Aimee
,@aimee
0
Friends
We brought a re-homed cat home to our house one week ago. She is 4 years old, spayed, up to date on shots and healthy. She came from a multi-cat and dog house to our single-dog house. Her previous owner says she had no problem standing up for herself against other cats and the dog (reports the other cats are much more willing to come out of hiding since she has been removed). We have noticed that she is shy and skittish, but eating and drinking. She spends most of her day hiding under a bed.
Unfortunately she refuses to use her litter box (so far preferring kids closets and under desks). We’ve taken a step back and confined her to a single room. She has a clean litter box. Food, toys and bed are at the opposite side of the room. We’ve also confined the dog to a separate part of the house
None of this is ideal. We have few doors, so keeping them apart also keeps the humans apart. I can put food or litter in another part of the house, but the cat is more likely to encounter the dog if I do that.
Thoughts?
Hello,
In general I take the ridiculously slow and gradual approach to new cats joining the family. I do the following. I place a big cage with a little box in it and place that in a room by itself. The new cat is kept there with a big blanket covering as much of the big cage as needed until everything is calm and happy. This means the new cat is coming to you and purring. Using the litter box and eating normally. It can take weeks. We let them get used to their own new place before expecting them to adapt to ours. After they are doing well we open rhe big cache and let them acclimate to their own room. Now they can sniff the other animals under the door until that is also calm and peaceful. No hissing at others under the door. If that goes well so short small supervised visits with others housemates. If any thing doesn’t go well go back to bases. Ideally the cage and box stay accessible until the new cat is using the community boxes. If all else fails go back to small and safe. Cats need time and patience and they don’t always adapt well. Also super important to talk to your vet and rule out any issues. Think about different litter and litter boxes. Let you cat decide which they like. Hope that this helps.