 Purred: Mon Jan 28, '13 9:58pm PST |
 | |  | | When there's tension in a household between humans as in the case of when you had your cat and her sister, the animals in the household sense the tension and will tend to "act out" as a result. Most dogs and cats are territorial and will react to seeing a strange dog or cat too close to their own territory. You don't say how frequently your cat chased her sister or whether your cat's sister exhibited fear reaction at sight of your cat or whether the chasing ended in an actual fight or what, which makes it hard to evaluate the situation.
As for young kittens, most adult cats tolerate a young kitten but if an older cat acts aggressively toward a young kitten, the adult could hurt the kitten and the kitten could become traumatized with fear, especially if the kitten doesn't have a confident basic temperament to start with.
If you want to get another cat, you might do well getting a confident friendly young neutered male that likes other cats. Confidence and liking other cats are the key elements you most need to have in your new cat. A confident cat is less likely to run from the other cat and a cat who likes other cats is going to be more willing to try to befriend your older cat. You don't want to bring in a new cat who is afraid of other cats. When a cat reacts to another cat with fear aggression and runs from another cat, it encourages the other cat to chase and bully the fearful one. For a cat to chase another or fight with another, it takes two participants. If one cat starts trouble and the other cat ignores it or responds with friendly confidence, the first cat usually will give up because of lack of any fight or flight reaction.
I would start out by putting the new cat in an extra large dog crate with his bed, litter pan, food, and water. In the crate he is safe but the cats can see and hear and smell each other. Your other cat will see and hear and smell him in the crate but she won't be able to hurt him.
Once a day, shut your other cat in the bathroom for awhile and let the new cat out to play in the house, then put your new cat back in the crate and let the older cat out again. This will let him get used to her scent being in the same place he is and let her get used to the idea of his scent being in her territory. Don't get in too big a hurry to try to put the cats together.
When the older cat comes near the new cat in the crate and he comes to the front of the crate to check her out and neither show aggression, then you can try letting them out together.
Before you introduce the cats to each other, make sure both cats claws are clipped. Have some catnip or interactive cat toys on hand so that if your older cat starts getting upset at the presence of the new cat, you can try to distract her. Be patient, it may take a few weeks or even a couple of months to get to the point where the two cats begin to coexist relatively peacefully (even the best of feline friends occasionally have arguments!) The biggest mistake people make when introducing a new cat to a household is being in too big a hurry and giving up too soon.
I've successfully introduced many cats to my feline family over the years using the crate method. |  |  | |  |
|
| my posts | my page | msg me | my family's posts | gift me | become friends | [notify] |
0
