Introducing Cats to new Cat companions

Getting a cat to accept another cat is not easy, but done correctly, it can work and lead to a rewarding and life-long friendship. Introducing them slowly is the key to success but slowly means something different to each cat. It can be a day, a week, or 6 months. Mostly it takes 3 to 4 months.  If you follow my protocol closely as if they are meeting for the first time, you will have success. They may never cuddle or play together but they will live amicably together.

·         It is important to remember that cats are dignified and private souls and whilst they can be very friendly and accepting of humans and perhaps other cats, how they are introduced determines the success of their relationship.

·         They should never just be forced together, and every effort must be made to prevent them frightening each other or intimidating each other.

1     Firstly prepare a room in the house for the New Cat. Do not use a room that is your current cat’s favourite room or your room. It must be a room that New Cat can regard as his/her refuge. Make sure that the cat cannot escape by using mesh screens over the windows or keep the windows closed and close and lock the doors properly. Put 2 litter trays in each room. This is especially important as you will see in point 6. 

2     Purchase plastic mesh and make a wooden door frame covered in the mesh to fit into the bedroom door frame of Newy’s room.  You will use this frame in the doorway when you later, open the door. You are welcome to come and see how I have done this. 

These frames keep the cats separated but allow them to walk past the cat in the closed room when it is their turn to walk and to see and smell each other without feeling threatened. Cats are clever, they know that the other cat cannot get through the mesh. So, with the frame in place, once you open the door, Current cat can walk around knowing where Newy is and they can communicate through the gate. 

Remember that your cat regards your home as his/her home. Make sure that your Current cat’s favourite room contains his/her favourite blanket, bed, basket and litter trays. Make the rooms are warm/cool and comfortable. 

3     For New Cat, try to place the bed under a desk or table or in a corner, somewhere that will forever be the cat’s safe hiding place. If they like catnip, place catnip in the room, near the beds, on the windowsills. You can also buy Feliway spray or Nurture Calm calming spray from the vet and spray it around the outside of their beds and across the doorway. Feliway is very effective and worth the expense.

      NB.Calming collars are often recommended by vets. Please DO NOT USE THEM. They are very dangerous and I have had a very nasty experience with     a calming collar that ended in the poor cat having to be euthanized because it was so damaged from having gotten its lower jaw caught in the collar. 

4     Try without this suggestion first but if things do not go well, you may want to speak to your vet and I suggest that you ask the vet to prescribe anti anxiety medication.  Put both cats on the prescribed meds.  You can either put it down their throats or crush it on the wet food. Some medications take time to work,   but can be used more long term than other drugs. It may make the cats a bit sleepy at first.  I would use medication, if it is necessary,  for the first month that the cats are getting to know one another. Many vets will not prescribe drugs. If yours will not, you can try Nutricalm capsules or Calmeze or Anxitane in double doses. These are food supplements and can do no harm.  They are also obtainable from the vet. However, I have never found them very helpful in dealing with introducing cats to one another. 

5     Brush the cats daily, separately, with their own brushes. Talk to them, reassure them. Play with New Cat with toys and feathers and balls and try to make him/her tired daily. You need to drain off stress energy so that he/she does not use it terrorising your Current cat. 

       Do the same with your cat. Play with him/her and make sure that you drain off his/her energy and make him/her feel very loved and important. You need about 2 sessions a day for about 10 minutes each. 

       Feed a small meal or treat straight after playing because you want to build up a positive association which you will need when you introduce the cats to each other. 

6     After a week of separation and settling, brush them with each other’s brushes. Also swap around some of the blankets so that they can smell each other. Swap a used litter tray as well but ensure that they have a fresh tray with unused litter as well. You want them to smell the other cat but not to be afraid to use the litter tray. A rule is always to have a tray per cat and one extra in a multicat home, so if you have 3 cats you will need 4 trays once they have been integrated. 

7     After a few weeks with Current cat living as usual in your home, spending periods in his/her designated room and freely in the house, and Newy being confined to his/her room, with the door closed, put Current cat in your room or his/her room and start letting New Cat out into the house to spread his/her smell for about half an hour . Then put him/ her back in his/her room. Let Current Cat walk around again. 

8     Also start swapping the cats around for short periods of time. Put Current cat and Newy in each other’s rooms and give each cat some treats, something they really love like biltong, or a small piece of cheese or something that they really love, not ordinary food. You want them to associate a treat, something really nice, with the smell of the other cat.  Play with them in these rooms, separately.    

9     After a further week of this exercise, at mealtimes, start feeding New Cat close to his/her closed door and Current cat next to the same closed door on the other side.  If they won’t eat, pull the food bowls further away. You may need to start about a meter from the door and gradually move in closer together over a week.

 10         Make sure the house is secure and that Current Cat and New Cat cannot escape from the house and run away. 

Then daily you will start letting Newy walk around the house with Current cat but always supervised to avoid confrontation. They will watch each other keenly. We are trying to prevent and avoid all threatening behaviour. When they have time out in the house together, engage Current Cat in a game with a feather on a string on a stick and let him/her hunt and play so that she does not focus on the other cat. Reverse the process with Newy. Do this for a few days. Preferably have someone else focus on playing with Newy.  Play with them in the same room, but not together at this stage. Do this for 10 minutes, then put Newy back in her/his room. Do this for a further week. 

