Last night I brought home a new 6 week old kitten named Maximus(male) and I currently have a 3yearold named roxy(Female).At first they seemed to be getting along just fine and dandy. I wasnt sure if it would cause problems since Roxy has always let our 3 kids pick her up even though sometimes they can be rough with her.Also I have a few other pets in the house (Rabbits and Chinchilla and turtles)wich she gets along with just fine. but my wife was holding the kitten not long after I brought it home and roxy came and sat on my lap paying no attention to the kitten. When she saw max she walked over sniffed him for a minute then sat back down. About 5 minutes later she looked at the kitten and hissed and decided to attack! Claws Teeth and all. While She was trying to attack the kitten that was cowering on my wife's lap and she got my wife in the arm pretty good. As I tried to pull her away she even took a swipe at me! Finally last night we put the kitten in a kitty carrier over night in hopes that roxy would just check him out and work on her getting used to the scent. Instead we were waken up by roxy hissing and spitting while sitting on top of the carrier trying to get in. For now We have them seperated, roxy is in the bedroom and the kitten is roaming the house getting aquainted. Please give me some advice on what to do to prevent any kitty death but also to get them to play well together. The thing Im really nervous about is we have 3 kids who are 3,5,and 6 and roxy was always good to them. Im now terrified that they will set her off and get scratched and bitten.
Reptile & Amphibian Forums
Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.
My First Cat went psycho last night when i broght home a new kitten
Replies (3)
My wife called me(Im at work) and told me that My son Jake(3) opened the door to the room roxy was an and she tried to scrach Jake and then my wife as she defended our son and Shooed the cat using a broom back in to the room. HELP
Roxy is exhibiting something called re-directed aggression. For now, isolate her in a quiet room with a litterbox and water and go in to give her food but otherwise leave her alone for at least two days to recover. Unfortunately chasing her with a broom has probably added to her tendancy to want to aggress.
ASAP get a Comfort Zone plug-in with Feliway and put it in the room where Roxy is.
Keep Roxy and the kitten separated totally for at least a week. During this time rub each of them with a towel to exchange their scents. If you can figure out how to do it without the cats meeting each other, trade them out and let the kitten stay in Roxy's room for a while while Roxy explores.
After a week you can let Roxy sniff at the kitten in the carrier, but only supervised and only for a few minutes. At the first sign of aggression, remove the kitten. You should also reverse the process and have Roxy in the carrier while the kitten sniffs around it.
For more information please visit -
link
This introduction will take a lot of time and patience on your part. Talk to your children about leaving Roxy alone and not handling her during this transistional period.
-----
great advice. I'd just underline the feliway plug ins. we had them all over the house (they cover about 500sq each plugin) and I credit them with keeping our almost 12 year old happy, or at least not unhappy with the two 3 month old kittens we forced upon him.
good luck. with some cats it takes a while and a detente develops, others it's easy.
take care,
LisaS.
