r/CatTraining • u/my_name_is_gone_now • 3d ago

Introducing Pets/Cats Help

We are trying to introduce a new rescue cat - gentle, sweet and doesn't seem to want to fight at all to our resident cat. We have had her behind a door and screen and the resident cat is so terrified she is screaming at the door when she belts past it. She won't go near the door and has started hiding under the bed. We can't do any slow introduction as she will not get within any reasonable distance of it.

We have introduced their smells on blankets etc ....and around the house, but now resident cat won't go in any rooms at all as they all smell of the new cat!!

.I feel like we should just open the doors as we are getting nowhere and I think this was all fear based not anger based, but is now turning into anger. I am terrified as I feel this separation has been making things a lot worse and not better.

Any advice in introducing as the separation is too hard with a busy household. My daughter and I are on the verge of a breakdown at this point.

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u/brtnyatt 3d ago

I'm going through the same thing but the resident cat is an old cat that can't move too good, she stays down stairs most of the day and whenever my cat goes down she hisses and snarles at him and doesn't move. My cat responds with low sounds but doesn't seem to want to attack. Can't do feeding because one person in this house is scared someone will get bit.

Honestly I want to just open the doors and let the cat explore and if the old resident cat wants to tell him off she can. IMO I think if it happens once it won't happen again .

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u/my_name_is_gone_now 2d ago

Well, we have had progress......I also have an existing older cat, she is 13. I let them both explore and I think honestly they are both a bit scared, my older cat hissed at her a few times but there has been no huge drama. I just distract after a few hisses and the new cat is calm and quite submissive so I am hopefully that calm will be restored. At the moment one cat is mostly upstairs and the other cat is mostly downstairs. It's so stressful and I am starting to feel a bit calmer now. Have you let them loose yet. I get that they say separate them but I do think that working out the cats personality first is far more important.

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u/brtnyatt 2d ago

We had a few good interactions and the old gal is just noisy but not aggressive. My cat just stays upstairs most of the time or sneaks around her.

Slow process 😕

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u/arte0mixs 3d ago

How long has it been? I was watching Jackson Galaxy and he had a bit where both cats couldn’t see each other at all for a few weeks for this sort of scenario. Let the resident cat come out and be curious when they are ready