New kitten ready to be let loose. Resident cat distressed by kitten's meowing, unbothered by scent. Should I speed up the introduction?
We just adopted a 2 months old kitten, already had one cat, both are females. The kitten has been with us for 5 days and they're currently separated. As it stands right now we're doing scent swapping, mainly in the form of letting the kitten roam the house while our resident cat is outside (where she usually spends a good chunk of the day).
The little one is fearless, looks comfortable just about everywhere and desperately wants out when not completely exhausted. When outside of her room she's so busy playing and exploring I'm not even sure she realized there's another cat living with us. The resident cat however only seemed to notice the new kitten when it started (loudly) meowing behind the door. She isn't happy about it and will hiss and growl when she hears the kitten meowing, but she looks unbothered by the scent, both around the house and in the kitten's room; we let her in twice, she came in, smelled everything, ate the kittens food the first time and went back out with no visible signs of distress.
She seems to get stresses by the meowing more so than the kitten's presence in the house.
I'm unsure whether I should go on like this until she stops hissing at the door or move to the next step, being able to partially see the kitten in the room. We won't be doing the feeding on opposite sides bit because our resident tends to be particularly wary when eating; we'll rely on playtime and treats for positive associations.
Our resident hasn't been properly socialized as a kitten (she was found alone in a cardboard box when 2 weeks old) and had a peaceful, but not friendly relationship with our older resident cat (which passed a few months ago). We hope for the two to become friends but are aiming for peaceful cohabitation. Mostly, I'm afraid to screw up!
Any advice? Thank you!