11         Now place the mesh gate in the doorway of Newy’s room instead of closing the door. Start feeding them on either side of the mesh gate about a meter apart again and gradually bring them closer to the mesh gate over a week or more. 

12         Then try sitting on a couch with another member of the family holding one of the cats and another member sitting at the other end of the couch holding the other cat. Swap cats and people around. If at any time there is any sign of aggression, make more space between the cats. Go back to a previous step and try again in a day or two.

13         Now try feeding them in the usual place a meter apart but without the gate between them. If         this is successful, you are ready for the next step.

14         Feed them in the kitchen or other neutral territory and about a meter or more apart. When they finish eating, watch what they do and guide the cat                who finishes first away from the other. They should now each pick a spot to sit and wash up! They should then go off to their favourite spots and                      settle to sleep for a while.

15       Try to maintain a steady routine. Current Cat will be more accepting if feeding, playing, and          bedtime are as close to the same time every day as             possible.

16       Offer tons of attention and positive feedback, especially to Current Cat.  Make sure your Current cat knows that he/she is important. After all, Newy                is for his/her companionship.  Resist the temptation to make a fuss of New Cat in front of Current Cat.

NEVER shout at the cats if they show any aggression, or stress. Simply separate them or increase distance between them, reassure them, and go back a step.

                    Add scratching posts around the house. With an appropriate place to scratch there is less need for inappropriate behaviour.

               Spray around the favourite rooms with Feliway spray. It helps calm agitated cats.

               Remember that a confident cat will walk with tail held high and will not hug the walls or hide. 

       Good luck! With any luck you may not need to use this whole process.

       The slower you go through this process, usually, the greater your chance of success.


I had one client who took on a second cat as a companion for their very stressed and neurotic Siamese. After preparing rooms and making door screens and doing everything I advised, they accidentally closed the two cats up together in the same room because the Siamese was hiding under the bed in the new cat’s room when she arrived! The two made friends instantly and are now inseparable. So, who knows! Cats will be cats!  But this is very unusual. 

It is very important that you are patient and calm yourself. Cats are extremely sensitive and will take their cues from you. If you are tense and nervous, this will make them believe that there is something to be nervous about. 

The key to success? Patience, patience, more patience, and of course even more patience. 

You may call me at any time.

 

Steps to settling your cat into a new home

This may seem a long and laboured process but it works and is well worth the effort for the safety of your feline friend.

 1      Decide which room she will be in for the next 2 weeks. It can be a study or the bedroom of the person she is closest to or used to sleeping with.

2      Prepare the room by placing a water bowl and dry food bowl in a place where she will feel safe and protected, eg under a chair or table and place a litter tray in the room also in a “private” place but not right next to the food.

3      Prepare a “hidy hole’ for her, be it a shelf in a cupboard that will have the door left ajar, and perhaps a blanket on the window sill with the curtain partially drawn that she can sit behind it whilst looking out.

4      Before you fetch her make sure that the room door and windows can be securely closed.

5      Purchase a little dry catnip from the vet, pet hyper or a pet store and sprinkle this on her bed where she will hide in the cupboard and on the window sill.

6       When you collect her, take her in the carrier into the room, close the door, open the carrier and allow her to come out in her own time. Place the carrier as close as possible to the cupboard or bed or hidy hole that you have prepared for her.

7      Visit her often, give her treats and reassure her. Rub butter, (not margarine) on her front paw pads a few times so that she will lick them and start grooming herself in her new territory. Don't do it if it stresses her. It is the self grooming that settles the cat not the butter! Do not use margarine as vegetable oils are not good for cats. 

8      Once she seems confident and is not nervous, perhaps a week, certainly do not do this in less than a week, you can open the room door and let her explore the house but make sure that she cannot escape from the house. All the windows and doors to the outside must be securely closed. It is best to allow these exploring trips in the early morning and early evening and then put her back in her room for the day and the night.

9      After two to 3 weeks you can let her roam the house freely at night and in the day provided that she cannot get out. I secure plastic mess in wooden frames and secure these frames to the windows that I want to leave open with cable ties so that we can still get fresh air. It also allows your cat to start experiencing the smells from outside.

10   Once she looks totally confident, tail up in the air, walking confidently with straight legs and not slinking around and not dashing back to her room at the slightest noise, you can start to introduce her to the outside world, the garden.

11   Prepare to let her out through the window that will always be open for her. Get a family member to assist and guide her to the window whilst another family member stands outside to supervise her first exit. Let her explore for a few minutes then take her back inside via the same route. Do this a few times a day. Repeat the activity with another window or door that she will be using. It is important that you use a door as well so that the first time she goes out alone, access back into the house will be easy and quick should she get a fright. Cats learn quickly. You only have to show them the route 2 or 3 times and they have “got it” for life.

12   Once you have shown her the route in and out a few times over a few days, open the door or window and call her. Follow her and let her go out on her own but stay nearby so that if she goes too far, you can call her back. When you call her back, reward her with her favourite food treat.  Allow her out for longer sessions and reward her as soon as she responds and comes in when you call her. Once you see that she is able to go outside and get back inside on her own, your cat is well settled and won’t run away.  

 Happy settling into your new home!