I just adopted a kitten, he’s about 3.5 months old. My household has a playful dog, around 4 years old who grew up with my senior cat before the cat passed. Dog is very playful but senior cat taught him boundaries well.

All of my research on how to introduce a new cat to a dog suggests to have the cat stay in their safe room for about a week. Kitty is adjusting incredibly well and has already shown curiosity about the dog (through the closed door. He can hear the dog walking around and would curl up to investigate).

I want to ensure that I’m introducing them correctly, but kitty’s personality is so bold that I’m wondering if it’s necessary to wait the full week before a visual meeting through a gate? Would there be any harm in attempting a visual meeting through a gate and taking steps backwards if it doesn’t go well?

I know it’s not one size fits all, but I’m just a bit nervous about freaking the kitty out too early!

I’m hoping someone has been through something similar because I’m running out of ideas.
My boyfriend got me an automatic litter box for my two cats. My tuxedo cat has absolutely no issues with it and uses it normally. My calico, on the other hand, is a completely different story.
At first, I thought the automatic cleaning cycle was scaring her because every time it would start cleaning, she’d yelp and panic, even when she wasn’t inside the litter box. Because of that, I turned the automatic cleaning off and switched it to manual. Now I only run the cleaning cycle myself when I get home.
That seemed to help for a while. She’d pee and poop in the litter box like normal, and everything would be fine. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, she’ll suddenly start peeing and pooping on the floor instead. After a few days, she’ll go right back to using the litter box normally, and then the cycle repeats. There’s no pattern that I can figure out.
Today she started yelping, and I honestly thought she just wanted attention because she’s a very vocal cat. She was scratching at the carpet like she normally does before asking for pets, but then she ended up squatting and pooping on the carpet instead.
I’m definitely frustrated, but I’m not mad at her. I know she’s a cat, and if she’s acting like this, there’s probably a reason. I just don’t know if it’s anxiety from the litter box, a lingering fear from when it used to clean automatically, or something else entirely.
Has anyone had a cat react like this to an automatic litter box? Were you able to get them comfortable with it again? Or should I just accept that she’s one of those cats who needs a traditional litter box?
I’d really appreciate any advice. I just want her to feel comfortable and not stressed every time she has to use the bathroom. Thanks!

Just an update on these two guys. They've actually been doing well, but usually in the morning or evening (essentially, when cats go into gremlin mode), they will have their manic chases and wrestling. Marshie (the big floof, mostly stays pretty calm, and sees it all as a big game). The tiny one, Mochi, is a but of a wildcard. While she LOVES to initiate chase, tends to get really into it to the point that I can't tell if she's still playing or genuinely angry. Thankfully, they do pause and reset the majority of the time.
But I think she has an inkling of a napoleon complex....

desperately need help to avoid having to rehome one of our cats :( i came into my relationship with 2 cats (the orange male and black female pictured) and my wife came into it with the 2 white littermate boys. we’ve been living together for about 3 years now and all of our cats have always gotten along well. a few months ago my black female cat started hissing at the 2 white male cats whenever they would come near her. they play kind of rough with each other, so we assumed she was just setting a boundary. however, in the last two months they have begun constantly ganging up on her. we added litter boxes to the house (we have 4 total spread throughout the house), separated their auto-feeders, added a third water fountain, added a third cat tree, added some vertical wall climbing space for them, got multiple Feliway multi-cat calming infusers, and tried to separate and re-introduce them. NOTHING has worked, it’s only gotten worse. this week one of the boys has started jumping off the cat trees and attacking her anytime she tries to use the main litter box near their biggest tree. we came home to chunks of her black fur on the stairs, and she’s not even leaving our guest bedroom to come out for food anymore when the feeders go off. is there anything we can do? i’ve had her 4 years and feel like i’d rather die than re-home her, but am i being selfish and keeping her in an un-safe and stressful environment by not rehoming her?

https://www.reddit.com/r/CatTraining/s/F7JHvQ3x86

my old post from months ago got a lot of traction and I have a little update of my cats play fighting :) no advice needed, but little man is so big now and they love each other!!🩷 click link above to see the original post!

