When to introduce cats?

[MojoTuxedo]

My family adopted an 11 month old cat (Joey) a few days ago. He is staying in one room right now. Our other cat (Jack) keeps trilling at him through the door and sometimes Joey trills back. Jack is outside of Joey’s door, meowing and trilling for at least an hour everyday. He lays there instead of sleeping on the cat tree like he usually does.
They also like to playfully hit each other under the door. Once, Jack got into Joey’s room for a few seconds and they were play fighting. No pinned ears, spiked tail, arched back, hissing or growling, or any signs of stress. After that incident, Joey has been trilling and meowing at Jack more.
Joey is very confident in his room already and almost never hides anymore. He’s been trying to get out whenever we open the door and sometimes scratches the door.
When should we let the cats meet?

 

[duncanmac]

I had this exact same question two years ago. There is no real answer. Someone will post the ultimate cat introduction guide soon. Read that.

How old is Jack and is everyone fixed?

They have met briefly and seem interested and playful. When you can, put up a baby gate (or two) or crack the door a couple of inches and see what they do. If they seem ok then let them interact directly, but keep an eye on them for excessive dominance or real fighting (its loud - play fighting is relatively quiet). Let them interact until they seem to have had enough and then separate them for a while or overnight. This interaction will hopefully get much longer quickly -- then it is over night and eventually you're done.

 

[ramscici]

Hi there! Congratulations on your new buddy.

There is no hard and fast guide to cat introductions. The standard advice is to do it slowly over the course of a week or a couple of weeks, if it's not going well, and intermix their scents first, then let them see each other through a gate, etc. etc.

In my case, when I adopted Ramses (my male) into the home with a resident kitty Celeste (female), they were both 5 months old and our space didn't really allow for a slow intro process. I let them sniff at each other from separate rooms but Celeste was so curious that I was letting them view each other almost immediately. There was some hissing and uncertainty but by the next day they were already in the same room together. They worked it out very quickly. No serious fighting, just some hissing and then they were pals by the end of the week.

No two kitties are the same, but I think the trilling is an even better start than mine had, and especially if they are both males and neutered I don't foresee there being any real issues. Cats figure things out pretty well as long as there is supervision and no aggression is allowed to escalate into anything serious. Another good tip is to feed them treats together / play with them together so they quickly learn that the other is a positive friend and not competition or an enemy.

Good luck!

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. In case you want the Introduction article to look over, as D duncanmac mentioned - see below link(s). How old is Jack? I have included another article that might apply if Jack is older.
How To Successfully Introduce Cats: The Ultimate Guide – Cat Articles
How To Introduce A Kitten To An Older Cat – Cat Articles

 

[Sonatine]

It sounds like it's going really well already! Some cat intros go super fast and you can skip steps. Mine did; now mine play fight (it looks super rough, but they make very little sound except when one slams the other into a wall...), and even groom each other, and it all took only a few days. Others will go much longer (months, even), with most falling in between.

It seems like they're ready to see each other, especially if they played instead of fighting or hissing when one got into the other's room. Read the cat intro articles above, too, but don't ignore your instincts. Often, you'll know when it's time to progress things.

 

[MojoTuxedo]

Jack is 8 months old. Both of them are neutered. When they were play fighting, I didn’t really hear anything besides the sound of them rolling on the floor.
We are going to take Joey to the vet first to make sure he doesn’t have anything wrong with him. He probably doesn’t because he already got dewormed and treated for an URI at the adoption center.
So far we have exchanged some blankets with their scents on them. Jack sleeps on the blanket with Joey’s scent and Joey likes to lay on the blanket with Jack’s scent.
Sometimes we crack the door open a little bit but they mostly just sniff each other and Jack tries to stick his paws in.
Jack keeps meowing a lot near Joey and it bugs my parents. My mom doesn’t want to introduce them yet.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I don't know what kind of meowing Jack is doing, but if there is a hint of distress in it, that might be discouraging your mom from moving forward. Read the above articles, but you might be able to jump ahead to the process of using a two-tier baby gate (or similar set up) to let them see each other through it for hours at a time. Perhaps, if all goes well with this approach, your mom might be more willing to go further with intros.

 

[MojoTuxedo]

Jack is trilling and meowing right after. My dad wants to let them meet but my mom says she doesn’t want Joey to sneeze or something and get Jack sick so she won’t let them see each other until Joey is seen by the vet.
Joey does not have any symptoms so I think it should be fine.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Actually, it is not a bad idea to have Joey checked out before the two are allowed to start getting close to each other. Hopefully, you can get the vet check up scheduled sooner rather than later!!! Just remember in order to try to avoid any additional issues, rub towels on Joey that have Jack's scent on them (or his own scent) when you get back from the vets to ensure there is no non-recognition issues due the Joey smelling differently from being at the vet's.

 

[MojoTuxedo]

My mom scheduled an appointment for next week. I don’t know if my dad will be ok with the constant meowing and trilling for another week because his work room is right next to the cat’s room.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Perhaps tell your dad that it would likely be best to delay the introductions until after Joey gets back from the vet - not only from the health perspective, but starting an introduction process only to have Joey go to the vet at the onset might actually reverse any progress made - and, could backfire making the meowing/noises worse.

 

[MojoTuxedo]

My dad let Joey into the hallway. Him and Jack were play fighting again. Joey also groomed Jack a little bit.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Glad it went well!

 

[MojoTuxedo]

My dad let Jack into Joey’s room. They were play fighting a lot and Jack kept holding down Joey to groom him. Joey also groomed Jack’s tail.

 

[MojoTuxedo]

Joey has a slight cold but he is getting better with some immune booster than the vet gave us. They get along very well now.