Expert: Ali - 2/13/2010

Question
Hi,

About 5 weeks ago, we found a gorgeous 5 month (we are guessing) kitten outside.  She had a collar but not tag, and after calling the shelters and asking around our neighbourhood, and getting her scanned, we decided to keep her.  At the time, we were cat sitting a very traumatized cat, and had no idea about how to introduce new kitties, etc, so Curry (the kitty we found outside) immediately took over our home and wanted to be friends with Naiobi, the one we were cat sitting.  It just so happened that two weeks later, Naiobi was going home and Curry made some progress in having Naiobi respond to her.  Naiobi left, and Curry seemed bored and blue.  She is a very intelligent and active cat, and definitely dominant.  I started training her to do tricks and this seemed to help her boredom, but we decided we needed to get her a friend.  Long story short, we needed to do the FLV/FIV before anyone would allow us to adopt a rescue, and because she seemed hard to restrain (unless on her terms), we thought, let's wait till she gets spayed (her appt is coming up).  I finally couldn't handle seeing her be so bored and restless so I took a risk and took her in for the bloodwork, and she managed ok and is negative, so my husband and I went to find some kitties and fell in love with a brother and sister 4 month old kittens.  
We brought them home yesterday, attempting to follow a protocol in the book, The Natural cat, which suggests having someone else bring in the new kitties, "pretending" to be their owners, and then "leaving" them behind (there is more but am giving the short version).  You then proceed to shower your current kitty with lots of extra attention and more or less ignore the new kitties, other than feeding them, until your current cat accepts the new cats and then slowly, you can start to show affection for the new cats.  This has been hard as the two new kitties are very affectionate, but am trying for the sake of Curry.
The reason I am writing is that my husband and I feel quite stressed about the stress the cats, especially Curry, seems to be experiencing, and want to do what is best and right for everyone.  Please help!  Any advice you can give would be great.  Right now, we are choosing to keep the new kitties in a separate room just at night, so Curry can do what she likes to do and sleep with us (for sure the new kitties would jump on the bed).  Is this a good idea?  What should we do?

Thank you in advance for your advice and help!

Xell

Answer
Xell,

Since questions about introducing a new cat or kitten into a household with one or more cats already in residence are quite common I've decided to send you my regular information on this subject. I too am familiar with The Natural Cat, in fact I own it. In my opinion this book is an excellent resource as far as helping pet parents understand that there is a more natural way to treat physical, emotional and behavioral issues that can arise with cats, however as far as my years of experience have shown there are a few weak points in this book. The two areas that give me the most concern in The Natural Cat are the way that the author recommends introducing a new cat into the household and the different diets she recommends for cats.

While I agree that new cat introductions can be complex issues I don't believe that it's a good idea to subject territorial animals like cats to the stress of having their lifestyle change drastically by adding one or more other cats to a household and simply allowing them to figure out how to deal with it. I certainly understand that cat society is complex and there are times when you should allow your cats to discuss things on their own without human intervention, I just don't believe that it should happen during the process of introducing a new cat into the household. In my experience it's easiest on everyone to introduce new cats into your household gradually for a few different reasons:

1) The cats will be more likely to forge a friendly bond much quicker if they are allowed to slowly get used to the idea of new feline friends coming into their home.

2) You'll be less likely to see serious bullying and fighting during the introduction process and later on when the cats have begun to tolerate each other's presence.

3) Cats who come from shelters are coming from a very stressful environment, introducing them into your household improperly could make them more susceptible to viral and bacterial infections commonly seen in shelters.

Cats are very territorial and they don't like change much, this can sometimes lead to problems with fighting or fearful behavior on the part of one or both cats if introductions aren't done carefully, with the needs of your resident cat and newly adoptive kittens in mind. First of all to minimize the chances of aggressive behavior on the part of your resident cat and to prevent reproduction I'd highly recommend that you have him/her spayed/neutered ASAP if that surgery hasn't already been performed. Cats that have been surgically sterilized tend to live longer, healthier lives, fewer behavioral problems and of course they don't contribute to the very serious pet overpopulation problem worldwide. As cute and charming as kittens can be it's very important not to create jealousy in your resident cat by paying extra attention to the new kittens. If your older cat feels as though you're not paying him any attention he may become resentful of the kitten which could potentially cause ongoing problems with bullying which creates an stressful and unhealthy atmosphere for everyone involved.

