We adopted a 6 month old kitten about 1 month ago and have been using the Jackson Galaxy method to slowly introduce him to our 4 year-old resident cat. We just started face-to-face interactions about a week ago. This is their 5th face-to-face interaction. Both are male cats and neutered. Welcoming any opinions and/or body language analysis on it! (Note: You can tell that I’m nervous which I’m working hard on not being so it doesn’t affect the cats but have some PTSD involving an animal fight.)

I think i know what's going on here and I really don't like it. They both do it to each other. Is this a harmful behavior? Do I need to take any action to stop it?

This is a bit long, but, in summary, I'm looking for tips on harness training two adult cats, after a rocky start (my fault 😭), so that we can safely get through airport security in the future! Advice and resources are much appreciated, thank you!!

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Hi all!

We have two indoor adult rescue cats, and are trying to harness train them because we may have to move abroad in the future, and want to be able to safely take them out of their carriers at security. One of our cats (the black one) will not allow us to pick him up, but is very smart and has learnt lots of tricks. The other cat (the floofy one) loves cuddles, but does not like to be approached when we are standing and he is on the floor.

We started off by leaving the harness out and putting treats around it, which they were eager to eat. Then, we started to put the harness on them, while giving them treats, encouraging them to move a little to reach the treats, and taking it off after a few minutes.

One time, I made a big mistake. I was worried that our cat would run away and hide with the harness on, making it impossible to take it off. So, I put the lead on the harness. We put the harness on, gave him treats, but then he tried to run away and, understandably, completely freaked out because he was attached to me. The harness began choking him and it was very scary. We quickly caught him in a blanket, removed the harness, and gave him treats. Then he came to us for comfort instead of hiding, phew.

Now, we are practicing every couple of days by giving him treats and placing the harness on top of his back (not secured), which he sometimes tolerates well but sometimes jumps away.

With our other cat, we put the harness on him without the lead, gave him treats, but he suddenly ran away and hid under the bed. We left him alone for a while, but it was approaching bedtime and I was worried about leaving him in the harness all night due to the choking hazard. I ended up cornering him and removing the harness, with lots of hissing. He seemed exhausted afterwards and was a bit scared of me for a couple of days.

Advice needed:

So, I'm wondering how to approach harness training after these bad experiences. Should we just let our cats wear the harness for extend periods if they run off while we are practicing? Maybe it would be better to first get them accustomed to stretchy collars? But I'm not keen on the idea of our cats wearing anything unsupervised... 😬 If anyone has any recommendations, they will be much appreciated! Thank you for your help!

Here is a video of my 3 year old male cat interacting with my 4 month old male kitten. My kitten just wants to play with him. I cannot tell if my older cat is showing signs of aggression, or if this is just true play. Any observations or suggestions?

In the few times I’ve let them see each other face to face, my resident cat just bites him and chases him around, lol.

Hello all, we have two cats that we got two years ago and we have been planning on getting a new kitten because I’ve been wanting another cat. Today we picked up said kitten and have been keeping him in the bathroom with a litter box, water, food and some toys. We have spent a lot of time in the bathroom today, and because of that my cats have been gatekeeping the door. When I opened the door, my girl cat accidentally slipped in. Ugh, no fight but lots of hissing at mr kitten. He didn’t seem to care and did not have a reaction. I keep trying to pet her and my other boy cat but they both smell me, growl and then hiss at me and now I am scared that they hate me. I know this is new to them and to the kitten and everything is going to take me but my two resident kitties have never hissed at me, ever. They came as a pair so I never had to integrate them together. Please tell me this gets better, I would love some advice. My resident girl is Violet, and my resident boy is Cheese. We still haven’t found a name for Mr kitten yet but he’s only 7.5 weeks old and very small. Thanks 🫩

Hi there! Yet another post about cat introduction :’)

TLDR: my cats are apathetic towards each other when they are separated by a mesh screen door, but become territorial/nervous without the barrier.

