Bringing Home Your New Cat or Kitten

If you do want to have an indoor/outdoor cat, wait at least four weeks before allowing your adult cat to go outside, to give it a chance to bond to your family. If your adult cat must go outside, bringing it inside at night does reduce the risks of being killed by predators. To train your cat to come in at night, set its one daily feeding time during its month indoors to be at the hour when you want it to come inside for the night, and continue to feed him (even just putting out new dry food) at that same time, calling him to come in for his dinner. You can reinforce its coming in with treats as well.

Meeting the Household
Let your new cat get to know and trust household members before it must adjust to the entire home—one thing at a time! Sometimes even the most friendly cats need a few days to feel safe in new environments.

If you have other pets, don't introduce the new pet immediately. We have more detailed blog articles on introducing your new cat or kitten to resident cats, but here are some quick tips:

• Keep your new pet totally separated at first, in its own room.
  
• For multicat households, when your new cat/kitten is from a shelter, rescue or kennel, this separation period should be 14 days to prevent the spread of contagious diseases during their incubation period.
  
• Before making any pet introductions, let the new pet get to know and trust you, and let your other pets discover they are still loved. Although they smell a new furry one in the house, they are not going to lose their home and family.
  

It will take time for everyone to adjust, sometimes weeks or months. At first, allow your pets lots of time for sniffing under the door to the new pet's room. Try switching rooms for a while, and let the new cat explore the house. Let your current cat spend time in the room, sniffing around. As they progress, try allowing them to check out each other through a screen door or sliding glass door or other safe ways of exploring these "strangers." This effort can prevent an unpleasant introduction that is hard to recover from.

Tempting though it may be, it can be a big mistake to rush this process. The slow approach is well worth the extra time, and you ensure your pets are all happy and comfortable in your home.

And congratulations on adopting a new cat or kitten!

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