- Joined
- Jul 31, 2017
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Hi all,
I adopted a 2 yr old new cat (NC) 3 days ago. I had one resident cat (RC) who is 4 yrs old, and has always been a solo cat. Both are female domestic short hair. Since I brought NC home, I followed the traditional cat introduction steps by having prepared a spare room with all the essentials for NC, but NC meowed all day to be left out until her voice was hoarse. Even after going in to the room and showering her with attention once in a while, her incessant meowing broke my heart so I very cautiously let her out... I know I might have messed up by doing this. NC seemed very confident in exploring all around the house, even goes right up to RC's food bowl and eats from it, drinks from RC's water bowl (despite having a full set of her own, which both she and RC will eat from), sleeps in RC's favorite cushion, and has even peed / pooped in RC's litter box. Again, I recognize that this probably isn't supposed to happen so fast. I didn't stop NC because I wanted to see how RC would react. RC hissed at NC as she was leaving the litterbox, but otherwise did not fight her. RC still uses her litterbox after NC uses it, will continue to sleep on her favorite cushion, eats from her bowl after NC eats from it, etc...
RC growls and hisses at NC when she comes too close, sometimes makes a swatting motion with her paw, but has never fought NC. They often just engage in long stare offs from across the room. RC sometimes follows NC around to observe her in a crouched fashion, but usually doesn't make any advances. When she does run up when NC is getting too close to a favorite item, she stops in front of NC and just hisses. When RC hisses and postures, NC never hisses back, and either sits until RC leaves or NC slowly backs away. NC is more playful and will often run up too close to RC during feeding or play (since NC just came from a shelter, she is more used to a multi-cat environment). RC never stops NC from walking around the house, and they can both be in a room just fine. Tensions just rise when NC uses RC's stuff, like her favorite scratching post (MY ENTIRE COUCH), gets too close to her (half a meter?) or pees in her litter box. I realize that using RC's litter box is probably bad on me, but I'm not sure if I should stop her or not because eventually I do want them to be using the same litterbox.... As far as I can tell they both are eating and using the litter box quite normally, just that RC hates NC. RC behaves normally with me, has not become hostile with me, and has not acted out in any destructive manner.
I've been wondering if I should separate them again or if this would happen regardless if I'd done the full course of separation. RC has no issues smelling NC or even being in the same room as NC, as long as she doesn't SEE NC. I actually held NC and covered her eyes with my palm, and I was able to literally put her right on top of RC with no reaction from RC. As soon as I removed my hand and they made eye contact, RC became hostile. Is there any use to separating them? Or should I keep letting them be together while supervising their interactions as much as possible? I figure that RC can't be happy that NC is using her stuff and eating her food (I let NC eat RC's food because RC is leaving food for some reason, she usually eats all her food in one go since I do timed feeding. And NC is malnourished and very underweight), and I don't want her to feel hurt. I left them alone today for 9 hrs while I was at work, and when I returned they didn't seem to have fought, just the same old occasional hissing from RC.
Any advice would be appreciated. What would you guys do? I have read in some places that hissing between cats is normal, but I have also heard that you can mess up cats' relationship for ever because of a bad intro. I am hoping they will eventually learn to like each other more, and I hope I haven't messed up these two cats' introduction.... Thanks in advance!
I adopted a 2 yr old new cat (NC) 3 days ago. I had one resident cat (RC) who is 4 yrs old, and has always been a solo cat. Both are female domestic short hair. Since I brought NC home, I followed the traditional cat introduction steps by having prepared a spare room with all the essentials for NC, but NC meowed all day to be left out until her voice was hoarse. Even after going in to the room and showering her with attention once in a while, her incessant meowing broke my heart so I very cautiously let her out... I know I might have messed up by doing this. NC seemed very confident in exploring all around the house, even goes right up to RC's food bowl and eats from it, drinks from RC's water bowl (despite having a full set of her own, which both she and RC will eat from), sleeps in RC's favorite cushion, and has even peed / pooped in RC's litter box. Again, I recognize that this probably isn't supposed to happen so fast. I didn't stop NC because I wanted to see how RC would react. RC hissed at NC as she was leaving the litterbox, but otherwise did not fight her. RC still uses her litterbox after NC uses it, will continue to sleep on her favorite cushion, eats from her bowl after NC eats from it, etc...
RC growls and hisses at NC when she comes too close, sometimes makes a swatting motion with her paw, but has never fought NC. They often just engage in long stare offs from across the room. RC sometimes follows NC around to observe her in a crouched fashion, but usually doesn't make any advances. When she does run up when NC is getting too close to a favorite item, she stops in front of NC and just hisses. When RC hisses and postures, NC never hisses back, and either sits until RC leaves or NC slowly backs away. NC is more playful and will often run up too close to RC during feeding or play (since NC just came from a shelter, she is more used to a multi-cat environment). RC never stops NC from walking around the house, and they can both be in a room just fine. Tensions just rise when NC uses RC's stuff, like her favorite scratching post (MY ENTIRE COUCH), gets too close to her (half a meter?) or pees in her litter box. I realize that using RC's litter box is probably bad on me, but I'm not sure if I should stop her or not because eventually I do want them to be using the same litterbox.... As far as I can tell they both are eating and using the litter box quite normally, just that RC hates NC. RC behaves normally with me, has not become hostile with me, and has not acted out in any destructive manner.
I've been wondering if I should separate them again or if this would happen regardless if I'd done the full course of separation. RC has no issues smelling NC or even being in the same room as NC, as long as she doesn't SEE NC. I actually held NC and covered her eyes with my palm, and I was able to literally put her right on top of RC with no reaction from RC. As soon as I removed my hand and they made eye contact, RC became hostile. Is there any use to separating them? Or should I keep letting them be together while supervising their interactions as much as possible? I figure that RC can't be happy that NC is using her stuff and eating her food (I let NC eat RC's food because RC is leaving food for some reason, she usually eats all her food in one go since I do timed feeding. And NC is malnourished and very underweight), and I don't want her to feel hurt. I left them alone today for 9 hrs while I was at work, and when I returned they didn't seem to have fought, just the same old occasional hissing from RC.
Any advice would be appreciated. What would you guys do? I have read in some places that hissing between cats is normal, but I have also heard that you can mess up cats' relationship for ever because of a bad intro. I am hoping they will eventually learn to like each other more, and I hope I haven't messed up these two cats' introduction.... Thanks in advance!