever home more suited to her.

 

[jcat]

You have to take a deep breath, relax and leave the female kitten in peace. She's in a strange place with people and cats she doesn't know, so she's scared. Three-month-olds are very adaptable, and the chances are that the two kittens will be eating, sleeping, and playing together within 24 - 48 hours if you stop hovering over them and making her even more nervous.

I work at a shelter, and we very often "condense" litters of kittens after they've been weaned and some have been adopted. A little bit of initial growling and hissing on the part of shy kittens isn't at all unusual, but they overcome it very quickly.

Where are you getting "two weeks"? You may need that much time, or longer, to introduce the kittens and your other cat.