Introducing our 3 year old deaf cat to a 9 month female kitty

[Hugoc77]

Hello guys I’ll brand new in this forum and I wanted to ask for some advice on a certain matter,

Me and my GF have a deaf 3 year old Black ESH cat (Nero), this little guy was rescued and put into a foster family where he lived among other cats, when we picked him up his caretaker told us that he was a very shy, scary, asocial to humans and aggressive toward other cats, but regardless of the comments we decided to take him in, after a while he stoped being that shy and he now even sleep with us in bed and follow us all over the apartment.

Now we decided to adopt another cat because we had the feeling that he might be in need of more of a social cat life, due to his deafness we can’t let him out or take him for walks, so we finally decided to pick up a redhead female kitty(Ari).

After following the general introduction ritual for already quite some days we decided today to let them meet face to face for the first time with out any type of fence. At the beginning was all good they even started playing with toys in front of each other. But after a little while all of a sudden Nero came into hunting position from one side of the couch towards Ari that was on the other side, me and my GF panicked so we decided to interrupt the meeting but we end up with so many questions

What do you guys think?

Was Nero trying to attack Ari?
Should we keep the face to face meetings?
Is there any tips for cats in his situation for befriending other cats?


Thanks for your time and sorry for the long post!!

[exlibris]

Hello and welcome to the forum

I'm not the expert with introducing a second cat into a household, but other cat chatters are and I'm sure they'll answer soon. Phasing things in will have made a big difference. So hopefully this was either part of play or a simple 'I'm in charge' rather than outright attack.

Perhaps if each of you take a cat and fuss them on opposite ends of the sofa together? So they can see each other, but aren't close. It might associate a relaxing experience with seeing the other cat?

Good luck

[Mollycat]

It's difficult without seeing the incident and all Nero's body language but chasing and pouncing are games too. If there was no hissing, spitting, ears flat back, caterwauling or lashing out, it could have been an invitation to play rough. If so that's positive although it could be a bit too much too soon for the other one, they can easily fall out at this early stage so perhaps intervening may have been the right thing to do either way. Getting them to play separately in each other's presence is a good middle step and when they can eat, take treats, play and purr in the room together but separately then you should be able to let them play rough with confidence.

It's possible you see deafness as a bigger handicap than he does though. Cats cope remarkably well with what we see as serious challenges. I knew some people who had a cat that was deaf and blind, and she went outside alone. Especially with another fully able bodied cat in the house, take care not to be overprotective - that cats both know he is deaf but they don't make a big deal of it and special care can be seen as favouritism and cause problems.

[Hugoc77]

Hey guys quick update for all of the kind people who answered.. today we repeated that same routing but this time we let him move freely in order to factually judge his intentions.. ari was purring all the time and seem extremely relaxing... at the beginning he kind of jumped into her but retreated swiftly when he saw us approaching . but by the third time he went into this hunting position he attacked Ari..so he quickly intervened to stop any type of injuries...she seemed frightened and confused, and he went to the other room.. we then separated them my gf with Ari and I stayed with him.. but as soon as we closed the door he starting meowing at the door and putting his paws under the door like wanting Ari to come back..
any ideas what that might have mean?
Did we rushed things?

[Bbarb]

I have two sisters who frequently play fight, sometimes with hissing and growling with claws out. I am never sure if its rough play or a real fight, but they usually break apart and sit staring at each other, lashing their tails in anger.
As they are the same age and size I usually leave them alone, but you have a vulnerable kitten and it is possible the resident cat resents her so I think you'r right to break up the fights - at least until they are both mature.
As for allowing the kitten outside, I would wait for summer weather and take her into the garden where you can supervise her and see how she copes. Good luck.