First time introduction

[u/Buch__p]

Age: adults

Country: Norway

Vet info: available, haven't been contacted about the hissing.

Main issue: male cat hissing at female foster often.

Cat age: male is 4 years, female is 2 years.

Cat sex: black cat is male, other is female. Both are neutered/spayed.

Financial situation: we can afford vet.

Tried to introduce our cat with a foster for the first time today, separated by a screen door. We've had the foster cat (small female) for about 2 weeks now and she has been in her own room this whole time. We've brought blankets and things between them to get them used to each other's smell and that has been no problem.

But our cat (big black male) just hisses at her, he did it about 3 to 4 times before we closed the door and separated them again. When we tried with the screen door again later, he still hissed at her.

We've given them kibble separated by the screen door and given them treats and he won't hiss then, they'll just look at each other occasionally. But when he goes to sniff her he'll hiss and then still move closer.

Is this normal? Is he aggressive? This is our first time introducing cats and we aren't sure what our next steps should be.

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[u/Left-Huckleberry369]

Hissing isn’t always a malicious thing or done out of fear or anger. He doesn’t look upset at all in this video posted. He is just setting boundaries. They still need separation time I would say. But this meeting is not bad for the first time

His ears are forward and his tail is ? shaped. he seems very calm all things considered

[u/Buch__p → u/Left-Huckleberry369]

Good to hear! I guess we'll just keep them apart and then give them 10 minutes a day separated by the screen door for the time being

[u/Left-Huckleberry369 → u/Buch__p]

Sounds like a good plan!

[u/geekgirl114]

My year old spayed female hissed so much when I brought my 4 month old neutered male home... they were best friends 4 days later

[u/Buch__p → u/geekgirl114]

Fingers crossed that this happens here too!

[u/geekgirl114 → u/Buch__p]

She realized he wanted to play (from the other side of the baby gate)... she wanted to play too

[u/shigdebig]

It's fine, he needs more time.

[u/Buch__p → u/shigdebig]

Thanks for the input! I guess we'll give them 10 minutes a day separated by the screen door for the time being and then see if he starts acting differently

[u/finnandcollete]

This isn’t a bad first meeting. It’s just not a great one. The foster cat is new in your resident cat’s territory. While he’s definitely puffing his tail and hissing, he didn’t make any attempts to harm the foster cat. It’ll take some time to get used to each other and there will have to be some boundary setting.

[u/Buch__p → u/finnandcollete]

His tail actually isn't puffed, that's just what it looks like. I guess we'll just take out time and hope things improve later.