In general the best way to start introducing the new kittens to your older resident cat is in a gradual and non confrontational manner once everyone's been given a clean bill of health by your family veterinarian, everyone has had some time (2-3 weeks is usually sufficient but some cats may require more or less time so use your judgement) to become accustomed to each other's scents, sounds and presence. You can switch litter boxes, beds or toys back and forth between the new kitty and your resident kitty, however it's best not to do those sorts of things until you have been given the all clear for both cats by your vet. Another way to accomplish the exchange of scents in a non-threatening way is to start off by rubbing the kitten down with a hand towel, then rubbing the older cat all over  with the same towel and lastly going back to the kitten for a final rub down. This first step allows the older cat and his new feline sister to gradually become accustomed to each other's unique scent and can minimize the risk of aggression between the two cats because they will be familiar with each other's scent. Scent provides a fair bit of information to a cat, for instance it can provide basic information about health, age, sex, reproductive status, illnesses, diet, etc. I'd recommend that you begin the towel scent exchanges as soon as possible and that you go through the entire process at least twice daily.

I routinely use a safe, effective homeopathic remedy called Bach's Rescue Remedy which is a blend of flower essences designed to calm and reassure. In my opinion Rescue Remedy is a great tool to help cats in stressful situations. In this situation you could make use of this remedy to help ease your kitten's transition away from her mom and siblings and into your family. Rescue Remedy might be quite useful in this situation to help to keep your older cat as calm as possible throughout the potentially stressful introduction to his new little sister. I've used this remedy to tip the balance in my favor in tough situations as well as routine stuff like new cat introductions and I really believe that it's worth using as it's likely to help keep everyone as stress free as possible - this will help to ensure that the introduction process is as gentle and smooth as possible for all involved. I normally suggest adding a dose of about 5-7 drops of Rescue Remedy to fresh bowls of water for each cat every morning and you can start that immediately. Rescue Remedy can be administered by rubbing a drop onto the relatively hair free area in front of your cats' ears, however it's important to make sure you don't get any inside of the ear canal because it can sting, especially if either kitty has an ear infection or scratches their ears frequently - the flower essences are preserved in a grape alcohol solution. Incidentally if either cat scratches their ears or shakes their head frequently it's well worth having your vet check to ensure that there aren't any ear mites present, these are tiny parasites that live in a pet's ear canal and they can be quite irritating for cats. If ear mites are present your vet will prescribe the appropriate treatment to kill the offending parasites. You can often find Rescue Remedy in health food stores, naturopathic pharmacies, some mainstream pharmacies in the aisle with vitamins and nutritional supplements and I believe that you can also purchase this remedy online. Rescue Remedy is often used by pet parents and some veterinarians worldwide to treat injured, abused, traumatized, abandoned, anxious, fearful or timid animals and help them to recover from their special circumstances quite successfully. I have used Rescue Remedy in addition to TLC, patience and in some cases the use of conventional medical treatments for many years, it's worked some minor miracles in a variety of situations for cats and kittens that might not have otherwise coped with whatever rehabilitation they required.

In the unlikely event that a serious fight did break out it's very important not to get between fighting cats because cat scratches and bites can be serious and require medical attention because they can become infected. On the day of the first face to face meeting of the two cats I'd recommend having a water pistol/spray bottle, a heavy towel and a broom nearby just in case something goes drastically wrong during the introduction and a fight breaks out. Squirting the cats with the spray bottle might be enough to split up a mild fight. In the event that water doesn't stop the fighting a heavy towel can be tossed over one of the cats to stop them from striking out and they can be carefully separated that way although a broom can also be used to gently guide feuding felines apart so that nobody gets hurt. If a bit of hissing and swatting happens I'd recommend supervising closely to ensure that nothing serious comes out of the posturing, if a fight breaks out then it's best to stop the introduction for that day, wait until everyone calms down and try the face to face introductions again in a few days.

