INTRODUCING A NEW CAT

This is the first in a two part article, with the rest to come next month.

The time has come!  You have decided to get a new cat.  Or maybe, a new cat has decided to join your garden of Eden and become your new companion.

A kitty is so easy to fall in love with, and whether it’s a ruffled up old stray found discarded in a dumpster somewhere, or a fabulous high bread award winning Siamese bought from a breeder, they have you wrapped around their soft little paw in no time. You are ready to take kitty home, but what will your resident cats think?  Yes, you already have one or more of these fabulous creatures at home, and want  to bring in another one.  But is this really a good idea?  And is it going to work?  How will the other cats react?

First of all it can be better for many cats to not be the only cat. In nature, cats are not the total loners it is sometimes thought they are. Although they are territorial, they do have some friendly social interactions with certain other cats. Indoor only cats often get bored and lonely in homes where the humans are gone for many hours a day. A companion cat can help relieve those feelings – provided they get along!

The younger the cat is, the more important it is for there to be another cat, preferably one near the same age. Cats under a year old especially benefit from having a companion cat. Not only do young cats like to play with other cats, but they learn social skills and comfort one another. Of course, one needs to introduce cats slowly for the best outcome.

Try to avoid pairing kittens with older cats. Older cats do NOT want to play all the time like kittens do, and you will more likely wind up with a frustrated kitten and an irritated, stressed older cat. On the other hand, kittens sometimes rejuvenate older cats and entice them to play again and get spunky.  In the case of multi-cat homes,
EACH cat needs to have gone through the introduction steps with the new cat. It is sometimes erroneously thought that when the resident “alpha” cat accepts the new cat, the other cats will “fall in line” with acceptance.  This is NOT necessarily true. Cats are not pack animals like dogs and do not follow a strict hierarchy, following the leader.  Cats are independent individuals, and each decides to accept or not accept another cat.

Often, it turns out that the “non-alpha” cats are the ones to quickly and relatively easily get along with the new cat, since they are not very concerned with being the “alpha cat”. So therefore, they don’t feel a newcomer is much of a threat to their position.

What are often termed “alpha” cats are frequently more high strung, territorial cats who really have some fear behind their aggressiveness towards other cats.  When such a cat sees all his other housemates feeling fine and content with the new cat, that can help make the “alpha” cat feel it’s ok.  Not always, though.

Two cats cuddling together is such a sweet thing, and the kind of relationship many people hope will be the case when a new cat is introduced to a current cat. While actual pile up and hugging sessions are not all that common, slowly and carefully introducing cats leads to most cats learning to get along.

Integrating cats can be a challenge. Cats are territorial, and do not take well to unknown cats suddenly appearing in their territory. The inclination of most cats is to attack a stranger cat to try to make it go away, or to run away from it in fear. Some cats are more territorial and aggressive than others.

Various other factors can impact how a particular pair of cats will respond to one another. But until the two cats are actually confronting one another, one can’t really know ahead of time how it will be. Each pairing is going to be different, since cats are all individuals, with various personalities, histories, and temperaments. Cats need some help from humans to adjust to each other peacefully and less stressfully. Therefore, a slow, carefully managed introduction over many days, or even weeks, is needed to give the best possible outcome. To just plop a new cat in with a resident cat can lead to a disaster.

Do note that occasionally, some two cats just won’t get along, despite your implementing a slow, careful introduction over a period of months. One cat just might be so overly territorial, or it just might be the wrong pairing for a variety of factors. Sometimes one cat will not abide a certain other cat at all, going to attack it at any chance, but, that same aggressive cat might accept a certain other cat.

Take each step slowly, holding onto one step for as many days as it takes for the cats to be ok at that step before moving on to the next step. (A few hisses are ok, but not prolonged hissing, growling or yowling, nor fights.) Rushing things will not make the cats accept each other faster, but will likely wind up making them not get along.
Once things go badly between cats new to each other, it is difficult to get them to go well. If you thought it would be fine to move on to the next step, but the cats turned out not to be ready, simply back track to the previous step for a few more days.

1. Isolation: Isolate the new cat completely for a few days, and especially until the new cat has been examined by a vet to be checked for any illnesses, diseases and parasites. The new cat also needs time to calm down and get used to being in a strange place, before he or she is in a good frame of mind to meet other cats. The cat could be stressed from spending time in a noisy shelter; travelling long distances to a new place; seeing a vet on several occasions; being given up by their family and missing their familiar environment. Unlike dogs, cats do not like change. They prefer a routine and a specific environment. Once removed from said environment, cats can experience stress which manifests sometimes in fear, aggression or  both.
2. Scent Familiarization: Scent familiarization with items, such as towels, rubbed on each cat, then left in the area of the other cat, while the cats are being kept separately. Switch their toys from one cats environment to the others so they can familiarize themselves with what will soon become their roommate.
3. Visual Familiarization: Seeing eachh other with no physical contact, such as from a slightly cracked opened door a few times a day. This is done along with Scent Familiarization.
4. Room Swapping: Switching the cats’ places for a while every day, with no physical contact between them. This is added to doing Scent Familiarization and Visual Familiarization.
5. Developing Positive Associations: Start developing positive associations with no physical contact, such as by feeding the cats on opposite sides of a door when cracked opened and even when it is shut. Continue with the above steps as well.
6. Short Supervised Visits: Brief, highly supervised visits paired with food or treats. Continue with Room Swapping, but Scent Familiarization and Visual Familiarization can be discontinued.
7. Separation at Signs of Hostilities: Separate the cats at signs of hostilities, or great fear. Learn cat body language to tell when a problem is starting. Some signs could be: Flattened ears and narrowed eyes can indicate an upset and defensive cat. Aggressive stalking pose could mean immediate attack on the other cat; Hissing; growls; yowls and raised fur and bottlebrush tail are all signs of hostilities and the parties should be separated to calm down.
8. Longer, Carefully Supervised Visits: Mingling under very careful supervision for up to a few hours, before total separation again. Adjust the length of time depending upon whether there are any signs of hostilities or stress, but no matter how well things seem, do not yet permit 24/7 free mingling. Continue with Room Swapping.
9. Limited Free Mingling: When the above have gone well, free mingling except when the people are not home or asleep, so quick intervention can be done if needed.
10. Free Mingling Full Time: The cats are let together freely all the time when all the above steps have gone well. Backtrack to the limited mingling if the cats weren’t quite ready to be together all the time.

The process needs to be worked on daily, staying on each step for as many days as needed, so as not to prolong things overly much. If the cats are aware of each other’s presence, but too long a time goes by without any sort of movement towards integration, that can make the cats feel they don’t belong together and can make them each develop more territorial feelings than they had. The cats also know the humans are keeping them apart, so if that is happening for a great length of time when no hostilities had been apparent so far, the cats may even come to think the humans feel something is amiss with the other cat and may become much warier and less readily accepting of each other.

You may come across advice saying to ignore the new cat so the resident cat doesn’t get upset. Do NOT do that. If you ignore a new cat in front of the resident cat, it makes the resident cat feel you don’t really care or want that cat there either. It also makes the new cat feel unwanted and uncared for.
It is good to show affection to the new cat, so the resident cat sees you want that cat in the home. But, you don’t go overboard with shows of affection to the new cat in front of the resident cat. When you take in a new cat, you need to feel as much loyalty and concern for that cat, and worry just as much about how the new cat feels as you do your first cat.

Meike Knol Gesa Zoellinger

Coming next month… Some points in more detail

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Posted by editor on 2010-04-04 Filed under Animals, April 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry