Introducing kitten to another kitten

Question
We recently adopted a 6 month old male kitten.  We plan to adopt another 6 month old female kitten.  Any tricks to make sure this introduction is smooth?

Thanks,

Todd

Answer
Todd,

It's great that you are getting a 2nd kitten. A single cat gets lonely and bored, especially a young cat.

It usually takes about two weeks for everything to smooth out. You will have the hisses, growls, and slaps, that is normal getting aquainted 'kitty communication'. On how smooth it goes will depend on the personalities and breeds of cats. The sooner you get the 2nd one the better before the first one gets too territorial. And make sure both are fixed.

Getting them to play interactively is good. Drawing a shoestring around for them to chase or a pet laser light work well. Feeding them together is good too.

I am including some links to articles on introducing cats. You may find them helpful. Copy and paste or type the whole links into your address bar:

http://www.animaltrustees.org/ATA_Web/pdfs/ataintroducingnewcat.pdf

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=cattocatintro...

http://www.sfspca.org/behavior/cat_library/cat2cat-intro.pdf

I hope this info helps. And good luck with both kitties

Tabbi