Took in a feral kitten (3 months)- she has been fully socialized with my husband and I, but need advice on how to introduce her to the rest of the house with two older cats (12 years)

Hello r/Pets! My dad and aunt trapped a lone feral kitten a couple weeks ago that was living at the campground my dad is staying at. She was very thin and certainly would not have survived our cold winter ahead. So, I took her in and named her Gilly.

I’ve grown up with cats my entire life, but never a kitten that needed socializing. Let alone an introduction with two old loafs. I did a lot of research on socializing and over the course of the last couple weeks she is no longer afraid of us and is quite a lovely little kitten.

She’s been spayed and has had all her shots. We set her up with her own room from the start where she has her litter box, water and gets fed. We live in a two story house and her room is upstairs. She has fully roamed the upstairs, but afraid to go downstairs. The house is 170 years old and the creaking stairs/unknown territory frighten her a bit still.

Now, for the other two - Sadie (spayed F) and Reggie (neutered M). Reggie has been the most responsive to her and overall pleasant. I swapped scents/kept her mostly out of sight and it seems to have worked best with him. Sadie, on the other hand, is not happy. She went upstairs the other day while Gilly was out and I was in the bathroom and hissed/chased her under our bed and did not seem to want to back down. We got a pet gate so she can see her still and while there is some hissing, it’s not as bad. But now I’m afraid she’s going to keep chasing her.

Reggie and Sadie eat downstairs and I have tried to bring them up to feed with Gilly, but Sadie will not come up to join. Gilly is still afraid to come down and I’m kind of at a loss for how I can get her to come down, while also try to keep the peace between the two girls.

Is there anything I can do to help Gilly want to explore more of the house and also introduce her to Sadie to be on a tolerant level? Gilly stays in her room at night as her room is right off of our bedroom and Sadie sleeps with us.

TLDR; new kitten doesn’t seem to want to explore rest of house and older resident cat not accepting her.

Thank you!

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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/kj74pa/took_in_a_feral_kitten_3_months_she_has_been/