Welcoming Home Your New Cat or Kitten
Welcoming home a new cat/kitten into a single pet home
It’s a very exciting time when you adopt a new cat/kitten! However, the cat is often nervous and unsettled suddenly moving to a new home. While some will be very curious and want to immediately explore the whole new house, others will be scared and fearful and want to hide. In many cases, we recommend keeping the new cat in a room (such as the bedroom where you sleep) with their food and a litter box and allow the cat to adjust to its new environment in a small area. If the cat wants to hide under the bed or furniture, let it hide. You can sit on the floor and encourage the cat to come out to eat and play with a toy. But some cats just need several days to adjust and feel safe. Within a week, most of these cats will come out from under the bed and want attention. Lots of patience and love is all most of them will need. If the cat can initially be in your bedroom, it will help the cat by having you in the same room even if you are sleeping. The cat may come join you in bed!
On rare occasions, a newly adopted cat is so scared of its new environment, it will not even come out from under the bed to eat or use the litter box in the room it is in. If that happens, move the cat, its food and litter box into a bathroom. They will usually adjust better to a smaller environment.
When the cat starts coming to the door and wanting to leave the room it’s in, the cat is indicating that it is ready to have the door opened and start exploring the house. But please leave the door open to the room it has been staying in so it can run back there and feel safe there again anytime it needs to do that.
When you first bring your new cat home, place the cat/kitten in the litter box and let the cat climb back out of the litter box and walk away from it on its own. That way the cat will easily remember where the litter box is located. But if you just show a cat/kitten a litter box in the basement and carry the cat back upstairs, it may be more difficult for the cat to know exactly where the litter box was that it just saw earlier.Also show the cat where its new food and water bowls are located and allow the cat/kitten to smell the food and eat if it is interested.
Welcoming home a new cat/kitten into a multi-pet home
Start by following the same guidelines as introducing a new cat into a single cat household. However, when you bring your new cat home, don’t let your other pets see you bringing the new cat into your home. Bringing the new cat inside in front of the other pets can make some of them instantly jealous to see you holding a new pet. Therefore, cover the carrier or put your other pets in a separate room and take the new cat/kitten directly to the room it will be adjusting in. Do not choose a room that your existing pets will feel displaced from (such as your bedroom if they usually sleep with you). Get your new cat settled in with its litter box and food bowls and give it some attention.
Then allow your existing pets to smell the new cat under the door but don’t allow them to see the new cat. The new cat may or may not be ready to approach the door and smell your other pets. When they both smell each other under the door, they may hiss and growl and/or they may stick paws under the door and try to play with each other. Allow this to happen for several days. If the pets on either side of the door are unwilling to get close to the door and sniff each other, put their food bowls on both sides of the door so they will have to sniff each other when they eat.
Once they seem to begin to accept each other and are not reacting strongly to each other under the door, place the new cat in a bedroom for a few minutes and allow the existing pets into the room to smell the other cat’s smell more closely. If all goes well, you can move on to supervised introductions. If any of the animals still feel stressed and upset, give it more time. You want the pets to be downright curious and want to see what is on the other side of the door.
However, when it comes time for face-to-face introductions, only pet your current pets and don’t pet the new cat in front of the other pets. That will help your current pets feel more secure that they are still the most important ones to you.
Open the door and let the cats come face to face while you are supervising. Keep the introduction fairly short and continue to do longer sessions. If you are introducing the cat to dogs, either put the dog(s) on a leash or place the dog in its cage so the cat can approach the dog with the dog safely contained. These steps may have to adjust depending on the personality of all the pets involved. Don’t rush them to adjust too quickly. Patience is the key to successful introductions. If introducing a cat to a dog, make sure the cat has a high place to jump up to and be out of reach of the dog.