How many cats is too many for a normal household?

[Rainyrunway]

Could have put this in the cats topic but wanted to get the views of less "catty" people.
We were devastated that our cat died over the weekend after getting hit by a car. And our other cat seems distressed, keeps raoming around the house yowling. I can only assume she's calling him. She also is much clingier than normal which probably means she's lonely I guess.
So we'd like to get a kitten at the end of the summer to keep her company and to fill the hole that our other cat has sadly left.
The problem is that while our resident cat would probably love the company, I think a kitten constantly jumping on her to play might be a bit annoying for her (she's 3 and a half) So we were thinking of maybe getting 2 so they could run around and jump on each other but resident cat will still have company while we're at work etc.
Is 3 weird? Will our house be gross? We could obviously just adopt an adult cat instead otherwise but I worry that resident cat will not accept an adult in the way she would a kitten (or 2!) Thoughts please. Thank you

One

3

Two per human.

Ha fair enough. Maybe I should have framed the question as "for someone who has cats, how many is too many" 😂

We've got 3 I think 2 to 3 is normal

Well I have 6 so I’m the wrong person to ask! 😺😺😸😸😹😿

Yeah I love cats but 6 is too many for me!

3 is fine as long as you keep them all inside. Otherwise 0.

I have nine rescues and a dog.

I know someone who has four cats and a dog. She adopted the cats as kittens. The dog sort of adopted them, acted like their mother and is always trying to round them up and fuss over them. I don’t notice that her house was smelly or dirty.

We have 3 which is a pretty good balance as means the power balance is shifted a bit from when we had 2. I would suggest maybe get a slightly older cat than kitten if your cat is a little older themselves. Might take away some of the craziness in the kitten years (I know they're technically not kittens after a year but from experience they are kitten-daft for about 3 years!)
Sorry for your loss of your other kitty, they really are family so I'm sorry to hear you've had a loss xxxx

0 unless they are indoor cats then have as many as you like 🤢

We have 4. Our house isn’t gross 🤣

I think up to four is a normal number, more than that and I'd assume you were running a rescue.

We have a normal sized house, 2 kids and a dog. We have 3 cats and I feel we are at peak cat capacity. They have 2 large litter trays in the hall and 1 in the bathroom and keeping on top of them is a bit of a chore but manageable I think anymore would push me over the edge.

Hair wise I don't really notice as the dog sheds that much henjust gets blamed for all the hair.

Food wise they are actually all happy to eat and drink from the same bowls (they take turns) so that's worked out OK.

So I would say 3 is OK as long as they are not the long haired variety that need daily grooming etc.

Two.

Why the going-to-be-sick/unwell emoji? That's a weird choice.

I have 2 but when I had 3, the balance was at its best.

3 is probably the upper limit if you aren't a breeder or rescue or something

Ime if you want a friend for your grieving dcat get 1..
One of our pair of brothers died. Dcat was traumatised. After 5 months I caved..
After 2 weeks he was happy again...

We have three which is our limit but that's more down to finances than anything else.

I'm also a cat sitter and I'd say 1-3 is average but I used to look after a household of seven. They all had outdoor access though which I think made a difference.

I had four cats and two big dogs (plus three kids). I think as many as you want, as long as the males are neutered, so they don’t mark territory, and you clean any litter trays regularly. Obviously this goes along with normal cleaning and vacuuming. My house wasn’t gross in any way shape or form. My cats went outside, so the only problem I got was the occasional “present “ of mice and birds. I presently have two cats and medium dog. Animals make a house a home.

Oo @Fantapops thats interesting. Can I ask in what way?

And they won't be kept inside. Resident cat already goes out during the day so could change that or I think she'd go mad. We have 1 litter tray in the bathroom and one covered one under an overhanging roof in the garden. I guess I'd need another one indoors while the kittens were too young to go out (if we did get 2)

It surely depends on the size of your house. If you live in a country mansion with 3 acres of land, maybe 10? In my 4 bed semi, with a postage stamp London sized garden, we currently have 1 - we could manage 2 but I think 3 would be too much.

We had the same as you - one of a pair died prematurely and the other one wasn’t coping so we got her two kittens.

She absolutely loved them and it was definitely the right decision. When two of them passed away (one car, the original cat old age) we didn’t get any more and the remaining cat is definitely happy being solo so I think you know what’s right for them.