Help needed;i have introduced 3 more kitten to my 2 cat home

[johnny1969]

Hi there. I´m new here and was hoping to quickly find some suggestions for my new situation. I have two 2 year old cats, one is very scared (of everything--i guess you would say a scaredy cat) and the other (they are sisters and both are neutered) is very jealous and is also the boss of her sister. Today i brought home three 8 week old kittens (all females from one litter). I received them at midday and have kept them alone in the bedroom the entire evening, only showing them to my two adult cats. Now my questions that i have are as follows;
1) how should i do the formal introduction of everyone to everyone ....I worry that my adult cats will be overwhelmed with three kittens running around right at the start and may hurt them
2) I have read somewhere that an adult cat will not harm a helppless kitten. Is this true, and if not would an adult cat kill/or badly imjure a kitten( especially when three new ones are running around)?
3) I live in an apartment, but the adult cats do spend alot of time in my closed in yard; should i make the introduction in the apartment or in the yard?
4) basically i guess how should i do everything correctly so that everyone gets used to each other ---and accepts each other---with as few problems as possible.
I imagine this is all different than just introducing for example one new kitten to 2 adult cats, but keep in mind these are 3 (strangers)kittens all at once in two adult cats premises. Any help that is accurate will really be appreciated. Thanks.

[jason]

please read the Feline Introductions post at the top of this forum (feline health). treat the all new cats as one when reading and you can gauge each differently if they respond differently.

dont think your cats will kill the kitten, that is not a "feline" thing...one way or the other, each is different...there might be some growling and hissing, maybe more...you need to take care of that.

i only advise to keep cats indoors.

[johnny1969]

Hi Jason, thanks for the help. I did see that post before, i just wasn´t sure if i could use it with introducing 3 kittens to 2 adult cats.
I wanted to ask what you meant by saying don´t worry about the adult cats killing the kittens; was the article i read correct when it said that adult cats will not harm helpless kittens, or did you just mean they may harm them but they won´t kill them (cause i am hoping neither happens of course)
Thanks again and i copied the feline introductions post and i will follow it and hope all goes well.

[jason]

Hi Jason, thanks for the help. I did see that post before, i just wasn´t sure if i could use it with introducing 3 kittens to 2 adult cats.

should be no problem, well...since the residents have quirks (dont they all) you will need to simply be attentive to them, scared and jealous can be a handful if your intentions are to keep them free from stress during this time, good luck. the kittens will proabably adopt easier than they will. post back if your having problems.

I wanted to ask what you meant by saying don´t worry about the adult cats killing the kittens; was the article i read correct when it said that adult cats will not harm helpless kittens, or did you just mean they may harm them but they won´t kill them (cause i am hoping neither happens of course)

im saying that the statement is too broad and general....i could easily say that most cats dont kill other cats and be just as correct. introducing cats (resident to new) regularly entails some heated situations that you will need to leverage yourself into at times.

Thanks again and i copied the feline introductions post and i will follow it and hope all goes well.

ok, keep in mind the post itself is not really the page, there is a link inside the post to follow....it's surrounded by two cat pics .

[Traci]

There are only two situations really where a kitten may be in direct harm by death from another cat.

1) newborns: if the queen is not attending them, feels a kitten is sickly directly after birth, cannibalism may occur.

2) some intact (un-neutered) males will kill tiny newborns out of instinctual behavior

Please get the kittens all to your vet for health exams, deworming, tested for FELV/FIV and vaccinated accordingly. You should never expose a new kitten or cat to your current cats without full health exams and vaccinations first.

Please note: This board strongly advocates indoor living only for cats. Use the search function to find other posts in this forum for the real dangers of outdoor living for cats. The stories posted should be enough to convince you to keep them strictly indoors for their safety, well-being, health and longevity.

[johnny1969]

Thanks for the information Traci;
I hope it is still okay to join these boards despite the fact that my cats are allowed to go outdoors. It is hard for me to advocate keeping pets indoors because in the country where i live in there are things people here consider cruel, for example declawing cats and also making cats indoor only pets. We have always allowed our cats to go outside since i was little, and as fortunate as we have been none of our cats have died at a younger age than 17 years old, none have gotten any diseases or illnesses due to being outdoors and none have been injured by a vehicle or another animal in all that time. Of course all of the cats were always brought once per year to the vet for a check-up and shots, and if we were to leave in a city than that would be a different story. At the moment the yard is fenced in so that the cats cannot get out, but only because of the new kittens. Once they turn 1 year old they will roam around as free animals, because after all it is not my intention to take any kind of animal and imprison it in my home and deny it the happiness and freedom of chasing butterflys, climbing trees and being in the nature where all animals belong. Not that i think this boards approach is wrong, i think any good advice is greatly appreciated, but at the same time i hope everyone is accepted here regardless of their opinions and what they choose and choose not to do with the animals that they have.
I should also add that because the cats are only allowed to remain in the apartment and fenced in yard for their first year they do get accustomed to remaining in a very close area to our yard. The cats then do not remain outside of our yard often for more than 15 minutes, and they spend 90% of their time outdorrs in our yard once the fence is removed, even after several years. We spay and neuter the cats which also prevents them from going far off. I do not know if cats or some cats can be trained to remain close to home, but ours have always done so i believe because of the way we treated them for the first year. Another interesting note to point out is while i am at work 8 hours per day and nobody is home the cats remain in the apartment 90% of the time (the two older ones i have now)...we can see this because we have a camera in our apartment in case of a robbery (since people can get into the apartment easier due to the cat door). I don´t know if we have always been lucky or if this is normal for all cats, but either way it has worked 34 years for me, and 60+ years for my parents.
With that said, my intentions are not to argue; you guys know more about cats than i do, i just wanted to share my experiences.

[Traci]

Not that i think this boards approach is wrong, i think any good advice is greatly appreciated, but at the same time i hope everyone is accepted here regardless of their opinions and what they choose and choose not to do with the animals that they have.

Acceptance has little to do with the issue. As long as people follow the house rules, they shouldn't fear 'acceptance'.

Opinion : Does not always = fact and reason.

I have stated this forum's position on this issue. Now, let's get back to feline health care...we don't need to drown this issue in a sea of opinions.