I typically recommend that new cat introductions take place in a very structured way and in this case it's important to take the new kitten's age, medical and vaccine status into consideration when introducing her to your adult resident cat. It's normally a good idea to isolate new additions into your cat household for a minimum of 2-3 weeks. This isolation period serves a couple of purposes, firstly it allows for a quarantine period which will prevent your resident cat and newly adopted kitten from spreading any contagious infections to each other. The 2-3 week isolation period also allows you to take the new arrival to the veterinarian and confirm that she's healthy and free of minor viral/bacterial infections common to cats coming from a shelter environment to more serious chronic viral infections like feline leukemia and FIV which are similar to HIV and AIDS in people (don't worry though, they can't pass these viral infections on to human beings). Just as in people who carry the HIV/AIDS virus all cats react differently, some cats will live a long, healthy and relatively symptom free lives while others may develop health problems associated to the FIV and feline leukemia viruses. The main reason that these viral infections are a concern is because there is a chance that cats living together in a multiple cat household can potentially pass these infections on to their housemates or other cats in the neighborhood if they're allowed outside. FIV and feline leukemia can be transmitted from cat to cat via contact with blood or saliva and in the case of outdoor cats, strays and feral cats fighting with one another can increase the possibility of infection (which is another good reason to keep your kitty indoors or if you want to allow your cat access to the outdoors it's best to vaccinate according to your vet's recommendations). In young kittens you will sometimes see false positive/negative results on FIV and FeLV (feline leukemia virus) testing so it’s not a bad idea to retest kittens once they’re between 6-8 months of age. Kittens under 12 weeks of age are quite vulnerable to viral and bacterial infections, especially if they've been weaned prematurely (mother cats don't need any help to wean their babies, they normally do so on their own some time in the first 10-12 weeks of age). Any new addition to a feline friendly household should be thoroughly examined by a veterinarian, treated for internal/external parasites and completely vaccinated prior to introducing them to your resident cat.

PLEASE NOTE: While The Natural Cat recommends strongly that you don't vaccinate I would recommend that you vaccinate your cats minimally as kittens. My recommendations about vaccines are based on our family vet’s recommendations and she’s an absolutely fantastic holistic veterinarian. New research about our pets and vaccines has shown that we do vaccinate way too frequently and overuse of vaccines is leading to higher risk of issues like certain cancers, auto-immune conditions, renal failure or allergies (to name a few of the potential problems created by too many vaccines). Our family vet is a very honest, down to earth veterinarian who is trying to educate pet parents about the risks and benefits of vaccinating their pets and when we raised the issue of possibly bringing another kitten into our household and never vaccinating him/her our vet suggested that it would be better for the cat to receive minimal vaccines once in kittenhood and then we'd never have to vaccinate a low risk kitty (indoor only kitties are low risk) again.

The second purpose behind gradually introducing the new kittens after a quarantine period is to prevent any disputes over territory or any undesirable aggression due to the change in your household. Young kittens may exhibit aggression in the form of hissing or swatting at an unfamiliar cat that they haven't been properly introduced to, however if the tables were turned and your older kitten decided to react aggressively to the presence of his/her new younger "siblings" wouldn't be as likely to gang up on your older kitty and launch an offensive or defensive attack that could potentially lead to more serious issues between the cats in your household later on.

After a 2-3 week isolation period and making sure to familiarize the resident cat and his/her new siblings are accustomed to each other's scents and presence there's minimal risk of serious aggression between the resident kitty and the newly introduced cats. A great tip to help get the resident cat and and new cat/kitten accustomed to one another is to feed them on either side of a closed door. This will allow both your resident cat and the new kitten to associate each others' scent/presence with something positive - food. Often times resident cats and new additions will begin to show curiosity about each other and even play together under the door before they ever see each other. This is a great sign and should be encouraged. Interactive play and food are wonderful tools to help facilitate a happy healthy relationship between the human caregivers (aka mom/dad) the new kittens and your resident cat. Interactive toys like kitty teases and laser lights (do be careful to avoid shining the light into anyone's eyes as these toys can do damage) are great in terms of getting cats to play with you and each other. Special treats work well as a form of bribery to help an uncertain kitty become more comfortable with the presence of another cat in his/her territory. I find that cheese, chicken, fish or lamb work well and which foods you will need to use will depend upon what your cats prefer. Since you have recently become providers and caregivers to three kittens under 6 months of age I’ve taken the liberty of including some important information about feline nutrition, vaccines and other issues of interest.

