Many cat owners don't realize that their friendly, solitary adult cats may have problems with a new kitten.
A new kitten will usually be eager to make friends, but older cats in the house may not want anything to do with the baby. Often older cats seem sad, withdrawn, hiss a lot, and sometimes even stop eating if they are not adapting well to the new family member.
This behavior is explained by the fact that cats do not like change, especially when it concerns their territory. Introducing a kitten to an adult cat can be very stressful, but there are some things you can do to help make the introduction smoother.
Preparation is the key to successfully introducing your new kitten to your cat. If you prepare your cat for her new pet and make the changes less drastic, she will be more likely to adjust to the kitten.
Give yourself (and your cat) plenty of time to prepare for this adaptation with the following steps.
This is the cat of the author of the article Fuhrer with a new cat Bullet, lying on his favorite tattered chair
Calm your cat
Pheromones are useful in creating a calm environment for any cat. The weeks leading up to the arrival of a new kitten in the house are a great time to take advantage of them.
Diffusers, sprays and wipes are all available and can help your cat feel relaxed without the use of medication. Try using pheromones for at least a few weeks before bringing your kitten home.
If you suspect your adult cat will be stressed and anxious with a new kitten, consider supplements designed to calm her down.
They will help your pet stay calm and relaxed.
Supplements usually work best if given several weeks before the expected stressful event and can be continued after the new kitten arrives.
These ingredients typically include L-theanine, phellodendron, magnolia, whey or milk protein, and other natural ingredients proven to be safe and effective for pets.
Aggression in a cat: why does it happen?
Cats tend to be possessive, even if they have spent their entire lives sharing a home with other pets. However, if one of the pets takes it to the next level and makes life difficult for the other cat, it's no longer just a game.
Paying close attention to your cat's body language can help identify signs of aggression:
- Gaze.
- Hiss.
- Biting.
- The pursuit.
- Scratch.
- Aggressive stance, arched back, fluffy tail, curled or flattened ears, dilated pupils.
In some cases, the cause of a cat's attack of aggression is obvious: meeting a new cat or other pet, or even the appearance of a newborn baby in the house.
More obvious types of aggression - such as biting, attacking, etc. - often result in physical harm. But aggression is usually aimed at asserting its dominant position, and not at intimidation.
As the American Association of Cat Practitioners notes, “Aggressors can control another animal’s access to food, litter boxes, resting and sleeping areas, and attention from owners, which usually results in isolation of the victim.” If you don't pay close attention, you may not even notice the signs of bullying.
Prepare the house
New items for your kitten, such as food bowls, beds, another litter box, toys, should be placed in the house before the kitten arrives home.
Start placing items in new locations about a week before arrival so your adult cat can smell them and get used to them. If you can, try bringing items that already have kitty scent on them.
Make sure you are ready to adopt a kitten yourself.
If you are stressed and unprepared, your adult cat will be able to tell and be negatively influenced.
Designate a small room, such as a bathroom, for your new kitten to have privacy in for the first week or so. Your older cat should be able to reach the door of this room to hear and smell the kitten, but not have any interaction with it.
Place the kitten's belongings (such as a litter box and food bowls) in this room along with a toy that belongs to the older cat.
Mature kittens
Cats are very sensitive not only about territory, but also jealously protect their offspring. If the mother shows aggressiveness towards the kittens, then there is a good reason for this :
- She might be sick.
- There is no milk.
- The kittens are already teething and they are causing her pain.
- The kitten is weak, not viable, she does not allow him to have a pacifier so that there is more milk for the rest.
Cats sometimes nurse kittens for up to a year, but most often the maternal instinct lasts for up to six months. After which the mother refuses to feed them, showing that they have already grown up enough and it’s time to cope on their own. You notice that the cat has begun to hiss at her kittens.
No matter how cruel such behavior may seem to a person, it has a good reason. When a cat hisses at her own kittens, this does not mean she is cruel, it’s just that ancient instincts that guide her have awakened in her. You can't punish her for this! A cat's hissing at kittens always has a good reason.
