seniors acting weird, is it too late for a kitten?

My two seniors are hissing every time I open the carrier, even though I've been doing the scent swapping thing for a week. Is it too late to introduce a kitten to a house full of grumpy cats?

Luna (2 dsh, hypothyroid) and Kiki (4 mainecoon, healthy) are showing significant stress markers. I am worried that the negative association with the carrier is now too entrenched.

damn that sounds rough. i have milo (2 tabby) and he just sleeps in his carrier so it helps. but for hissing? check out this thread about carrier stress i found. basically just leave it open with a toy in it. quick fix but it works for me.

One week is likely insufficient for cats with established resource guarding behaviors. I logged the introduction process for my tortie Willow (6) and dsh Rio (2). The average latency before visual contact is 14 days, not 7. See my data on kitten intro timelines for the specific day-by-day breakdown I used.

Oh, my heart goes out to you. When my Whiskers (15 dsh, blind in one eye) was in his final months, any change in routine upset him terribly. I found that giving them something to do, like food puzzles, helped distract them. You might look at feeding my old boy during changes to see the types of enrichment I used. It takes patience, but they do adjust.

@wrivera I will review that timeline immediately. @SamR I will try the open carrier method. @mary73 Thank you for the gentle suggestion, I will look into enrichment.

However, I realized I actually documented the full process when I successfully introduced a kitten to a resistant pair last year. The specific steps and the exact pheromone diffuser placement are in my protocol for the kitten that came in last month. That thread has the concrete details I am missing here.

Good call. My data shows that visual introduction after 14 days had a 90% success rate versus 40% at 7 days. The diffuser placement in that protocol you linked is likely the missing variable. I will check it out.