new kitten - advice please

brian_rbk

Hi,
I'm thinking of getting a friend for our male adult cat (duncan.. he is neutered), as we are both working 9-5. We feel he is getting a bit lonely.

My questions are...
Does it matter if the kitten is male or female?
Is it likely that Duncan will not take to this new kitten?
Are there any other potential issues I should be concerned about?

Thanks!
Brian

Riamfada

My cat is a three years old neutered fella and he would certainly not take well to an incoming kitten. In the past we have had to seperate him from any kittens we were minding. I wouldnt advise it for the kittens safety

kerrysgold

Maybe you could foster a kitten/cat to test the waters so to speak? then if it didn't work out the kitten/cat would be going on to a new home anyway and you wouldn't have to try and rehome it yourself, but hopefully he would take to another cat/kitten, it'd be nice for him to have a companion. good luck!

SMK

So long as the introduction is done properly there should be no problems. They might not become the best of friends but they should at least come to an easy truce. However, it might be better to get an older cat because depending on the Duncan's age, a kitten might be very stressful for him.

I had a five year old male when I introduced a three year old male. They didn't really get on but they tolerated each other. The older cat has since died and three months ago I introduced a two year old female to a six year old male. At their first meeting they just both looked at each other as if to say "oh, there's another cat"!!!!!!! They are still getting to know each other but they do play together and there really has only been about two fights but nothing serious. Have a look at www.kittenadoption.ie - there is some great advice about introducing cats to each other. Best of luck

brian_rbk

Thanks for the help. We ended up getting a kitten from the local vet today. We are introducing them to each other very slowly. The kitten has his own room, and we take him out to see duncan for short periods of time. They seem to be fine so far ... a bit of hissing here and there, but nothing too serious.

Lets hope they become good friends

BlackCat2008

Glad to hear your keeping kitten in a different room my two year olds are very rough with the kittens they don't mean to be they love them really (washing them and sleeping with them) but they don't know their own strength and they are two huge males. I find the males take better to new comers pretty well as all mine make great surrogate dads. But females always rocky!!! He'll get use to the new comer soon and they'll either love one another or they'll find a way to live with each other IE one takes over the kitchen and the other the living room.

Weidii

Cats are naturally solitary animals, so had you not gotten the new kitten I would have advised you against it. Our family had a grumpy old tom cat and we introduced him to a new kitten (both neutered) but the tom eventually chased the younger cat away. The old males will see a new cat as a rival for food and territory.

We are keeping two cats now and they get along fine, but they're brother and sister and we had both of them since they were kittens.

I'm sure you can make this work if your original male is fairly tolerant and pleasant mannered. I'd say to switch which nights they spend outside at first until the younger male grows strong enough to defend himself. We let both our toms out at night time and this is probably when the most scuffles occurred between them.

Good luck

brian_rbk

They've been together for a good few hours today now. There was hardly any hissing at all today, which is good. A few incidents where Duncan pawed the kitten, but nothing serious and he didnt hurt him.

So, things are looking good. They have even been running around together a bit.

MsFifers

Weidii wrote: »

Cats are naturally solitary animals, so had you not gotten the new kitten I would have advised you against it.

I don't think this is true. Cats will form colonies if they are left to fend for themselves.

My two cats will give each other a little kiss if they have been apart for a while, and my friend's two cats love each other so much they walk along side by side with their tails entwined!

Brian - sounds like things are going well and you are doing all the right things! I'm sure they'll end up being firm buddies!

ValerieR

We introduced a kitten in our house with a 5-year-old cat who is relatively gentle (with us) but not very sociable.
She observed this mad little kitten from a distance for a while. The kitten would approach her with the intention to play. She'd hiss and growl and throw a paw at him every so often, but nothing major.
This has been going on for a few weeks. Now, a year later, they wouldn't be what we call super-friends but they eat side by side, wait together by the back door to get out, without arguing....
I hope the introduction process will be as easy as that for you, OP. :-)
Regards,
ValerieR

cotton

Cats certainly aren't solitary.
I've 8 plus fosters & they would hate to be alone. They all get along.......most of the time. Mine are well used to kittens arriving & generally don't bat an eyelid.
Having said that though, it's because they are so used to newcomers by now.
As SMK has said, there's some good advice on our website, here's a direct link. http://www.kittenadoption.org/newCat.htm

galah

Good luck!

We've recently taken in a 6 month old female kitten (called Briste - I posted a pic somewhere in this section....) to keep our 4 year old male cat company - funnily enough, the little one was hissing and spitting like a maniac for the first month or so, while Elvis wasn't 'bovvered' at all. He just ignored her, really.

They're getting on ok now, eating together and sleeping near each other, although there's still a bit of fighting going on when the two are bored cause it's raining outside and they can't go out...

Just be patient ;-)

brian_rbk

Hi,
Just a quick update on things ...
Duncan and our new kitten (Oscar) are getting on brilliantly. They are both indoor cats, and Oscar pretty much follows duncan around everywhere. He's even been sitting on Duncan's back the odd time!

So after a very shakey start, they are getting on great. We are keeping an eye on them (sometimes duncan doesnt know his own strength) but other than that things are great.

Thanks for all the help and comments.

Brian