Hi All,

I've seen advice on a few threads on how to introduce puppies to houses with cats, but has anybody got any tips for introducing kittens to houses with dogs? We have two dogs currently, a two year old and a puppy. The two year old gets on great with all the neighbourhood cats and the puppy finds them interesting but nothing special. They are terriers and so react to fast movement, but are not aggressive towards cats.

We are thinking about introducing a kitten in the future and wondered about a few things.

Firstly, would a dog typically treat a kitten with the kind of "kid gloves" that it would use on a puppy? In other words, is it likely to be calmer and more gentle because the kitten is young? If not, is there any advice on how to introduce them, as a terrier could be pretty scary for a young kitten even if it is only trying to play?

Secondly, would people with dogs and cats recommend that we add a kitten to the family while the second dog is still young, or should we wait for it to mature? At the youngest, we would be looking at the puppy being nine months old when we add a cat.

Finally, any other tips? Can the cat be allowed to mix with the dogs when we are out, or should they always be kept separate when unsupervised? The dogs are always in the kitchen when we aren't there, and ideally this is also where we would like to place the cat's food and litter.

Thanks

Kittens are always better in pairs IMHO & I prefer to keep my cats food & litter where the dogs have no access, but the cats do(for the obvious reasons-no snacking on the kittens food nor the contents of the litter tray !)

I set up a large crate for my kittens with a bed & food at one end & a covered litter tray. The kittens were allowed out only when I was present or the dogs were crated if I was out & didn't take the dogs with me. Only the cats had access to their crate

I set up a large crate for my kittens with a bed & food at one end & a covered litter tray.
I also did this at first, I also had a stairgate up so the kitten could get upstairs but the dogs couldn't, they soon get used to being around each other, but beware, cats have sharp claws and can easily scratch a dogs eye.

I got two Kittens just over a year ago.  My dogs were 10 months and nearly 6.  They get on so well now, sleep together, the cats wrap them selves around the dogs legs, just great.  But the first two weeks we had the kittens was a nightmare.  The dogs just wanted to play/chase them all the time and the kittens understandably were terrified!  We just had to keep bringing the dogs in on a lead, for short periods of time, and gradually things got better.
Good luck!

It depends SO much on the dog. 3 years ago I had a Papillon puppy, he got too playful with an adult cat and the cat punctured one of his eyes. Back in January an adult dog I had taken back as the owner could no longer keep him grabbed one of my adult cats, punctured her chest and broke two of her ribs -she's only alive because I got to her within seconds. I've had dogs and cats together for decades but it just goes to show nothing is ever certain. Rule number one, as others have said, is always to make sure the cat/kitten has somewhere safe to escape to. Lots of gates in this house!

You most definitely cannot place the litter tray and cat food where the dogs sleep -impossible. You do need a separate space for this with a gate in between or the dogs will eat it all -and when raiding litter trays can get really ill with it as they end up eating some of the litter as well as the poo. (Been there, done that too.) You also need the litter tray kept at a distance away from the cat food as cats won't toilet near where they are fed.

Thanks everyone for their replies. Interesting stuff. We have a utility room that is completely separate from the kitchen, so it sounds like that may be the best place to keep the cats food and litter (it's a big room, so they can be well apart). Will have to screen off the washing machine and dryer, but that can easily be done. Top tip about getting two kittens - completely the opposite than with puppies.

All that talk about punctured eyes and chests sounds scary though. I think at the very least we will wait until the youngest dog has grown up a bit. I think we could trust the older dog while we are around, but trying to tell a puppy not to play rough will be falling on selectively deaf ears.

>Top tip about getting two kittens - completely the opposite than with puppies.

Most definitely they keep each other amused amoungst other things ! The only time I've had a single kitten(rescued from below the high tide level on a beach under 14 days old)he bonded so well with my Border Collie bitch that he thought he was a dog !!