Help with a new cat and bird...and a whole background story...

[wigglesgiggles1]

I will give you guys some background on my situation. My great grandma lives on her own. She is in great shape and very aware. For years we have been trying to get her to move into a nursing home near us (her faimly). She insisted she stayes in her house at least and hour and a half away from all of us. She has a female cat Sweetie who is in indoor cat who we adopted for her when her old cat died. She takes awesome care of it. She also has a budgie named Tweety. She has had that bird for probably four years. She loves it, she cleans itss cage every morning and just loves it to death. She has a company meals on wheel deliver her food each meal. She also has a house keeper who does all of her chores.
When the lady that delivers her food went to her house, she couldn't find my great grandma anywhere. She finally checked the living room and there was my great grandma on the ground. She was concious but didn't remeber falling. She was taken to the hospital. They found out that she had passed out. That is why she didn't hit her life alert. The hospital figured out that she didn't break any bones. They are keeping her for a while to run tests. Well anyway, she is ninety-two years old and we think its time for her to move into a nursing home. Se is doing fine but is very confused about being in the hospital. She doesn't even remeber that she has a house, cat or bird.
She is going to a nursing home and my nana works there so she will be happy. That side of my faimly are not animal lovers except me. So we are taking in the cat and bird. The bird should be no problem as I have experience with birds. The cat on the other hand should be a challange. We already have a neutered male cat who is nine years old. The cat she has is estimated to be around four years and the cat is a girl and spayed. We have to quarentine her in the basement. All I can say is I hope they will get along.
I have some hope because we used to have an other male cat with my current male cat but the older male cat died so I just have the one male. They got along well so I hope these two will get along. I just couldn't see the bird and cat going to the shelter. We had already adopted the cat and bringing it back to the shelter would be jjust down right wrong. So we are willing to give it a try. My nana and pa are going to my great grandmas house to pick up the bird and cat.
Well I was wondering if you guys have any stories with introducing two cats. I also just had to type the whole thing because I haven't been myself since my great grandma went to the hospital and it sometimes helps to tell other people. If you don't have any experience with introducing two cats, do you know of any cat forums that I could post my question on. Thanks in advance. and sorry for the long and detailed post.

 

[Katie_Kutthroat]

I'm a crazy cat lady, so I'm going off my experience. I do some foster work so I'm always having to bring home new cats. Cats will either love each other or ignore each other after some bickering. My oldest cat Spaz is very dominant so when I started bringing home more unwanted kitty friends, she was not pleased. But after at least what seemed a month of cats stampeding back in forth through my house, they get along fairly well. There's always little spats but don't get discouraged. As long as there's no serious blood shed, they'll eventually get along.

Some Tips:
- Have two litter boxes and food dishes so there's no guarding, at least till they get used to each other.
- Invest in a spray bottle in case their fights get to violent, you don't want to get scratched up trying to break it up.
- In case of marking, get something to clean your furniture or carpets. I've only had this problem once, and they peed on the litter box.
- Be sure to leave the basement door open so she can have a place thats familiar to her to run back to.
- Be patent, it might take a while.

 

[wigglesgiggles1]

Thank you! I hope that they will at least tolerate each other! Should the food dishes be in two different places. My current cats food dish is on the washer machine. He could block that if he wanted. Also same with the littler boxes, same or different locations?

 

[Katie_Kutthroat]

I have all my food bowls together but if he starts bullying put it in another room. Same for the boxes. I hope all goes well for you.

 

[wigglesgiggles1]

Okay thanks, I am getting the cat and bird tonight. I have my fingers crossed...

 

[Llamasomething]

My two cats hate each other, but they won't attack usually.
The male will playfully attack our female cat sometimes, but she's obese and old and tired and doesn't want to play with him, so she just gets pissed off. They generally just avoid each other, and our female will growl at the male whenever he gets too close.

I think it's similar to new guinea pigs, dominance will have to be established.

I would suggest maybe quarantining her to the basement or in one area of the house when no one is home, but if someone is home, let both cats wander around, and if anyoen hears a scrap, they can break it up by throwing a blanket/grabbing a spray bottle. (They will NOT like you after the spray bottle though)

Even if they don't like each other they will eventually get used to each other if you keep tring for long enough.

 

[wigglesgiggles1]

Yeah my male cat is 9 and the new female is probably 5. My male cat is well chubby and he's on a diet. The female is thin and they are both playful. Our house is pretty big so they can aviod eachother if need be.