Good day all
My wife and I decided to get a kitten, she wasn’t too keen at first but after a few weeks of having Bella she was very happy with things and suggested that we get a mate for Bella. Bella was born on the 30th of April 2010.
Bella’s mum then got pregnant again and my wife approached the family we got Bella from and asked if they have any boys as we would like a mate for Bella they said yes, and we could have one.
After reading on the internet on how to introduce a kitten to an existing cat we had a bit of a plan. Bella has the run of the house and wasn’t too interested in the front lounge so we would set this room up as a room for (little) Leroy we put his food in there and some of Bella’s toys that she had lost interest in and went to pick Leroy up on Sunday evening, he was born early September 2010.
We got in the front door and Bella wasn’t too interested or bothered about the slight meowing coming from the travel box, we put the box on the floor and Bella came up to it and looked in and sniffed around it.
After a while she walked off so we opened the box and out came Leroy, Bella came back after a while and sniffed around Leroy without much aggression.
After a while Leroy played with one of the toys set up for Bella, Bella watched him for a while and then she came and started “playing” with Leroy, after a very short while she started swiping with her paws/claws, I separated them and then Bella chased him into the kitchen where her cat “Tree” scratching post is and he hid underneath the arch. Bella kept on poking him to get a response and he would move back and she would then have another go from the other side.
He eventually cam out and he moved back into the hallway and then she started biting him on his rump of his back, I then had had enough of this so I put him in the lounge and left her the rest of the house.
Bella will sit on me and show affection but she didn’t want to as much as usual, I think she was annoyed I had split them up.
We went to bed as usual, we could hear him meowing for a short while once we had gone to bed, but after a short time he stopped.
We got up the next morning made a bit of a fuss about Bella and after a while let Leroy out of his room.
After a while she went for him again with the paws and a small amount of biting, I tried to separate them and after a while I had to go to work and I put Leroy in the lounge again and went to work (as did my wife).
Bella doesn’t go outside at the moment, although she has been out previously, we have several other male cats in the area and we don’t want a litter on out hands, she is due to go in to be spayed in 10 days so we were trying to keep her in until that, also we are close to a road and I am waiting for a gate between us and the road to try and encourage her to go towards the back of the house and into the fields behind the house.
I came back from work as usual gave Bella a lot of attention as usual and she was waiting for me by the back door as usual, after a while she went upstairs and I sneaked into the lounge where Leroy was and spent some time with him.
I then allowed the two cats together again and Bella was sniffing around him again and after a while was back to her usual carry on.
I am planning to put a piece of mesh up in the doorway to allow the two cats to see one another but to keep them separated to try and allow Bella to accept him.
Are we doing thing correct, I would really like this to work as we have already grown very attached to both cats; I thought it would as they are from the same mother however we are both on edge about this so far as I thought it would be easier.
Bella hasn’t hissed or spat at Leroy although Leroy did once that I did know of when Bella cornered him.
I am sorry this goes on for so long, but if anyone can reassure us or suggest any thing to make it easier on us both.
Thanks
P.s. sorry for stealing this thread..

Well, I am very sad to report that since we got out little male kitten Ianto last December, we have moved house.

The adult female that we had chose to stay away completely, right up until we moved, when I got the advice that it was better to leave her where she was, providing the people that lived in that house were happy to have a new pet! I checked and they were so we left Kitt there and moved house with the dog, Parker and Ianto in tow.

About 2 months after we moved Parker just stopped coming home, we looked everywhere for him and called countless pet rescue centres looking for him but never ever found him. Now, 4 months later we have decided to get a new kitten.

This one is a female and we will be getting her in a weeks time but I am terrified that Ianto will run away like Parker eventually did when we got Ianto...

Any help on this would be really appreciated. Ianto is male and has just turned 1 and the kitten is female and will be 8 weeks when we get her.

Thanks!

I'm not sad to report that we moved house, I'm sad to report that we lost Parker!!!

