adopting another cat

Question
We have a 7 month old male who has been neutered and are thinking about adopting a 3 month old male cat. My question is will my 7 month old tolerate a new cat without spraying and/or marking his territory? He plays well with our neighbors cat. He usually spends 70% of his time indoors and 30% outdoors.

I also have another inquiry. As I previously stated he normally spends 30% of his time outdoors well that was up until about a week ago. He left out one morning and did not come home until late that night. He would not even come when we call him which he never does and when he is outside he usually comes in every 1-2 hours to use the bathroom, eat, etc. Well when he did arrive home he was very spooked. He had no cuts or scratches on him but he now jumps at his own shadow. He will not go back outside to play, he did however start going out yesterday but only for a millisecond. He has gotten very stir crazy doing things he has never done, jumping in places he never has knocking things over even when he knows he will get punished ( sprayed with a water bottle ) He has so much pent up energy and I do not have a clue what to do. He is our first cat so I know next to nothing about felines. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You So Much!  

Answer
Renee,

Neutered cats usually do not spray!!!!!  If you introduce the 3 month old carefully, all should go well. Given their ages, I cannot foresee a problem.  Below, I will give you a protocol that works well for introducing a kitten to a home with an established cat or kitten.

It sounds as if something very untoward happened to your 7 month old outside and he is now very, very wary.  Thus, you are right, he is taking out all of his pent up energy inside.  Cats do not do well with negative reinforcement (read punishment). Water bottles do not really phase them that much and yelling "NO" is useless.  You need to make your house cat proof so that he can do no real damage should he knock something down. When the kitten and he get together, there will be lots of wild chase until they both grow up a bit.

Anyway, here is the protocol I promised:


Start out your new kitten in one room with a litter pan and water dish. Ideally, the one room should be a bedroom with yourself or another human resident. This accomplishes a couple of things. Your new kitten will not be overwhelmed by its new surroundings and get "lost", and thusly will have no problem finding the litter pan (often kittens have been confined and are somewhat daunted by wide open spaces!). You will feed the new kitten in this room and keep the established kitten out. It allows the new kitten to bond with you or another human being and also build up some self assurance in its new surroundings since it will not have to compete for food or
attention right away. Finally, it allows the new kitten and the established kitten to sniff each other under the door and get familiar with each others' scents.

After 3-5 days of being in its one room, it is time to let them meet each other. Be prepared for some posturing, some spitting and hissing, and the like. IGNORE IT! After a while, they should begin chasing each other about and still have the occasional hiss or spit as they get acustomed to
each other. Cats tend to make a whole lot of noise and even loosen up some fur. Rarely will two cats hurt each other.

Once they are introduced, there are a couple of things you must remember. Do not separate them again, they will get along! Do not interfere in their "discussions" as they need to sort it out amongst themselves!

It does not hurt to give the established kitten treats and extra attention after the new kitten is introduced (yes, cats do get jealous!).

A couple of things you may have to do are to feed them on separate dishes. Provide more than one litter pan in different areas of the household (as cats can be very territorial about litter pans).

All, in all, this method seems to have had great success in the past and makes for a fairly smooth introduction. Please remember that they may make up immediately, or it may take a few weeks.



Best regards... Norm.