Cat Introductions: Good First Impressions are a must!

HELP! My resident cat is not food motivated nor toy motivated.. shes older and shes so set in her comfort ways and her area and veery fussy.. not very affectionate and very independent.. we just saved a 6-7 month old kitty from the street shes is so sweet. We neutered her and brought her in. Weve had them separate for a week and only doing smell and site swapping.. but our resident cat is no interested at aaall.. she can smell and hear and just ignores everything. Im afraid shes never going to accept her. Wer scared to move to the actual visual part still as every other cat shes seen from the window it was an instant attack..

I am looking after a friends cat, whilst she is in lt hospital. I already knew the about intros from this channel, so i thought Jackson is always saying get company for your single cat, it will be fine. I am regretting that decision, I have spent 6 weeks on introduction and they wont stop fighting, even when separating and reintroducing , 3 months later. So since the reintroduction vid says watch this one, i am watching again. Grr

4 weeks into this now and following everything to the letter but we’re not making much progress. I have 2 neutered males age 2 and were trying to introduce a 6 month old spayed female. One boy isn’t too bad but the other is so mad still, hissing and growling and mistaking his bonded brother for the newcomer and attacking him. The female goes berserk if either of them approaches. We’re not letting them have physical contact, just through a screen a couple of times a day, we’ve been doing this for the past 10 days because not being able to see the newcomer was driving my boys crazy and they were confused and attacking each other. We have to let the kitten out of her base camp frequently into our main living room or she screams and goes insane so the boys get shut out and are unhappy about that. Trying to manage it all is so stressful and exhausting, everyone here is grumpy, humans and cats. These videos make it look too easy and I feel guilty for my boys who were so happy before. The only thing stopping me from bitterly regretting this is that the kitten is a rescue from a dreadful place. Unfortunately I can’t return her as it’s an international rescue, the same as my boys were. Just have to keep on going and hope for the best. Right now I wouldn’t recommend getting more cats unless you have an enormous amount of time, energy and patience to do it, and space. Never do it on a whim, especially if you already have happy cats at home. Sorry for the negativity but I’m feeling really down today.

I have an alpha bengel and a female tabby. They get along amazing. I had rescused a 8 month old female tabby /half bengel. I just brought her home last night. She has her basecamp. She's comfortable walking around house. Meanwhile, I have my female tabby downstairs. Mr bean the alpha male bengel he is indoor and outdoors. I notice my female tabby Nala once I put Izzy new kitty back in basecamp she can smell the new kitty. I'm hoping this works . I dont want any kitty feeling unloved. One step vloser to a happy home😊

Would this work with one new cat being introduced into a home with 6 other cats?

I have 5 cats in the house and impossible to cat swap...

Hi. Do what now? My resident cat saw me bring the kitten home. Later followed me upstairs . The kitten has his base camp in my office. The resident cat after 2 days of me entering and exiting the room saw the kitten. Now all she does is hissing at the door.
So I blew it?!
Any advice ? Can’t keep the kitten in one room …the resident cat is not very interested in playing or treats while upstairs… so please any advice?

I’m trying to introduce my new cat— Spice— who is a 2 year old male to my residency cat— Midnight— who is a 1 year old female.
Spice absolutely instantly was fine walking around the house. He even jumped up on the coach and laid next to me and stuff. He is completely confident and doesn’t understand territory of personal space. First day he was rubbing against Midnight’s stuff and licking her toys. Midnight has become more reserved and hides whenever she sees Spice. Aside from one occasion where Spice was stealing her food and she smacked him. I currently have them in different places. Spice is in his “base camp” but hates it. He wants to walk around the house and follow me around. He meows so much. Midnight is back to her normal now that Spice is in a different room.
When should I let them see each other? Will Midnight’s slow process cause Spice to get depressed if he has to stay in that room longer?

My new cat is ready to step out and explore (which we have been doing but...) the new cat is not 100% sold on the new cat. He doesn't mind him its just when he's on the other side of the gate is the issue. My new cat is going crazy in the base camp as much as I try to keep him relaxed but I worry he's going to harbour feelings against my resident cat :/

I’m introducing a one year old boy to a female cat! Please give me any advice ❤

What if I don’t have a door 😭 and just a studio apartment

What advice can you offer if the cats have accidentally seen each other when a human was passing through the door and both became aggressive? I've started over again with your suggestions above (we honestly weren't that far in), but they keep walking up to the door and hissing at each other. If first impressions are so important, is it just too late? Or is there help for my older ladies (one is 13, the other - my resident cat - is 14).

I adopted my 2 cats at 6 weeks old just 2 or 3 days apart. They are legitimate brother and sister from the exact same litter. They have literally known each other their entire lives. Most of the time they get along fine, but like most typical siblings, they have their occasional arguements.

