Introducing your new kitten

to the established Cat

Start out your new kitten in one room with a litter pan and water dish. Ideally, the one room should be a bedroom with yourself or another human resident. This accomplishes a couple of things. Your new kitten will not be overwhelmed by its new surroundings and get "lost", and thusly will have no problem finding the litter pan. You will feed the new kitten in this room and keep the established cat out. It allows the new kitten to bond with you or another human being and also build up some self assurance in its new surroundings since it will not have to compete for food or attention right away. Finally, it allows the new kitten and the established cat to sniff each other under the door and get familiar with each others' scents.

After 3-5 days of being in its one room, it is time to let them meet each other. As a precaution, be sure both parties have had their nails trimmed recently! Be prepared for some posturing, some spitting and hissing, and the like. IGNORE IT! After a while, they should begin chasing each other about while still having the occasional hiss or spit as they get accustomed to each other. Cats tend to make a whole lot of noise and even loosen up some fur. Rarely will two cats truly hurt each other.

Once they are introduced, there are a couple of things you must remember - Don't separate them again, they will get along! Do not interfere in their "discussions" as they need to sort it out amongst themselves. Once dominance has been established, things will quiet down for the most part.

It does not hurt to give the established cat treats and extra attention after the new kitten is introduced. Don't give the kitten excess attention in front of the established cat.

A couple of things you may have to do are to feed them on separate dishes and provide more than one litter pan in different areas of the household (as cats can be very territorial about litter pans).

All in all, this method generally has great success and makes for a fairly smooth introduction. Please remember that they may make up immediately, or it may take a couple of weeks, but when a cat is used to a buddy, they would rather have one than be alone all the time.

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