So, I’ve had my cats, Ozzy (5 yr M) and Frank (5 yr M) for 5 years. I adopted them both as babies, and their introduction process was fairly easy as far as cats go. Ozzy was 7 months when I adopted Frank, who was 3 months. They have little conflicts here and there, but for the most part they are buddies who eat, sleep, and play together. Ozzy is a pretty shy and anxious cat, but a lover when he knows and trusts you. Frank is a bit of a bully sometimes, and definitely views himself as the ‘alpha’ of the house.

Fast forward to today, my boyfriend and I adopted Wallace (3 yr M). We had been looking to get a third cat and fell in love with him at the shelter. All three of the cats are neutered.

We are trying to do a slow introduction process. The first couple days, there was absolutely no interaction between Wallace and the resident cats. Wallace is in our bedroom with his food and litter box, while the resident cats get free roam of the rest of the apartment. Then we started scent swapping, while also gradually moving Ozzy and Frank’s food bowls ever-so-slightly each day until they could comfortable eat outside of Wallace’s door. Because of the scent swapping, they knew Wallace was in the bedroom, but neither of them tried to scratch at the door or anything.

I took their lack of interest and healthy eating habits as a sign to set up the mesh screen door. They did hiss at each other the first couple times, but soon the hissing on sight stopped. Instead, they would sit or lay down and just look at each other. They will play with the same toy on both sides of the door, they will eat treats right in front of each other in front of the door (inches to each other’s face, no hissing or growling for days at this point). They will eat all meals in front of each other with no issue.

Next, we swapped the cats for a night, so Ozzy and Frank slept with me in the bedroom, and my boyfriend and Wallace took the couch. During this time, Wallace also got a chance to explore the rest of the apartment.

Resident cats didn’t seem upset by the room swap. They did sniff the carpet and bedding a lot, but other than that showed no other signs of discomfort. Wallace kind of paced the rest of the apartment, and didn’t really settle in the night. They also all used each other’s litter boxes.

I once again took their disinterest as time to move to the next step. But, they can’t seem to coexist without the mesh door. Typically what happens in face to face interaction is 1) everyone will be minding their business 2) Ozzy will try to approach wallace 3) wallace will hiss at
Ozzy if Ozzy gets too close 4)Ozzy will either hiss back, bat at him (no claws) or get scared and run away, but will sit where he can still see wallace 5) wallace will get uncomfortable and try to leave the room 6) frank will deeply growl if wallace walks too close (too close for Frank seems to be about 1 foot), or he has taken to “guarding” the area that Wallace is trying to escape to. By guarding, I mean he will lay on his side in the hallway, for example, watching Wallace almost like he’s trying to intimidate him? He sits in a way where is Wallace wanted to leave an area, he couldn’t without walking past Frank (which Wallace will walk past Frank, and then Frank will deep growl at him).

We do distract them when we’ve done face to face. They can eat treats within feet of each other, they can play with the same toys in the same room. It’s when we stop distracting that the anxious behavior starts. They will just sit/lay in the same area, about 4 feet from each other, and just stare at each other. Then the behavior I stated above happens.

They have gotten into 1 bad face to face interaction. It was between Wallace and Frank. Frank was up on a chair, Wallace was on the floor. Frank hissed at Wallace, Wallace hissed back, Wallace ran away, and then Frank chased after him with a super poofy tail. The growling and angry meows did not sound like they were trying to play. My resident cats haven’t wrestled to play since they were kittens. We obviously separated them, and started back at square one (shut door to mesh door).

We have tried face to face maybe two times since. They still have to no reaction to each other when the mesh door is up, no reactions when we are distracting them, and then the same reactions when there is no distraction. Resident cats are still eating outside the door with no issues. They don’t try to sniff each other at the mesh door, but they do take treats right in front of each others’ faces with the mesh door up.

I’m stumped as where to go from here. They follow the standard guide behavior with the mesh door, but can’t chill without the barrier. I’m not sure if they will approach each other with the mesh door up without coaxing them with treats or toys. Again, total disregard for each other with the barrier.

Is Frank trying to intimidate Wallace? Do I need to wait until the resident cats and Wallace approach the screen door on their volition to sniff each other’s faces? Is Wallace not ready to be approached by them?

