[mk1fanMember]

Due to the sudden death of a relative I may need to home a cat.

I’m not keen to palm this cat off on to a shelter / charity but I accept that ultimately this may be the only option.

Before then I’d like to try and introduce the cat into my home. However, I already have two mature cats (brothers who are 15(ish).

Anyone got any tips how to go about introducing a new, younger model to them? Or should I just go straight to the shelter?

[cranberryMember]

Keep separate for a week or so, in a room of its own, then gradually introduce, with plenty of care and attention to the 2 other cats. If problems, keep a separate sleeping room for the new cat until problems fade away.

Congrats, by the way, and…. pics ?

[JoeGSubscriber]

Feliway plug ins may help a lot.

[mk1fanMember]

Thanks.

Congrats, by the way, and…. pics ?

I do hope you mean the cat and not my dead relative. For the record I have neither.

[cheez0Member]

feliway?

why would anyone want to spray aerosol catpiss around their home?

[M6TTFMember]

Separate litter trays if you use them, and feeding areas. Be prepared for fisticuffs. They may get along fine, they may just tolerate each other, they may want to kill each other. We’ve done it twice, the first time was more successful, they would share a bed, second time was ok but they would regularly have a pop at each other (male and female) down to one again, and she’s much happier on her own – stalwart of a cat, outlived two males!

[cranberryMember]

I do hope you mean the cat

😳

Sorry. That was the result of a long day and skim-reading rather than any wish to be heartless.

[Mostly BalancedMember]

I do hope you mean the cat and not my dead relative. For the record I have neither.

That made me chuckle. I hope that was the intention.

In our experience introducing a new male to an existing male in the house has been OK with either tolerance or genuine friendship being the result, but we’ve yet to have a very successful male/female pairing. That could just be down to the individual cat’s characters though. Our longest serving inmate (16 years) has always been a playful boy and other males have seen a gentle swipe as banter whilst the females just get grumpy.

[dr_deathMember]

We did similar (got a new kitten with two other older cats already in-situ). We went for the ‘well there going to have to get used to each other eventually’ plan which involved just leaving them to it. They fought like cat and cat for 2 days to suss out who was boss then they were fine. Figured there would probably be scraps at some stage when they were introduced so may as well just get it over and done with.

All fine now (well, one of the older cats has since died, but you get the idea).