Feb 17 2009
Introducing New Pets to Your Household
Do you have multiple breeds of pets in your house? I do. We have cats and dogs. Contrary to popular myths, dogs and cats can get along. The biggest factor I have found is to bring new pets into the house as babies. Older dogs or cats have trouble adjusting to a multiple pet household whereas kittens and puppies don’t know any different. Additionally, it is easy for your other adult animals to be accepting of a new pet if they are a baby and not a worthy adversary.
I would strongly encourage slowly introducing your new pet to the existing furbabies in your house. We do this by isolating the new kitten or puppy in a room that is off limits to the other pets in the house. Slowly introduce the newest member of the house to each of the existing pets. You will see their reactions and know if you need to do this process for a day or for a week or more. Continue introductions until the pets are more used to each other. Don’t hope for them to be best buddies right away, but rather they will slowly get accustomed to each other and over time, they may just become those best buds you hoped for.
Always supervise new pets when they are together until you are assured they will be fine if left alone.
How do you introduce your new pets to one another?
Great post. Thanks for sharing!
A surprising number of the animals in our house, past and present, have been added by the other animals. I think the oddest was when my shepherd found a stray hamster for us. Introductions were made before the humans came into the picture!
Too funny Tracker. My cats used to love to hang off our hamsters cages. Unfortunately, the hamsters are no longer with us.
My cats are so used to having new animals show up that they don’t get very bothered by it anymore. Small animals like rabbits, chickens, and rats stay in the cage until the novelty wears off and the cats realize it’s another pet, not food, and then everyone gets along fine. Dogs are kept on leash until it’s clear how they’re going to behave and then I let them mingle. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone not get along after no more than a month.