Introduce second cat into the home
By ml4box
@ml4box (336)
China
September 1, 2008 8:26am CST
it's a hard task to introduce another cat into the home which has already owned a well established cat. the second cat will not be welcome by the first one. so we need to do something to solve it. there are five steps here:
first, keep the two cats separate; secondly, gradually introduce cats to each other;
thirdly,separate beds, toys and food bowls or something else; last, treat the cats equally.
but if it doesn't work, what can we do?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@Lavender_Breeze (373)
• United States
1 Sep 08
Ours took to each other immediately. We were rather surprised. We'd had the first cat for 6 years. We brought home the new one and let him sit in his crate for a bit and the older one smelled around a bit and was very curious. A little later on, we opened the crate and they were interested in one another, a little skittish, but they were fine together. They share a bed, toys, a scratching post and a litter box. The only thing they don't share is personalities. LOL!
1 person likes this
@Lavender_Breeze (373)
• United States
1 Sep 08
Oh, they are like kids, alright. LOL! But I wouldn't know about the kitten thing altogether. One of our cats is a full grown adult, the new one was younger.
@ElicBxn (63233)
• United States
1 Sep 08
Its been found that if you keep the new cat seperate, and then, for a few hours let the new cat into the old cat's area while putting the first cat into the new cats area, it allows them to accept their smells.
I will say, give more attention to the old cat, the new cat KNOWS he's not the first cat and while he may be demanding and needy, just make sure that your first cat gets all the attention he needs too.
I have to say that there are some cats that just will NEVER accept another cat. I have a friend who has one and I know a lady with a cat she named Solo because this cat hates EVERYONE, including her, except her little mousie toy.
I've been fortunate that if a cat came in hating everyone, well, they just had to live with the rest some how. My gang will check out, even hiss, but are pretty accepting of newcomers these days, but they will join together if the newcomer is aggressive. That stops pretty quick.
@vogelvrij (196)
• Netherlands
1 Sep 08
We have 2 cats left, we started with 5. I wanted to introduce a 3 one also, but its now peaceful in the house. If you let another cat in, it can react to a fight between the cats, because they then have to determine (again) who's the boss and who are the underdogs. It can run smoothly, as said in one of the answers, if you take a kitten. The older one will mother over that tiny one and dont see it as a danger. But otherwise you can expect some fighting. And you can not interfere in that, they have to fight it out themselves. You can easy the atmosphere for every cat in the house by dropping 5 drops of Bach Blossem Remedy against Stress in the drinking bowl. That will ease them all together. So than it would be nicer for you.
