Please excuse if this has been covered before, but I am hoping to get some advice before it is too late.
We have 2 DSH cats one boy and one girl and are both 10 years old. We lost our 11 year old British Shorthair to the dreaded cancer in December 2010.
My wife and I thought we would like another British Shorthair, but instead of getting a kitten we would get one that one that needed re-homing.
We found a Chocolate BSH 5 year old neutered boy who had a stud boy, and we picked him up yesterday. Last night went OK and apart from a bit of hissing from the 10 year old boy all seemed well. We made sure that the 10 year old were separated from the new arrival during the night.
This morning the older cats went out into the garden as they do every day came and back in around 17.00.
To our surprise our new arrival attacked the older boy and actually got a few pieces of hind quarter fur out with his claws. I have now separated to older ones from the new arrival, and would like to know what I should do to calm the situation to normality.

Please help if you can so that will be able to revert to back to a normal cat loving household again.

regards
Laurie
Skelmersdale

Living Together - Introducing a New Cat

have a look through this articel and see how many of the "proper" introduction technques you can use.

Basically the new guy sounds very dominant... I think you're going to have your work cut out here.

He (Mr New Guy) has to fit in around your other two resident cats, and not the other way around.

Can I ask....

when was he neuetered (the new guy I mean) ????

.... I am just wondering if hormones are still playing an issue here.

basically though, read the messybeast article and start off by putting the new guy in a spare bedroom for the time being. That's step 1.

Step 2 will depend on .... your home (is it 2 floors or 1), do you have glass doors or not, do you have a dog crate or cat pen....

start off though by seperatation.

He is attacking the resident cats which is NOT good, and it could very easily seriously escalate.

If you don't have feliway defusers, then I would recommend getting at least two.

Many thanks for the comments and also the link. We are going through that link material a the moment.
In answer to your question how long has the new boy been neuetered, the answer is 3 months.
I hope that will shed some light on his behavior.
Laurie

well.... I think we can rule out hormones.

which ........... well.......... I was actually hoping you'd say he was just castrated last week.... then I (although I am no expert on ex stud cats who have just been castrated) I would have thought that he needed more time for the hormones to get out of his system, but seeing as he's been done for 3 months, and the general wisdom says that most hormones go within a fortnight to a month and all hormones are gone after 2 months, well.... I think we can safely say it isn't hormones.

When you have more time, tell us a bit about your home (how many floors, if you have glass doors, if you have or could beg, borrow or steal a decent sized cat or dog pen).

it's so hard to say how to do introductions when we don't know the situation in any given home. BUT... we'll get there !! Just means a lot of asking and answering of questions.

scratch what I said. I don't seem to be conveying myself very well atm. Plus I'm not experienced with studs.

But what I will say is that a much slower introduction with your kitties and the new boy definately sounds like a good idea.

__________________

Many thanks for reply, and I will try to give you some information about our house.

The house is on 2 floors.
Ground floor is open plan with living room, dining room and kitchen. There are 2 glass doors - one at each end of the open plan area both leading to the hall.

Hall, stairs and landing leading to 3 bedrooms, and the only glass doors are the one leading into the living area and one leading directly into the kitchen. All part of the open plan area.

One of the bedrooms is spare with only minimum furniture installed.

I don't know anyone who has a cat pen.

Question: would the diffusers be of any use?

We really don't want to take the new boy back as he is so docile and laid back.

We do have a conservatory which is not heated and is the normal entrance and exit for our other two cats to the garden. The come through the conservatory into the open plan area to get into the house.

I will answer any other questions this house description generates.

Thank you for taking the trouble to help me with is for us is quite a difficult situation.

Laurie

If you’ve read the messybeast article, you’ll know what the theory behind this is (basically controlled and gradual introductions). You just have to decide how, and where, you want to do it. No two situations (homes, resident cats, new cats) are the same.

How the cats are, well that dictates how you proceed. Different rules apply to confident well balanced cats than would apply to nervy shy timid cats. You can set the new guy up temporarily in the spare room for the time being, but you still have to think ahead to visual and then actual contact for all 3. Or you could try him in the conservatory or the hall (I’m guessing from both areas he can be seen by the resident cats?) and see how that goes. This really depends on how the cats are (if the resident cats were really spooked by the new guy, I’d go for bedroom for the time being, if they’re not, then really you are just trying to avoid fighting, but encouraging looking and seeing, so a pen or the glass doors would be great.

In these kind of situations pens/crates can be worth their weight in gold. It might be worth looking into hiring/renting one from your vets or local shelter. Or maybe the breeder who you rehomed him from would have one you could borrow????

How are you resident cats reacting to him (both before and after the attack)… are they appearing nervous of him at all, indifferent, or mirroring his aggression.

I know you said he (the new guy) is docile and laid back, is that just with you guys or with the other cats too? How is he reacting to your two resident cats.

Are all 3 cats eating and appearing for the rest “normal”? No stress issues? Nothing ttoo out of the ordinary???

Feliway diffusers, some owners swear by them, they are certainly worth trying, I have had a lot of success with them with some cats and some issues, and less success with other cats and other issues. But I would always try them, they can make a massive difference. These would be one of the first things any feline behaviourist would recommend to you.

