Considering a 3rd kitty. What to expect?

cla517

TCS Member
Thread starter
Super Cat
Joined
Nov 24, 2003
Messages
818
Purraise
1
Location
Pembroke Pines, Florida
My DH found some kittens at his building and wants to bring one home. We already have 2 nuetered male cats, 6 and 7 years old. They get along wonderfully. I'm a HUGE cat lover and would love a kitten, but I'm afraid of upsetting the "balance" in the house. Is there a "gang up" mentality if you have an odd number? Since the others are older, is a kitten a bad idea? I don't want to upset my two residents, but I'd love to save another kitten!

Tell me experiences, tips, anything!
 

larke

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 9, 2005
Messages
2,278
Purraise
6
Location
SE Canada
If there's a no-kill shelter around, one that tests for feline Aids and leukemia, it would make more sense to bring the kittens there, rather than home to your babies, and you both should think hard about adopting them afterward, as your bills will go up, your 'residents' will complain (inevitable) and you'll certainly need more boxes, but if you do it, get them tested first.
 

brittany_nicole

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Jun 6, 2007
Messages
211
Purraise
1
Location
Sarasota, Florida
How active are your two cats? When I brought Saedie home, my other cat Millie HATED her. She hissed and growled but thankfully never attacked. Millie is extremely laid back. She rarely plays with toys but there isn't enough hours in the day for her to cuddle with people. Since Saedie is a kitten, she expects to play with whoever, whenever she wants. Millie didn't really like that..
Millie tolerates Saedie now. She will eat next to Saedie when I feed them, but to this day, Millie will not use the same litter box as Saedie. If Saedie decides to use Millie's litter box, Millie uses the plants instead..

I didn't really introduce them the "right" way, I kind of just brought Saedie home. I don't know much about introducing cats, if you don't know either I am sure there are plenty of other people here that can help you.

If you decide to get a kitten, sometimes it will be better to get two, just so they can play with each other instead of disrupting the other cats. Since you already have two, you might not want to have four.

I agree, make sure you get them tested. Since they are outside, you don't want to risk infecting your other cats.

Make sure you let us know what you decide.
 

mschauer

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
6,753
Purraise
2,338
Location
Houston, Tx
Originally Posted by cla517

My DH found some kittens at his building and wants to bring one home. We already have 2 nuetered male cats, 6 and 7 years old. They get along wonderfully. I'm a HUGE cat lover and would love a kitten, but I'm afraid of upsetting the "balance" in the house. Is there a "gang up" mentality if you have an odd number? Since the others are older, is a kitten a bad idea? I don't want to upset my two residents, but I'd love to save another kitten!

Tell me experiences, tips, anything!
I don't have any personal experience with bringing a kitten into the fold but I've heard that adult cats will likely accept a kitten. The energy of the kitten may be hard for the adults to deal with though. Can you consider taking in 2 kittens so they can play with each other? Otherwise the kitten may bug the heck out of the adults tryinig to play with them.
 

clpeters23

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 25, 2005
Messages
1,920
Purraise
1,368
Location
Chicagoland, Illinois, USA
I have two adult males (neutered) and four years ago I brought home a female 4 mos. old (after taking her to the vet). I was also worried about the "pariah" syndrome, but it's worked out okay. Moose and Lucy are not the best of buddies, and they've had their moments, but all in all it's been a success.
 

lioness

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Aug 20, 2007
Messages
284
Purraise
1
Location
Lone Star State
I think as long as you go about introducing them the proper way, you should be alright. They may not be best buddies but they should be able to tolerate each other after getting used to each other.

Of course getting two kittens is a good idea also.
 

eilcon

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Messages
11,094
Purraise
1
Location
Cincinnati
My female cats, Katie and Gracie, were 11 and 5, when I adopted Peter, who was six months old at the time. Honestly, I was very nervous about a third kitty upsetting things, but it worked out great. I gradually introduced Pete to the girls over a period of two to three weeks. The first week, I kept him completely separated in my spare bedroom so they could all just sniff at each other and play pawsies under the door. After the first week, I started letting Pete out for some supervised interaction with the girls. There was a lot of curiousity on his part and some hissing and growling from the girls, but no agression. I kept Pete confined at night, so the girls could have some peace, until he'd been home about three weeks. Things worked out even better than I expected. To my surprise, Pete and Katie became good buddies, despite an 11-year age difference. Gracie was little slower to accept her brother, but she came around.

I agree with the others about adopting two kittens if you can. Like I said,
it worked great adding Pete to the family, but there were times I felt a little bad for him because he was (and still is) so much more active than the girls. I ended up adopting Pete's littermate, Claire, about 9-months after him and, besides the fact that she's a sweet, beautiful cat, he now has a playmate his age and loves it. Even better is the bond they share as littermates, snuggling and grooming each other.

Good luck with your new addition!
 

consumerkitty

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 4, 2005
Messages
2,708
Purraise
9
Location
AJ, CC, & MS's Apartment
When I adopted my second kitty, April Joy was not happy. She was eight months old and he was seven months old. It took her three months to stop hissing and growling.

In July when they were 2 1/2 years old I was adopted by a kitten. He was about 13 weeks old. After a short introduction phase, April Joy accepted him as if he were her own child. I think it depends on their individual purrsonalities. A little youth in your household could make your kitties more active and playful.
 

kittiekitten

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Mar 3, 2006
Messages
260
Purraise
11
Hi! I have 6 cats so I have been there a few times before!

A few months ago I took in 2 cats who were being starved. Sascha tried to very agressively attack them when I let them meet. We held the 2 new cats in the bedroom for a few days and slowly started introducing the nicer cats first, if there was hissing and whatnot we would let them hiss and if it got too bad we would seperate them. When it came to Sascha we held her and sat on the couch and let the cats come closer to her. We would not let her go and it showed her the new cats were not there to fight. Sascha could see the other cats (3 others, 2 are her babies, a little over 1 yr old at the time) interacted with the 2 new cats. We did this to her a few times for 5 minutes at a time. When the time came we let her out she didnt attack right away. There was hissing and she would eventually try and attack but we would break it up and seperate them. The attacks were not as aggressive as they had been. Quickly the attacks stopped and slowly they started exhisting together w/o anger. Sascha recently started cleaning the younger new cat and they play now.

I think it is great you want to take in another cat! I would definately try it out if you want. I hope this helped! It takes time, but it was well worth it
 

stripeytiger

TCS Member
Young Cat
Joined
Sep 4, 2007
Messages
27
Purraise
1
Location
U.K.
I just adopted a 4 month old kitten and introduced him to my two existing cats (aged 6 and 8). If you do a search theres some really good introduction topics on this forum which I found really useful when introducing them


I hope that you don't have any problems, neutered males are usually more accepting than females and in general kittens are easier to introduce than older cats. But you should be aware that it may not be plain sailing and that it may take time to get used to each other. Kittens are fun but hard work. I'd forgotten how lively they are and how much attention they demand


When I introduced the kitten my female cat wasn't happy and didn't want to know, and even though my neutered male was ok with him, he did not want to play with a very active youngster. The kitten was desperate to get to know them, following them around and wanting to play but they were getting cross. I ended up getting another kitten for him to play with and he's happier and my original cats get some peace! But i'm not sure if thats a solution for everyone.
 
Top