How do you successfully introduce cats?

How do you successfully introduce cats?

Whether you’re getting a new kitten, moving into a different household or adopting from a shelter, introducing cats to one another can be a complicated process. Unlike other domesticated animals, they do their own thing no matter what we say and therefore can be difficult to read when putting them into a new setting.

Here is our best advice for a successful transition, for a happy household!

Keep them separate
 

Decide on the rooms that each cat will have and keep as their own. This will be their safe space. It will have all the things that make them feel at home and belong to them. It’s important they spend a few days here to understand where they are and trust being in the room. Don’t forget to continue giving them plenty of cuddles or doing whatever your cat feels is affection!

Associate pleasure with being in each others presence
 

You may allow your cat to freely eat when they like. If you continue with this, once or twice a day offer them a wet food that's very tasty and they can look forward to (check out our delicious range here!) Work on feeding them next to the door of the room. You may have been doing the door shimmy trying to not let them out, but you’ll need to encourage them to calmly be near it. Once you’ve got to this point you’ll need to work on having both cats eating on either side of the door. What you’re achieving is a sense of pleasure and positivity in this place. Slowly you’ll be able to open the door and have each cat feeding but not focused on a head to head meeting.

Go slowly and gradually
 

The key to everyone's success is to take things slowly. It might seem inconvenient to be having doors closed and tip toeing around for a period of time, but to have a positive first meeting will make all the difference. If cats meet under stress there's a strong chance they won’t ever get along. Set yourself up for success by putting these things in place, taking things slowly and increasing exposure time gradually.

Swap Spaces
 

A great aid to this process is to let the cats swap spaces without having contact with one another. This allows each of them to explore what the other cat smells like and what they have. It makes them aware of another cat being in the household without having face to face confrontation.

Neuter
 

If you are introducing two fully grown cats you’ll have most success if they are both neutered. It decreases the hormone levels and inturn helps reduce aggressive behaviours (as well as stopping them from scenting on your favourite furniture when they know of a stranger cat!) Neutering also has great health benefits including a decrease in certain illnesses and has been proven to increase the life expectancy of both male and female cats.

No matter what the reason for bringing a new cat into the family, it’s a joyous time! We hope these tips give you some help to have the greatest success in introducing them to the rest of your family.

Check out all our cat products to help your new addition settle, here!