How do we make our cats be friends

smof

Wondering if anyone has experience of introducing cats as adults

My family have just bought 2 neighbouring houses (separate buildings but on the same plot). One for my brother's family and one for my parents. But until October we are all living together in 1.

My brother's family has moved in, and they have a cat. On Friday my parents arrive with their two cats. We are trying to figure out the best way to get them introduced without stressing them out too much.

None of them are aggressive so I'm not really worried about them properly fighting, more that one of them decides to just never come home one day because they don't like the other cat here.

Another factor is there are 2 kids in the house, 1 of which is young enough he can't be trusted around a cat litter tray without trying to eat the contents, so there are a limited number of rooms the cats can be restricted to at the start.

Currently my brother's cat is getting used to the house and seems pretty relaxed, but hasn't been outside yet.

Siska

If you are unable to keep them inside, get them chipped so they are easier to identify if they do run away.

Reznik

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsYT7yIOdqQ

darkmayo

Oh Jackson Galaxy... you look like such a goof but you have really good advice.

Calica

Apparently a vet can prescribe cat bonding pheromones? One of my parents' cats rejected the other after the latter came back from an overnight stay at the vet, which is how I found out cat pheremones are even a thing. It took some time, but they're back to snuggling together now.

webguy20

So a big thing for cats, is make sure they can poop safely, eat safely and have multiple ways to get around the house. Pretty much you don't want there to be dead ends in rooms for them to be trapped. So make sure there are areas on the ground, and up high for cats to move around and get around each other. For example in our house we have the couch pulled out from the wall just a touch so the cats can go around either side, and we also have shelves and cat trees if they want to go up and around.

smof

That video is good, thanks. I dunno how much my family are going to be on board with it. And our cats don't have meal schedules so they will also be deeply unhappy.

Oh well I guess we'll figure it out.

Reznik

It's a pretty involved process to completely follow the way JG does it, but if you don't have the space/time/schedule to do it that way just try to follow the same principles (positive association, avoiding stare downs, etc). You can also get pheromone sprays to help things along - Feliway is the best one imo. Not a silver bullet but it'll help.

smof

I think my bro said he has a pheromone thing.

All these cats have lived with other cats before so I'm hopeful they'll be okay eventually. My parents male cat is the softest, dippiest thing and will probably just want to be friends, it's my brother's cat I'm more concerned about because he's used to being alone since his sister got run over, and between you and me he's kind of a jerk.

Here is the aforementioned soft dippy cat really enjoying the harness my dad got for him

Magic Pink

Calica wrote: »

Apparently a vet can prescribe cat bonding pheromones? One of my parents' cats rejected the other after the latter came back from an overnight stay at the vet, which is how I found out cat pheremones are even a thing. It took some time, but they're back to snuggling together now.

You don't need a prescription you can get Feliway off Amazon.

I've done a LOT of introducing adult cats and the best thing I've found is having them eat next to each other.

mts

You can build big window screens to shut off areas so that they can see and smell without actually being able to fight

Tastyfish

Magic Pink wrote: »

Calica wrote: »

Apparently a vet can prescribe cat bonding pheromones? One of my parents' cats rejected the other after the latter came back from an overnight stay at the vet, which is how I found out cat pheremones are even a thing. It took some time, but they're back to snuggling together now.

You don't need a prescription you can get Feliway off Amazon.

I've done a LOT of introducing adult cats and the best thing I've found is having them eat next to each other.

There's two Feliways now and in our experience, both work but aren't magic. Our cats are unrelated but live together in a state of mutual acknowledgement but are not friends - except when the weather starts to get cold, and for a few weeks if we've been away for a week and put on the cat feeders and Feliway plug ins. We've actually caught them washing each other whilst they've been active. However when using the spray on the times we've had to travel with them - it seems to do nothing to make the car less scary.

The standard purple one is a destress pheromone for cats, so they will be more relaxed (or recover more quickly from stresses). There's also a newer one in red packaging that is a 'friends' pheromone that has certainly made our cats more likely to tolerate each other (occasionally even sitting next to each other!)

Since it's just over a month, I'd also recommend getting a pair of automatic feeders to do some food on top of what you give them. If they're in difference places, there's less competition for food and there's somewhere else where food will be if the other cat is hanging around the person who feeds them and might help with the meal schedule thing. They're pretty cheap if you just want to dispense some kibbles and not fussed about keeping wet food cold and sealed off etc.