Talk to your vet about a little of this
or something similar for your older male cat for a short period of time (and wean him off it VERY gradually), otherwise Rebelbase's comment may suddenly not seem so bizarre.
Posted on 04/23/2012 4:55:07 PM PDT by carton253
Just need some advice on how best to introduce two kittens to a 9 year old male cat.
On Saturday night, I just got two kittens (very cute) and Smeagol (the male cat) spent the first two days hiding in the bedroom. Now, he is making an appearance and he is a third curious, a third scared, and a third hostile.
My question is this... when I go to work, should I keep Smeagol and the kittens separated? Would it be wrong to keep Smeagol in the bedroom (where he has been hiding out)? As silly as it seems, I don't want him to think tht he is being punished. Should I confine the kittens? Or would it be okay just to keep the status quo and let Smeagol come to terms with the kittens.
I don't know if Smeagol would hurt the kittens...whereas the kittens could care less about the Smeagol. He's just the cat that runs back and forth from the kitchen to the bedroom.
Thank you for you help.
Any help you can give me would be appreciated.
Replace the food in his bowl with the kittens.
That’s helpful.
The 9-year old is NOT going to like the change. That’s just a cat’s nature. They like things to move SLOWLY.
If you can, keep the two kittens in a separate room for a while. Allow the 9-year old to smell them through the bottom of the door. Eventually, he will become used to the scents. You’ll have an idea of this when he stops growling.
After this, slowly introduce the kittens. Be patient! I suspect that the 9-year old won’t exactly LIKE them, but he’ll come to tolerate them.
Speaking from experience...
Your mature cat and the kittens should be fine out together and alone. If the adult gets too rough, the kittens need free run of the house to find a good spot to hide.
Smeagol will act as the dominate cat as it was his house. the kittens will learn to accept that.
I’m no expert, my 5 are all from one big happy family, mama and 4 kittens
But I would not leave everyone alone, unsupervised until I knew the old man accepted the youngins or until the youngins got to be the old man’s size.
I would try to confine the kids and let the old man have the run of the house rather than confine him.
I would suggest you introduce the kittens under your supervision...and pay much attention to your older Tom. Cats do respond to feedback...but their natural urges are powerful.
See if you can nuture your older cat's paternal instincts.
Male cats do have a pateral instinct...but it needs to be encouraged.
Also, cats, if they trust you implicitly, will respond to negative feedback. I use a spray bottle of water and after using it give much reinforcement (saying that I love you though I want a different response).
Good luck...you are attempting to thread a very difficult needle!
Ping ,Cat.
I love cats!
I’d keep the grown cat seperate from the kittens while at work for awhile.
Congrats on the new kettehs, and best of luck.
Get a dog to separate them fighting. Series!
Talk to your vet about a little of this
or something similar for your older male cat for a short period of time (and wean him off it VERY gradually), otherwise Rebelbase's comment may suddenly not seem so bizarre.
Try having some real fun, like I did. Introduce a 10 year old cat, the household’s Senior Fur Person, to an insecure nine week old Great Dane puppy who outweighs her my more than two to one.
Try having some real fun, like I did. Introduce a 10 year old cat, the household’s Senior Fur Person, to an insecure nine week old Great Dane puppy who outweighs her my more than two to one.
There’s one in every crowd.
CusinArt.......short quick pulses 1 min
I bet you did have fun.
A male neutered young is unlikely to hurt kittens, but I'd still take it very slow.
Thank you... I just want to make sure everyone gets along.
Boil 50 min. Let cool.
No, he is neutered.
That is exactly the advice I was going to give. I wish I had done this years ago when I introduced a 2nd cat to my male cat. We had feline war in my home for 3 months.
Thank you for your help. I think I will give Smeagol the run of the bedroom (where he spends much of his time anywhere) and the bathroom (his version of Disneyland) and let the kittens have the rest of the house.
My Question for Cat Lovers is why my co-worker’s cat climbed the tree during the day on Friday and still remains there today despite their best efforts to coax it down. These efforts included risking breaking their bones, or worse, atop a 25 foot ladder, etc. No food, no water, high winds, rain and quite cold temperatures didn’t induce the cat to come down. And it’s a grown cat, not a kitten.
This reinforces my observations that cats, while they certainly may be cute, lovable and interesting at times, are dumb as a box of rocks.
