Hi all. I have a two year old tabby, who is the resident cat in my household. I have seen her interact with one other cat before, my parents' 5 year old male. I brought the tabby home over Christmas for a few days, and she swatted at my parents' cat but he's pretty calm and left her alone. They didn't interact after that, and all was well. I took this as a sign that it is possible for her to live with another cat.
Enter siamese. We got a new cat last week, who is 3 (a year older than our tabby), and is very calm. The shelter told me she had no problem with other cats there, so I have no doubt that my cats can eventually get along based on their respective histories with other cats. However, I'm introducing the new cat into our tabby's established territory, which is a new experience for both of our kitties.
However, I am wondering how to gauge whether I am making progress in getting them to tolerate one another. We sequestered new kitty in a bedroom for 3 days, and swapped the cats' spots so they could get each others' scents. We have fed them on opposite sides of the door, and they have shown no interest in the cat on the other side. However, when seeing each other, our resident cat started to hiss, while the new one seemed indifferent.
They've had two prolonged supervised periods of time in the same room, but the aggression of our tabby riled up the new kitty who started to growl. During these periods we had the tabby play with her favorite toy, and both cats got plenty of hands-on attention from myself and one of my roommates to distract them with positive attention. I would never have them fight it out (as we did with new cats growing up), especially because our new cat was declawed by her previous owner.
They do not actively attack each other when in the same room, but if they get close to one another they will hiss, and our tabby will swat. I am hoping it is just a matter of time before they are acclimated to each other, but how can I tell when they are tolerant of one another without forcing them to get close?
Our tabby has never shown interest in any treats, not tuna, or soft food, or kitty treats. The only way to really reward her for calm behavior is being pet and cooed at. I am going to wait until I am sure they are friendly, or not enemies, to leave them both free to roam around the house while I am at work.
What I am asking, is how can I tell that they tolerate one another? They are currently sitting about ten feet apart on the ground, seemingly disinterested, but if they get close, there's hissing. Should I take this as a sign that they will eventually get along, even if it's tense right now?
I've always had multiple cats in my household, I just don't agree with my parents' method of trusting the cats to work it out between themselves. Sorry for the long post, I'm just not sure whether I'm forcing their relationship too quickly.
[link] [comments]
from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/c1wjkr/introducing_two_cats_how_can_i_tell_whether_its/
No comments:
Post a Comment