I will try and keep this post as short as possible as it would be extremely easy to make it very long.
I have had 2 male kittens for a few months, they were on their way to being feral but I trapped them at around 9 wks. One has socialized amazingly well and is part of the family. The has bonded with me, he jumps into my lap, is very affectionate, lets me cut his nails but with anyone else he will hide and and on occasion hiss if approached. They have both been neutered and had their vaccines.
A few weeks ago I finally trapped the mother to be spayed. I was under the assumption she was probably feral and had made arrangement to bring her to a farm. After dropping her off for her spay appt I got a call saying what a sweet cat she was. They were absolutely right and she is now in my home doing well waiting to be adopted as in indoor cat.
My dilemma is my family really likes the super outgoing male and the mother. They haven't been able to bond with the other male for the reasons stated above. I dont want to split them up as they are buddies, however, I dont know if I will be able to convince my family to keep him. In a perfect world I would keep the outgoing male and his mother. I am guessing the mother and son will not remember each other and this point so I would have to introduce them as strangers (living on different floors dont have any contact currently)
Looking for suggestion what to do? Do I split up the brothers, keep them together and hope the reserved kitten comes out of his shell? Keep the mother and son, keep the mother and adopt out the brothers (I like this idea the least as I spend all day with kittens an I am attached at this point)?
All I ever hear when talking about splitting up the kittens is how much better they do together, that they are less destructive, better adjusted etc. Ideally, I would like to keep them together but do the advantages really outweigh some of the challenges I am having with the shy male?
I have had 2 male kittens for a few months, they were on their way to being feral but I trapped them at around 9 wks. One has socialized amazingly well and is part of the family. The has bonded with me, he jumps into my lap, is very affectionate, lets me cut his nails but with anyone else he will hide and and on occasion hiss if approached. They have both been neutered and had their vaccines.
A few weeks ago I finally trapped the mother to be spayed. I was under the assumption she was probably feral and had made arrangement to bring her to a farm. After dropping her off for her spay appt I got a call saying what a sweet cat she was. They were absolutely right and she is now in my home doing well waiting to be adopted as in indoor cat.
My dilemma is my family really likes the super outgoing male and the mother. They haven't been able to bond with the other male for the reasons stated above. I dont want to split them up as they are buddies, however, I dont know if I will be able to convince my family to keep him. In a perfect world I would keep the outgoing male and his mother. I am guessing the mother and son will not remember each other and this point so I would have to introduce them as strangers (living on different floors dont have any contact currently)
Looking for suggestion what to do? Do I split up the brothers, keep them together and hope the reserved kitten comes out of his shell? Keep the mother and son, keep the mother and adopt out the brothers (I like this idea the least as I spend all day with kittens an I am attached at this point)?
All I ever hear when talking about splitting up the kittens is how much better they do together, that they are less destructive, better adjusted etc. Ideally, I would like to keep them together but do the advantages really outweigh some of the challenges I am having with the shy male?
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