I have a kitten who is 4 months old now and has been our home for 2 now. My 2 older cats. (Male and female). The male is is fine with the kitten. The kitten is fine running around the house. My female is not. I have allowed them. To rotate through the house. Because my female wants to attack her and seriously hurt my kitten. My female is not food driven. I have been doing to closed door thing and food,but she will shred the carpet. What do I do? The kitten is a female everyone is fixed too

I just got another kitty...integrating now to my 8 in house cats. Your ways really work.

My cats seem pretty happy together. It had only been 5 days. They rub noses and play hide n seek together. Only worried as resident 1 year old male kitty is much bigger than kitten and he does bite when he plays. They are both confident and playful. He gets a little pissed when he’s eating and she’s trying to steal his food. Lol

It literally took my 3 month old kitten and my 2 year old two days to love and get along with each other I am lucky.

You say about the newly adopted cat, that was brought into the house that it could be shy. But how do you proceed when the things are viceversa, when the new cat adapts to the whole house very well, is confident, and on the other hand, the resident cat, the old one, becomes shy, scared of the new cat, and she is the one who doesn't come out from under the bed?

Almost 42 years ago that my family adopted our 2nd cat from being a stray in our backyard. The 1st cat accepted him in the home. They both started to play and wrestle each other. They became friends instantly. They were both red tabby cats. The 2nd cat was my cat for the longest time. I was lucky to have them both through my early 20’s. My family was so lucky to have them. My mother’s aunt said you guys shouldn’t have 2 cats in the house. I told her they are friends to each other and they don’t really bite. One cat was really sweet and friendly towards me.

We are cat sitting. Our cat and my cousins usually LOVE each other but this time around it's a new home as we moved and there are some territory issues. Now trying a base swap

HELP!! I screwed up!

We went away for 4 days, and dummy us, brought home a 2nd cat, Maya (5). I should have remembered that Toffee (4) would already be huffy that we left her for 4 days (even though her favourite ‘uncle’ checked in on her twice a day). When we returned, she WAS annoyed….and then smelled the new cat, and was now downright outraged. So stupid of me not to return home first, comfort Toffee, and get back to normal, THEN pick up Maya.

Maya arrived in a carrier, was put into a separate room with all her needs for a couple of days, but cried loudly and scratched the door anytime she heard movement. Toffee laid on the outside, sniffing, and looking under. She was calm, wasn’t growling, and her tail was a happy tail. So finally, I let Maya out, but stayed close to both of them. Toffee was instantly hostile. Maya, though, was running around, curious about everything, including Toffee. She is very threatened of tiny Maya, and is not improving. It’s 2 weeks now. We’ve given Toffee a lot of attention and cuddling, but she is still royally p*ssed at Maya and us. Maya tries to make friends, but Toffee’s started stalking, smacking, and snarling at Maya. Toffee is 8 lbs, while Maya is a tiny 4.

How do I correct the mess I’ve made? Maya follows me everywhere. Wouldn’t shutting Maya back in the den by herself be like a punishment when she’s done nothing wrong? I don’t know what the heck to do that is right for both of them! Arrrrgh! I need wine!

I didn't realize I was going to have issues when I got mybkitten. I don't know why but it never occurred tobme. Maybe cause I never had problem w cats and my son didn't have problems. I did the week in campsite. But after a month I have two cats co existing, sort of. My resident girl sits on her perch and watches 6 mo old boy play and run around the house. He was stray kitten but he took to people well. Still nervous about noise and walking but otherwise he is adjusting. But resident girlie wont let him near. They eat within 2 feet of eachother just fine but if he tries to initiate play she hisses and swats. Sometimes quite emphatically. What can I do at this point. I just found you trying to figure out what I did wrong. As ge has been able to roam the house I had assumed it would just take time. But now I am worried I really messed up. It's been 3 weeks. Neither cat seems stressed out in anyway other than girl putting the beat down on little boy. They are both playing with toys, alone, eating, purring, litter boxing. All good. Beat down, bad. Help.

I free feed my cats so.....i need an alternative. And no, i wont change their eatinf habits. One is a kitten and i was told to free feed him by the adoption center. My other cat is a snacker so this whole meal feed thing won't work for mine.

