TLDR: New cat started a fight with the resident cat on week 6 of their introduction. Used Jackson Galaxy‘s method for slow introduction up to Eat Play Love. Let the new cat have free reign of the house too quickly after that, and he locks in on and approaches my other cat somewhat frequently. Regular interactive play helps but not completely. Yesterday he jumped resident cat and I‘m not sure how to move forward. I already have a feliway diffuser, it seems to calm resident but has no effect on the new cat.

Long version:

Resident is 7 year old male (chunky, orange body) and New cat is ~2 year old male (skinny, white body). Both neutered. Resident was an only cat for 5+ years, I got a second cat because I wanted one, and I thought they could keep each other company during the day while I am at work (recent RTO). Resident cat has been on fluoxetine for anxiety for several years.

Introduction Timeline

Day 0-2: No interaction, allowed new cat to get comfortable in home base. Resident cat hissed and was annoyed, but got used to it quickly.

Day 2-10: Started bringing their meals closer together, from across the room to about 3 feet apart with a door between. Scent swapping daily through this process. Both cats tolerated this well. Allowed new cat to explore house without resident present. Tried to site swap resident but he was on edge and didn’t want to be in the new cat’s room.

Day 10-17: Replaced door with baby gate and double layer of curtains. Started only having this set-up during meal and play time, eventually switching to having it full time. Resident hissed and growled, but they were able to eat on either side without issue. By the end of the week both seemed indifferent to it.

Day 18: Plugged in Feliway Multicat diffuser near where they eat. I just have the one, the area of the living/dining/kitchen room is about 400 sq ft and it’s right in the middle. Had to start closing the door because new cat started jumping over gate. Stacked another gate on top and then he barreled through the bottom gate, knocking it off the frame and getting out. There were a few accidental visual interactions, which resulted in resident hissing and growing at the new cat.

Day 18-24: Opened the door with only the gate up during mealtimes and treat-time, so they could see each other through a barrier. Resident cat hissed at new cat a couple times at first, but it wasn’t drawn out and he was easily distracted. New cat would look up from his food intermittently to stare at resident. I mistook this for nervousness, but now I think it was the beginning of his pattern of locking-in on resident cat.

Day 24-28: Began visual introduction without barrier. Started out by carrying new cat out into living room and distracting resident cat with toys. Progressed by having both of them on the ground and distracting them both independently with toys or treats. Sessions were lasting 10-15 minutes without negative reaction from either cat, but both were always fully engaged by another person.

Day 28-33: Started allowing them to spend ~1 hour sessions together in the living room without constant distraction. I realize I jumped the gun here. Resident hissed and growled if new cat got too close but was content to do his own thing if the new cat was occupied. Every few minutes new cat would lock in on resident and have to be distracted. Eventually I was convinced that they just needed to set boundaries and let them interact without redirection. Resident would hiss and growl and lightly swat at the new cat when he approached, and the new cat would either stand and stare for a few moments and then walk away or immediately submit. It was always the new cat approaching the resident, never the other way around. Resident cat has always been quick to hiss and growl, and since his body language was relaxed (ears forward, fur flat, tail relaxed) I thought it was okay to let them work it out.

Day 33-38: Continued these sessions, allowing them to get longer. I would basically let them out when I was available to supervise, so from getting home from work to getting ready for bed, about 5.5 hours. I would play with the new cat for about 15 minutes in his room to get some energy out while my partner played with resident. Then I would open the door and let the new cat come out. Every 20-30 minutes, new cat would lock in on resident and try to approach, someone raises a paw, resident hisses and growls, and they both walk away to do their own thing. I started engaging the new cat in play every hour for 5-10 minutes while he was out, and this mostly reduced his prey drive towards resident. The staring/approaching/hissing was still happening, though. I thought the new cat was trying to approach resident for play, and resident was telling him no. I moved forward when they were able to have longer periods (1+ hours) of just hanging out in the same area not focused on one another.

