A day short of two weeks since bringing home our Tiger Lilly we decided to let her meet our 13 year old kitty Pepper last night! They have been meeting through baby gates over the past week, some hissing, mostly observing.

Last night we took the gate off and Pepper went into her safe room. They seemed to have mutual respect for each other, stayed a couple of feet apart, a hiss here and there, but otherwise no aggression which is great since Pepper has claws and Lilly does not. Pepper checked out Lilly's food bowl and she seemed to not care for that, it was followed by a warning hiss :-)

Overall it seems like Lilly kept her distance and let Pepper be the leader. When he got bored and left the room she followed him to see where he was going. They were left alone for a few hours without any incidences and then I put her back in her safe room with us at night so she could eat and have a stress-free night.

I have a couple of follow-up questions after this introduction:

- Food: Pepper eats wet food only and Lilly eats mostly dry food (that's what her previous owner fed her). Pepper gets sick when he eats dry food, and of course he tasted her food last night and ended up throwing up... Once I put them together, how do I feed them different things? She is used to having a dry food bowl out at all times but I don't think that will work very well... Should I just up her wet food and eventually switch her over or is the dry food necessary?

- Litter Box: Lilly has her own box with a soft wheat litter and I want to keep getting that kind for her since she is declawed (by her previous owner). Once both cats are free to roam the house at all times, is it bad if they use each others boxes? Not sure how I would be able to prevent that...

- Water Fountain: Lilly has a water fountain that she loves! I cleaned it when I first got it from the old owner and last night I cleaned it again and realized it was disgusting! (had been a week). How do I keep one of these clean? Should I switch the water every night? It really seems to be a germ-horde but she loves it so I don't want to take it away from her.. is there a better choice out there?

Thanks in advance for any help!!! Below is a pic from last night :-)

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Sounds like things are going okay so far! Beautiful kitties you have. Does your water fountain have a filter? That helps a lot. I use a stainless steel fountain with a filter that gets changed once a month. I empty, take apart and clean the fountain once a week. The water always looks fresh and clean.

Aww...i am glad to hear that things are going well.

I have six and they all use whichever box they please. Not all of mine have all of their claws and they are fine with regular litter, so your declawed cat may surprise you and use the regular litter. As long as both don't have any parasites, I don't see a problem with sharing boxes.

I have only tried one fountain and it got gross in a hurry. I just let them play in the bathroom sink when I am in there and leave out a bowl all the time.

Love the pic...such pretty kitties! :)

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The little monsters 3