**For information about the unique nutritional needs of our feline companions I'd recommend checking out the following websites. At this point my cats eat a combination of a properly balanced homemade diet and a small amount of a high quality canned food made from human grade ingredients (which they get as a special treat, not a mainstay of their diet). If you prefer to feed commercially produced pet foods only it's vitally important to be very careful about the foods you feed your cats - just because a veterinarian or store employee recommends a specific brand of food doesn't mean that it will provide your cats with the best possible nutrition throughout their lives.

- www.catinfo.org

This is the website that our veterinarian recommended when I asked her about making properly balanced food for my cats right in our family's kitchen. This site was created by a veterinarian (not our family vet or any vet associated with her practice) who wanted to educate pet parents about feline nutrition and other cat related issues. So far the information on this site has been fantastic, this vet offers info about understanding pet food labels, which commercially produced diets are better quality and why making a high quality homemade diet for the cats that you love isn't all that difficult or unattainable. Dr. Pierson also dispels common pet food myths such as the need for kitten, adult and senior formulas of pet food, in reality cats in different life stages require different amounts of food to remain healthy and of a reasonable weight, they don't require different formulations of food.

- www.catnutrition.org

This website is referred to from time to time on the previous website. For multiple cat households this site has a great recipe that yields a larger amount of food which means you can make food once every week or two (for 3 adult cats, obviously with kittens they will need more of the same diet so you may have to make food more frequently than every 2 weeks). The author of this site also provides fantastic information about why homemade cat foods must have certain ingredients and why actually providing the cats with the right ingredients in their diet is better than supplementation (although in a pinch supplementation sometimes needs to happen if you aren't able to get a specific ingredient). My cats eat a recipe derived from catinfo.org and catnutrition.org - their diet is also supplemented with some of the supplements recommended in The Natural Cat as well as some of the supplements you'll find in the recipes on either of the websites that I've mentioned.

- www.felinespride.com

Feline's Pride is a great company that manufactures a high quality raw diet that they will ship to your door frozen throughout the US and some parts of Canada. They guarantee that your cat's food will arrive at least partially frozen (you can store it in the freezer if it's still somewhat frozen) so long as you are home to sign for the package when the courier comes. Another great thing about this company is that the packaging they send the different flavors and quantities of the sealed packages of cat food are placed into a reuseable cooler along with a special catnip toy and (if memory serves me) dry ice to keep the food frozen until it reaches your door.

- http://www.halopets.com/pet-education/pet-articles/pet_food_what_you_need_to-kno...

In my opinion this is an article that every pet parent who plans to feed their pets a diet made up exclusively of commercially produced foods should read. I must caution you that this is not a mealtime read if you have a sensitive tummy since some of the content is disturbing at best, but I do think that it’s important for all pet parents to have a good understanding of the potential risks associated with feeding a diet made up exclusively of commercially produced pet foods.

Before 2007 I was accustomed to feeding my cats different commercially produced pet foods and I simply followed the dietary recommendations given to me by previous veterinarians, sadly at the end of 2007 during the Menu Foods pet food recalls my eldest cat developed severe acute renal failure and nearly lost her life as a result of eating what I believed was a high quality diet that had been tainted with melamine. Thankfully our veterinarian is a holistic vet with extensive training and experience using homeopathy to treat physical, psychological and behavioral issues in pets so my baby girl received the best of both approaches. A combination of IV fluids and homeopathic remedies allowed my girl MC (short for Miracle Cat) to come home to me after two conventional veterinarians had recommended immediate euthasia. Our family vet sent MC home with normal kidney values, a special diet (which she wouldn't eat once she got home), a bag of IV fluids and other supplies and instructions to care for my girl for what I expected to be the remainder of her life based on my research. After a year of MC being on a high quality canned diet, having normal blood results for kidney function and receiving her daily dose of subcutaneous fluids we were surprised when our vet recommended something that wasn't in any of the literature we'd read on kitties with renal issues - weaning our girl off of her fluids entirely. We were terrified that MC would get sick again, but we trusted our vet so we did as she asked us to and MC continued to thrive - her kidney function has been 100% normal over the last two years and we're incredibly grateful that conventional medicine and homeopathy were brought together to give her a second chance at life. (do be careful about the quality of the food and the ingredients that go into it, my eldest cat nearly lost her life in 2007 during the Menu Foods pet food recalls after eating what I was told was an all natural, high quality cat food, luckily she survived after receiving a combination of traditional treatment for renal failure aka IV fluids and homeopathic remedies that ultimately cured her kidney failure, she no longer requires any special care and she's her usual, spunky self.

