I've just got a new baby, he's a Red Silver Maine coon
My dogs have always lived with cats, we have a Rag doll and we had Jasper 19 years until he very sadly died a couple of months ago.

This new kitten keeps spitting at the dogs and trying to bite, it must be really scarey for him, so he spends his time in an up stairs spare room,
I've also bought him a cage so he can be with us down stairs ,but just wondered if any body has any advise on getting them used to each other.

I think it will take time Mary, the dogs are bound to be inquisitive with the new cat and it is a bit scary, but give it time and once the cat realises the dogs are not a threat then I am sure things will be fine.

As long as you allow the cat to be around the dogs when he feels confident enough, dont be tempted to force the issue as this will only make the cat more nervous.

Good luck, but you wont need it I am sure.

ooooo piccies of your new baby please! No advice really, our dogs are STILL chasin the cats and the cats are STILL hissin at them, after always being brought up together. I think they secretly love each other, and just do it to try and look hard :hihi:

One thing that you could do that would help him cope a little is to make sure that the crate that you got him is well covered so that he can genuinely have a hidey hole where he feels that he is safe from the dogs.

Only when he gets enough of a break from feeling the 'siege mentality' will he start to relax about the dogs, and during this time he also needs to feel that he can eat and sleep in peace without fear of the dogs for him to grow up to be an emotionally happy and healthy cat.

I routinely introduce tiny kittens to my dog and generally find that there's a maximum of a couple of days of proper growling and spitting before they start learning to cope with her-after a couple of weeks they generally show no fear of her at all and let her carry them round the room.

One of the current litter is so enamoured with Molly that when she'd been playing in Mol's water bowl and got all wet, cold and shivery she chose to snuggle up to Molly's belly fur to share body heat rather than allow me to wrap her in a towel and cuddle her up to me to get her warm again.

Mr Strix's mum always puts Brude's blanket down the day before he arrives to prepare her for his arrival

If she's finding the dogs themselves overwhelming at the moment, would it help to allow her the upstairs room for a day or two, but include something which smells of the dogs so she knows their scent and begins to accept it as non-threatening? Do the same with the dogs, so the kitten smell is less of an event and therefore it's less necessary to shove a nose in her fur when she's on the scene

Thankyou evrybody your suggestions are realy helpful, he doesn't seem as bad today, and if I have him on my knee he's not spitting as much, so hopefully he should be ok, but I think it will take a while yet, but hes only been here three days

It sounds like he's starting to cope a little better then- that's good to hear.

Keep going with it and I'm sure if you make sure that he has somewhere that he can feel safe he'll come round within a couple of weeks.