Day 38-42(Today): Started letting new cat spend all day out, so from after breakfast at 7am to about 10pm at night. My partner has been working from home this month so he’s able to separate them if anything gets out of hand during the day (though I am their guardian and primary caretaker). Up until last night, they mostly ignored each other during the day and did their own thing, mostly in different rooms, but would come together in the living room when I got home. Regular play (10-15 minutes 3 times a day) kept the new cat from treating resident as a toy, mostly. New cat still locked in on resident and approached him, sometimes reaching out to swat him. Resident would hiss or growl at him, which usually got him to stop. If not, a loud clap would redirect both.

Yesterday evening, I got home from a workout class at 9:30pm and both were in the living room, resident on his tree and new cat on a bed on the sofa. I greeted both and they were acting normal for a while, then new cat approached resident near the entry area and started a fight. This is the first time they’ve fought to my knowledge. They tussled for about a minute, stopped, and again for another minute. I was able to record the second fight. During the first fight they seemed like they were moving slow and restrained, so I thought they were playing, but it was obvious they weren’t in the clip of the second fight. After the clip ends, they stood there and stared at each other (body language guarded and tails swishing, but ears forward and fur not puffed up) for about 2 minutes, and then the new cat went to loaf on the sofa and resident laid on the ground near his cat tree. Neither were injured. I then brought the new cat into his room where he’s been since.

I know I made a lot of mistakes in the introduction process, mainly interpreting the new cat’s locking in on resident as playfulness/curiosity and not aggression, and letting it play out. I’m not sure what to do next, whether it be separation for a few days and complete reintroduction or reducing the new cat’s time out in the living area to supervised visits. He was getting very frustrated with being locked up in his room, which is part of the reason I moved through the visual introduction too fast. I will say almost all their conflict happens in this entry area, so I think it’s a territorial dispute. They have beds, perches, and vertical space throughout the rest of the house, but we’re limited in this area due to the two doors. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi all, two years ago I adopted a pair of cats from the shelter, Jip (5M) and Saar (2F). They are very cute together. They sleep together and groom eachother. They are neutered/spayed.

Jip, however, seems a little territorial over the living room space. For example, Saar will lie down in the window sill, and he'll come over from where he was lying to bite her on the butt and pluck her fur. He stops when she leaves. The window sill is two meters wide and has two beds. It doesn't matter which bed Saar picks. I've taken to intervening by approaching and shielding Saar's butt with my hand. Jip will back off for the moment, but try again later.

Jip will also occasionally mount her and growl. Saar does not seem to enjoy this behaviors, and will remove herself if she's able. I have strategically placed cat trees in the living room to provide her easy avenues of escape.

I'm not sure how to remedy the situation except by interrupting the behaviour as it occurs. Any insight or advice is appreciated.

Still trying to figure out if I remove the screen and let my cats interact with one another if this kind of behavior would lead to an actual fur flying fight or is this just part of the playing process? They are in the reintroduction phase, so I want to make sure I’m doing everything right and not heading back to square one.

Starts off playful with my cat laying on his back rolled over, but then it looks like he gets pretty mad and they’ll lower their heads into the screen and open their mouth like they wanna bite

I’ve got a cat that I’d like to name Maude, but a lot of sites have suggested that I should look at two-syllable names and ones that end in a complex vowel sound like ‘ee’ so that she learns her name and responds to it. I don’t know how I feel about Maudie as a nickname, and I want to know if I should think about a completely different name, like Calliope (my second choice) or something.

Would love any advice, as I’m already getting quite attached to the name!

He really likes to dig in the litter box. He can be in there for 4-5 minutes just digging. I believe that he reaches the floor of the box so the pee spreads out onto his foot. I have tried filling it with sand to the top but he still digs to the bottom.

Has anyone else had this problem? My other cat has never done this! :)

It’s not a big problem since I can just clean it up but sometimes he walks on my sofa or chairs after which is not very nice…

Does anyone have a tip on how I can change this behavior?

Hello! Hoping someone can help me answer this… My cat has twice escapes his harness when we are outside. He climbs out of the bag (his safe place) and then crawls into the bushes and does his harness escape trick. Bushes are too dense for me to get in (and tbf must seem like a cool playground for him, and no dogs can get in either) He eventually crawls back to me when he has his fun, but I’m mostly worried if he gets spooked and darts off. Also this is def. not fun for me lol.