At this moment, the babies must be given to another owner. If you want to keep one of them for yourself, you need to monitor the behavior of your pets, since the mother, emphasizing her primacy in the hierarchy, may be aggressive towards the baby. In this situation, she will not only hiss at the kitten; more aggressive actions are also possible. After a couple of weeks, the cat will calm down, take a position and stop hissing at the kitten.
© shutterstock
Prepare the cat
Make sure your cat is healthy. Adding additional stress to an unhealthy cat will only make the situation worse. Take your cat to the vet to make sure she is healthy and her vaccinations are up to date.
Respiratory illnesses are common in kittens, so you want your adult cat's immune system to be ready to handle whatever comes along.
While some cats accept a kitten right away, others usually need a little time to adjust to the changes. Sometimes cats never fully accept a new kitten, but simply coexist while staying away from it.
Introduce your cat to a new kitten
When you bring your kitten home, let your cat sniff while the kitten is in the carrier or in your arms. Go straight to the room pre-designated for your new kitten and let him explore it.
The litter tray, food bowls, bed and some toys should be easily accessible. Don't allow your older cat to have unsupervised access to the kitten.
At night, when you are not home and you cannot supervise the kitten and your older cat, keep the kitten in its designated room with the door closed.
When your cat becomes curious, she may stick her paw under the door, sniff under the door, and listen to the kitten. Do this for about a week, depending on how your cat reacts to the changes.
Remember to give your older cat plenty of attention after playing with the kitten. He will need your attention and support, and the smell of the kitten on your clothes will help him get used to the newcomer.
How to help your cat accept a new kitten in the house?
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For an adult cat, any disruption to the established rhythm of life is stressful. Often it can even be caused by rearranging the furniture, let alone a new kitten. Whether or not a pet will accept a new family member largely depends on the age and socialization of the cat, as well as its character. What to do and what not to do, on the contrary, to help your pet in such a situation?
Why is it difficult for cats to accept new people into their family?
The reasons lie in their genetic memory. In the wild, most cat species are solitary. They sleep and hunt independently, and unite only during mating.
Feral cats, those that live in and outside yards, often form prides, but these include only related females (and sometimes one male). Male kittens are expelled upon reaching sexual maturity. Cats rarely accept new members, and even then they have to live on the edge of the territory for a long time until they get used to them.
How to help your cat accept a new kitten in the house?
1. Separate bowls
This applies to both the food bowl and drinking bowl. Moreover, they need to be placed not side by side, but at a distance, preferably at different ends of the room. The kitten needs to buy everything new; you shouldn’t take away things that are familiar to an adult cat and give them to the new one: she definitely won’t appreciate it.
2. Separate trays
It is best to purchase trays at the rate of “one per cat + 1”. That is, if you now have two cats, you should take care of three trays so that everyone is comfortable. At the same time, there should be no direct visibility between them when the cat and kitten occupy them at the same time.
3. Gradual acquaintance
There is no need to immediately introduce the baby to the rightful owner upon arrival home (and this is exactly what your cat considers herself to be). She will most likely begin to hiss, and may even try to hit the newcomer. It is better to keep cats in different rooms for some time. This is also important from the point of view of compliance with quarantine: especially if the new kitten is taken from a shelter or from the street. Let them get acquainted through a closed door, then you can leave it ajar so that the pets can sniff each other, but at the same time they cannot reach each other. When the reaction of the older cat becomes more or less friendly, you can let the kitten walk around the house under your supervision. You can only leave them unattended when the pets have interacted favorably in your presence several times. Favorable - this means they didn’t fight, didn’t try to rush and didn’t hiss at each other.
4. Relaxation area for an adult cat
Most kittens are spontaneous. Most likely, they grew up among brothers and got used to society. And they, like all children, are curious and fearless. Surely your kitten will pester its new friend, try to play with her, as he previously played with his mother or brothers. Not every cat will like this. Therefore, organize a place for your pet that is inaccessible to the kitten, where she can hide from him at any time and relax.
5. Make time for both
To avoid jealousy in an old cat, do not switch to a new pet completely. Continue playing with her, do not scold her for disliking the kitten: such behavior can give the opposite result to the desired one. At the same time, adapt the kitten with games and attention so that the cat does not have time to get bored with it.