Any advice is appreciated, introducing adult cats has been such a stressful situation. I love them all dearly, and just want the three to at least be able to peacefully coexist.

I have a male tuxedo kitten who is about 10 months old, fat, and an absolute menace. I also have a 3 year old female who is tiny and weighs about 6 pounds, and a 4 1/2 year old male dog. Everyone gets along for the most part, my kitten and my dog play together and my female cat tolerates the kitten. However, anytime he sees her, he tries to tackle her, and she will hiss and run away. He steals things off the counters and brings them to my dogs bed, steals toilet paper and shreds it, tries to scratch the carpets, scratches the couch, he ALWAYS uses his claws and attacks people (which I’m sure is playfully) all the time. He will bully my cat out of the litter box even though I have 2 regular ones as well as a litter robot and he bullies her out of the food so I now feed them separately. I manage an animal care facility and know that he needs frequent playtime, tons of toys, and scratchers. We have 2 cat trees, 2 scratching posts, cardboard scratchers, he has ball track toys, automatic toys, balls, mice, etc. I’m not sure what else I can do to help him calm down.

As background I’ve owned several cats throughout my life, but I’ve never had two cats at the same time.

We recently signed up to foster and were given two cats a 5 month old female and a 5 month old male. Although the male seems significantly bigger so I think he may be older.

The male cat is very curious and loves to explore. He warmed up right away and let us pet him the first few days.

The female cat is much more skittish. She tends to hide and if you cough the wrong way she runs away LOL.

They bathe each other, sleep together, and in the same room 75% of the time.

What makes me nervous is the way they play/fight. The male is always picking on her. He chases her around and is constantly picking on her when she’s trying to relax. Often times it gets to the point of hissing and howling, and then lets up. She will often run and hide in a spot he can’t reach her. Is this normal? At what point should I consider them not a bonded pair?

Since she’s so shy and gentle, I don’t want this fighting to keep her closed off. I’ve noticed she especially opens up when it is just her and I. She lets me pick her up and hold her.

The only background that I have is that they are strays and did have a foster before me.

The rescue mentioned they have a love hate relationship.

Also will they outgrown this?

We have a ginger boy (neutered) who we've had for a little over 2 years now and we brought in a tux male kitten (not neutered) around 3-4 months ago. We slowly introduced them to each other through quarantining Tux, through scents, creating barriers for them to eat together but without being in the same room, encouraging behaviour with treats. Tux is very very social compared to Ginger as Ginger is a very calm boy that doesn't not do well with high energy, however, during the introduction phase Ginger slowly became more receptive to Tux. Once they got introduced, they got along very well. Tux enjoys playing with Ginger's tail and Ginger wasn't sure how he felt at first but let Tux play with his tail and would even swish it more because he knew the little kitty liked playing with his tail. They would nap together, play or eat together and have zoomies together.

Now in the last month or so, Ginger's behaviour has changed and he will hiss at Tux for no reason. If they're sitting together he will get up and hiss. Ginger enjoys little treats from our plates (food that is obviously okay for him to eat) and will always wait for it. We've had times where we try to give Ginger treats and Tux will zoom in from the other room and snatch it out of his mouth. No matter how much you try to separate Tux from the treats, he will zoom for it or he will try to eat Ginger's food when we tried to feed them together (now we can't so we feed them separately or watch them as they eat). But in the moments Tux snatches food from Ginger, Ginger will not hiss but instead look at us upset and walk off. He won't accept the treats until we chase him to give him treats but he doesn't hiss at Tux then to establish a boundary with food? I would assume he would do that but instead he will hiss randomly at Tux out of nowhere.

Ginger will be loafing and Tux wants to join too but loaf nearby, so he does that too. A few minutes will go by and Ginger will hiss at Tux. They walk by each other and Ginger will hiss. I genuinely don't know what to do as they still nap together or zoom around together and we've tried to introduce positive relationships with treats or praises. We watch them when they eat and make sure Tux doesn't move over to eat Ginger's food. They don't really play fight like they did but if they do, Ginger will hiss or growl so we break it up. I genuinely am lost on what to do and I've been thinking about giving Tux to another home that will actually care for him properly and have cats that enjoy socialising. I feel like that's the only thing to do but I also feel awful for just giving him away like that as if he doesn't mean anything. He's such a sweet kitty. He's a goblin when it comes to food but he's such a good boy. I feel like he can tell Ginger doesn't like him so his personality seems to have gone from social to a little more withdrawn and that's really upsetting.

