Cross Breeds

My boyfriend & I ( & our cats) plan to move in together. How do we set up a successful situation for our cats?

I offered to watch his cat when he went to Hawaii, but upon initial meeting my cat attacked his. Now that we are planning on living together we want our cats to join us in our new home so we are looking for successful tips/ strategies for reintroducing them so hopefully they will get along.

Public Comments

1. The best plan is a long, slow transition. When you move the cats into the same household, isolate them in separate areas of the house. For instance, if there is a large bedroom that connects to a living space, put one cat in the bedroom with his/her own litterbox, food bowls, toys, etc. and the door closed. Let the other cat be outside the bedroom. They will be able to smell each other and may even communicate underneath the door. In order not to foster territorial behavior, switch the cat's locations once a day or so (i.e. put the bedroom cat into the living space and the living space cat into the bedroom). After they have become tolerant of each other while in separate rooms, introduce them to each other by allowing them to occupy the same space while you are present and can observe them. I think you'll be surprised by how (relatively) quickly they learn to at least tolerate each other's presence. It's also very helpful (in order to lessen the chance of urine marking) to make sure that you have one more litterbox than cats (three litterboxes, if you have two cats).
2. take your time introducing them, until they can stand each others existence, its ok to separate them in different rooms. hold one of them and allow them to sniff each other to get some sense of each other.
3. Try allowing your cats to get used to each other slowly. Gate them in seperate rooms where they can still see and get used to each others presence without hurting each other. Slowly bring them near each other in a contained environment once they seem used to each other, you can fill a spray bottle with water and spritz one cat if they attack the other so they know that it isnt acceptable behavior. Make sure that both cats get a lot of attention from you and your boyfriend. The biggest mistake you could make is to neglect your cat and pay more attention to the new cat. You want your cat to know that s/he is still important, and giving him/her a lot of attention can distract them from the presence of the new cat. If youre playing with one cat, try to see if you can get the other to join in. Always put them together in positive situations, and if the situation goes negative seperate them. You want to try and associate all their encounters as positive ones. Are both cats male? Male cats are not keen on the idea of being introduced to new male cats in their 'territory'. Having 2 male adult male cats get along in the same environment is extremely difficult, and may never result in a situation in which they get along. It is much easier if one cat is male and the other female, and even 2 female cats will not have quite as much objection.