5 cats enter, 1 cat leaves

August 29, 2008 1:53 PM

Catfilter: Combining a 3-cat household with a 2-cat household. Yes, that's a lot of cats. Help me figure out how to ensure my house doesn't turn into the Thunderdome!

How do I best integrate 5 cats who are pretty much guaranteed to not like each other? Vital stats: 3 females, 2 males. All 3 of the females expect to be queen bee. One of the males is a kitten, 1 of the females is declawed. Ages are: 11, 10, 3, 1, & 7 weeks. The youngest female is a stray who is very affectionate with humans but fairly aggressive towards other cats. I am mostly concerned about the declawed female cat or the kitten getting beaten up by the streetcat -- I expect a fair amount of tussling & hissing, but I really don't want to take anyone to get stitches.

Right now, they are divvied up as follows:

House A
10-yr-old female, 3-yr-old male, 1-yr-old female (streetcat)

House B
11-yr-old declawed female, male kitten

Like I said, I don't expect them to be buddies or anything, but what can I do to minimize trauma for all involved? Any secrets to getting these guys to chill the heck out? The 3-cat household is already a constant Mexican standoff, you know?

posted by oh really to pets & animals (8 comments total)

This is a lot bigger than anything I'm prepared to offer, but I will come out and say you should be living in/moving to the largest possible domicile.
posted by rhizome at 2:19 PM on August 29, 2008

PAWS has good suggestions on integrating cats into a shared household. In a nutshell, first you let them smell one another, then see one another, and only then interact with one another.

(Now that I notice your page title, though, I'm thinking maybe you just need one of these, five sets of bungee cords, and Tina Turner in a chain-mail dress to officiate.)
posted by cirocco at 2:29 PM on August 29, 2008

- Plenty of litterboxes. And keep them clean. This will discourage urinating and/or defecating in corners and the like.

- Lots of climbing space. Invest in kitty condos or cat trees. At least one for the living room and one for a bedroom.

- Feliway plug-ins. IME they work well to calm cats down.

- For the "street cat," consider having the vet glue Soft Paws nail caps on her claws; she can still use her claws for climbing, etc. but it will minimize possible damage to the less aggressive cats.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 2:41 PM on August 29, 2008

my crazy cat lady wife agrees with cirocco...

she added, integrate waste (you know what I mean) into the litter boxes of both sets of cats...

that done... the cats will figure it out... we've got five, some older, some younger... they still have wars, but I'm thinking that it is as much entertainment as anything...
posted by HuronBob at 3:38 PM on August 29, 2008

We integrated 2 new cats to our already 2-kitty household by keeping the new additions in our bedroom with food and catbox for several days. They got used to the new environment, and the kitties smelled one another under the door for awhile before we supervised their first face-to-face. We have one who never has been happy with the new arrangement. We let him sleep alone in our bedroom with us at night, and in general comfort him in his insecurity. Our vet suggested prozac for him but we never found a good way to administer it (he didn't like it mixed in any of his food, and we were unwilling to torture him and us daily by forcing it down his throat), although you may find a way to do it if you end up with an unhappy kitty when all is said and done. We haven't had real "cat fights"...just hissing occasionally and sulking on the part of the one holdout feline.
posted by mumstheword at 3:41 PM on August 29, 2008

Seven cat, one dog 700 sq. ft. household here.

If possible separate the newcomers for a few days. All of my beasts were strays and spent a period ranging from a couple days to two weeks quaratined in the bathroom until they could either visit the vet or get well (since some of them had some serious evidence of street living). During that time, everyone spends much time sniffing under the door and the hurt feelings and rumblings over hierarchy are brought out into the open without anyone actually getting into a scuffle. Pet all the kitties and get everyone's smell on everyone. By the time the door is opened and the newcomer(s) is let out, it's not a surprise and there is a sense of familiarity. There will be whining and hissing at first, but in my experience, I've never seen an all out smack-down. (YMMV, of course).

Set up some Feliway diffusers. Keep litter boxes clean. Keep claws clipped. Give plenty of attention to everyone-- particularly the ones who seem to be the antagonists. The more irritated you become at the aggressors, the more aggressive they will become. Five cats is completely doable!
posted by Heretic at 3:44 PM on August 29, 2008

I have integrated, separated, and moved cats several times and the one thing I've learned is to expect the unexpected. Each time--even when moving the same cats from one house to another--I've seen distinct changes in behavior and how they interact with one another. You may find that your street cat becomes submissive or that one of the erstwhile sweeties becomes a bully. Start with several options for perching high and hiding low and adjust as you watch the relationships develop. Make sure there's always a path for a cat to escape from an encounter with another.

I assume you're moving group A into house B or vice versa? If it's possible, you might want to try moving furniture around before bringing all the cats together, especially any favorite lounging areas, so everyone has to establish new "spots" at the same time. I can't prove that this helps, but I've never had anything more than some growling, hissing, and half-hearted swats, even when incorporating adult ferals into the mix.
posted by weebil at 5:38 PM on August 29, 2008

The Cat vs. Cat book, by Pam Johnson-Bennett, is a GREAT one and really goes into a lot of detail about problem behaviors as well (so it's helpful to read even if you only have one cat).

One main point from her book: "Give the cats a reason to like each other." When you're introducing [some of] the cats in a common area of the house, bust out the cans of tunafish and the feathery-birdie cat toy and have it be a total cat party. They can associate being around each other as a really good experience. Be sure that each of them will have a little bit of 'their own' territory. Another point from the book: go slowly -- she says something like "several one-minute meetings are a lot better than one fifteen-minute meeting" (or whatever your cats will tolerate at first).
posted by oldtimey at 7:11 AM on August 30, 2008