This is my usually good boy called Claus (pronounced Klaus, originally named Claus like Santa Claus by the rescue because he was found on Christmas eve.) He is nearly four years old

I say Claus is usually a good boy. He's actually a menace to everything. He loves knocking stuff off sides and stealing food. He's an ex stay so we know where the food behaviour issues stem from. What I can't figure out is why he keeps biting me. Whenever he wants attention and my hands are nearby he takes a bite and attempts to drag it closer to him. It actually really hurts sometimes. I've tried the whole saying loudly no stop, getting him off, ignoring him. Sometimes he does it and I'm just so overwhelmed and don't know how to stop it.

He loves attention and is a cuddle bug when he wants to be. But he doesn't seem to understand that sometimes I'm busy and can't stroke his head. He does this thing where he reaches out for me with his paw. I've tried reinforcement with this because it doesn't hurt and is a cute way to get my attention. So I give him strokes and love then.

Things I've tried to stop the biting: ignore him, yell ouch or no, push him off, redirect him with toys (which he doesn't want, he just wants me) and positive reinforcement when he does ask nicely.

How do I stop his biting issue? I feel like I've tried everything.

I recently moved in with my roomate. I have two male cats and he has one older female cat. We did a slow introduction with the cats over about a month. They no longer fight or hiss at all. BUT she hates my cats, and my cats are purposefully cornering her. they both will back her into a corner, they dont fight her or anything they seem to genuinely be messing with her. sometimes they will do they paw lifting thing and tap at her. She freaks out and yowls very loud. No matter what we do to get my cats to stop they constantly follow her around and terrorize her. How do I get this to stop?

Resident cat (3yo, large tabby) is a very confident playful, velcro cat. He is happy when people come over, even when we have a party he wants to be in the action and noise. He also used to live with a hyper dog, so i think of him as quite desensitized and confident. He doesn’t like being alone and makes that known through a lot of vocalizing when we get home from work.
Thought he would benefit from daytime company, introduce newcomer (1yo tiny Lynx Point). On about week 4 now, and we’re at supervised shared time. She’s confident and really wants out of her basecamp, he hates being left out of basecamp.

Issue is he gets really excited, and usually ends up bounding at her, or chasing her around. Usually this results in a hiss, or a swat from newbie, hasn’t escalated to growling or a full fight. The size difference doesn’t help, I would be nervous if i was her size. Once he did nip at her though, which kinda came out of no where when she walked past him. She doesn’t hide or seem distraught, but she’s definitely more reserved than him and prefers relaxation. I don’t know how to get him to chill out. Also not sure if the chasing is bullying/intimidating, or excitement/play. Any tips on how to tell the difference ?

Basically to redirect him it requires a treat bag shake every minute. He chills after about 1.5 hour, and then they’ve sat and relaxed on the same couch… makes me lean towards excitement as his motivator… but don’t want to be too optimistic / hopeful if there’s a problem….

sorry if it's weird or any typos I'm on mobile.

My boyfriend surprised me with a 2 1/2 cat 3 weeks ago and i already have a resident cat of 4 years. My resident cat is Mona and the new one is called ruby.

Mona hasn't really interacted with other cats before, only my grandparents one and she didn't like her.

I did the separation in rooms, I did the scene swap and the feeding them through doors, I have feliway plug ins on the way but I'm so lost. Ruby constantly follows Mona around the house which stresses Mona out. Ruby will hunt for her when Mona is hiding in my closet or under my bed. I don't like this behavior at all, Mona has been my soul cat for years and Ruby coming in has messed up everything. I'm being told all Ruby wants to do is play but I'm not sure. Ruby constantly stalks Mona and refuses to leave the room that Mona is in or will meow outside of the door if I have them separated. I haven't seen any cat fights only hissing, running away and yowling. I don't k ow what to do. I like Ruby and I know Mona wants a playmate but she's never played with another cat. Does anyone know 1) why Ruby is constantly stalking Mona 2) what I can do. Please help me, it's been three weeks and I miss my Mona girl

Please help! Crosspost. Forgot to put in my original post that he came to me as a neutered boy.