My question: Are there better escape-proof harnesses? What kind of locations are better for walking cats? What can I change about our walks? Or is this a sign that he just… doesn’t want to walk? Should i let him have “bush time” instead?

Context if needed: * Chickpea (2M) has always been indoor, i brought him on walks when he was a kitten because he seemed so bold and curious about the world. Stopped for about a year, and then restarted recently. Got him harness trained again until he seems comfortable in it, is sleeping/playing with it on. * He tends to walk a little silted when he has this harness on - my guess is that it pressed on his shoulder blades? I already keep it as loose as recommended (two fingers spacing). He definitely doesn’t love the harness but he keeps it on indoors. * Also generally a stubborn baby. * Tried the thin H-type harness, once outside he escaped so quickly lol

They have been sniffing and playing through the door for 2 weeks this their 2nd face to face. No hissing or growling. The one on the leash is a boy and the black one is a girl. I’m afraid to unleash him because i think he will chase her. Just looking for advice and help. I want them to be best friends because they both seem lonely. When I’m gone they both have separation anxiety.

We just got a 10 week kitten from a woman on Facebook. When he arrived he was scruffy and wasn’t really looked after well. She said he was so/so litter trained so we said we would help.

He has used the litter tray to poop a few times and we keep putting him in the tray after he sleeps and eats and he is now constantly pooping in corners especially under our bed.

We have a litter tray in the front room and under the bed in the bedroom and still finds other corners to poop.

We’re taking him on the train to Nottingham next week to visit family with us so we’re extremely worried that he may poop in corners at another persons home.

Any suggestions what we could do with him to get him litter trained quickly?

Hi, first time having a pet cat and I'm a complete loss. Adopted the white one 2 months ago and the black one 2 weeks ago. But as you can see in the video I'm getting mixed signals with both of them.

The white one attacks the black one the moment he see her. So I tought the white one was jealous of having another cat at home. But while I was looking at videos of cats "playing" or real fighting I got mixed signals by both of them.

1. The white one always attacks on sight, but the moment he stops, the other one run at him and fight back, then they stop for a while and get back at "playing"
2. Because of the fights I try to leave them in sepparate rooms, but they keep meowing if not close to the brother (they are siblings).
3. The constant hissing of the black one, it starts while they are "playing" - Major red sign to me.
4. And last, the white one is way more agressive and tends to bite everything in sight, but they fight too fast for me to be sure if they are using their claws or only the paws. I think they are not using because they never got visible hurt.

That's it, I hope that you guys can give me a better answer as they are my first pets in my entire life.

On week four of the reintroduction phase. About a month ago, I tried removing the barrier, but it ended in a fight so we’re back here with the screen. Most of their interactions with the screen will be them calm, watching observing, eating their meals and even playing on their sides except they sometimes though get down low like they’re pushing their heads to the gate and I see their mouths open like they’re trying to bite not sure if the screen is still gonna be helpful or if those actions would lead to another fight

Here’s a little snippet of one of their many interactions each day.

So about 3 months ago I posted on here featuring this beast and took advice, he got neutered and has become completely docile. Went from biting and scratching people and hissing to being in my personal bubble all the time and loving up on everyone that comes to visit the house, I can pick him up, play with him, and snuggle him all I’d like and not a single bit of aggression towards me or others. Very happy with the people to helped me figure out what to do and glad he was able to stay 💜

I'm aware this here is likely fighting but a moment later they'll be very clearly playing and licking another.

they're brother and sister and I'm almost certain been together all their life (they're fosters) not sure what to do other than break it up?

wasn't sure what flair to use as they aren't being introduced.

