I want to adopt a kitten, but I don’t know how my male cat would react to the new addition. My cat, Alex, is a one year old neutered male that I adopted when he was just two months old. I have never introduce Alex to any other animals. When I first adopted Alex, he was in a cage by himself (Alex was ill) and I don’t know how he got along with the other animals at the shelter. Alex is pretty friendly with family and strangers, so can I assume he would be friendly with another cat?
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Even though your cat sounds sweet and gentle, remember this is HIS house. How dare another cat come into his territory? He may hiss a little at the new little feline.
We had our cat for about 2 years when we decided to bring him a kitten/friend. Mind you, our (first) cat was just like yours. Very nice, gentle, although he’s not friendly, he was fine around strangers, he would just do his own thing and ignore them. In all the years I had him, I never saw him hiss or be aggressive towards me or my husband, he was totally harmless.
As soon as we brought home kitten (in a carrier) he began to hiss. I’d never heard him hiss, I didn’t even know he KNEW how to hiss!!! But he was not happy there was another animal on HIS grounds. Cats are territorial, they like their own space.
What we did was, we kept both cats in separate rooms for about a month. Each cat had their own food bowls, water bowls, and litter box. After about 2 weeks, we decided to informally “introduce” them to one another. We brought kitten out in a carrier and opened the door, let the first cat explore. He was curious, hissed a little and pawed at the kitten a bit. We did this a couple of times every day, and also, we would switch them around. There would be times when we put the adult in the carrier, and the kitten would be roaming free.
After the 2 week period, we brought the cats together for a short while everyday, but only under our supervision. The kitten would jump on the cat a bit, not out of aggression, I think he wanted to play, but the adult would start getting aggravated.
Eventually, we opened the door permanently, and after a few days, gave them 1 food dish, 1 water dish and 1 litter box to share.
They would jump on each other and tackle each other a lot. At first I thought they were fighting, but I did some research and it turns out they’re actually playing. If they are JUST jumping on each other, it is playing. But if you hear growls, hisses, etc. THEN they are having a cat fight. Although their play looks aggressive to us, it is virtually harmless.
It’s a long process to bring two cats together, but this is the best way to get Kitty 1 used to the idea of having a second cat in the home.
Also, our two cats are males. Before getting cat #2, we spoke to the vet and asked him what a good option would be. He suggested to get a kitten. If we were to get a female kitten, the female would grow up to be dominant. He said, generally, 2 females don’t get along well, 1 male/1 female, the female dominates, and 2 males bond really well. And that is what happened! They are buddies!
Good luck!