Cat not eating

[Tigger-lnt]

Hi I need advice, I have a 14 castrated tom cat who used to live with another female cat until she died 2 years ago. Recently a uncastrated tom cat has been visiting, looked like a stray and after checks he has been castrated 3 weeks ago, now he won't go away at all living in my garden and getting into the house. He's a lovely cat very friendly and I was hoping to keep him. Problem is my resident cat does not like him at all, isolating himself to the upstairs of the house, won't go out and most worrying won't eat!! So now I'm worried about 2 cats. Will this situation improve? Or should I rehome stray?

[meriad]

No reason why it shouldn't work out with a bit more time; esp if they're not getting into any fights. Once the hormones of the stray have settled (and that can take up to three months) I'd suspect he'll be less smelly and therefore less of a threat to your resident cat and with time whilst they may not be best of pals, they'll learn to live alongside each other.

For now though; could you limit the rooms the stray has access to and ensure your resident has run of the rest of the house and can maybe get in and out somehow else? Also if you have somewhere higher up try feeding your resident cat there - he may feel safer doing that.

Putting the stray into a bonding room may work as well, ie stray goes into a 'safe' room for a few weeks whilst you follow the usual intro process but given he's been around this long already I'm not sure it's the route I'd go down.