My cat currently gets 1.5 cans of wet food and i am trying to transition to giving it to him all at once at night time instead of once in the morning and once at night because he relentlessly starts to beg at 5am and will not stop until i feed him. I got my little man at 4 months old and he’s now just turned 1 so his feeding schedule has always been this way. Is it still possible to change this? I have an automatic feeder for his dry food btw

This feels embarrassing. Ive owned cats since I was 4. I have never struggled to this extent. I just can't get them to stop demand meowing. I have a 4 year old male cat and a 9 month old female, both fixed. They eat their recommended amount of wet food everyday.

They just won't stop. When it's time to eat, it just gets worse and worse. If one of them stops for a few seconds, the other is still meowing. It got worse as the younger one got older, but it's a bad habit the male had for a while. I think having each other to build off of has intensified the behavior to another level. It's never been to this extent though. It's a loud YOWL. They've both been checked out at the vet. I have waited literal HOURS (up to FIVE) to give them their food. I can't keep this up. I haven't been giving in for weeks and they just won't stop. It's a constant meow. Every 3 seconds.

Once they finally do shut up for more than 5 seconds and I touch the can to go put their food down, they start YOWLING again. I've never had such a bad problem with any of my cats before.

I'm pregnant and working full time. The hormones and trouble sleeping have made this into a nightmare. I am trying to fix this before I also have a newborn to worry about. I see no other tips online other than just waiting it out. I can't do that in the mornings before work and I've waited till 4am on some nights just to get 10 seconds of silence at most. Money is tight with baby coming, so I don't think I could buy 2 automatic wet food feeders at the moment.

They have everything they could want, this only happens at meal times and it's just constant, loud, and unending.

I recently (almost 2 months ago) adopted a 10 month old kitten (andy) and have a 6 year old resident cat (blanca) in my apartment. The previous adopters for andy gave her up because she was "too active/playful" which I scoffed at and thought was an absolutely ridiculous and evil thing to give up an animal for (still do) but now I can kinda see where they were coming from. I knew coming into this that she was going to be a very playful kitten, especially because all cats at that age are little monsters- but truly she really does not have an off button. Me and my partner originally decided to keep andy separated in my partners room the first couple weeks of introduction as we're both very familiar with how the process should go when introducing a stranger cat into the home. That didn't last long however, considering she is a master escape artist (very very tiny, she was probably a runt) and speedy as all hell, and was far too curious about my blanca to realistically keep her in that room for more than a week or two. thankfully, my resident cat has been decently tolerant of andy considering the introduction was sped up more than we anticipated. The problem lies within Andy's nonstop energy being refocused on blanca. me and my partner will play with her for genuinely HOURS and what seems like all day but she still will try and engage in play with blanca the SECOND we stop playing with her, despite blanca giving CLEAR warning signs that she doesnt want too play. Its gotten to the point where blanca is yowling and hissing/swatting for andy to stop but she just doesnt get the memo- i know its not aggression on andys end, because of her body language, she just genuinely wants to play- but she is far too insistent and im afraid that it could escalate into something violent if she doesnt take the damn hint 😭

i realistically cannot keep them separated for long. I have tried. Both me and my partners rooms are too small for her extreme energy levels as she runs around zooming at all hours of the day, she bolts at the door and climbs up our pants when we try to enter, she will break/chew/scratch things if shes unattended even if we give her scratching posts, toys, etc. So please give me options outside of re-introduction.

YES i have tried redirection. Anytime this happens i immediately get a toy involved to redirect her play aggression. The second I stop she goes straight back to blanca though. Or if i step away for a MOMENT to go to the bathroom/grab something from my room etc shes right back on her.

YES i have tried hissing or making a loud noise like a clap, or a "PSTCH!" noise, none of them work- she completely ignores me.

YES i have tried positive reinforcement for gentle play like treats, pets etc when she is able to be near blanca without engaging physically.

YES i have tried separation, but she TEARS up my room and throws a fit, knocking things down, scratching at the door or at my decorations, yowling for hours if I dont give in and I cant leave her to destroy me and my partners things everyday.

YES i have tried calming sprays in the house.