When I introduced my kitten to my cat I set the kitten up in the bathroom with my cats cat tower and the door closed. I played with the kitten for about an hour then went out and played with my cat to spread the kittens scent. My cat went to the door and wanted in. Very curious. So I opened up the bathroom door and stacked two baby gates so they could see each other. They were curious about each other behaved fine. I left the gates up and left to make dinner. I went back to check on them since it was still quiet and found my kitten had climbed to the top of both the baby gates and was walking along the top trying to get out and my cat was sitting at the bottom watching like he was saying, “jump! I’ll catch you.” I let her out and they’ve been best friends immediately. 😂

Thank you. Worked. 👍👍❤️

How can i introduce my resident cat to 3 new cats who will be living with me now? My girlfriend is moving into my 1 bedroom apartment and I'm very nervous that my 7 year old cat who is not friendly will have a very difficult time acclimating to 3 new brothers

I have a ridiculous number if cats and I was doing intros all wrong before watching your videos. The exception was when my daughter brought home a kitten fron a very upsetting situation. He immediately just bonded with another of my guys and they are beasties. Hilarious when you see the size difference. The big guy is gentle with him. ❤

How do i do this with my 2 new kittens and my dog? Should i take the same steps?

Weird issue when the older resident cat is afraid of the kitten 😢

Yesterday a cat followed us home and we decided to take her although we have a 2 year male cat. We let them separated for the night and today we're taking her to the vet 🙂

A few months ago we brought a feral cat. We still can't grab this cat and we have 5 more cats. We had the cat in our room for months without letting the rest of the cats in. One day we opened the door. It gets along with 4 of the cats, but theres 1 that chases it until it hides. We can I do to avoid this?

You are so encouraging about introductions and this has helped me soo much! Thank you!

Working this and the problem is my resident cat. Once they're both in the same room she hisses and growls and runs. Once she runs it's all over and the new cat chases.... No matter what I do I can't get my resident cat comfortable enough not to run

Foster kittens to the condenser out of the house and I still have one kitten. The problem is he has food issues I literally have locked them in the bathroom so I can eat. And now that all the kittens are gone but him he thinks my dog is Mama and bless sweet dog. She doesn't mind him laying up against her does get upset when he kneels her and tries to nurse how do I stop

I worked your program with My 4 month and 5 month adopted Kittens I watched the step by step videos, I even emailed you at one point. And then I made your system my own according to mine and my cats needs. Little bear and Rooster didn't know how much they needed each other. The process took maybe two weeks of dilligent effort on my part. First Roosters environment was in the bathroom. I made it cat friendly. Instead of a screen door, I divided the casita in two by using wire fencing hooked with 16 cup hooks on each side a door frame. I knew it was time for that big step, , where they would be able to see each other and touch each other, only after they were playing touching paws under the bathroom door. The process took patients, almost to my limit. I worked every single step. Little Bear and Rooster now, play together, sleep together, groom each other. I prayed for this outcome so that they can take care of each other and I can expand my life 💫

Has Jackson ever addressed introducing multiple cats to multiple cats? We have new roommates who moved in with their multiple kitties. We have 2 kitties who live in the house and several others on the Taj Mahal catio- we haven't even thought about that space yet. We have catified the house, swapped spaces, mostly limited visuals. The food thing outside the door, not yet. That requires us creating meal times for the resident cats; I know I need to change that. The new Napoleon cat got into the other side of the house yesterday and looked like he was trying to murder one of the resident cats, so that was a setback. Anyway, I just see one-to-one introductions. How do the the cat sanctuaries do it?

Oh my goodness try Bengals it’s another story all together, it’s like introducing two dragons.

I'm introducing my new 6 yr old girl to my 2 yr old Garfield chunk and it's going awful. I'm worried because my new girl isn't eating and it's day 3.

All of these videos seem really helpful for someone that owns a 2-3 bedroom house...

my old cat (14yo) is still a bit anxious about the new cat (3 months old now). she's fine as long as the cat keeps her distance (she'll swat and hiss if the cat gets too close), but I can tell she's still stressed. Can I do anything to help her? or will she get more comfortable on her own eventually?

I have 2 cats who were feral kittens when I got them. They’re now two years old. They are brother and sister. We also have two 100+lb dogs that they adore. I recently rescued a cat that I was going to get spayed and rehomed. She ended up having a litter of kittens. So I’m now up to 7 cats (3 adults and 4 kittens). Introductions have been going horribly. My dogs like the kittens and the kittens are no longer scared of the dogs. My cats have become very territorial and even hiss at us. I’ve had to break up fights behind barriers. It’s been horrible. We have to keep the cats, because every place is full and no one will adopt.

I just adopted a another boi, and he took up base camp in my bookshelf on the empty shelf so I just went with it and put some blankets stuffies and his comfort carrier up on the shelf and know he no longer fights with the other boi I have, but he (nearly 1 yr) still wants to play but my 3 yr old isn't really interested in playing with him. I am worried about something you said, you said a confident cats tail is always up, my 3 year old has never held his tail up in the air unless I'm petting him, should I be worried??? I would never want my kitty to feel out of place or like he isn't welcomed in our home :(

Okay I need advice.
I have a 10 month old male house cat and a 3 month old kitten that I'm introducing.