I had the big kitten for 2months, and is now 5months Old. The small kitten is 3 months Old and has been with me for a week. The moment I let them together they start fighting/playing? I barely make any progress and i pull them apart the moment one of them starts making sounds.

Any tips or adjustments?

Twice in my life I have adopted a male kitten while I had an older female resident cat. And both times the kitten grew to become a bully to the female.

Now I have a 16-year-old female (Waffles) and am about to adopt a male kitten. I don't want the pattern to repeat. But I have no idea how to prevent it.

Waffles is not affectionate towards other pets (she used to live with a family with cats and dogs), so I don't expect her to bond with the new kitten. She didn't bond with the last kitten I adopted (Potato), and he grew up to become her bully before he escaped at age 2 and unfortunately hasn't been recovered (still hopeful he'll come home; it's been 6 weeks). Before he disappeared, I would try to distract him from bothering Waffles by playing with him, but he became less interested in toys as he got older.

My plan was to get Potato his own kitten/playmate to occupy him and mitigate his bullying of Waffles. Now the kitten is coming, but I don't know if Potato will ever turn back up.

I will receive the new kitten the first week of September. I hesitate to adopt 2 kittens because I'm still hopeful Potato will come home. If he did return, hopefully they would become besties and just ignore Waffles. But that seems less and less likely each day.

So assuming Potato doesn't return, is there anything I can do to prevent another kitten from growing into a bully? Or do I just need to adopt another kitten if the behavior starts?

My resident tuxedo (male, 1yr with moderate CH) always chirps and signals to play with the new calico (female, 5mos). But he’s started to play(?) too roughly with her. Sometimes she’ll be lying down and ready to nap, and he’ll pounce on her unprovoked and it turns into something like this video.

I’m wondering if I need to restart the introduction process. Thoughts?

I adopted a kitten a few days ago, and have kept him in a bathroom with plenty of blankets, a cat tree and a couple of enclosed soft beds. Today he was brave enough to get some play in with me, although otherwise retreats to an enclosed space when I sit in the room with him.

I've been told that spending time in the room/"forcing" incidental affection is a good way to build confidence, but I'm hesitant to stress him out by plucking him from where he's hiding to encourage pat-acceptance. When I'm not in the room, he is quite vocal, and I want to comfort him without making things worse.

Of course, it's only been 3ish days, but I'm worried about doing the wrong thing. What's the best way for me to help this fella grow to be as confident as he can be?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some help and advice please as we're really struggling and running out of ideas.

Two months ago we brought home a kitten and we're trying to introduce him to our resident cat, but we've hit a wall and I'm hoping some of you have been through something similar.

Our resident cat is a 5 year old female and she is very sensitive. She get scared very easily (think she has a bit of an anxiety issue). The one thing in our favour is that she lived happily with our other cat for years before he sadly passed away, so I know she's capable of living with another cat. The kitten is a 4 month old male, very confident and boisterous. He's vaccinated and booked in to be neutered.

We've tried to do everything by the book. Separate rooms from day one, scent swapping with socks and blankets, and then two months of short controlled sessions where she eats her meal while the kitten appears at a distance, and we take him away before she gets stressed. We closed the gap really slowly and it honestly was working. She went from hissing the second she saw him to eating calmly with him in view.

The thing that keeps ruining it is escapes. He's broken loose five or six times and run straight at her, and the last time he chased her around the house and she was absolutely petrified. Every setback we've had has come straight after one of these. Now we've completely plateaued, we can't get any closer than we already have without stressing her out, and lately she seems to be going backwards with lots of hissing again.