If ya like or love cats, fine. I have nothing in particular against them. I have lived with several but I prefer dogs whose affections are demonstrative and unfailing and they are smart enough to come in out of the rain.
If you leave them alone they will be fine. The key point here is not to let the older one feel foresaken for the newbies.
Pay the old man special attention while the newbies and he get acclimated to each other. Cosmic Catnip is the perfect treat for him as the kittens have not developed and affinity for catnip yet.
They will never be perfect pals but things will work out just fine if he doesn’t feel his “position” with you has been compromised by the kittens.
It’s obvious that the 9 year old male tom behaved stupidly. I’d suggest a catnip summit at the Whitehouse.
Thank you for sharing your preference. LOL!
After my little kitty, Kelsey, died I wanted to give her brother, Bailey, a companion. I brought home Gracie and she kept going up to Bailey, he would hiss, she would retreat, then start all over again. this kept going on all day then that night she was curled up next to him and both were sleeping soundly. Bailey tolerated her for some time but now they are as close as ever. Bailey is 17 and when he dies, I don’t know what I’ll do cuz Gracie is the meanest ketteh I know! Now, introducing my puppies to my kitties was an experience I NEVER want to go through ever again!
I have been making sure that Smeagol gets first attention. Food, hellos and making special trips into the bedroom to spend time with him.
Good luck! Just remember, cats are TRUE creatures of habit. They don’t like change, but can be coaxed into it.
Don’t know how to advise. We just got a new baby kitteh, and he’s earned his first nickname. Chupacabra. Our Queen, Little Girl, has been the boss, and she no likee Chupacabra. He’s a tiger cat.
That’s what happened with Mr. Boots and Scout. There was a heated confrontation, then they were inseparable.
You can expect the old cat to bring up the kittens signup date as proof of the little ones’ inferiority whenever some issue between them arises.
That’s just funny.
You are SUCH a nOOb! Hey, today's my 14th Anniversary on FR! Hah!
The funniest moment was the introduction. Canute, the puppy, was sitting on my bed when kitty entered the room. She looked at him with a huge double take and I could just see her thinking, “O, heavens, another one to train.” Canute, who’d never seen a cat in his sheltered life, looked askance at this strange, slightly menacing furry thing, and let out a puppy growl followed by a puppy woof. Now, a bit more than a year later, Canute, weighing about 102 lb., is fascinated by her but knows well enough ot to get too close to kitty, who only weighs about eight lb.
Maybe you buy a dog.
Have your time with the old man, and he will be OK with almost anything. Remember, the kittens are just another dominion of his. You are the one constant that needs to reassure him that he has not been supplanted by interlopers.
Get a carrier
Put the kittens in and then throw in the male cat.
:)
Also, get second litter box and park it along side of the first, and make sure that everyone has their own food bowl for soft food for a while.
I’m not big on soft food, but for the short term let this be one of those things where the dry food is community, but everyone has their own bowl, in different locations in the kitchen at breakfast. They will eat separately, find their own spot for a bath and then sleep off breakfast.
BTW the old man will love the “high fat” dry kitten food for a while but don’t let him eat too much of it ;-)
They will settle it. I've done the same thing several times, including introducing catz to dogs and dogs to catz.
Unless someone is bleeding arterial blood, let them sort it out.
/johnny
That is so not right. I love it.
Forwarding the photo to wife. Yer on yer own from there ;)
I've got a picture of my male cat sitting in the doorway of the kennel in front of the poor dog, who was peeking out of the kennel looking threatened.
/johnny
Amen. When I brought in my last rescue kitten, the senior catz wouldn't let him through to the box. Or would trap him in the box and hammer him.
I put three of them throughout the house so the senior catz couldn't cover all of them.
/johnny
We had a male Russian Blue who helped take care of a litter. He carried them around and bathed them like he knew they were his. He also trained himself to use the toilet, didn’t like the litter box. I had him for over 20 years.
By now Sweet Tea, my somewhat elderly cat, has trained three dogs, the first (now deceased), a 65 lb. Weimador, the second (still vibrantly alive) an 85 lb. Pitador, and now the 102 lb. Dane, Canute. Because of her legendary dog training talent, the 8 lb. Sweet Tea needs to have her name changed to Princess, as in Princess of Pain. Kitties who haven’t been declawed are extradorinary dog trainers, regardless of the size of their canine victims.
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