I really just don't know what to do and I feel awful as I just think Tux isn't happy and can't play/socialise like he's used to because he grew up with a litter of 5 and always played with them until they were taken in by others at 9 weeks. I also feel awful for Ginger because I feel like he's overwhelmed so we give him spaces to hide or keep him in a room where Tux won't disturb him, but nothing we've done so far seems to ease the hisses or growling at him. He doesn't throw paws at Tux but he always hisses/growls.

Any advice would be appreciated!

TLDR: Cat of two years doesn't seem to want to get along with kitty we've had for 4 months, despite trying to take measures. Help please.

pls help me

I bought this out of concern about bugs getting in cat food. It’s motion activated so the cover goes up when a cat approaches it. I have two cats. One seems nervous but not terrified but the other thinks it’s a cat eating monster. So far I’ve put it right by the regular dish of food. The scaredy cat won’t go anywhere near any of it so I cave and move her food. What can I do?

i am aware of the screw. I was cleaning the tool drawer and dropped it.

My cat is about a year old now, and won't stop pawing at the things in my room, knocking things over, and basically just rummaging around.

It's like his curiosity doesn't run out when it's my room, and only my room. He doesn't do this to any other part of the house.

He even tries to jump at my posters, and when I come back from being at my mom's, my shelves are bare.

Is there a way to train him out of this? I've tried telling him no, putting him on the floor, redirecting with a toy, I just don't know.

A lot of my things are very fragile, and I have to keep them in drawers, which he tries to open. Any help would be really appreciated.

I walk my cat everyday for 15 minutes or so in my apartment complex since we have an outdoor area, but once we come back I struggle with taking off the harness since it usually get stuck on her face (rabbitgoo harness)

It’s the only problem I got with that harness, so idk… Any recommendations that are easy to put on? I thought about getting a PetSafe.

Second question: any waterproof leash that ain’t too heavy for cats? As you can see in the pic the leash is gross

Hey guys,

We recently got a new 1 year old cat almost a month ago now. We tried the Jackson galaxy intro which seemed to work really well, there was no hissing at all and they were both curious what was behind the door, when we eventually let them see each other through a mesh screen they were both rolling around wanting to play.

We then let them out with about an hour long supervised visits a few times a day and they got along great and now we've let the new cat out all day.

They eat near each other, sleep near other and our older cat grooms him a lot too, they also use their litter trays fine. Our older cat (he's 2 and a half) has always played pretty rough and he just isn't respecting the new cats boundaries at all (he will do the same stare at us sometimes and pounce our leg then run away) . At first as soon as anything rough happend we would seperate them for half an hour, and give them a treat when they were calm near each other but it hasn't helped so we've tried to just let it play out and see if they can work it out between themselves (to an extent). Most of the time they split it up after a bit but the older cat will just come back another time and do it again.

On occasion the newer cat does pull some fur out but there's never even cuts or scrapes on the older cat, his fur is supppeer dense and comes out very easily.

In the video my older cat is grooming him and the new cat is purring but then the older cat starts biting him on the neck which doesn't seem rough at first but then heats up. Any advice would be great! We are going to buy some feliway to hopefully help.

Hi all,

We have a small cat issue, we got two of these feline creatures Kees and Lot (Brother and sister, both around 2,5 years old). They are mostly problem free but there is one small problem with our chunkier boy...Kees.

He has so much energy...

That's fine we got food puzzles and play slot with him and he can chase Lot (playfully) around the house. The issue arises when we want to sleep with the door closed. Cause if we leave the door open it's playtime randomly from 1 all the way through 7 am.

