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Resident cat is jealous of new kitten; HELP

  • 19-06-2011 4:20pm
    #1
    Kablamo!
    Registered Users Posts: 879 ✭✭✭


    Brought home a 10 week old kitten on Tuesday to my 4 year old cat, Lola.
    I knew she wouldn't be happy, and she wasn't. Followed all the advice about seperate rooms etc, but Lola went off her food, hid in mam's room and wouldn't let anyone pet her. She's miserable, and this is all with the kitten confined to the dining room.
    When Lola sets eyes on the kitten she goes crazy- hissing, growling, and swiping at me; which she never does.
    Has anyone any tips on what I can do?


Comments

  • #2
    MaryK666
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 297 ✭✭MaryK666


    Patience is key here.
    You need to keep your kitten confined to one room for anything from a few days to two weeks. Make sure that the kitten has a litter tray, food, water, toys, a scratching post and a comfy bed and spend lots of time with her when you can.
    In the meantime, you'll need to lavish attention, rubs, treats, play and everything else on your resident cat to reassure her that she's still head of the house and is not about to be overthrown by the new kitten. But don't force her in any way or she will lash out. She has to think that accepting this kitten was her idea and on her terms.
    Talk to her, even if she's hiding and use her name a lot so she'll recognise that you're talking to her. And treats work great as a bribe or you can use something like a small amount of ham (keep it small due to the salt content) or some chicken, hand fed to her, all the while praising her for being brave.
    At feeding time, see if you cant feed your kitten and cat at the same time on opposite sides of the closed door where your kitten is being kept. This will get them more used to the smell of each other. After a week or so you can open the door a hairs width during feeding to that they have a little eye contact too but keep a firm hold on the door to prevent any stress or accidental meeting.
    Another tip which I've found works a treat is a Feliway plug-in. It mimics the cat pheremones which calm them down while having no detectable smell for humans. It appears to remove the stress element and reassures cats.
    A kitten, being so full of life and energy and curiosity and play, will have no idea of your new cats boundaries and will just want to get stuck in and become friends while your cat will see this little ball of manic energy and nosiness and noise and intrusion and upset as a threat to her comfortable happy life.
    We have an older female who's still not completely happy with the kittens we adopted, even after 7 months, but every day she gets a little bit more tolerant and with a lot more love and understanding and patience and help from the Feliway, she'll get used to them being around - fingers crossed.
    Hopefully with a little time and patience, they'll go on to being friends. It doesn't always happen that cats come to like each other and in some cases they'll only just tolerate the sight of each other but keep trying and you might just be surprised.
    Good luck and keep us updated.


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