# Introducing a new kitten to an older cat help?



## SpiderVicious (Jan 2, 2012)

I have a female cat who is 11 months old called Soxy, about to be a year old, She normally has a super friendly personality towards animals and people (she loved our rabbit who passed away a month ago and got very upset) Anyway, i brought home a 6 week old kitten called Autumn (very tiny, still learning to keep her balance) i didnt let them see eachother at first, so i went to say hello to soxy and she could smell the new kitten and she started to growl (she has never hissed or attack anyone or anything) so i picked her up and she just complained. (she loves cuddles) a while later i brought her downstairs and she hissed at the kitten but did not attack. ive brought her down twice as she refused to come down and eat or go to the toilet, (so i took her stuff upstairs so i no she would eat) eventually 3 nights later she came down by herself and sniffed around everywere (i put the kitten away at night in another room) all in all its been 5 days and my older cat keeps hissing and growling everytime i touch her (after patting kitten) or when she see's the kitten, But they have had 2 close encounters of being right next to eachother and my older cat just ran upstairs. I just want to know the best way to introduce them, sorry for long post but i didnt want to leave anything out..


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## wind1 (Oct 24, 2010)

I have had my kitten Whisper for 10 wks now and one of my older cats Beanie is still hissing and growling every time he sees her so it is very early days for you. Have a look at this info on how to introduce them Integrating Kittens with Cats
Beanie will now sit and eat with Whisper next to him but as soon as he's finished he growls at her. He then sits watching her from a safe distance but still growling. This is progress but very slow. There are lots of threads on here about kittens and resident cats with lots of useful info. You will also see from them how many of us are having problems with introductions!


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## Iheartcats (Aug 25, 2011)

wind1 said:


> I have had my kitten Whisper for 10 wks now and one of my older cats Beanie is still hissing and growling every time he sees her so it is very early days for you. Have a look at this info on how to introduce them Integrating Kittens with Cats
> Beanie will now sit and eat with Whisper next to him but as soon as he's finished he growls at her. He then sits watching her from a safe distance but still growling. This is progress but very slow. There are lots of threads on here about kittens and resident cats with lots of useful info. You will also see from them how many of us are having problems with introductions!


Yep Beanie is exactly like my Fluffy. They can eat from a safe distance but Fluffy still growls and hisses (4 1/2 months on).

I am having the same problems. Its reasurring yet frustrating that other people are having similar issues.


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## spid (Nov 4, 2008)

6 weeks is incredibly young and if she's still wobbly then she may be younger. Such a shame people don't keep kittens with their mums for a longer time. Your kitten won't know how to introduce herself properly and will be cat socially inept. Try a feliway diffuser, scent swapping etc. Play with them together using treats to help, feed them together. I hope it gets better sometimes it takes days, sometimes it takes months. SOmetimes they love each other eventually, sometimes they just tolerate each other.


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## kelassa (Sep 13, 2011)

I introduced my kitten, Freya, to my two one year old cats, kazmaier and priti. Kazmaier was fine with Freya, priti however hated her. I found that after doing the scent swapping it worked well to put the kitten in a carrier so priti could wander up to her in her own time and smell her and check her out. I kept them separate and did the carrier thing for a few days. This kept Freya safe and got priti used to her quite quickly. You should do supervised play times for a couple of weeks until the hissing stops. Im so glad I introduced them gradually.

Good luck with them


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