[maaltan2]

Ok, Pretty much standard story I guess. new kitten, older cat, total war except it seems to be worse than others explainations.

My first cat, which is now 1 1/2 year and spayed, has been the only cat living in my appartment basicly her whole life. She has stayed with other cats at family's houses when I go on trips and has seemed to be more or less ok with them.

My job keeps me away most of the day. I believe her sitting here alone is causing some behavior problems i have read can be related to boredom ( clawing passing feet, tearing up stuff, knocking stuff in the floor intentionally, etc) This is why i decided to get her a playmate.

Now for the problem, the moment she noticed the new presence in the appt she has been acting like a completely feral cat. total agression toward humans and basicaly anything else that touches her. I removed the kitten for a while with no change in attitude. The only other time she has acted even half this bad is the night i brought her back from her spaying, I assumed it was just pain so i left her alone. She is usually a pretty sweet cat, a bit cold at times but no more than the average cat. Now I cannot even touch her without losing half my hand. I tried petting her with her favorate stick toy and she litterally broke it into about 50 pieces.

None of this aggression is directed at the kitten so i brought it back and its living in bird cage at the moment. She will sit and stair at it especially when it starts crying.

Have I completely destroyed my relationship with my cat? Did she suffer a psycotic break? Will she ever accept the kitten? Will I just have to lock them in the same room when the kitten gets old enough and keep the one that survives? Is there anything that I can do to ease this transistion, my hands, face, shirts, carpets, computer, cant take this for very long?

Thanks for your help

PS. Ironicly the older ones name is Isis and the new one will be named sekhmet or gollum (it looked at me and all i could think of was "my precious" from the 2 towers movie) if gets to stay. seems to be continuing the mythological feud.

 

[tanyuh]

Hello maaltan,

How long did you separate them for? Maybe try and separate them until your adult cat is relatively back to normal. It may take a looooong time - some people say it may even take months. The introduction should always be slow. The kitten should be in a carrier and the adult cat should be allowed to sniff it and examine it. Maybe try this small intro until your adult cat stops growling, hissing and arching the back etc. Then you can let the kitten out for short introductions with the cat. Again, do this for short, supervised visits very often until your cat stops going nuts. I think you just need to slow the process down and let your cat adjust between "meeting stages". Also mix up their scents. Take a towel that the kitten has slept on and rub it all over the adult's living space so that the adult can get used to the kitten scent, and do the same for the kitten.

I have an adult cat and just got a new kitten too. It has been 6 weeks and she still doesn't trust him. She acts completely normal until he is around, then she is on guard and can't relax. Its just going to take some time...

Good luck!
tanyuh

 

[maaltan2]

Thanks

Thanks, I'm doing most of this already. The kitten is in a cage. ive got paper towles ive rubbed the kitten down with in her food dish her primary sleeping area and other various places around appartment.

I was just worried because of the extreme reaction of Isis. Ive done cohabitation tolerance training (hrm sounds fancy maybe i can get a grant to research it ) with several animals. It just seemed like Isis was acting rabid or something. Im pretty sure she isnt she has her shots up to date and she hasnt been outside, and the onset was DEFINATLY related to kitten.

An update, shortly after typing my first post she unexplicatably let me pick her up and she went to sleep in my lap purring. like normal. but she woke up. 2 seconds after she got her bearing i found myself bleeding from face and arms. even with the softpaws caps. Id probably be in hospital for stitches if she didnt have them.

Ok i will take it very slow. i have tried to remove everything threatening from her environment. including the fan which cycles on and off and scares her everytime.

Thanks again

 

[ralphcor]

maaltan2 I've been reading up on this introducing 2 cats, especially kitten & older since I might be doing it soon... I recall a technique mentioned of trying slowly to move the food dish closer and closer day by day and have one eat in front of the other, one in cage while other isn't, this might be worth a try to get em feeling calm close by.

sorry to hear about your scratches.

 

[tanyuh]

Poor Isis...

You'd think an adult cat would realize that they are bigger than a kitten and shouldn't feel so threatened and scared, but they just don't realize it! Samhain wasn't *as* bad as Isis. She had a pretty rough few first days though. She would hiss and spit at him and was very jumpy. She wouldn't even stay in the same room with him unless he was sleeping. She always has a safe haven to go to though - make sure Isis has one too. Its great that she was acting normal to you when the kitten wasn't around. That's how Samhain was too. I think it is just going to take a lot of time for them to get used to eachother, but if Isis has already started to relax a bit when the kitten isn't around, I would think it is a sign that she is not "permanently damaged" by the new kitten.

Good luck!
tanyuh