Bringing a New Kitten into a Two-Cat (Neutered Males) Household

Hi all!

I have two cats, both neutered males. One, Parker, is a six year old, 24.2 pound Maine Coon (we're working on the weight issue!) who has decided that he does not want to be the sole companion to my second cat, George (aka "Monkey") a two year old orange tabby DSH that I adopted from a shelter when he was 10 weeks old.

Monkey is a very active, energetic kitten-like cat who wants nothing more than to play with Parker all day long. Parker, on the other hand, is not only too hefty to do much playing, but he just doesn't want to play all that often. He is much more content snoozing on his cat tower or drooling over the birds that come to the bird feeder outside our window.

My boyfriend and I are looking at getting a third cat, preferably a kitten, that can be a play companion for Monkey so that Parker can have a little "me time".

These are my questions:

1) Should we adopt a male or female kitten? Would a female kitten be too timid for an all-male household?

2) Should we adopt a young kitten (8 weeks to four months) or an older kitten (5 months to a year old)? I have only ever adopted young kittens, and I have to say, I love the fast and deep bond that kittens develop, not only with their humans but also with their feline "siblings". I know that older cats can have a harder time being adopted out, but would an older cat (especially since we are looking to adopt from a shelter) come with too much emotional "baggage" to fit in easily with our household? This will be the first cat that my boyfriend has ever chosen before, and (it sounds a little selfish to me, so I can understand that it might sound selfish to you all as well), I don't want him to have a negative experience by adopting a cat that will do nothing but hiss and hide for weeks or months before finally emerging.

Any advice from the cat community would be more than welcome! I want to do right by my boyfriend and my "boys", and the last thing I want to do is end up with a cat that doesn't fit in well with our house.

Thanks!

Thanks for all the insights! I'm starting to think that a boy might be the best way to go as well.... We'll be adopting from a shelter, so now the process will begin of checking out the shelters and seeing what kittens they have available. Even in a state like Oklahoma that has a terrible feral animal problem (people don't like fixing their pets and are more than willing to toss a "knocked up" cat outside until after she's had her litter), January is not the best time to be finding a rescue kitten. December was a big month for the shelters here (all adoptions were only $25 all month).

And to answer you, Glenman, yes, Parker is a BIG boy... :) The weight gain kind of snuck up on me over the last several years. When he was 2, he weighed 14 pounds, and he was a sleek boy - just really REALLY long. The vet said that was a good weight for him to be at. However, over the next four years, he just continued to gain weight. Both cats are on indoor, weight control food, but they got a quarter cup each twice a day that they basically "grazed" on all day. I decided right before Thanksgiving that I was going to have to put a stop to it. Parker had gotten to the point where he couldn't even keep himself clean. Let me tell you that bathing a cat twice a week just to clean his "behind" was NOT what I wanted to be doing.

Now we have both cats on Wellness Grain-Free wet food, and he's lost nearly a pound in just over a month. Granted, I started him off with just about the same caloric intake he was already getting (I've heard that drastic weight loss in cats can be really taxing on their livers), and I am now starting to drop his food by .5 ounces every two weeks. He, unlike my 2 year old, is not as fond of the wet food as he was of the dry, but he's eating it, and I think we'll see some significant improvements in his weight.

I am just extremely thankful that he's not diabetic or has any kind of hypothyroid condition. He's just a big boy who can't process that carb-filled wet food very well :)

They SHOOT them?! I honestly don't know if that happens here, and frankly (since I'm forced to live here for the foreseeable future), I would rather NOT know! We have some free spay/neuter programs, but they usually come with relatively restrictive income limits. Once a year they open up the restrictions and have a whole week where all you have to do is call and make the appointment, but it doesn't BEGIN to solve the problem.

It's the same here with the animal cruelty laws, though. My little Monkey was one such case that actually DID get prosecuted. He was thrown out of a truck in a brown paper bag with his brother and sister in front of the Oklahoma City police chief's wife. The first animal cruelty case to be charged and convicted in the last, like, 8 or 9 years. I fostered all three kittens for four weeks because the shelters will not accept kittens under 2 lbs and gave two back when they weighed enough to be adopted out. My Monkey was the one I kept :)

I've already looked on Petfinder and found a couple kittens that I would like to go "meet" later this week! :D