[MENTION=5494]Amargith[/MENTION], I would like your evaluation of how introducing our two cats is going and any suggestions you might have to help things along.
Because of moving and cleaning the house I recently vacated, introducing the cats had been mostly put on a back burner. My girl has been confined to a bedroom for most of the time.
My girl is the more aggressive of the two and used to having to adapt to new houses, so we decided to give Taran's boy time to gain his confidence. He was an outdoor only cat until recently, so he is still learning to see the house as his territory. He wouldn't even go down the hallway to investigate the new arrival for several days. We had to entice him. He did finally get up the confidence to investigate on his own. There was a little hissing, spitting and yowling, but no attacks and it didn't last very long.
After about three days of him investigating outside of the bedroom door, there isn't even any hissing.
I have let my girl investigate the main bedroom a few times so that she gets a little more freedom of movement, but there are no doors on the other rooms so I haven't let her investigate further than that. If the weather improves and the male goes outside for any length of time, we plan on letting my girl investigate the rest of the main floor of the house, blocking off access to the basement.
We have put my girl in a large crate 3 different days so far. The first day, she was in the living room and the male peeked around a corner, saw her and went down in the basement for the rest of the day.
The second day, we put the crate in the kitchen. The male stayed in one entrance way. My girl did the "chewing" thing--I don't know how else to describe it. I know they do it when they are nervous about another cat and are getting ready to defend themselves. There was some hissing from both cats, but eventually, the puffy tails disappeared and both laid down and seemed relaxed. The male came within four feet of the crate.
This morning, there was a little growling from my girl and meowing from both cats. The male came within three feet of the crate. My girl laid down with her back towards him. He rolled and showed his belly briefly. We gave them both catnip and treats while in each others presence.
We think this all means it's going well, but I want to make sure of that. I don't think they're ready for my girl to be out of the crate yet. I want to see how they behave when they are closer than three feet away from each other.
It sounds like they're on track. Try the feeding near each other (while she is in the crate or behind a barrier) + treats, and do a scent swap. By now, the boy should be confident and walking around with his tail in the air in his territory when not near her, so put him in her room and let her out as well, so they can investigate the spaces while getting used to each others smell and get the run of the territory. Just swap them every day. It's only fair to share the lock-up time, and it'll increase their familiarity and their sense of territory.
This way, you also make sure your girl doesn't get too bored out of her skull and ready to take out that pent up energy on someone else. For that matter, if you can both engage them in like 10 minutes of play with a fishing rod toy, that too will already go a long way to releasing that energy, building their confidence in that house (so none of them will act like prey when they do get to meet without any restrictions).
The introduction process can take a while, depending on the cats involved, but with cats that have no previous antipathy, and no significant other behavioural problems, who have been socialised to some extent, I find that it usually takes about a week, if done properly. However, they do also have the actual adjustment of the territory to add on to that, so that may have added some extra days onto it all.
Just remember to go at their pace - and don't be afraid to go back a step if things seem to be escalating or even stagnating. Ideally, you want to see a tail up in the air from both of them, before you take the next step in the process.
So - new territory, explore , explore, explore, confident walking around and tail-up: check. New cat in the house but food near her: hesitant, hissing, defensive, but food, eating, keeping an eye, but food, ohhh food, who cares about the other cat, ohh food and other cat: tail up, check! in room of other cat, new territory+ new smell, investigate, explore, then confidently resting, and walking about with tail up, check!, and so on.
And keep adding all kinds of positive affirmation things when near each other - catnip (but make sure they're not too close to each other during this so they lash out at each other!), food, treats, play, petting, the works! And if you're willing to throw money at it, a Feliway vaporiser would be like a cherry on top (but not vital).
Good luck to ya
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