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Kittens & adult cats
Cats, especially adult ones, can react badly to other cats ‘intruding’ on them in their territory, so be sure to gradually introduce your kitten to the family. Start with leaving around toys or blankets that the kitten played with, so that the other cat(s) can pick up their scent.
Once you bring your kitten home, keep it in a separate kitten room. The new house can be pretty intimidating to the kitten, so make sure that they get used to the one room first.
Next, feed both your older cat and your new kitten close to the door of the kitten room. In doing so, you get the cats used to each other’s scent and teach them to associate one another with something positive – food in this case.
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Now it’s time to visually introduce the cats. You can do this by placing them on opposite sides of a baby gate. Simply play with, or give yummy treats to, each cat while they stay on either side of the baby gate. Once your cats get used to this exercise, you can allow them to be near each other without a barrier. Please make sure to supervise your cats when introducing them to each other though.
Kittens & other animals
If you want to introduce your kitten to other animals, you can use the above tips. Also be sure to make a distinction between predatory and prey animals: if you have prey animals, such as rabbits or guinea pigs who aren’t used to having cats around, they might get spooked by a cat’s presence, especially if the kitten tries to play with them by stalking and pouncing, which is typical predatory behavior. To introduce your kitten to other animals, like dogs, follow the same steps as introducing them to cats. Keep in mind that dogs can be a lot bigger than cats but no less rambunctious, and could potentially hurt the kitten during play.