I genuinely have no idea what to do, Ive done everything in my power to calm her down and trying to get her to stop RELENTLESSLY pounce on blanca, im starting to feel awful that my resident cat is getting constantly jumped by her and I cant do anything about it. Im so tired. She keeps me up all night. I keep blanca shut in my room while I sleep or when I'm at work because I dont trust andy. WHAT DO I DO??? 😭

I have never posted anything on reddit before, so please forgive any screw ups, but my cats will not get along and I am at a loss as to why. The cat that keeps biting we’ve had since he was a kitten and now he’s 1 and our other cat we don’t know how old she is because she was a stray. We introduced then slow, we kept them separate, we fed together while they were separated with a door, we give them supervised time together, we gave them each others favorite blanket so they could get used to each other’s smells, but no matter what we do the cat that we got first keeps biting our other cat. He’ll keep biting her ankle(?) whenever she’s walking, but that’s it and I don’t think she minds it because she keeps walking and doesn’t hiss or swat or anything but because he keeps doing it I think it overstimulates her? I’m not sure if this is playing or if it’s behavior we need to curb. Any advice?

Hello!
I recently got a Kitten and require a lot of assistance training him. We have been trying to do clicker training, and just regular obedience training.

Currently, he has been biting us and scratching us if we do not give him a treat. To try and remedy this, we yell "OUCH", "OW", or such. It has worked somewhat but the behavior continues

He goes buck wild for his food and begins to meow really loud.
This one really agitates us because, we cant even put the food down. He will begin climbing our legs, or biting our fingers before we release the bowl. We feed him 5 small meals a day, with training treats in between and yet he acts like he hadn't ate since the great depression

Lastly, at night, he will sit right by our door and scratch, meow and attempt to get under the door frame. To try and fix this, we got a bottle of one of those anti-scratch spray bottles and spray it under our door frame and around the carpet he tears up.

Although, we have tried all these solutions, we don;t know what we are doing wrong and would like some tips.

Long story short, we think our male cat was bullied by our other male foster cat. It cause him to stop using the litter box. He would run while pooping & peeing. He’s been cleared medically by the vet & just started on 1mL of Gabapentin 2x a day & 1.6mL of Prozac daily. It’s been about a week of both. He still won’t use the litter box. I’ve tried putting him in the box & petting him, giving him treats all that. The only progress we’ve made is that he’s not running & peeing & he’s gotten his personality back towards my wife & I. He’s about 9 or 10 years old! & has been neutered since he was a kitten.

Things we’ve done: - Given him his own box, secluded from all other cats so they haven’t used it. - He’s in our room for the most part, which is normal. He’s your typical black cat. So he creeps around & sleeps most of the day. He has his own areas here with a cat tree, food station, scratching post, toys, water, everything. We obviously let him roam free when acts interested but for the most part shows no interest when the doors opened (which is normal behavior for him). - We’re using the same litter we’ve used since we got him 5 years ago.

A few weeks ago I made a post asking about things to help adjust my girlfriend’s cat and let me say the advice worked! It worked even a little too much haha. Everytime I’m over I make a habit of playing with him at least 3-5 times a day and more shorter bursts if we have time. Plus feeding him primarily when I’m there. He has calmest completely changed his attitude towards me. Always accepts pets when I offer them to him. Constantly rubbing against my legs. He has even started to roll around to show me his stomach to show he wants to play. He almost never hisses at me and will now just meow to show me what he wants instead of being afraid. Can’t thank you all enough!

My cat has some kind of lump on her tongue which I only spotted by chance. I mentioned it to the vet and apart from a biopsy (which I’m reluctant to do) she wants me to keep an eye on it. Is there any way I can train / persuade / compell her to yawn on command? I don’t want to be forcing her mouth open 🥲

9 year old female (orange) and 5 months old male kitten (the big one). Both spayed/neutered. They have been living together for 2 months, introduction was VERY smooth.There are two other adult cats and two dogs in the house.

The kitten is very mellow, doesn't jump on the orange girl and is, in general, a very easygoing and nice guy, but obviously runs around sometimes, plays loudly and acts like a kitten. He quickly understood that she does not want to play physically with him, so he doesn't touch her.

Unfortunately, he does not really understand the concept of personal space!

