How can I successfully introduce my new cat to my other two cats?

[daniel szabo]

My family currently has two cats - they are brother and sister, they are four and a half years old and they get along very well. My parents recently decided to buy a new cat. We brought the new cat home yesterday (he's 8 months old - still technically a kitten, but he's nearly fully grown) and after about 15 minutes of letting him sniff around the house, we introduced him to one of our cats (Tim). Tim was hissing and growling at the new cat like crazy so we separated them after about 10 minutes. A short while later, our other cat (Trixie) came downstairs and saw our new cat. She had a similar reaction. Obviously now, after looking at some instructions of how to introduce cats to each other, I realize that we shouldn't have introduced our new cat to our old cats so quickly. This morning I woke up and decided to try get our old cats used to our new cat's scent. I got our new cat's towel that he slept on last night and put it in Tim and Trixie's room. I also put their favorite soft cat food on a plate on top of the towel. I thought that doing this would get Tim and Trixie to associate our new cat's scent with their favorite food, but it resulted in them not eating at all.

Anyway, this is the situation:
1. My two cats hate the new cat/kitten
2. I don't know what to do about it because I didn't go through any steps - I just introduced the cats to each other straight away, which was stupid
3. The new cat doesn't have a problem with the old cats - they have a problem with him
4. I don't want the old cats to feel that they're being replaced by the new cat, but it's kind of hard for me to play with them when they're always hiding from the new cat
5. Until all three cats get along, the new cat has to sleep by himself in our garage, which means he can't go outside at night because there is no cat door in the garage. Because of this he spent several hours last night crying (his 'miaow' sound like he's crying) at the garage door

So, keeping all this in mind, does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can make my cats like each other?
Thanks

PS: yes, I am aware that it hasn't even been two days yet, but I've read that first impressions are of vital importance for cats. I'm not worried because the cats don't get along yet. I'm worried because of the bad first impression and because I didn't follow any instructions when introducing my new cat to the old ones.

 

[Thunder Sleeps]

First, get some catnip and rub it into all the cats fur. This way it will cover their scent and they will all smell alike (and pretty good!) to each other. Now move all the cats to a neutral area. (someplace they don't consider "their" territory. Maybe a closed garage or basement or something. Put them together (with some more catnip) and see what happens. Yes, they'll all be a bit "stoned" at first, but they'll start to get along, and by the time it wears off they'll have gotten used to each other.

Give it a try and see what happens