Once you decide which way you’re gonna do it (i.e is the new going into a pen in the living room or getting set up in the hall or conservatory) then we can see if we can help you further. Basically though what you are looking for with whatever set up you choose, is for all 3 cats to be relaxed with it, then you progress to the next stage. By relaxed I mean, say new guy is in the living room in a pen (or in the hall, looking thru the glass door) if all 3 cats will eat and sleep and relax in that “proximity” to each other, then you can move on to the next stage. If one or more is edgy/not eating/goes off and hides, then you start doing things like playing with them, encouraging them with food and so on, grooming sessions in proximity to each other and so on.

So between all my waffling, I think what I am trying to say is… tell us a bit more about the characters and temperaments of all 3, and a bit about how all 3 appear to coping with the changes. And how you think you’re going to approach it… new guy in the hall, conservatory, cat pen in the living room? … just let us know.

And don’t even think of taking him back… nothing you have said yet is that bad -- he just sounds a bit of a bossy self-assured guy, and you just need to avoid actual fights (like occured yesterday). Besides, I am hoping to rehome a BSH ex-stud of the same age in a year or so from now, and I also have two resident cats at home (10 and 4 this year they will be), so I need this practice, hehe.

Also start as soon as you can with the transferring of scents things that is explained in the messybeast article.

All the best for now (and sorry if my tyoing is weird, I have new galsses today and they are taking quite a bit of getting used to)

All the information digested and I am trying to get the cats to be normal with each other. I do have some success which Ii will outline blow, but first I will answer your questions.

Before the attack both residents were just plain curious and showed no signs of rejection. The female resident (Fudge) is a nervous cat normally and doesn't even let her brother (Ginger) get too close.

After the attack Ginger is very wary of the new boy and keeps out the way.

We have segregated them with new boy in lounge area and Ginger & Fudge in the Hall/Stairs/Bedroom area.

All cats are eating normal.

We do have some good news about the new boy and Fudge. With a lot of patience we have got new boy and Fudge accepting each other with only the occasional Hiss by Fudge. Both of them are sleeping in the lounge all night with no problems.

We have acquired a cage and I would like your advice on the best way to use it. We have decided that the ideal place for the cage is in the conservatory and we have been trying to get Ginger used to the new boy by putting him is the same room. He does run under the furniture if left on his own with new boy in the cage.

How long should we leave them together with new boy in the cage and Ginger in the same room. Should we be in the room with them.

I look forward to your comments.

Well first things first… I am no expert on this, so I can make mistakes.

What I would do is put the new boy in the cage only when you guys are at home…

put the cage in the living room (or wherever you guys spend the majority of your time)

With the new guy in the cage you should find that Ginger doesn’t run off and hide behind the sofa or under the furniture. If Ginger tries to leave the room the crate is in, close the door but keep the sessions short.

How long you do this for is totally dependant on how all 3 cats react… if all 3 are relatively calm then it’s obviously allowed for far longer times than if either of the 3 get stressed by it.

Say you decide to put the new guy and his cage in the living room tonight, then personally I wouldn’t feed any of the cats prior to that. Hungry cats are easier to … well… more open to human manipulation.

With the new guy in his cage, get three portions of their favourite food and feed them as close together to each other as they will comfortably tolerate. That can be Fudge and Ginger a meter from the cage, or it can mean they are both 10 meters from the cage. That doesn’t really matter. What matters most is that they eat in the proximity of each other. And whatever distance they eat from each other today, is shortened tomorrow. Just shortened by a tiny distance, but shortened none the less.

Shorten the distances between their feeding bpwls and lengthen the overall time of the “getting to know eachother” sessions with each day.

Say Fudge & Gingers bowls are 4 meters from Newguys cage today, tomorrow shove them 50cm closer to the cage.

say the session tonight lasts an hour. Go for an hour and half tomorrow.

or whatever… just do the increases gradually, and let the cats dictate the pace.

it could very well be that Ginger relaxes totally with newguy in the cage, then that’s a great sign.

Play with all the cats when you have the new boy caged. Particularly with Ginger as he seems to be the one needing the most reassurance.

If they all like getting groomed, then groom them in the presence of each other.

the idea is just to get them all relaxed in the presence of eachother. If Ginger tries to bugger off upstairs, close the doors. (but keep the sessions short if any cat is getting stressed)

Do use the tips on the messybeast website for the transferring of scents (from Fudge to new guy and vice versa. It sounds dumb, but it does work). Swap bedding between the new guy and the other two as well.

Personally I don’t know if I would go off and leave the new guy in the cage. A lot of people do but you have to know the cage is big enough for everything he needs (litter, food, water) and well to be perfectly honest I just think it was be a lot better to keep them in separate rooms and get them used ot being around eachother when you’re at home. And hopefully with a week or tw they’ll be fine left to their own devices when you’re not home.

Be sure you have enough litter trays for 3 cats (rule of thumb, certainly for the early days of integration, is one per cat and one extra0. You can always cut back down later if they are all pooping and peeing as they’re supposed to.

Use some thought over the positioning of the litter trays… not in a busy part of the home, but also not so they need to go through an army assault course to get to their trays.

You don’t have to stay in the room 100% of the time, just as long as you’re in the general vicinity. Go about your daily business by all means, just keep any eye on them... THOUGH I do find that cat's react far better to introductions when we attemto them at a time of day when we can sit down and relax and spend some time playing with them/grooming/feeding cta treats etc.

I hope this helps.