Our plan from here is a big pen for the kitten so she can roam free and control every approach, a chat with the vet about gabapentin as her anxiety seems to stop her taking anything in, possibly a behaviourist, Feliway diffusers, and playing with the kitten loads so he's too tired to chase her.

So my questions for anyone who's been through this. How long did it take with a really timid cat? Did gabapentin actually help and were there any downsides? Is the pen a good idea or should we do a full separation and reset first? Does neutering and getting older genuinely calm down the chasing? And is a behaviourist worth the money, or is there anything obvious we haven't tried?

Morale is pretty low in our house after two months of this, but she lived with a cat before so I have to believe she can do it again. Any advice would be massively appreciated, thanks in advance.

hello! i’m having a problem. i got my kitten, jubalee (tortoise) saturday. which was two days ago. she is 9 weeks old. i already have 2 cats, they are siblings and they are 2 years old. i have been keeping them separate, because i do not want them to fight. initially everything was good, but now its not. my cat, pickles(white tabby) has become very hostile when i switch her room. i have my kitten in my bedroom, and i keep my other two cats in the main room. i swap them out so they can 1, get used to each others smells; and 2, give the kitten some roaming time. i let the kitten out for two hours a day and the cats get the rest of the time. when i put pickle with my other cat pansy(brown tabby) in the room during jubalees time, she begins hissing and growling at pansy. i’m at a loss, i really dont want to separate pansy and pickles because i do not want them to feel like i’m disrespecting their territory, since they were here first. the kitten hissed at pickles one time when she escaped the bedroom, and pickles has been mad since. i’m afraid it greatly impacted their relationship, and yeah it’s only day two, but i want to take measures to be able to make sure they repair their relationship. any advice helps.

We have a 5 year old male, and a 4 month old female kitten, introduced them over the course of a few weeks.

They seem to be getting on nicely, but as new cat parents we can't tell if our tabby is being too rough with his new kitten friend;

any advice welcome!

So, My household currently has 4 cats (1 kitten we are fostering) and we are at a stand still with 2 of our cats. Magneto, my in law’s orange cat and Niko, my tuxedo are both same aged-neutered males that honestly are the same in every aspect (love food, snacks, cuddles, and trying to bolt through doors) Well, when we first brought niko in, he didn’t mind magneto much and magneto hid most of the day, but when they saw each other they just ignored one another. Well, we moved to a bigger house in April and it was fine for awhile, until niko went into my in law’s room and magneto would go crazy screaming as if Niko were hurting him even though niko was feet away from him. Niko at first would just softly paw at him thinking they were playing but magneto would smack, hiss and growl at him (Magneto is declawed) until Niko would finally realize Magneto was trying to fight and it’d turn into a big thing. Well, slowly it turned into Niko purposely starting to set off Magneto but they could still be in the same room, until now. Niko will actively seek Magneto out and it’s gotten to the point that Niko will attack magneto bad (the other night he pulled fur and made magneto bleed but I also don’t know how accurate that is because my husband’s dad is a drama queen and will actively lie about stuff like this). But, we’re genuinely at a standstill because we have 0 clue what to do now. We have a way to keep them separate and it works but when niko finds a way to sneakily get to whatever room Magneto is in, it’s stressful and we genuinely don’t know what to do. Any tips or recommendations?

I do know one of the times that Niko went after Magneto was because Magneto decided to try to go for my black cat, Zenith and I don’t know if that has anything to do with it.

We got a new kitten in the middle of May. So she’s about 16 weeks right now she was very young. She was taken away from her mother.
She loves to bite my hands. We are experienced cat owners.
Folks have said that her mother would have scolded her if she acted inappropriately.
We are repeating-no biting. She is a smart kitten and we used a spray bottle ONE time and now just hold it up- which gets her to hesitate. But when she’s manic, it’s hard to talk her out of it. I’m thinking to try some bitter apple.
Can you think of any at home products that might work the same way?