Deciding to add a new member to your feline family can be a great choice. Not only will you be saving a homeless animal, but you will also be providing your resident kitty with a lifelong companion. However, you need to thoroughly prepare for your new family member and follow some basic techniques for adding a second cat to the family and to ease the new cat’s transition into the household.

Creating a Safe Isolated Area for the New Cat
For the first week or so, you want to keep your new feline friend confined in a safe area where it will not have any contact with the resident cat.
A spare bedroom works well for this. If that is not possible, try to gate off an area for the new kitty to feel safe.
Make sure there is a litter box in his/her room, a bed, a blanket, toys, a bowl for water, and a bowl for food.
This gives the new cat an opportunity to explore a small area of the home (generally just one room) and feel comfortable in his/her new surroundings.
Keep Them Separated
There are two main reasons for keeping the resident cat and the new cat separate during the early days of their initial cohabitation.
First of all, you need to ensure that the new kitty is healthy.
Prior to introducing the new cat to the resident cat, the new family member must be taken to a veterinarian to have all of his/her vaccines and to rule out any health problems that can be contagious to the resident cat.
Once the new kitty has a clean bill of health, you should continue to keep them separated for a few more days.
Consequently, this also gives the resident cat a chance to be more accustomed to the new cat in the house.
One way to gently introduce them to each other is by using scent.
Take a blanket that the resident cat sleeps on and give it to the new comer.
Do the same by giving the resident cat the blanket of the new cat.
This will help them get to know each other through their scents.
It is only a matter of time before your feline friends start “talking” to each other through the door and sniffing each other.
This is a good time to begin supervised introductions between both cats.
The Face-to-Face Introduction
By now you have two healthy cats that are curious about each other and eager to interact.
The best way to handle the first introduction is to keep it short.
Pay attention to the behavior of both cats: do they seem scared? do they feel threatened? are they keeping their distance?
Unless they become aggressive with one another, let them sniff each other and play on their own terms.
By introducing an activity such as the fishing pole game, both cats get to play together and learn to become accustomed to each other.
Remember not to promote competition among the cats.
These supervised play times can help you decide if the cats can play long-term together with minimal problems.
If they play well, there is no reason why they can’t both be given a full run of the house.
Also, remember to have an adequate amount of litter boxes for your felines.
The rule of thumb is that each cat should have his/her own litter box, otherwise territorial problems such as spraying or urinating and defecating outside of the litter box may occur.
By taking the time to prepare for your new family member, everyone will be happy and benefit from the love a new pet has to offer.
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Thursday 6th of August 2020
[…] should provide more than one litterbox. Rule of thumb is to provide one litter box for each cat plus one. If you have three cats, you need four […]
Shannon Holmes
Friday 28th of February 2020
Thanks for sharing these tips, I agree as I have had to introduce cats to mine :)
Mary Gardner
Wednesday 2nd of October 2019
These are good tips. I especially like the idea of keeping them separated and slowly introducing them first by scent.
Marisela Zuniga
Thursday 11th of July 2019
Good to know! Thank you for sharing
Calvin
Wednesday 8th of May 2019
It's a commitment to say the least. Also lots of things to consider like if they'll get along, etc.