The Introduction of A New Cat Into Your Home
When you already own a cat, getting a new cat to be a part of your household, can prove to be a difficult task. No matter how sweet your first cat may be, most of the time jealousy and possessiveness gets the best of them, and they can be very aggressive to the cat to prove their dominance. There are ways to dealing with this sort of issue. Here are a few tips to consider when welcoming a new cat member into your home.
When you are looking to make sure that your cats get to know each other safely and easily, take it slow and make sure that you have made the proper preparations. Arrange to have a small room set up for your new cat; a small bathroom or bedroom is ideal. When you are looking to make sure that your cats don't hurt each other, let them spend a few days smelling each other through a door. This way, your new cat will have an area that will be all his own and your old cats can deal with a new comer without getting too stressed about having them in their own places.
After, a few days have passed in this situation, you can bring out the new cat for short periods of time. If it gets too stressful or dangerous you need to take the new cat back to their safe place. For the most part, you'll see that they just want to explore each other, and they'll work out their issues of dominance without harming each other.
If either cat is feeling particularly aggressive, or if you are familiar with their behavior and are worried about a more dangerous introduction, take the time to put the new cat into a carrier and leave him out for the other cat to investigate. This is one measure that you can use to introduce them to each other and this can go a long way towards helping the cats feel safer and more secure around each other. Take the time to really let them get used to each other.
Restrict meetings to a few minutes at first and then a few hours. It can take you a few weeks before a cat can be completely integrated into your home. When you are looking to make sure that you an introduce your cats to each other, remember that patience and good timing are key. Don't rush it, and sooner than you might think, you'll have your cats getting along with no problems at all!
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Published September 11th, 2008
Filed in Home
