Adopting two kittens into single cat household

Hi all,

We are considering adding a kitten to our household. We have a four year old female cat who is super sweet, and we've been told she gets along with other cats. (We rescued her about 9 months ago and she lived with dozens of cats at the rescue.) While super sweet, she is fairly aloof. She rarely gets on our laps, and she doesn't sleep with us. She kind of does her own thing. (It is possible that she is older than four. She has major mouth issues and we just had 11 teeth pulled due to resorptive lesions and stomatitis.)

Anyway, we are considering adding a male kitten to the family. But lately I have been wondering if maybe adopting two male siblings would be better. Kitten season is starting where I live, and kittens and mamas are already showing up at the local shelter. My thoughts are that a solo kitten will obviously want to play with my current cat. That might work out fine, or more likely, my adult cat will get irritated. Two kittens adopted together would likely play together and keep each other company. But, would they eventually gang up on my current cat?

I know each cat is an individual, but I'd be interested to hear others' opinions on this. We also have three small children who would love to watch kittens play and hopefully end up becoming adult cats who bonded with the kids and wanted to sleep with them. (My older son would be in heaven if he could have a cat sleep with him.) 

Any wisdom to share on adding two kittens to a solo cat household? We have a large bonus room where the kittens would stay until they grew a little and our cat became accustomed to them. We also have space outside to possibly build a catio. 

Thanks for any words of wisdom!

I think adopting two kittens would be an excellent idea. It sounds like you have the ideal home for them and have given the matter a lot of thought.  Those kittens would not just bring you and your family a lot of joy but you would be doing a wonderful thing by giving two kittens a home.

I don't see any reason why they would gang up on your older cat.  It's always possible of course, but these things can't really be predicted.  You may find that she actually thrives on their company and joins in their play.   In fact, you can't even predict that the two kittens will play with each other, although hopefully, you'd be able to get a sense about that at the shelter or rescue.  It is just very difficult to know how cats will react until they are actually in the situation. 

One thing that would help your older cat, if she does get grumpy about the youngsters, is to make sure she has vertical space, like a cat tree or wall shelves.  She will much more secure if she has a place where she can make an escape and they can't follow.

 Just a word about your older cat - you may find that she just needs more time before she sleeps on the bed with you or sits in your lap.  My current cats took a year before they were comfortable sleeping with me and now I have one plastered to each side of my head when I turn out the lights.  

Why two male kittens? If I were you, I would see which kittens at the shelter are bonded siblings. I always think it a shame to split up siblings. Personally, I would not focus on the gender. Two females, two males, a male & female. All would work IMO.

Thanks to both for your advice. The reason I was thinking two male kittens (and I was thinking siblings) is that I've heard the least likely to get along is two females (although not UNLIKELY, just less likely)..so I figured two male siblings might be best. I would be open to a male/female sibling pair too. And, I was thinking of two kittens from the same litter, not from different litters.

thekitty said:

 
Thanks to both for your advice. The reason I was thinking two male kittens (and I was thinking siblings) is that I've heard the least likely to get along is two females (although not UNLIKELY, just less likely)..so I figured two male siblings might be best. I would be open to a male/female sibling pair too. And, I was thinking of two kittens from the same litter, not from different litters.

Click to expand...

 Adopting a pair of siblings is a very nice idea.   My Chula and Paul are brother and sister and it's a delightful combination. They never fight and they seem to have unspoken rules when it comes to swapping dominance.  One will play for awhile as the other one sits watching and then they suddenly switch places.   They are very close and seem to be equal when it comes to whose the boss.    I've also known male siblings who got along very well, but I can't speak from experience about female siblings.  I've had two females together several times without incident but they weren't siblings and essentially ignored each other.