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Missy2
Member
07-31-2001
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 9:52 am
Hello everyone!! I'm adopting two new kittens this weekend. I have two older cats at home that are very territorial. I'm concerned about them meeting...any suggestions? My current cats are 6 year old litter mates (females), and they are very skittish. Not very social, kind of like myself. I'm hoping the kittens will be more used to social situations and kind of teach my kitties a thing or two. But mostly I'm afraid of the kittens being attacked by my older kitties. Any tips or advice would help.
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Seamonkey
Member
09-07-2000
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 10:17 am
I think you are in luck because at least you have two pairs.. do the two new kittens know each other already? I'd think you might want to have a way of keeping them separate, with separate litter boxes, at first, until you can be sure the older ones won't really do damage. And you are likely to hear hissing for some time to come. I'm guessing the little ones will learn to move quickly and to respect the older ones and I bet they will help your older kitties to loosen up in time. I'd also make sure I was around as much as possible in the first days.. like if you are around more on weekends, bring in the kittens as early as possible on the weekend .. looks like you have that covered already!
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 10:57 am
From all I've read, you need to introduce them to each other very slowly over a couple weeks time. Keep the babies in a separate room with the door shut with just small minor excursions into the older cat's territory. I'm sure if you 'googled' your question, you'd get all kinds of great advice.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 11:57 am
Best advice is to keep them separated for longer than you think is necessary. Then (after a few days of that,) if you can borrow a large crate, put the kittens in the crate and put the crate in the middle (or corner) of a main room that the cats hang out in. That way all felines can see each other and slowly get used to the sight of each other. Make sure you have plenty of litterboxes.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 11:58 am
Hey what are their names!? And welcome to the 4 cat club!!! I have 4 myself!
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 11:59 am
And don't let the hissing freak ya out, there will likely be plenty of that for a while....
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Missy2
Member
07-31-2001
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 1:45 pm
It doesn't freak me out but it freaks out my boyfriends son. :-) I'll try to keep them seperate for as long as I can but of course my first instinct is I want them to meet! But my girls are so not used to other animals...
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Missy2
Member
07-31-2001
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 1:47 pm
Sorry I don't know what we are naming them? :-)
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 2:12 pm
Juju1 and Juju2 would be good names for the new kitties. Or perhaps Juju and Bigdog.
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Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 2:35 pm
you cannot name a little kitten "big dog" lolololol!
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Jmm
Member
08-16-2002
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 2:59 pm
Oh, I don't know ........ might keep those older cats in line. "Here Bigdog, here boy" 
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Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 3:12 pm
LOL! true true! i'd be pretty scared of a little kitty named "big dog". it would sure keep me in line!
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 6:33 pm
Missy, what are your cats' names?
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Karuuna
Member
08-31-2000
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 7:09 pm
I suggest keeping them apart for several weeks, if you really want them to get on well. Give the kittens their own room somewhere, and then occasionally switch for an hour or so. Put the kittens where your older cats normally live, and put the older cats in the kittens room. Do that every day for awhile. Then I like to get two of those pet gates, and stack them on top of each other in the doorway that separates the cats. They can see each other, but can't get to each other. Let them live that way for a coupla days. Once some of the hissing dies down, you can start letting them out together for *short* periods of time. And I"m sure it goes without saying, don't hold any of the cats during these introductions, or try to pick one up in the middle of a hissing battle. It sounds time consuming, but overall it seems to work better than shorter introductions.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 7:14 pm
Yes, I agree with Kar. Do it slowly and even if it seems like all is fine, still keep 'em separated for several weeks...
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 7:15 pm
Let the older kids dictate when to open the house to the younger ones. You may be surprised. Although I suspect my Costa cat is the bestest cat ever, he totally adapts to any new kids in the house (he couldn't wait for Kassie to decide to leave her "safe" room and come sit in the living room so he'd go grab her by the scruff of her neck and carry her in). I was cat sitting for a neighbor over the Thanksgiving holiday and tried to keep Buster here. Costa would've loved to have gotten to know him better, but Kassie hissed at him. By the third day, I could have 'em all in the same room for a couple of hours at a time. I just let 'em pick... when one started to get cranky, Buster went back home! (And, of course, I lavished lots of treats on MY kids so they wouldn't think I was trying to displace 'em or anything. Well, that, and a few extra treats as a bribe! <grin>)
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Gina8642
Member
06-01-2001
| Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 8:37 pm
I agree with keeping them separated for most of the time for weeks at least. Years ago when I had my last kitty, my sister's two kitties came to stay for a few weeks while she traveled. All the kitties acted totally normal and were even sweet to each other. However (!!!) my kitty stopped using his box and started pooping in the living room. Make sure the have plenty of litter boxes in "private" locations where they feel safe doing their business.
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Friday, December 31, 2004 - 9:09 am
Years ago I just put my new kitten with my 17 year old. The older cat tried her best to stay away from the playful youngster. To make a long story short, baby scratched oldster in the behind. She got a terrible infection by her rectum and because of her age had to be put down. So, the operative words from here is CAUTION until you can be sure they will get along.
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Sia
Member
03-11-2002
| Saturday, January 01, 2005 - 11:03 am
O'sGrandma makes a good point: new kittens have frightfully sharp claws. I blunt the ends of my kitten Buffy's nails with small nail clippers that are intended for use on human newborns. I like baby nail-clippers for all members of the family, in fact, and always use them on my two-footed kids because they just cut so well and are easy to control because the cutting blades are so small. The only nails you can't trim with baby-clippers are big middle-aged-husband-toenails, lol!
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Hippyt
Member
06-15-2001
| Saturday, January 01, 2005 - 11:45 am
I just got these from my mom. This is my mom's new kitten Tootsie celebrating the new year!
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Hippyt
Member
06-15-2001
| Saturday, January 01, 2005 - 11:46 am
Oh,man,those are huge! I'm sorry,they were small in the email!
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Babyruth
Member
07-19-2001
| Saturday, January 01, 2005 - 3:19 pm
Looks like Tootsie's rolling in the New Year with style! Great pics!
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 8:57 am
Okay, I came up with names for the two new kitties. Pookie and Juju. Sing this to the tune of The Adams Family. You look a little ookie I'm gonna name you Pookie I see you going poopoo I think I'll call you Juju My Kit-tee FamiLEE Badda-ba-BOOMP!
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Babyruth
Member
07-19-2001
| Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 10:07 am
I think Juju is feverish...
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Missy2
Member
07-31-2001
| Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 1:35 pm
We adopted our new kitties on Saturday. They are adorable. I've been reading about how to get the two sets of cats introduced properly. When we first brought the kittens home we showed them to Greta (the worse of the two). The kittens were in a crate, she started growling and hissing at them. I've been bringing the kitten bed up to my cats during the day and I'll swap it back at night. That way they can get used to the smell of each other. We named the kitties, Luke and Leia - :-) Here are their photos -:
 
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