It is also useful to pet the kitten, and then in the same hand offer the cat her favorite treat, so that she associates the smell of the new pet with something good. You can do the same when you see that a cat and kitten are interacting well.
6. Avoid strife
If the cat suddenly attacks the kitten, immediately clap your hands loudly or drop something loud, such as keys, to scare it and discourage it from doing so in the future. In such cases, you can keep a spray bottle of water nearby.
7. Pheromones
You can look in veterinary pharmacies or pet stores for wipes and aerosols with special pheromones, which will make the cat feel more relaxed. This will help her quickly get used to the new furry resident.
What methods did you use to successfully introduce pets? Leave your answers in the comments. We will be glad to read them.
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Encourage spending time together
After about a week, the kitten can be allowed to explore the house under your watchful eye. Let your cat watch this exploration and leave if she wants.
Don't force interactions between your cat and kitten. If your cat has a favorite interactive toy, such as a pen wand or laser pointer, try playing with both cats at the same time.
This will stimulate mutual activity.
You can also give them both treats at the same time and feed them from different bowls at the same time. Be sure to leave enough space between food bowls so your cat doesn't feel threatened.
Encourage any positive interactions your older cat has with your kitten using praise, treats, and physical affection. Make sure your cat associates the kitten with happy, positive things.
New pregnancy
In cats, the period between conceptions can be quite short. If she had the opportunity to leave the house, then a second pregnancy is not excluded. Then she will not be able to feed the kittens and will try to get rid of them. Expecting new offspring, the cat will show aggressiveness towards her kittens and will hiss at them in an attempt to drive them away. In this situation, it is necessary to isolate the kittens from their mother and feed them from a pipette or nipple.
© shutterstock
Let the cat establish a hierarchy
Cats need to have order, and the new family member needs to know where he is. Your cat may go through a period of time where she tries to establish a hierarchy with the new kitten.
Your older cat may hiss and spank the kitten when the newbie does something unfavorable. This is completely normal, and while he's just hissing and slapping, do your best not to interfere.
Your cat thus establishes her role as the dominant cat in the household, and the kitten is taught where her boundaries are as a new cat.
How to relieve aggression in a cat
Living with an aggressive cat is stressful for all family members, including humans. In order to stop hostility from one of your cats, you should start by closely monitoring its daily activities to identify signs of hidden aggression. A cat exhibiting aggressive or dominant behavior does not necessarily mean that it is an aggressive or dominant animal.
“Aggression is not a diagnosis or a personality trait of a cat, but a consequence of an emotional state,” explains International Cat Care. An aggressive cat—or any other cat, for that matter—should not be physically punished because this can lead to more fear and more aggression. Instead, you should focus your efforts on calming an aggressive cat.
To do this, rough play and fighting should be discouraged, as they can promote aggression. You can feed the cats in different places and install more litter boxes to give each cat the feeling that it has its own territory. You can also double the number of cat toys and beds.
Pets sometimes don't want to share their owners. If a cat hisses or growls when another cat clings to its owner, it is in this way trying to secure its dominant position. By safely removing the aggressor cat from the scene, the owner will let the cats know that such behavior is unacceptable. But you should never interfere in a fight between cats to avoid injury. It is worth redirecting their attention by making a loud noise or throwing a toy in the opposite direction.
Positive reinforcement for good behavior must not be forgotten, as it may take weeks or even months to bring about change. If a cat's aggression towards another cat is considered excessive, it is necessary to speak with a veterinarian to rule out health problems.
Cats may not be the best of friends, but by patiently getting them to show at least basic courtesy towards each other, you can create a happy and harmonious home for all its inhabitants.
Problems and correct behavior
Don't give up if the first meetings are not positive. It may take time for older cats to get used to a younger cat.
A common mistake is to rush socialization between cats and then get angry or upset when it doesn't work out.
Stay calm and work gradually to bring the cats together. Try to time your interactions and gradually increase the amount of time you spend together.
If your older cat is particularly aggressive towards the new kitten, talk to your veterinarian or behaviorist for advice.
Watch a funny video about how the small cat Bullet tries to drive the adult cat Fuhrer away from his bowl, although her bowl is full. And how carefully and gently an adult cat “educates” an unreasonable, cocky little feline creature.
