Introducing two kittens

[quitonaia]

Hi everyone,

My boyfriend and I have had our kitten (Quito) for the past three months. We got him when he was 8 weeks old and we love him! He is affectionate and playful. He is now 5 months old and we decided that he needed a buddy. We got a cute little 4.5 month old female kitten (Naia) yesterday. She was so friendly and purred a lot with us.

We introduced them last night, though kept them separate overnight. They of course hissed at each other and have been continuing to do so this morning. Quito, our kitten we've had for a long time, keeps following her around inquisitively and, if he gets close, will lightly tap her. He actually has been hissing much less. She doesn't like him doing this though, and is quite on edge and hisses and growls frequently. She will even hiss if I have his scent on me and let her smell it

I am wondering how long this will typically go on for? I really want them to be great friends! Any insights are welcome to this. I also am wondering if I should wait until the hissing stops entirely to leave them alone together unsupervised.

Thank you

[Ruth B]

Unfortunately in my opinion you might have rushed things a bit, giving her a few days to get use to her new home and used to the smell of the resident cat would have been better, however hind sight is a wonderful thing, but we can't put the clock back just learn for in the future.

Going forward, you obviously have a room that you can isolate the new comer in so I would advise keeping her in there for most of the time and just letting her out for short spells when you are around for at least a week or two. Make sure that you do plenty of scent exchanges, swapping cat beds or any blankets that they sleep on to get them use to each others scents and hopefully when she will come to accept that Quito is around and stop hissing at him.

when you can leave them unattended together is always a bit variable and depends a lot on the cats and their attitude to each other. Hissing or growling isn't too much of a problem but learn to watch their body language to see if it is escalating, you don't want it to lead to real violence. Be warned however, if you have never seen two young kittens play fighting it can seem very aggressive, pouncing, rolling around and chasing each other, again what you have to watch for is the body language to try and differentiate if it is just playing or real fighting.

Give it a bit of time and take the introduction a bit slower and I am sure that the two will soon get along.

[quitonaia]

Thank you Ruth!

I have heard so many different things. And some people said not to worry so much with kittens, that they figure it out relatively quickly. But I will try keeping them apart more and trying the scent exchanges. It is probably less stressful for them to have time alone where they know there is no threat of the other kitten.

Does anyone else have experience introducing two kittens of a similar age? I want to know how long I can expect until they kind of like each other! I feel sad for Quito since his world has been flipped upside down. I'm just trying to give him lots of reassurance while also giving Naia lots of pets and affection. What a balance not to create jealousy!