Got a New Kitten & Older Cat is MAD??? This Will Help

Once you have one cat, you probably will at some point want another. They can kind of be an addiction!

Plus, cats really do enjoy the companionship of other cats. And if you are out of the house a lot, knowing your cat isn't alone can be comforting. We love watching the relationships between our six cats develop and shift over time. Fourteen year-old Sing Sing gets his cardio by racing around the house playing tag with four year old Snowy, and Malou and her cousin, Creature, like sharing a sunny spot on the bed at the same time every afternoon. Kate Moss likes to snuggle with Sing Sing when the weather is chilly. There's sometimes some scuffles (usually over food or coveted places on the sofa), and occasionally some blink-or-you-miss it fights, but the cats have settled into their hierarchies on the kitty totem pole and get along quite peacefully.

But to get to this multi-cat utopia, you have to jump some hurdles. In short, introducing a new kitty to a home with one or more "resident" cats can be very difficult, and sometimes even downright scary!

Don't despair. In this video I will share some proven tips to help you introduce a new cat or kitten into your home with minimal stress. Just be sure to watch the whole thing, because every step is crucial for success. And keep in mind there are many factors that determine how quickly the cats will accept one another: personality, age, and, believe it or not, how YOU act during the whole "getting to know you" phase.

YES, your actions can make a huge difference! Cats are super sensitive to their mom and dad's emotions. So if you're stressed, THEY will be stressed. Keep control of the situation - you don't want any major fighting or bullying--and understand that interactions that we as humans consider bad (ie: hissing, growling, swatting) are really just normal cat behavior. Let the cats take their time, and don't hesitate to call "time out" if the situation gets a little heated.

I can't stress enough that it sometimes just takes TIME for new cats to get to know one another. Don't expect miracles in a couple of days, though occasionally that does happen if you happen to have two very laid-back cats. Don't give up. People adopt a new kitty and lose hope without allowing enough time. They WILL get along..eventually!

Good luck, and let me know in the comments if you have any tips about introducing cats!

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[KittenSchool]

I get SO MANY questions about how to introduce cats...so here's what I have learned about new kitty introductions to other cats. Hopefully it will help you keep the peace in your home! Let us know in the comments if you have experience bringing a new cat in your house - good or bad!

[MrWednesday.]

Im introducing a new 10 month old male kitten to my 18 month old boy and the first few days were pretty tense, sleepless nights wondering if i had done the right thing.
New boy is set up in base camp in spare bedroom as i have a bit of a busy schedule leading up to xmas.
At first both cats would growl and hiss at the faintest scent of each other, but i started exchanging toys and bedding immediately and food and treats on either side of the door.
My older boy actually started to warm up pretty quickly and wanted to initiate play but was being ignored by the kitten. I assumed he was just scared and still trying to settle in.
This morning on day 9 i was able to let them both out for 90 minutes, they played pretty gently the entire time chasing and wrestling, and although its still very early days i felt a huge sense of relief that with hard work and a bit of luck it will pay off big time.

[sandraalain]

This video plus the success stories in the comments make me feel so much better about my current disaster situation. My 5 year old cat lost her brother to a fatal accident about 10 months ago, bonded since kittens.. I have fostered a few cats since then but none have been a match for her. Fell in love with my current foster kitten and trying desperately to get them introduced. I started feeling hopeless. I guess slow and steady wins the race. Reading about the perseverance from others in the comments helps a lot. I will try using a harness on my kitten as I hadn't thought of this before. Wish me luck.

[TheRivrPrncess]

Good points. Another is no matter how much the new cat or the resident cat cries to get out of the room he/she is in, remember that you are not being cruel in keeping the new cat or occasionally the resident cat separate in another room. it is for the safety of all the cats. The new cat is just not liking being by itself and your resident cat is crying for the same reason in addition to wanting to see who is exploring the house.

[limited]

When we got our newest cat, a female, about a year ago, our two friendliest big male cats were the ones with their noses out of joint. That surprised us. There was no hostility, but they were pouting and generally out of sorts for about a day. All of a sudden, they were buds with the new cat. It took less than 24 hours.

[meishushei]

I just need to say- Thank you for making this video. It’s been two weeks of me trying to ever carefully introduce my adult female cat, Clover, to our new male kitten, Calcifer.
Prior, I had an extremely close bond with Clover. I’m talking like not only follow me everywhere, but curl up and purr in my lap any time I sat down, and settle to sleep on top of me every night.
So you can probably imagine how shocked, anxious and hurt I was when she suddenly started lashing out, hissing, growling and attacking *me*, after we brought home Calcifer. Just the faintest hint of his scent on me, would cause her to act viciously aggressive.
Of course, over the course of a week and with the bribery of food and her favourite toys, she became accustomed to me smelling of the other cat, and her terms with me improved enough for her not to lash out at me.
I started to carefully site swap both of them, making sure they don’t see each other, and in the kitten’s base camp room, Clover would become very tense, hiss and growl at the spots that Calcifer likes to hang out the most at. But- she’d eat there anyway. Though not without growling and angry low “nhom nom” meows.
She started sitting by the door, whenever I went to spend time with Calcifer, and meowing. And so, since it’s been two weeks since we brought the kitten home- with some help from my mum, who held the kitten in her arms and stood in the centre of the room, we decided to let Clover inside. It was the first time she actually sniffed around the room without hissing and growling. She looked up once and ignored Calcifer. But then, he started meowing (probably didn’t like being held for so long), and this was when Clover looked up, stared at him and meowed back.
It sounded mean. Long, high pitched meows accompanied by a wagging tail and wide pupils, but her ears were pointed upright.
To me, it sounded and looked a little aggressive. So when she turned around and ran away, I closed the door and called it a day.
I only fed her by the door to Calcifer’s room, making sure to ask my mum to play with him right by the door too. Which Clover wasn’t at all bothered by, she ate her food and licked the bowl clean.

