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Posted by PHCurious on January 25, 2003 at 10:40:49:

In Reply to: Re: new kitten in the house posted by jewelthebengal on January 17, 2003 at 17:45:17:

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to reply.

First of all, don't worry. Although the hissing and lack of a warm reception is going to be very distressing to you, please know that your kittens are behaving in a way that's very normal and typical. Second, because they're so young, they're going to be able to adjust quickly. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they're getting along just fine already.

There are lots of "tricks" you can do to help them adjust to each other. Rubbing a towel on each one to get them to smell the other on their own fur is a great first step. Another idea is to rub an article of YOUR clothing on each of them so that they smell you on each other.

The real key to helping kittens get along with each other is to be persistent. Don't give up! Make the introductions as slow and gradual as possible, and stick to it. Therefore, if there's still hissing going on, be sure to continue rubbing the towel or your dirty t-shirt on each of them every day. Persistence will really pay off.

There's an entire message board here on CatHobbyist dedicated to teaching cats to accept each other. I've provided a link to that board below. Why don't read that forum, and you'll learn a bunch of other tricks and tips given to other people who are introducing a new cat into the household? One word of caution though: Most of the people who post there are having difficulty introducing a new cat into a household where an adult cat has been an "only child" for a long time. Their situations are more severe and problematic than yours is. Kittens taken less time to adjust to each other, and there are rarely long-term problems. So don't read that board and worry that you're in for trouble. You really aren't. Instead, read it just to get the tips and tricks that will help speed up your kittens' adjustment to each other.

Please post again here or on the other board if you have any further questions. And let us know how they're doing now!

Best of luck to you,

PHCurious
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