How can I introduce cats in a safe and stress-free way?
As tempting as it can be to just throw two cats who don’t know each other into a room and let them “work things out,” this can be one of the worst things you can do to them since it can irrevocably destroy any chance of them getting along in the long run.
Cats are extremely territorial and don’t like change, so any new cat (or pet or even person) should be introduced to your resident cat slowly and carefully. With all the following steps, always work at your cats’ pace and only move onto the next step when both cats seem comfortable and don’t display signs of stress or aggression.
Depending on the cats, this process may take weeks or months or maybe just a few days. You’ll never know until you start, so be patient and don’t ever rush the cats into meeting.
Establish a feeding schedule for both cats
If your resident cat isn’t on a feeding schedule, you should ease them into eating meals at set times before you bring your new cat home. This is essential for the later steps of the integration period, so you should try to do this ASAP. The idea is to make sure your cat will be hungry and eat whenever food is served.
Set up your new cat in a safe space
After you bring your new cat home, give them time to settle into your home. While some cats adapt immediately into new spaces with no trouble, some can be very stressed from being placed in an unfamiliar environment and need a few days to decompress.
Confine your new cat to a small portion of your home, preferably a single room, and do not let your resident cat come in contact with your new cat! Leave out lots of blankets, beds, scratching posts, etc., so that they can infuse them with their own scent. Not only will this make them more comfortable, it will be essential for the next step of the cat introduction process.
Begin scent-swapping
Once your new cat is comfortable in your home, it’s time to proceed to the next step.
Far before any kind of physical meeting happens between your cats, you need to introduce them to each other through scent. Take items that smell like the new cat (for example, blankets and beds they’ve been sleeping on) and place them in parts of your home where your resident cat frequents. Take in items that your resident cat uses a lot and bring them into the isolation room for your new cat to smell too.
The idea is to let them smell each other without physically meeting. Gauge their reaction to the new items carefully. They may hiss or growl at the items because they feel threatened, but if you mix their scents together by piling blankets/beds together, they’ll learn to accept each other’s smell more easily.
Begin site-swapping
After both cats have accepted each other’s scent, it’s time to let them explore each other’s spaces. Have your cats trade rooms without letting them see each other. You can do this by putting one of them into a carrier and temporarily putting them in the bathroom or another space while you transfer the other cat out.
The isolation room should smell strongly of the new cat, so putting your resident cat in there will give them a chance to explore and scope things out. Similarly, the rest of your home should smell of your resident cat, so letting your new cat wander around the space will give them a better idea of what’s going on.
If either of them starts hissing, growling, or acting defensive while in each other’s “territory,” they might not be ready yet, and you should go back to scent-swapping items. If they seem curious and relaxed, however, then you can continue site-swapping with them for a few days.
Feed/interact with them on opposite sides of a closed door
The next step to introduction will be to bring the cats physically closer to each other with a barrier and without allowing them to see each other. Keeping a door between them will make things much safer since they’ll be able to smell each other but not attack if tensions run too high.
The goal is to get them eating/staying on opposite sides of a closed door, but you might have to start by feeding them several feet apart from each other first. They may be initially hesitant because they know someone else is on the other side, so move their bowl back as far as needed for them to eat calmly. You should try to inch the bowls closer and closer on each side of the door every day until they’re right next to each other. Use tape to mark where your cats are willing to come up to and urge them to get closer and closer to the door as time goes on. This process can take a while, so be patient!
If one of your cats isn’t very food-motivated even while on a feeding schedule, try to entice them to approach the door by doing other things it likes, like cuddling, brushing, or treat-giving instead. What you’re really trying to do is allow your cats to associate each other’s scent with something positive, like mealtime or cuddles.
Feed/interact with them on opposite sides of a covered barrier
Once your cats are willing to eat/stay on opposite sides of a door without hissing, growling, or acting defensive, then you can try repeating the process with an open door with some kind of separator. You can use a baby gate covered with a towel/blanket, a sheet of cardboard, or metal grates zip-tied together and covered with a towel/blanket.
You still don’t want to let the cats see each other, but feeding/interacting with them through an open door gives them more ways to acquaint themselves with each other. Now, they can smell and hear each other much more easily.
There’s a possibility you’ll need to start a few feet back from the doorway again, but eventually, both cats should be eating/staying comfortably right by the blocked doorway without showing signs of distress.
Slowly lift the cover
You can try lifting the blanket/towel from the baby gate or grates or the piece of cardboard bit by bit once things seem okay between the cats. You don’t want to remove the barrier completely, but you do want to give them a chance to finally see each other through the separator.
Again, if either of the cats react negatively, then you should take a step backwards in the process and build up their comfort levels until they’re ready to move on.
By the end of this step, both cats should have no issue eating/staying by the separator, even if it isn’t covered.
Let the cats meet (finally!)
After so much preparation, the final step is to let the cats meet, but you shouldn’t just let them walk into a room and run into each other. Instead, distract and entertain them so they’re less likely to psych themselves out and attack each other. Try feeding them and letting them eat close (but not right next to) each other or entice them to play with toys. Basically, you don’t want your cats to have nothing to focus on but each other during the first meeting.
In a worst case scenario, a fight may break out, so have a large sheet of cardboard on hand that you can use to physically separate the cats if necessary. If this does happen, you will need to backtrack a few steps and try again.
Success
If all goes well, then your cats will be properly introduced. It would be good to keep monitoring their interactions for a while to make sure no scuffles break out, but all should be well after this. Depending on your cats’ personalities, they might not become best friends forever, but the most important part is making sure that they can both exist in the same space in harmony!