Expert: Ali - 12/11/2008

Question
Hi there,
My boyfriend and I just adopted a kitten. She is about 12 weeks old and was brought up with her mother and sister until yesterday when I picked her up. Initially she was very scared and even shaking but after a few moments she settled down and cuddled up with me and also with my niece. I brought her home and since I have a 2 1/2 year old cat I decided to keep them separate and took the kitten to my room where I planned on keeping her for a week. My niece and I left her alone to explore the bedroom and when we came back she was no longer cuddly in fact she is down right mean. She was hissing, growling and striking at us. Later My cat wanted in our bedroom and I thought as long as the kitten was in a carrier they could meet. The kitten hissed and growled at my cat and now my cat is scared of the kitten so I have kept them separated. The kitten will occasionally let us pet her but more so she'll back herself into a corner and hiss and growl and swipe at us. Is this her personality? Or is she just nervous about the new environment? And what can I do to make her less stressed? Also is she too old to fix this quirk?

Answer
Katherine,

I would recommend that you quarantine your new kitten for a minimum of 2-3 weeks prior to introducing her to your resident cat. This isolation period allows you to be sure that no viral or bacterial infections will be passed from your kitten to your resident cat and it allows for a gradual introduction between the two kitties, starting off with scent and moving on to hearing and visual cues. It sounds as though the kitten is a little unnerved in her new environment and the premature introduction to the resident cat didn't help. It sounds as though everyone is all upset. I would recommend that you try a homeopathic remedy called Bach's Rescue Remedy which is a blend of flower essences designed to calm and reassure. You can usually find this remedy in natural health stores, naturopathic pharmacies and even in some mainstream pharmacies in the section where the vitamins and supplements are kept. I would recommend that you give each kitty 5-7 drops of Rescue Remedy daily in their freshly filled water bowl each morning (this remedy is preserved in a grape alcohol solution and because of this I don't recommend that you try to dose the cats directly - cats don't like alcohol typically). You should still continue on with keeping the two kitties separate from one another for 2-3 weeks. It's not a bad idea to check through my previous answers on new cat/kitten introductions so that you have an idea of what comes next and how to make things as easy as possible for everyone involved. If there is anything that you would like me to clarify after having read some of my previous answers on this subject I would be more than happy to do so.