My cat is moving in with another cat - advice please!

asea

I'm moving in with my boyfriend this weekend (:eek: ). My lovely moggie, Cleopops is moving with me She is about 8 years old & I've had her since May. She's settled in wonderfully. She's a (now anyway) quite big, fluffy & quiet cat. She takes a while to warm to you but when she does, she is so loving & affectionate!

My fella also has a lovely & very affectionate cat! He's called Duke & he's about 5. He's been living there for about 3 years & is probably around 5. He's very settled, a very loving & very affectionate cat (bordering on needy sometimes, but so cute with it).

Now, I've never introduced cats to each other... How do we do it? Any advice? Cleo will also be getting used to living on dry land as she has been living on a boat since May & still has her sea legs! I'm not planning on letting her go outside for at least 6 weeks till I know that she will not get lost.. We're moving her on Friday so that we can spend until Monday morning making sure that they don't get up to any mischief.

I'm really clue-less about this so would appreciate ANY advice

Thanks to you all

kitchen_buff

Explain the birds and the bees to your cat. Just put them in aroom together and see what happens, thats all you can do really.

asea

I forgot to say that Duke is actually gay

cat_saving_expert

Its is quite unlikely that your 2 cats will get on at all at first (not impossible), your cat will be invading your b/f's cats territory, most cats don't like that at all!
The first meetings are very important and can have a long lasting effect.
It is a good idea to put Cleo in a single room to begin with, let her settle into her new home without the distraction of the other cat, make sure this room isn't Dukes favorite too.
Then your first job would be to get them used to each others smell, cats like to scent mark things by rubbing there heads/faces/bodies over things (I'm sure you've seen this behavior all cats do it) its a territory thing, you should either get a couple of cloths and rub it around each cats face (cheeks and between the eyes are where the scent glands are) and let each cat investigate the others smell or swap their bedding around - ideally you would want to do this over a week or 2 before they meet but if thats not possible its just not! I have heard of people putting a little bit of vanilla essence on each cat so they smell the same - although I've never tried this.

Make the first meeting as positive as possible for both cats, maybe have some lovely treats around to distract them both, let them see each other from a distance and give lots of fuss and treats (they might associate seeing this new cat = treats for me - fantastic!), if they start getting wound up in any way separate them and give both cats lots of reassurance, even if the first meeting is 30 seconds long it is better to be short and good than end up in a fight which both cats will remember. Let them both relax again and repeat.
You have to assess yourself how well its going, if its going well try feeding them near each other (not too close to begin with) this usually works with cats I've had.

shelly

We had to introduce a 3yr old to our old girl (16ish) recently. Both are females. Coco is so laid back she's horizontal :rotfl: so we kinda knew she would be no trouble. We knew hardly anything at all about Lily though so we kept them separated for awhile.
They were separated all day but had the run of the hall, stairs and landing in the evenings when we were there to step in if needed. At first Lily was very submissive to Coco but gradually she relaxed. We put them together overnight after about 10 days. Daren't do it before as Lily was very nervous.

We have had Lily for a couple of months now and they both live in the utility, come and go as they please as they have a cat flap, have a bed each next to each other and eat side by side. Coco is an old girl but seems younger now she has a young companion.

We had never done this before but things went fine. Only you can gauge their moods and so long as you keep an eye on them for awhile i'm sure it will be ok.

I'm no expert but any other queries feel free to ask.

asea

thanks shelly!

um was there much hissing and/or any fighting at first? i am a little nervous about that i think!

shelly

asea wrote: »

thanks shelly!

um was there much hissing and/or any fighting at first? i am a little nervous about that i think!

There was a little hissing from Coco in the first few days if Lily came too close to her but Lily was very submissive to Coco from the start so there wasn't much (hissing that is)
There was no fighting at all.

Coco has always got on with other cats where we lived before and Lilys previous owner said that she too got on with other cats down the street so we knew it was just a case of the two of them getting used to eachother.


Now they get on so well that they were sharing a bed until we bought another one as Lily is quite a big cat and they looked a bit squashed up

darich

when my gf and i moved in together with our cats this is what we did.

my cat was limited to certain rooms with my belongings eg our bedroom and my bed. My gf's cat was limited to other rooms eg living rom and gf's sofa.
this was continued for a few days then we'd swap the cats round so my cat could smell the sofa and my gf's cat could smell my bed. That way they'd realise there was another cat without meeting.
We'd then let them see each other and smell each other through a crack in the door - so we knew they wouldn't attack each other.

After around a week we introduced them at dinner time so that they would associate meeting each other with something good ie eating.
we'd always supervise to start with so there wouldn't be any fights.

after a couple of weeks we knew they were fine together and we let them do their own thing, That was around 18months ago.

Both our cats are girls - mine is around 3 and gf's is around 4.

joggyb

Hi there

Your cat will need to be introduced to your b/f's cat slowly but surely, I think. It's your b/f's cat's territory, so essentially your cat is the newbie.

OH and I brought a 'new' (3 yr old) rescue cat earlier this year, and had to introduce it to our older, existing cat.

It was a little nerve-wracking, particularly in the first couple of days - when we really wondered whether we were doing the right thing by either cat.

But - thanks partly to kind advice from MSErs, and partly from a cat behaviourist - we got there. I wouldn't say they're best buddies, but they tolerate each other perfectly well, and they're happy to share the house. They certainly don't fight or treat each other like mortal enemies!

You might find some useful advice on my old thread - it covers what MSErs said, and then what we found worked for us (including some advice from the behaviourist).

I really hope it works out for you. We love having both our cats - they're completely different characters - and we can't imagine being without them both now. :j

joggyb

Sorry - forgot to post old thread!

Here it is: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=491777&highlight=introducing+cat