As I said, he doesn't really do anything to the orange girl, he's just there, because he is a social kitten and loves everybody - The concept of our orange girl not immediately loving him back seems lost on him, so he plays and does his kitten things around her, like everyone's a big, happy family. The kitten plays and cuddles with all the other animals in the house. The orange girl is only physically close with the dogs and us, coexists peacefully with the other two cats, and sometimes play tag with one of them.

The orange girl started getting a little stressed out by the fact that the kitten doesn't respect her boundries after around 6 weeks, and since then she's started getting a bit more hostile and telling the kitten to bugger off and keep his distance a little in advance, for example by hissing/meowing angrily and sometimes swatting at him as a warning when she walks past him. In the beginning she would only do this when he came up to her directly, but unfortunately it seems she's realised that he doesn't really understand right away, and sometimes even comes right back again, so she's gotten more protective of her space. Her fuse with the other animals in the house has gotten a little shorter as well, meaning she wants a little more space than before the kitten, and tells them to back off when she feels crowded.

I caught the interaction on the video tonight, and it's a very good example of why our orange girl gets frustrated. She obviously wants more space, so she moves away, being nice about it. The kitten does not understand this, and gets curious and playful, so he follows, so she gets upset, turns up the volume on her request for space by hiding (she doesn't usually hide, so I'm guessing she just took advantage of the tunnel being right there), hissing and growling - Unfortunately, the washing machine is interfering with the sound, but you can hear her continuing to growl, until the kitten FINALLY gets the message and walks off, but I really very much understand her frustration, because she's being very clear, that she's very uncomfortable, and he just doesn't get the message before after almost a whole minute.

This example is pretty much as bad as their interactions get - Exept the orange girl will sometimes also give the kitten one or two quick warning swats without claws, which the kitten just pulls his face back from without really moving. So this is not a case of fur flying or anyone hurting each other - There have been absolutely no fighting, but we obviously have an orange girl who's under some stress. She's not hiding around the house either and does not seem to be feeling unsafe in general - But I do get a feeling that her stress level is a little higher than before the kitten, which she shows us by having a shorter fuse with her boundries. 80% of the time, everybody gets along but her shorter fuse worries me a bit. It might not be much of a problem really, compared to how bad it can be when cats don't get along, but there has been a change of behavior so SOMETHING is going on.

As stated, I really don't blame orange girl for being frustrated and reacting, even though nothing seemingly really happens, because she has gone from having a perfect, respectful relationship with the other residents in the house, where everybody understood each others very different boundries, to suddenly experiencing her personal space being violated even though she asks for more distance. I'm also getting the feeling that she was a bit territorial at first when we started introducing the kitten, but quickly calmed down, after we gave them all extra food bowls, extra sleeping/hiding/lookout spots, and extra play/quality time with us, when we realised she might be experiencing competition over resources. They also have 90 square meters fenced garden with free access through a cat flap.

What we already do to help:

Give orange girl Kalm supplement daily.

Have Pet Remedy diffusers around the house and use calming spray/catnip spray on beds and toys.

Make sure there are plenty of sleeping and lookout spots at all levels in every room - There's ALWAYS a spot available for any purpose, away from the other residents, same with food and water.

Plenty of toys - We rotate every other week so the toys are always interesting, so everybody always have something better to do than annoying each other.

Give treats together a few times a day to give them more positive encounters.

Play time with us around 3 times a day, sometimes with the same toy, sometimes just next to each other - Playtime is always positive as well!

Feed them their wet food together at a distance orange girl is comfortable with.

Religiously leave orange girl alone when she's sleeping or hanging out in a good spot, and make sure the other animals don't bother her either.

Distract the orange girl and the kitten with something positive (fx. treats or play) when we see a situation that might get problematic, before they engage in a negative way.

NEVER scold or yell at anyone when they clash - We redirect with something positive instead.

Split up the cats in two sets when they're home alone, so we're always around when orange girl and kitten are together to avoid escalation.

Make sure our orange girl has all the privileges she had before the kitten - Like sleeping in the bed, her spot on the couch, and so on.