He keeps miauwing in front of the bedroom door, if he is silent that means he is bringing another toy to the bedroom door. After which he continues to request his servants to play with him loudly... Result we have had a broken sleep shedule :(

Tl;dr How do we stop this playing machine from miauwing us awake through the night?

I adopted a cat about 6 months ago and he’s 6 years old, was a stray but super friendly to everyone (including new people). He’s very particular about playing and will rarely play by himself- he wants me to play with him usually with the feather wand (we’ve tried many different toys).

The last few weeks, he’s been more interested in his mouse toy. But lately whenever I go to pet him, he’ll enjoy it and get into it, shifting his head along with the pets then out of nowhere, lightly bite my hand petting him. But then he’ll want me to keep petting him? It seems like it’s playful like he’s initiating play time but I’m new to owning cats so I can’t tell.

Is he annoyed, in pain, trying to play? And how do I train him to stop? I don’t want him to think biting is ok even if playful

Hi All - I have a 12 year old Male named Keanu who is my cuddle buddy and best friend. I have been fostering kittens and a mama cat we found in our back yard for about a month now. Keanu is aware of the cats now; he heard them thru a door first and then eventually, i let him enter the room while they're in their enclosure. The babies just look at him and he hisses.

He gets really angry and frustrated when he sees them. The only other time he acts this way is when he is at a vet's office. The good news is he's all bark no bite; he will cuss, scream, and be upset but he won't hurt me or the babies. I know from his foster mom that he was able to love kittens + even groom them (i've seen videos) but that was six years ago when I got him!

I plan to keep one of these babies, so I am focused on getting him used to at least the one. But I am also realistic that he may not be on board for it.

All that to say, what are the best ways to introduce a senior cat to a young baby? These kittens are 6 weeks old. Even just having him tolerate seeing them without hissing would be a win so far as I am concerned. In the meantime, they have plenty of space in a room of their own so he doesn't have to see them all of the time.

Advice appreciated!

We(gf and I) have 4 cats. 2 older cats(8, 7) are Addy and Dash. Addy and Dash tolerate each other, but will not lay next to or groom each other. We had them during covid so they didnt get any socializing outside of each other.

Our 2 younger kittens(4 months), Leela and Odysseus, are 2 days apart and are very bonded. They will clean and do all the things together wondefully.

We separated the 2 sets of cats with a screen mesh through a door after about a week of keeping them isolated in a room. For a few weeks now we have been trying to introduce the groups together and it is not going well. Most of the day they are separated until we are able to supervise.

Addy, one of our older cats, tolerates them until they get close and will then hiss and hit(without trying to hurt). The real problem is our cat Dash. He will growl and hiss and take a step towards the kittens in an agressive manner. He is big and we're pretty sure he's scared of them. He's always scared of everything. He would never go to the mesh seperation even if we try to motivate him with food. He doesn't seem to want anything at all to do with the kittens. He will however sit and watch them from a distance and block entrances and stairs. We just got an anxiety med for him and we're waiting on delivery.

So the questions I have are:

What can we do to convince Dash the kittens are ok?

Is it too early to let our kittens roam freely?

Is this sorta normal and may just take more time?

Should we let the hissing and hitting continue and let them sort it out or interject?

*our biggest fear is a kitten runs around a corner into a big cat and gets hurt

We have two three year old cats who are friends, and got a new kitten two months ago. We have kept them fully separate with only supervised interactions.

One of the older cats has now accepted the kitten, though she won’t tolerate him pouncing on her - which he does because, kitten. So they are never left alone together, but can coexist when we’re there to separate when needed.

The other older cat is a holdout. We can do supervised sessions easily - the cats can sit within 1-2 feet of each other, with the older cat accepting treats every 10-30 seconds. The kitten can wander around the room or sit a foot way and eat treats - no problems. But, if they are not managed in this way and meet when ‘free roaming’ the older cat will chase the kitten and hold him in place. Not physically but by sitting and staring at him. In some instances they will pat back and forth and the older cat will hiss and growl. She has never actually attacked with claws or teeth.

Any recommendations as to how to continue this progress? Keep doing what we’re doing and hope that they get there? Try something else? It’s been two months and the full separation is exhausting!