As far as commercially prepared pet foods go there are a few things that are important to have a full understanding of:

1) Many pet food companies recommend that human caregivers feed their animal companions a specific amount of food based on their body weight. Often these instructions recommend feeding too much food, if pet parents don't watch their pets carefully their pets can become overweight or even obese in a relatively short period of time. For pets the health risks that are associated with obesity are similar to the risks that overweight humans face. If you plan to feed a commercially prepared diet it's important to watch your cats closely for any signs of obesity. A cat with a healthy body weight should have an hourglass figure when you're looking down at them. You should be able to feel a kitty's ribs and spine easily under a little pad of fat. You should NOT be able to see hip bones, spinal vertebrae or ribs whether your kitty is in your lap or across the room, this would indicate that your kitty is quite a bit underweight. Obviously kitties who have higher activity levels will need more calories, you can monitor your cat's weight at home by using your own bathroom scale to weigh yourself minus kitty then weigh yourself with kitty and subtract your weight. You do have kittens that are still growing so it's not in their best interests to remember that kittens should grow and put on weight at a slow and steady pace, rapid weight gain or loss could indicate that they're getting too many calories, not enough calories or even that they're sick - your vet can help you gain a good understanding of what constitutes normal weight gain, growth and development and what could indicate that your feline companions are getting too much or too little to eat.

2) There’s a significant difference between the ingredients that pet food manufacturers lead pet parents are in their products and what actually ends up in many pet foods. It’s important that you not take anyone’s word for it when it comes to finding a high quality cat food that will meet the nutritional needs of your feline companions appropriately throughout their lifetimes. I sincerely recommend feeding a homemade diet if at all possible and if it’s not possible to feed a diet that you’ve prepared in your own  kitchen then it’s not a bad idea to thoroughly research any food that you are considering feeding your cats - after all their lives depend on good choices made in terms of the environment you want to provide for them, which vaccines you’re willing to administer (and how often you feel it’s appropriate), the use of conventional medicines and nutrition to name a few of the major things that can affect a cat’s health and lifespan over the long term.

Unfortunately not all veterinarians out there have taken the time to thoroughly educate themselves about nutritious, properly balanced homemade diets...This generally means that if your family has decided to use the services of a veterinary hospital made up entirely of vets who practice conventional medicine exclusively you aren't likely to get a positive response when you ask for information about homemade diets or tell them that you're feeding your cats homemade food. When I asked a few different veterinarians their opinions about feeding the first cat who shared my life as an adult a homemade diet I got a variety of negative responses ranging from the fairly mild "There's no way to properly balance a diet made at home" to an exceptionally strong response from a vet who told me outright that I'd be killing my cat if I fed him a homemade diet since the dietary needs of cats are so complex. After the Menu Foods pet food recalls of 2007 I took it upon myself to research feline nutrition. One of the most shocking things that I learned was that in spite of the fact that most people believe that veterinarians are taught extensively about the nutritional needs of each animal they might care for, in reality nutrition is covered very superficially. The majority of information and education that veterinarians receive about the nutritional needs of a variety of animal companions actually comes from major pet food manufacturers. From what I understand some veterinarians are paid a stipend by one or more pet food manufacturers to carry and recommend their specific brands of pet food to the human clients caring for their animal patients, other vets may receive a specific brand of pet food directly from the manufacturer for free or at a nominal cost to sell in their clinic for a set amount of money which often means that clinic makes a tidy profit from the sale of pet food. In my opinion, based on the information that I've gathered after nearly 3 years of research about the pet food industry and commercially produced pet foods there are some serious problems with regard to what is or is not considered appropriate as far as ingredients in pet foods go. I see a serious problem with the pet food industry and I truly believe that the industry as a whole is very poorly regulated (although some companies strive to make a higher quality product than minimum standards would allow them to).

If you have any further cat related questions I'd be more than happy to help you out to the best of my ability, so please don't hesitate to contact me again.