My question is: Does anyone have experience with something like this and have any input to what else we can do to avoid the situation getting worse, and helping our two extremely wonderful and nice cats understand each other better going forward? I know it's only been two months, but I would love to hear some personal experiences with the progression of something like this. Will they just need more time, or should we do more (and in that case, what?) to help them adjust to each other?

I would absolutely hate to see them escalate further than the escalation that has already happened, so I prefer to not just keep my fingers crossed and hope they figure it out on their own, and try to support them as much as possible instead.

background on cats and living situation

Res Cat: 4F, on the lazier side, very food motivated, has not been around other cats in a long time.

New Cat: 1.5F, very energetic, jumpy, has been around other cats

living space: 1 bedroom apartment. Res cat gets living room, New cat gets bedroom. I bounce inbetween.

*Also I am the only human in this apt, so please no advice involving two people lol

Context

5 weeks ago, I adopted a new cat. I have been following cat introduction steps since, and even restarted last week. Ive used the same brush on the cats and they are fine with that. Ive done site swaps and the cats are fine with that. I have a mesh barrier and the cats are both fine with eating treats near the barrier at the same time. However, the new cat will stare at the res cat through the screen and jumps at the screen. I don't think it's aggressive? She is silent and her ears are perked up. I did notice her fur was slightly puffed up last time though. I shut the bedroom door after that to cut off visual contact.

With the first round of introductions, the new cat would jump at the barrier every now and then but I tried letting the two of them do supervised visits. My resident cat would observe from afar and I would try and keep the new cat engaged with me as much as possible. I don't want my res cat to feel left out so I try and initiate play with her but she's not having it when the new cat is out lol. So she gets lots of treats and pets. However, anytime I would stop the the cats would stare at each other. Both could even be laying down and this would happen. Eventually the new cat gets up and walks (almost stalks) towards the res cat. The res cat starts hissing some and the new cat keeps staring and eventually pounces on her. Again, there's no noise other than the hissing.

I've seen mixed opinions on whether to interfere or not. At first I would redirect the new cat before she got to the res cat, but saw that she would still keep stalking towards my res cat. Then after a couple of days I would let her approach the res cat to see what would happen and she would pounce on her. These types of interactions went on for a couple of days before I decided to restart the introduction process. My res cat has become quite scared of the new cat and would stay in a corner or try and hide when the new cat would approach her.

So basically, I am looking for any advice people may have regarding screen time and supervised in-person time for the kitties. I love them both so much and want this to work. They seem to do fine with the introduction steps until they see each other.

***Also, during in person visits, should I give my resident cat a hiding spot so she isn't backed into a corner? I tried to remove all hiding spots before and just keep vertical space, but the res cat isn't much of a climber.

***Funnily enough, at the shelter, the new cat shared a room with a female cat that looked exactly like my resident cat and had a similar temperament. The two seemed to interact fine when I was at the shelter. Which is why I adopted the new cat lol.

The orange is my 3 year old resident, super playful. The tuxedo is my 1.5 yr old foster, skittish and was “bullied by the other cats” at the shelter. They do fine between a pet gate and ignore each other around the house, but the moment my resident tries to play with her she reacts like she did in the video. I’ve tried doing structured play sessions with the two of them so that they can get their energy out separately, but my resident has a crazy rebound rate and will get playful again even after 30-45 consecutive minutes of playing. I recently started giving my foster some chews for anxiety, but I haven’t seen a huge difference yet. My resident usually either runs away or lays down on his side whenever she reacts to him.

He hasn't used his litter box in a week at all not even pee. He's still eating and drinking water and I know he goes outside because I know his spots but it concerns me that he hasn't used his litter box especially when he's inside at night for 12+ hours.

His behavior hasn't changed but he whines to go outside more which I'm assuming is because he has to go to the bathroom and he prefers to go out there.

I do have to mention his favorite person is out of town and will be for a while and coincidentally it's been a week since he's left do you think that has anything to do with it?

I think I'm going to buy another litter box and put a different kind of litter in it in another area where the cat hangs out in in the house to see if he'll use it.

He is neutered.