How Many Cats For My Apartment?

[agaminae]

Hi all! I live in a ~950 square foot, 2 bedroom apartment. I currently have 3 cats, all adults. I’ve been itching to add a fourth, because I fell in love with another at the shelter when we added our third, but my wife and I didn’t want to overload ourselves with 2 additional cats at once. I’ve also been really wanting a kitten, seeing as I’ve never gotten to have the raising from kitten to adult experience. So we would either be adding the adult cat we have our eyes on, or a kitten. We have 2 nearly ceiling height cat trees, as well as cat shelves all around the living room. We can have pretty much as many litterboxes as we want since we’re using the spare bedroom as a huge cat bathroom, so that’s not an issue. My main concern is my one female cat who is fairly territorial. She is still hissing at our newest if he gets too close, but no fights have broken out and she is getting better, slowly. We’ll be starting a Feliway multi-cat diffuser later this week to help her out. If we got another, it would be after she has gotten comfortable with our newest.

In summary— 950 sq. foot 2 bd apartment. 3 cats currently, considering a 4th but concerned about room. Does anyone have any experiences they can share with 4+ cats in a 2 bedroom or smaller apartment?

 

[Winchester]

We live in a fairly small house, with five cats and a beagle. I would say that the most important issue (at least to my way of thinking) is that each cat has to have someplace where he or she can go to be alone, whether they want some alone time or if they're not feeling well, etc. That's been our hardest hassle to deal with. Amber will go under the couch when she needs some alone time; Ms. Pepe will hang out under the chair and, for the most part, she's left alone.

Also, with your territorial female, you might want to consider a kitten. Why? Speaking from our experience only with a territorial female, we have found that when we bring a kitten into the house, the other cats will accept it with no problems. The one time that we tried to bring an adult (female - Muffin) cat in, it caused problems with our territorial female (Mollipop). We brought the other cat in about five years ago; to this day, those two do not get along and, in fact, we keep Muffin in a separate room whenever we're not home, simply for her own protection. Mollipop still has her claws and she uses them in fights with other cats. Muffin was declawed (before we got her) and she has actually bled from being attacked by Mollipop. Yet, we brought a kitten (Tabby) into the household with absolutely no problems whatsoever. We think that Mollipop felt threatened by Muffin, whereas Tabby didn't threaten her at all.

And please, this is just what we've dealt with with our clan. You may not have any trouble at all with an adult. I wish you the best of luck with whatever you decide.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

.
A agaminae - The key to a Life well lived is good planning. Eventually, you'll doubtless move to a larger place, and what then? You'll be scrambling to find additional cats to fill the new space, and no one wants that. I'd add the new cats immediately. Cats are like fluids - they conform to their container!

Cat Caveat: Never take advice from a man who has eleven cats.
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[foxxycat]

I would add a kitty kat-life is short-save a kitty is my saying. I think you guys have plenty of room-a spare room just for them! You can add cat beds/towers in front of the window(s) in there to help them spread out if they wanted alone time. All my windows have cat beds/perches. They all use them. I am in a small place too. They love sleeping under things-so we have cat hidey holes in the weirdest places..cats love Forts..at least mine do.

One of them- troublemaker Honeybee stole Pumpkin Face's fort under the elliptical machine=we hung sheets/blankets around the back of it with a box on the back to give it a fort appearance-this is branched off the side of the couch..she's always sleeping in there when Pumps isn't in there. Under the breakfast nook high chairs we draped bathrobes along the backs=so it looks like a cave...so many places for my girls.

As someone who has lost quite a few people in the past few years-life is short.

 

[Blakeney Green]

I actually have exactly what you're considering - three adult cats and one kitten in a two bedroom apartment. It has worked well and there seems to be enough space for everyone to be comfortable. I don't plan to add any more than what I have because things might start getting crowded, but in my experience four cats is a reasonable number.

 

[LTS3]

Is this an apartment you are renting? You should check your lease and landlord first for the pet rules, if any. Some apartments have a pet limit per unit and fines if you have more than the allowed number.

 

[Elfilou]

Gonna be the Debbie Downer here and say I wouldn't do it. For me personally that's not enough space, but that's just my preference. But then theres also the fact that your female is still getting used to one of the cats and I assume she wants some peace and quiet.

I say don't do it and wait for better timing, you still have your entire life to have other cats and to expierence having a kitten. Then again, in my expierence people can rarely be talked out of something like this!

 

[agaminae]

Thank you everyone! I think what we’re going to do is wait a while and see how our female adjusts to our newest member before adding another. We’re going to be in this apartment for 3 more years, so we may just wait until we move out and get a house. Unless a kitten somehow finds US rather than vice versa, seeing as there are tons of stray cats in our neighborhood. Thanks again everyone for the great advice!

Also... They have that spare room entirely to themselves, and they STILL never go in there except to use the litterboxes— they always just hang out with us in the living room!