New family member

Hi, I've been lurking for a bit.
I live in South Florida, recently you may have heard about our visit by
Wilma. In order to help a local shelter during the hurricane, I took
in 3 very young (1 week old) kittens. This was easy as they were
crated and slept most of the time and my two cats (both 8 year olds)
kinda looked at them like it was no big deal.

It's been awhile since a baby was in the house and I adopted one, now
named Lucifer (or Lucy for short - and to keep the neighbors from
thinking we're devil worshippers, lol). Lucy is going to be 6 weeks
old and he's been with us for about 2 weeks. My female (Xena) is
gradually accepting the new kid on the block, she doesn't hiss at him
and when his antics get too wild she just leaves. My male (Hobbes)
ain't havin any of it. He's still very miserable..growling, hissing
and sometimes over aggressive with Xena, oddly. He's knocked little
dark lord on his ass a few times, but doesn't seek him out for displays
of aggression. Both Xe and Hobbes are fixed and, sadly declawed,(I was
uneducated when I had this done).

My question is, how long does normally take for the newbie to be
accepted? I have been crating Lucy at night, more for my continued
sleep than his safety, as I leave him loose with the big cats during
the day. And I am compensating with additional affection,etc.

The hissing and growling is getting nerve wracking.

Any thoughts?

wrote:

Hi, I've been lurking for a bit.
I live in South Florida, recently you may have heard about our visit by
Wilma. In order to help a local shelter during the hurricane, I took
in 3 very young (1 week old) kittens. This was easy as they were
crated and slept most of the time and my two cats (both 8 year olds)
kinda looked at them like it was no big deal.

It's been awhile since a baby was in the house and I adopted one, now
named Lucifer (or Lucy for short - and to keep the neighbors from
thinking we're devil worshippers, lol). Lucy is going to be 6 weeks
old and he's been with us for about 2 weeks. My female (Xena) is
gradually accepting the new kid on the block, she doesn't hiss at him
and when his antics get too wild she just leaves. My male (Hobbes)
ain't havin any of it. He's still very miserable..growling, hissing
and sometimes over aggressive with Xena, oddly. He's knocked little
dark lord on his ass a few times, but doesn't seek him out for displays
of aggression. Both Xe and Hobbes are fixed and, sadly declawed,(I was
uneducated when I had this done).

I understand that, and certainly do appreciate your expression above
regarding the declaw.


My question is, how long does normally take for the newbie to be
accepted? I have been crating Lucy at night, more for my continued
sleep than his safety, as I leave him loose with the big cats during
the day. And I am compensating with additional affection,etc.

The hissing and growling is getting nerve wracking.

Any thoughts?


It depends entirely on the cats involved, some eventually grudgingly
accept the newcomer but they never become buddies and others eventually
become buddies.

The two that I once had were introduced very quickly. There never was
any overly aggressive behavior and I knew when the licking started that
there would be no further serious issues. Initially, when I would go out
I would alternately cage one or the other of them... just to be sure
nothing serious happened. If I was around, I would leave them both out
even when sleeping. However, the older cat was very high spirited when
he was young and occasionally I needed to put him in the cage for
periods at night so I could get some sleep.

On Sun 27 Nov 2005 09:23:55a, wrote in rec.pets.cats.health+behav
roups.com):

Hi, I've been lurking for a bit.
I live in South Florida, recently you may have heard about our
visit by Wilma. In order to help a local shelter during the
hurricane, I took in 3 very young (1 week old) kittens. This
was easy as they were crated and slept most of the time and my
two cats (both 8 year olds) kinda looked at them like it was no
big deal.

It's been awhile since a baby was in the house and I adopted
one, now named Lucifer (or Lucy for short - and to keep the
neighbors from thinking we're devil worshippers, lol). Lucy is
going to be 6 weeks old and he's been with us for about 2 weeks.
My female (Xena) is gradually accepting the new kid on the
block, she doesn't hiss at him and when his antics get too wild
she just leaves. My male (Hobbes) ain't havin any of it. He's
still very miserable..growling, hissing and sometimes over
aggressive with Xena, oddly. He's knocked little dark lord on
his ass a few times, but doesn't seek him out for displays of
aggression. Both Xe and Hobbes are fixed and, sadly declawed,(I
was uneducated when I had this done).

My question is, how long does normally take for the newbie to be
accepted? I have been crating Lucy at night, more for my
continued sleep than his safety, as I leave him loose with the
big cats during the day. And I am compensating with additional
affection,etc.

The hissing and growling is getting nerve wracking.

Any thoughts?


When I took in kittens (I took in two last year) I separated the
kittens from the adults. They were in a spare room with a screen
door, and I let them co-exist only when I was home. My dominate
male took over "mom" duties, and he started getting aggressive with
the other adult female. I wish I knew the right way to introduce
them all, but the kittens are great with the male, they're also
great with the other established female. But, I still have problems
with the older male and the older female. The male just doesn't
like her any more. They have their moments, but for the most part,
he chases her out of any room he's in. So, I understand your
frustration.


--
Cheryl

Hopefully it won't take much longer. Now in my case I won't be adding any
more kittens to the family since my Siamese mix will have none of it. I can
honestly say it took at least a full year before she would even be in the
same room as my calico. They still occasionally have a mild hissing fit at
each other but have come to a truse and amazingly I do find the two of the
curled up sleeping together once in a while now.

Celeste

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi, I've been lurking for a bit.
I live in South Florida, recently you may have heard about our visit by
Wilma. In order to help a local shelter during the hurricane, I took
in 3 very young (1 week old) kittens. This was easy as they were
crated and slept most of the time and my two cats (both 8 year olds)
kinda looked at them like it was no big deal.

It's been awhile since a baby was in the house and I adopted one, now
named Lucifer (or Lucy for short - and to keep the neighbors from
thinking we're devil worshippers, lol). Lucy is going to be 6 weeks
old and he's been with us for about 2 weeks. My female (Xena) is
gradually accepting the new kid on the block, she doesn't hiss at him
and when his antics get too wild she just leaves. My male (Hobbes)
ain't havin any of it. He's still very miserable..growling, hissing
and sometimes over aggressive with Xena, oddly. He's knocked little
dark lord on his ass a few times, but doesn't seek him out for displays
of aggression. Both Xe and Hobbes are fixed and, sadly declawed,(I was
uneducated when I had this done).

My question is, how long does normally take for the newbie to be
accepted? I have been crating Lucy at night, more for my continued
sleep than his safety, as I leave him loose with the big cats during
the day. And I am compensating with additional affection,etc.

The hissing and growling is getting nerve wracking.

Any thoughts?