Please help with cat introduction
Hi! My husband and I recently adopted a cat (a recently neutered male) to be a companion to our resident cat (a spayed female) after our dog passed. She knew our dog as a kitten and was very comfortable with him but he never played with her. Otherwise she has never interacted with other cats since she left her litter. The new cat is a siamese mix and has a lot of energy and our resident cat is a maine coon and is a bit more laid back. They are both a year old and some months. He was a stray cat that was brought into the shelter after he was found injured. We have now had him for about a month.
They have had a few fights that are all triggered by our male cat chasing her and her then running from him. This has resulted in a couple of fights when we were unable to grab them in time. Oddly, after about an hour our female cat doesn't seem to care anymore and becomes curious again. So we are stuck in this cycle of her being curious but skittish, and us slowly reintroducing them, seeing good results and then allowing them to be closer and closer, and then he chases her etc etc.
We have a baby gate to allow them to interact in way thats more comfortable for them both. We monitor all their interactions as well, especially because he can escape from the baby gate. He has his room that we put her in to get used to his scent and vice versa. We have fed them next to each other successfully. Given high value treats during and after positive interactions. We have tired him out before interactions to reduce his energy. We have even timed the interactions to be around the time they both are more tired and lazy. I bought the Purina calm supplements and fed them both it, which calmed them but did not stop him from chasing again.
What else can we do? Or are these two just incompatible? I just really don't want to give up on him and I really don't want to rehome him. I honestly don't even care if they like each other at this point, I will take tolerating each other as long there is no fighting. They both seem like they are interested in each other but they just don't speak the same language? Any advice?