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Wednesday, June 14, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Paw
Prints
Jodi Schneider McNamee
Columnist
Introducing a kitten
to your adult cat
Spring and summer are
kitten season! Yes, kittens
have a season.
With spring in full swing
and warmer temperatures
coming, the kitten popu-
lation begins to increase
through mid-summer. Sadly,
during this time, local shel-
ters see a dramatic increase
in kittens due to cats not
being spayed or neutered.
But maybe you’ve had
your heart set on a kitten
for a while and you’ve been
thinking of giving your resi-
dent adult cat a companion
all winter. Now’s the time
to rescue one from the local
shelter.
First thing to do is to
make sure that your new
kitten is healthy prior to
introducing her to your adult
cat. Before bringing Kitty
home, take her to your veter-
inarian for a complete exam.
Your vet can also advise you
on when would be the right
time to spay or neuter your
kitten.
The best way to introduce
your kitten to your resident
cat is slowly. Don’t force
them to interact. A gradual
process of discovery and
investigation is ideal.
A little bit of extra effort
at the beginning can make
the difference between a
good or bad relationship in
the future.
It’s usually easier to
introduce a new kitten than
an adult cat because this
tends to be less challenging
for an adult cat. Kitten body
language and movements
are less threatening and they
have yet to adopt the concept
of territory and competing
with other cats.
However, your resident
cat that you’ve had for a
while will have established
territory, and introducing
your kitten may not be well
received.
The best way to intro-
duce a new kitten is to cre-
ate a “safe room” as a way
to get her used to the smells
and sounds of her new
home without getting over-
whelmed. The ideal safe
room should have a separate
litter box, food and water
bowls, a bed, scratching
post, a few toys and possibly
a place to hide.
Creating this safe room
allows the two cats to meet
each other indirectly by get-
ting used to one another’s
scent through the closed
door. Plus, it allows your
resident cat to get used to the
smells of a new kitten with-
out feeling threatened.
You should keep your
new feline friend in the safe
room for 1-2 weeks. During
that time, your kitten will
stop smelling like the shelter
and will start smelling like
your home, which is also
less threatening to your resi-
dent cat.
After a few days, you can
try feeding the two kitties
on opposite sides of the safe
room door so they associate
each other’s presence with a
positive experience.
The next step is a face-
to-face meeting. You can do
this a few different ways.
You can put up a baby gate
in the doorway of the safe
room and allow your kitten
and resident cat to approach
each other in their own time.
Or, you can place your kitten
in a carrier that smells like
your cat, and then bring the
kitten in the closed carrier
into your resident cat’s area
and set it down, allowing her
to approach the kitten in the
PHOTO BY JODI SCHNEIDER MCNAMEE
Look at that face. Even an adult cat would welcome thid kitty home.
carrier in her own time.
Patience is a virtue with
this process. It is SO impor-
tant not to hurry the process.
Once your cats seem to be
calm at the sight of each
other, it is probably safe to
introduce the two without
barriers like the pet carrier
or baby gate.
Remember to make sure
they are supervised during
the initial meeting. If there
are any problems during this
time, go back a step to allow
each cat more time to view
each other on opposite sides
of the baby gate or carrier.
Introducing a kitten to
an adult or older cat doesn’t
always go as expected. Many
adult cats have never been
around kittens before and
often can be afraid of them.
Don’t necessarily expect the
“parenting gene” to kick in
if your resident cat has not
been around kittens.
Introducing a kitten to an
adult cat is not always easy,
but it can be rewarding if
you go slow, and allow the
two cats to get used to each
other.
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