Next progress when we put the two of them together Bella initially licks Leroy and then Leroy wants to play so gets his claws out and I think Bella sees this as a threat and it then turns into a fight and I end up separating them.
We are not leaving them together unsupervised yet but I hope we will be able soon, I think time will help also as Leroy gets bigger hopefully he will stand his ground.
Bella is due to be spayed next week perhaps that will calm things down a bit.
I have managed to get a sheet of mesh I was thinking of putting it up between the two cats in separate rooms and to see what happens.
I hope they can manage to get along
If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated as we are starting to pull our hair out (never mind the cats fur........)

A month on I am pleased to report that Leroy has settled in very well, Bella seems to have accepted him well, to the point that both have been cleaning each other….
They are sharing the litter tray and at present we are keeping them in (as Leroy isn’t old enough to go out) and Bella at present isn’t as interested to go out as she was. The only thing that the vet said that until we get Leroy neutered that he might get on Bella’s nerves however she hardly seems too bothered and is very laidback about most things, we will see.
I hope things carry on in the same theme…..

Oh my lord you are going to have SO much fun until Leroy is neutered! I will never forget introducing an un-neutered 7 month old male cat to our 2 geriatric neutered old ladies. It was hilarious. Rosie just glared at him and he never went near her again but Holly started him off by weeing in his litter tray which obviously gave him some ideas and he would not leave her alone after that. He kept trying to mount her all weekend. He even tried to have his way with my arm because Holly had been sat on me and my sleeve smelled of her.

Needless to say he was straight down to the vets on Monday morning and the issue resolved itself!

Hi jomary-austin
Thanks for that information, I am not really sure I wanted to hear this though…….
So far they seem to be getting on fine; I haven’t had Leroy trying to have his way with my arm!! Yet!!, and I hope it doesn’t get to that!!.
Leroy will be going down to the vets in the New Year, to sort him out, I hope it may calm him down a bit as he can be a bit of a live wire at times, not like his sister, who would hardly say boo to a ghost, but its nice that they have their own characters it make for interesting times!!
Sorry for not replying before now but I haven’t been in front of a computer for several weeks.

Introducing 7wk old kitten to 5month old kitten

Hi, I have a 5 month old kitten whom I took on to save him from a boisterous dog and a home where there was not much love given to him. After just a few months together he is still very clingy and follows me everywhere, always wanting to be sat close to me. He also suckles on my clothing whenever and wherever he can; I believe he was taken from his mum at a very young age, maybe 5 to 6 wks of age. I am now looking at taking on another kitten who is just 7 wks old because I can't stand to leave him where is currently is....this will definitely be the only one I will be taking because two cats is enough in my situation with work etc.

My concerns are that the clingy 5month old maybe extremely jealous and not easily accept the 7wk old kitten.
Will they just get on because they are both so young or will it cause added problems?

I think it could also be some extra company for the older one and they could maybe grow up nicely together?

Any advice or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Thought I should add that the older kitten of 5 months of age also suckles on my clothing whenever and wherever he get the opportunity...waking me up doing so....think he believes im his mum?

I've been reading advices on this thread and it's been very useful! Except that since I live in an apartment, I don't really have an extra room to confine the new kitten in. Our resident cat pretty much roams all over the house so we had to make do with the bedroom as the kitten's "sanctuary".

However, our resident cat does like to come to bed with us when we go to sleep at night. So every night, we had to put the kitten in the living room with his bed, litterbox and food/water dish, and let our resident cat move into the bedroom with us. We let her out the next morning and do the switch.

In the meantime, we're also doing scent sharing to ease the process (towel, room scent, etc). Our resident cat doesn't seem to mind the scent, she just hissed and swiped a couple of times at the kitten when he's in close range (got him scared and running under the bed )

I'm not sure if its ok to do what we're doing now, till both cats get along (and I really hope soon cause the poor kitten meows for attention when we leave him in the living area for the night).

Also gonna get Feliway spray to try that out. So that spray goes all around the house?

Thank you for any feedback, and for the advises already given on the thread!