r/bengalcats•
PMnotA

Help with kitten introduction

Help

I could use some assistance. I have a 10 week old Bengal kitten (female) that I brought home. We have a 10 year old resident male cat. I separated them gave her own room with all the essentials. After three days the hissing stopped from the resident cat and he began to come around being himself again. At first he was so sad, not eating, not using bathroom, not playing just being depressed. 4 days later he came back around no more depression started acting like himself again. We have diffusers plugged in and began scent swapping. At first he hissed and now a week later he sleeps on her blanket and she sleeps on his. On occasion she comes out and explores while he goes in her room and explores. When time is up they go back with no issues of hissing or aggression. We tried feeding on opposites sides of doors but he only eats in one spot and refuses to eat anywhere else so that’s out the picture. We have a huge cat cage and we put her in the living room for about 20min and he goes right near it kinda ignores it and she ignores him. One day he was on his cat perch and she got out and was running wild and he just stared and didn’t bother her and she didn’t bother him. We have a cat toy that is interactive so we turned it on. Both cats went to the toy and were so focused on the toy they didn’t care bout each others presence. So we praised them both and gave them both treats. Now she was done with her Churo and went flying over to his and starting hissing and trying to attack him with a puffed up tail. He runs away scared but she doesn’t let up and corners him. So that was it back to step one put her back in the room and started scent swapping again. Once again no issues at all. I even made a double end toy under the door so they can play with one side each. They go to the toy but hiss at each other. She got out again by accident cause she is super fast and hides at the door. Once again he just ignores her and she ignores him. Once he jumps down to see her she freaks out. And we put her back in the room. (We didn’t allow this to happen to meet btw) it happened in a split instance. So day 8 she is now in her room and we aren’t letting her out. Things aren’t looking good and I don’t know what to do it’s draining. I’ve never had this issue in past introducing kitten to resident cat. What can I do? Did I ruin the introduction process? I bought a 71 inch cat gate to go on the door so I can open it and let them see each other, it’s so big they won’t be able to get to each other at all. How can I stop the kitten from attacking my senior resident cat. He doesn’t seem to Mind her, it’s her she thinks it’s her house now and he refuses to do anything but run and hide. I just feel bad she’s locked in a room all day. He still is himself btw and is t changing now he’s not depressed anymore. I think he accepted the fact she’s here. Do I continue scent swapping? And let them see each other through the gate?

Posted Nov 1, 2025, 8:07 PM UTC

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