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/I have a female 12 year old cat and my daughter just brought home a female kitten. My older cat hisses and growls at the kitten. Is there any way to make them get along?
How old is the kitten? If it is very young like my Ruthie was, no introduction was needed. Chloe hissed a few times, slapped Ruthie once, and that was that.
Older kittens need a room of their own while the resident cat become accustomed to the member's smell. Have two of everything, litter boxes, dishes, beds etc. Lots of disputes are over resources. Exchange rooms for a few hours, or overnight, after a week so your kitten can explore.
Be patient and above all never push them face to face. Your cat knows the new kitten is there.
I have written several times elsewhere about introducing new cats.
Don't yell, scold or punish your current cat for hissing at the newcomer. When he acts nice—or at least nonthreatening—to the new cat, praise him and give treats. If fighting breaks out or either cat is highly stressed, separate them for a few more days. A new kitten is typically eager to make friends, but the older cats in the household may want nothing to do with the younger one. Often times the older cats will appear sad, reclusive, hiss a lot, and sometimes even stop eating if it isn't adjusting well to the new member of the family. Go to my Profile and you can find all about Cat and Kitten material there...
Yes,with patience and time.
Start by isolating them now.
The standards of Cat Etiquette require,prior to.that first meet-and-greet, a period of 4–5 days at least during which the newcomer is behind closed doors,so the older cat can start getting used to her scent before seeing her the first time.
Use pheromone based plug-ins ( Feliway) and if available, pheromone- based collars, all the while.
You can also rub some catnip on the kitten s head and body the first time they eventually m eet.It is very important for that first time that you monitor them - make it a short encounter, since most of it will be hissing and attempts at swatting from the older cat, anyway. Soft music playing will help de -stress both cats.
After a couple of close encounters, you could try step two: playing.
You will need a laser pen, or a soft ball to get both cats involved in the game.
It may not work right away, it’ s a matter of patience ,like in all things-cat. Cats take time to adapt to any change,and that includes having a buddy, especially if they were solo cats before.
The goal is for your older cat to start considering the kitten in a different way. A possible partner in crime,rather than an intruder.
Don ‘t forget that just like with a second child in a family, more attention and cuddles should go to your older cat, so she will not feel the kitten is taking her place.
In all likelihood, in a “few” months these two will be sharing a catbed, and will snuggle together.
Good luck to you all!
Well you shoulda done an intro period, but we're past that now, so let's move on…
Is older cat actually hurting younger cat? Is anyone hiding under furniture so much they are miserable? No? Then just let it go. Likelihood is in about a week things will start to calm down. This is perfectly normal. The hissing, growling, and maybe occasional swat are just a warning for the kitten to keep its distance, nothing more. And since the kitten is probably ignoring those signals, they need to work all that out on their own.
Two necessities:
Make sure older cat does not feel neglected. Consider giving her some alone time with you, maybe at night in your bedroom with the door closed, to de-stress. (That requires a litter box and water bowl in the bedroom). Consider cat shelves or a cat tree with levels far enough apart that your cat can jump up but a kitten can't. That will give her a way to get away from the annoying young one.
Play with the baby a LOT. Your 12 year old is a senior citizen and that kitten is a wild bundle of play energy. Tire the baby out with playing so it doesn't drive the older one crazy, like a hyperactive 2 year old constantly tugging on the sleeve of its grandma.
Here are two sets of "kitten proof" shelves I installed when I had a hyperactive young one. Note how far apart they are. An adult cat has no trouble climbing them.
Keep them in two different rooms if its possible with some sort of barrier they can see and smell each other through but can't get through. Keep their bowls where they can't see each other. As they slowly become used to seeing each other move their bowls closer to the door with the barrier. As they become comfortable continue to love the bowls until they are at the door with the barrier. When they are eating, separated by the barrier, completely comfortably, for about a week, it's time to try to remove the barrier. But go back to feeding them in separate areas of a room for a while. This process should take from a couple of weeks to about a month
This is Opal (Left) and Sylvie. Both female. When I brought Opal home, Sylvie hissed every time she saw the kitten. Now Sylvie is like her big sister. We never even had to separate them.
It may be harder for you because 12 years is getting old for a cat, but if hissing is the worst thing your older cat does, then it should work out.
Make sure you give your older cat plenty of affection so she doesn't feel she's being replaced. Don't scold her if she wrestles with the kitten. Kittens are huge pests and usually instigate the wrestling. In my experience, even if it looks like the older cat is picking on the younger, the kitten will keep coming back for more. Kittens are made for wrestling. They aren't as fragile as they look.
I've had many cats, some who were truly aggressive. If hissing is the worst you see, there's probably not a real problem.
Lots of good answers here.
See your vet or go online to buy pheromone diffusers; the best known brand is Feliway, but there are others equally good. These pheromones exert a calming influence on cats. If your adult cat is really distressed, your vet may prescribe a cat tranquilizer.
Try to give each cat her own space. Give them separate feeding bowls a distance from one another. It’s a good rule to have one litter box more than you have cats, so you should have 3 litter boxes. If you can, keep the kitten in one room where the adult cat cannot enter for about a week so they don’t see each other but can get used to each other’s scents. When I introduced a female kitten to my 5 year female cat, I did that, then I put a screen in the doorway for another week so they could see but not touch one another.
None of this, probably, will make your adult cat happy with sharing her territory with an interloper, but it will make it easier for her to adjust. In my case, the kitten refused to be rebuffed by the older cat—she wanted a mama figure-playmate and would not be gainsaid. One day I came upon Medea (the older cat) grooming Siri (the kitten) and growling as she did so. I nearly died laughing! I doubt they’ll ever be besties, but they play and chase one another, and, when Medea has had enough, she just walks off and Siri has learned to leave her alone then.
Firstly, be patient. Some cats, especially those who have lived the better part of a decade as the only cat in the home, have a hard time accepting an interloper (as they see it.)
Jackson Galaxy has a tried and true method for introducing a new cat to a household, and it is as follows:
If possible, keep them separated for a few days, with new cat locked in a closed room. This will give Resident Cat (RC) a chance to adjust to the New Cat's (NC) scent. After about a week of segregation, you can try introducing them into the same space. Again, slowly. If you can, put up a baby gate between RC and NC, and feed them at the same time, on opposite sides of the gate. Make sure you're keeping their food dishes as far apart as possible. Every few days, move the dishes a little bit closer together. If at any point RC begins to hiss or growl, move the dishes back, and wait a few more days.
When you've reached the point that the food dishes are separated only by the gate, the gate can be removed, and allow the cats to be in the same room together. There may be occasional “disagreements” between them after this point, but by then, it'll be more a case of RC and NC establishing their pecking order.
This process, for some cats, can take MONTHS. The key is to be patient, and not force RC out of the comfort zone too quickly. So. Patience, and slow progress must be your mantra!
Or, if you're like me, you can just let them duke it out on their own terms, even if it means waking up to demon-like screeching and tufts of fur flying at 3 a.m. ;) Honestly though, I've never had cats take more than a day or two to get accustomed to a new kitty addition to the family.
Best of luck, please give us an update in the near future!
Based on my experience, a female cat finds it hard to share territory with another female cat. I had an older cat named Garfield who hated the young cat that I received as a present. Her name was Cleo.
They never got along, and Garfield always hissed and swiped at Cleo. They never got along.
All I can suggest is not leaving them alone in the same room, but gradually encouraging good behavior.