The question: when is it violence and when is it okay?

My older cat Romeo and new kitten Hamlet have been in the house for about a month. The first 2 weeks Hamlet was in a bedroom separated from Romeo by 2 doors. During this time I moved pillows/towels/toys back and forth.
Last week I started letting Hamlet into the hall. Romeo could see him through the screen door. My husband and I would switch who played with Ham and who played with Romeo while they could see each other.
3 days ago we started letting them actually touch each other. They've been running to the screen door trilling and purring at each other and going nose to nose. They've had no problem eating near each other.
So far face visits have been short and monitored. Neither has ever hissed. Body language is calm. Romeo has been fine with Hamlet approaching him, his food, toys, and litter.
Today my husband let them out together and we watched for a longer visit. It started great like normal, but about 6-8 minutes in Romeo's playful inquisitive bops turned into a pounce/pin/bite.
The bite was not hard and did NOT break skin. Romeo did not hiss. Hamlet did not cry. Romeo did not want to let Hamlet up and when Ham did get up Romeo was tense, but still had ears forward and no hissing. Ham ran away.
When I picked up Romeo he immediately licked me. We put Romeo in his base camp room and when we caught Ham he was purring at my husband.
This is our first time introducing cats. Romeo is a very big 10 month old and Ham is still kind of small. I'm very worried about Romeo seriously hurting Ham, but don't know how much dominant behavior is good and when it becomes bad.

Try this if NOTHING ELSE Works:
First, cats must be spayed/neutered

(1)Put each cat in their respective cages. (2) Have them face each other. The closer the better
(3) give each of them treats. Take a break from giving treats and let them smell each other. If one hisses or becomes aggressive, stop giving the cat treat and pause until they've relaxed
(4) do this every night until there is minimal hissing to none

Every night the cats get excited to enter the cage bec. They knew they'll be getting treats

We did this after 2 months of slow introduction with minimal results. My scaredy cat just wont get near to the other one so we have no choice but to push them to smell each other.

My cats have been together for years. We moved into a new house, after much moving-poor kitties, and an outside neighborhood cat traumatized them to where there was redirected aggression. It’s been months of going through this process and I finally have them in the same room again. All of Jackson Galaxy’s videos have helped me understand and observe and adjust my own routine/expectations for them. I’m so proud of where we are in the process and know that even though there’s more confidence that needs to be built we’ve come so far! Thank you Cat Daddy for your cat know-how and insights!

does anyone have any advice for cats that are fighting through doors? i currently have my resident cat (3 years old) and new cat (8 months old) separated in two different rooms because i definitely rushed the introduction about a month ago. both are CRIERS whenever i leave the rooms and like to paw and shake the door. if the other one is out they will pounce on the door or sit by it and wait for a paw to stick out. i have a towel to block it but it doesn't help. i had to really rewind all the way back to introduction step 1 so they are not even eating on opposite sides of one door yet; i just don't think they're ready and i'm not sure how to stop them from fighting. if i let one of them roam around the house, i feel like i am constantly on guard and running to the door. i've tried treats whenever they don't fight through the door but i can't see any progress. any advice would be so welcome, thank you in advance!!

What if your cat has no treats or food he really likes? I've tried everything from meat, freeze-dried liver, iams treats (chicken and fish types), I've tried wet food of multiple brands etc. I can't find anything to get my new cat to go near the door to start the introductions, he's Mr.picky pants. Would appreciate any suggestions to give him something to move up his 'challenge line'

My cat is a like 5 min tops cat. She's like i have already studied this area now 5 mins later i wanna know what on the other side 😂 Wich helps with the other cat. Cause she does what her sister does.

Thank you Jackson.I have just adopted a kitty and i am gonna follow your advices inorder to introduce her to my other cat.

Thank you for your videos!!!
We have 5 cats and fostering a friend's cat (Mocha) to make 6 cats currently in our home. We just completed week 1 and still quarantining. We are slowly transitioning Mocha's food from kibble to freeze dried and then eventually to our raw food. We give separate time in the living room and Mocha is doing really well. Has been confident, tail up and curious, checking things out. One of our cats (Patches) is very curious and tries sniffing under Mocha's door. Mocha is confident until she hears Patches or sees a paw under the door, then she hisses. When we begin introducing, should we introduce one on one or should we introduce with all 5 cats free? I feel like bringing Mocha out while all 5 are out might be overwhelming.

If we introduce at mealtime: All 5 of our cats eat in their (oversized) travel carriers simultaneously. They are all 5 lined up next to each other and accept this is food space/time. Should we set up Mocha's travel carrier and feed all at once? Currently, Mocha eats in her quarantine room.