It’s still an ongoing process, they still need time.
But just… I guess I wanted to say that what you said in this video, are the answers to the questions that would keep me awake crying, because I couldn’t find the exact straightforward answers anywhere. Just the same bits of info repeated over and over.
So yeah.
Thanks for reassuring me that all the things I was so freaked out by, so worried about, are actually perfectly normal.

[wendyhsu]

I just want to say thank you for this video. It’s one of the more detailed videos I’ve come across! Very helpful.

[mumo]

Great tips, I have just been feeding a stray adult. She came at night, so I couldn't see her well. 4 days ago she turned up with a kitten approx 6wks old. We took kitten in, mum fed went off. Amazingly easy, relaxed accepted by my 2 cats, playing in first hour, loved affection. Last night mum turned up with number 2! He's altogether different! I did the blanket thing but, the other way around, rubbed blanket over my cats & their paws & added it to the kittens bed/ enclosure. They met really well. My ginger ninja is so passive & secure, he just sat about a meter away for about an hour. He just waited patiently for the hissing & growling to stop. Kitten hid, then laid in front of him( paws hidden curled up) then kitten sat up & they sniffed each other. Obviously, I sat with them in case all hell broke loose. But, it went very well & this is only day one! My ginger is so calming! He won't tolerate intrusions by adult males or foxes, into his territory. But, somehow he knew these were babies & he has been beyond amazing! All going very well! Just wondering if mum will turn up with any more?

[romzkhan]

The harness is SUCH a good idea!! I'm going to try this, I hope it works out!

[robertap]

We're on a third week. Things are getting calmer, but there are some hissing still.. even my new one leaned from the older one how to hiss 😂😂magic things - food and play play play!

[killerrkaii]

We’re on Day 2! 😩 I thought I was ready. I was not. Staying patient through this process ❤

[leebrand]

Thank you SO much for this video! This is the first one I’ve seen that shows footage of the cats not getting along (batting, hissing, play fighting) and it’s so reassuring. I was starting to really feel down about the process of introducing our 3 month kitten to our 13 year old resident cat. But after seeing this, I feel so much better! What I thought was real fighting and aggression, is just a normal part of the process. THANK YOU!

[fixpuuk]

Hey there! You can’t imagine how helpful was you to me and my family. Long story short - we have three cats and after we take a bath with two of them the third one was scared to dead and start to fight with the other two. I was working 1 week fully from home and its seems that everything is ruin. The docs said that she need anti-depressants and that was the bottom for me, that was the time when I decide to watch and study something from internet, thats how I came to your channel. After watching your clips and changing a little bit this and that (because the cat wasn’t new), I was able to fully restore their relationship!!! From my whole family and from me, truly and deeply thank

Can you imagine in that week that i was fully home, the frighten cat saw the other two and started vomiting 4-5 time in a row from stress … and now they are together once again. We still cannot believe it. Love you, xx, from Bulgaria.

[ryanm.]

AWESOME Video. I just adopted a 12 week old Orange Tabby boy, named Zeek. I have a 12 yr old Orange Tabby named Max. This is a super helpful video!

[amberlilly]

Thank you for this video. I wish I had seen it before we got another cat (I am 73 and neither my husband nor I have ever had a cat, so new to us) We had a catch and release cat dropped off at our home, she was young and very fearful and we could not touch her for a long time. Finally she came around. After a while we thought she would enjoy a cat companion, so when kittens became available we got one, we loved her right away, but our resident cat hated her, and the kitten wanted to play but NO from our other cat. This kitten is a Pixie Bob which is hybrid partial Bob cat, we did not seek out this breed, it just happened that way. These cats are kind of known for not getting along with other cats, however, the original cat has been the aggressor, actually, both growl, and hiss at each other. We have had the new, now adult kitten/cat for about two yrs now and they are still enemies !!

[bribg]

That's a very helpful video again, dear Caroline! Thanks a lot. 💕
Did you ever foster a deaf (white) cat? If so, I would be very interested in your experience.

[limited]

When we brought our stray kitty indoors, we kept him in the bathroom for two days with supervised visits with our small male cat whom showed the most interest in him when he was still out doors. Finally we let him explore the house. There was no hostility from the other cats. They accepted him right away but I do think they had grown accustomed to seeing him on the back porch and in the yard for about 6 months before we brought him in. They would rub noses and touch their paws together through the screen door, too. Our oldest cat, a female, looked up once at him when he was given the run of the house and went back to sleep, totally unphased! It was really kind of funny!

[adrianmorris]

Nice clear explanations, Caroline. Really enjoy your videos . Best wishes from across the pond again.😸🤓

[wonipowa]

I did a lot of this with my cats, took me about 2.5 weeks. I gave treats to reinforce all good behavior and also followed the rules of positives only happen together 1. Play 2. Treats 3. Love always together.

[limited]

In 40 years of cat ownership, we've never had serious problems introducing new cats to the residents. Maybe we've been lucky? One person suggested, having a large house as we do, the cats always have plenty of space to be alone and away from one another if desired. But they also sleep together quite frequently in the same bed. Right now we have five. They tussle a little now and then, but basically get along just fine. They all have pretty mild personalities, too. Maybe that helps.