Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I just adopted an 8 month old kitten (male) and brought him home to meet my 5 month old kitten (male). Per the advice of many of the posts here, I set up one room for the new cat and put his own water, food, litter in the room and shut the door. Within a few hours, he was crying to get out and was friendly and comfortable with his surroundings, but I simply would go in and play with him and then leave the room. Meanwhile, my resident kitten was anxiously scratching at the door trying to see the new cat. They growl and meow at each other under the door and stick their paws underneath. I've switched them at night so my kitten sleeps in with me, and the new cat has a chance to put his scent on the rest of my small place.

The problem - yesterday while I was out doing laundry, my kitten must have pushed the door open to the room and when I came in they were rolling around the house chasing and tackling each other. It was a very energetic fight. I don't know how many minutes this had gone on before I came in, but they were each panting heavily. I carefully separated them and put the new cat back in his room. No blood was drawn, but quite a few growls. Now, I can't get them away from the door. Each of them cry all day wanting to get at each other, and it is a struggle to open the door to give them food or water without them both sneaking in or out of the room.

Has it already gone too far? Will they be adversaries for life or is there a way to start this over when they obviously know the other one is right outside the door? It's only been a few days since the new cat came home, and I'd really like to be able to keep him.

would appreciate any advice. sorry for the novel.

Actually your cats are both so young that the fight might have been more play than fight! One thing that might help is to put one cat in a carrier and let the other sniff around and then vice versa for a while. This would also help you in closing and opening the door for feeding, petting and the like.

Good luck. Let us know how things work out!

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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

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>>would appreciate any advice. sorry for the novel.
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Have they both been neutered yet? If not, you'll want to get that done as it should take a lot of aggression out of them. Also if one or both haven't been neutered, you can expect them to start spraying to mark their territory. If they're neutered early enough, they will probably never start the spraying habit.

Other than that, all the I can think of is they are both still kittens and may just be playing. Samantha's kittens used to wrestle around a lot, sometimes to the point of growling. You might try letting them be together under your supervision so that they can have a chance to bond with each other. It might take them a week or two to become accustomed to one another, however once they do, they'll probably be best buddies. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

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Ruby and the Kitties
Simba, Samantha, Katrina & KatyKatt
Meow!! Meow!! Meow!! Meow!!

How wonderful to do nothing and then rest afterwards. Meow!

No all it not lost! I did not introduce any of my cats the right way. Yes I know better now. The last kitten I adopted all the cats avoided for a month. She bonded well with my mother's 8 yr old brother and sister cats. Then she bonded with my sister's cat Tucker who is 3 now. It took her a yr to bond with my cat Crash. But they now get along fine.
Sometimes it just does't happen as quickly as we would like.
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Jaime owned by
Mya the dog
and the cats:Crash, Moxie, Gabby and sometimes Tucker