Adding second cat - good idea or not?

[CoastalWave]

We have a one year old rag doll cross boy who is absolutely gorgeous! We rescued him, he was only 6 weeks old when we got him and in some respects a little faulty (!) - quite a few 'normal' cat things he doesn't do, so we can only suspect it's because he left his mum too early.

Anyway. We really regret not rescuing his brother at the same time and wonder if it's too late to get a second kitten?

We've been offered first dibs on a maine coon cross (girl kitten) and wondered if this would be a good match?

I've had a good look at the existing threads on this board, and seen some good tips for getting a second cat to settle but very few for actually how to tell whether it will work or not?

Current cat is fairly chilled out. Will play bite/scratch if he's had enough but generally very friendly. He goes outside. Doesn't sit on your knee but will happily purr if you pick him up.

There is absolutely no way to tell beforehand if it'll work or not. Even entirely gregarious cats, or ones who have happily cohabited with others at a previous home, can be totally against having another cat/pet in 'their domain'. That's why you never hear about it!

Dare to try? We did, one rescue cat from a group-home shelter followed rapidly by a pair of kittens. Three years later and they're just now starting to play nice together.

I'd probably get another ragdoll if you do go for it. I've got Persians and apparently they don't get on that well with normal cats. I originally had two sisters. One died and the remaining cat gets on so much better with her adopted sister than her real one!

I started with 2 brothers - lost one to a road accident then added another then another and now have added another 2! So 5 in total. They get on in varying degrees - ages range from 2-13. Have the odd ‘fight’ but nothing serious and they all appear happy.

We are in the same situation. We have a gorgeous tabby boy we rehomed as a young adult. We were both working and a kitten was a bad idea. This fella is perfect for us and we love him dearly. But we keep contemplating another cat, as a friend for him. The only thing stopping us is if the new cat makes him unhappy. Be interesting what others say on this.

Started with a kitten, introduced a slightly younger kitten after a couple of months- initial hissing/growling then utterly in love, cuddled up washing each other.

A year later initial kitten was killed by a car. After another couple of months of the remaining cat following me round looking lost and lonely, we got another (Maine coon cross-by god she eats a lot!) kitten. Initial hissing but as before they were snuggled up together by week 3.

I don't know if we just got lucky- don't get me wrong, the initial introductions were horrible tense times but it did work out and I personally think cats are happier in pairs, especially if they're both young enough to play together as yours would be. Good luck!

Thanks for sharing experiences :) It's a tricky one isn't it? Current cat is absolutely adored and spoilt rotten but he does spend every evening from 4pm on his own due to us both working evenings (and kids out at sports) I just feel it would be nice for him to have some company.

I would be able initially to reduce the amount of time they'd be on their own together but the plan long term is so he has someone to be with of an evening.

I'm currently in the process of adopting a second cat. Thought long and hard about it. What helped me decide was that my feelings of wanting a second kitty weren't going away. I then fostered a couple of kits with a local grassroots rescue (lots all over facebook) to gauge how things might pan out and the acceptance/tolerance level of resident cat.
She was fine after careful intros.
What matters most imo is selecting temperament, as far as that may be known in advance. More difficult to do so with kittens but parental temperament is an indicator.
I chose to rehome an adult as resident cat is 12. Temperament and compatibility with other cats can be established more easily although it's harder for an adult cat to settle than a kitten I believe, so maybe an older kitten (9 months onwards)
Still kittenish, playful and adaptable with established temperament. Good luck!

We've recently adopted a foster kitten who's been with us since she was 2 days old (fostered with her litter - we didn't have to hand rear!).

The best we hoped for was that our standoffish 3-year-old cat might tolerate having a kitten in the house if it was small enough. To everyone's surprise, after a week or so they were playing together, rather galumphingly on the part of the older cat.

BigCat does get pissed off sometimes and cuff her round the ears, but they seem to seek each other out, and I've also spotted an occasional affectionate lick on the head from the big one.

The only problem we have is that the dog mistakes 'playing' for 'someone is beating up my cat!!' and bossily splits them up.

(I'm interested that you were allowed to introduce your fosters to your resident cat, Raisin -- we aren't permitted to do that with any cat on foster, so they didn't meet until she was officially ours.)

Cats are not social creatures. They do not need the company of other cats and do not generally crave it. Unless you have a lot of space for them inside and out I'd leave it at one. Multi cat households can be very stressful for cats. I think we ask way too much of them.
If you do get a new cat I'd advise the you have at least N (number of cats) +1 of litter trays, beds, feeding stations, water stations, and perchs. Use feliway friend plug ins and introduced the new kitten slowly. Do not expect them to be best buddies. Don't force anything. Make sure your original cat has a bolt hole/safe place away from the kitten.
Good luck, remember that if you get a new kitten you're doing it for you as your current cat sounds blissfully happy.

I agree with all of that, Drunkvet -- and yet our older cat genuinely seems taken with our new little demon!

She spends much more time inside the house than she ever used to, following the kitten from room to room, playing hide and seek, sitting on the same windowsill/fishtank/sofa, and sometimes wrestling each other.

Admittedly BigCat is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

I disagree with Drunkvet (for the second time today - nothing personal!). Many cats do genuinely love other cats and seek them out and obviously have richer lives because they have cat company. Some cats don't care either way and some want to be the only cat in the village.

I do agree with the rest of her advice though.

@thecatneuterer maybe it's because I get to see all the problems when people try to introduce cats that I'm more negative. But I am correct that biologically cats are not social creatures. When feral they will tolerate each other to share resources but they are not pack or herd animals. Sibling females or mother/daughter relations will often raise kittens together but again that tends to be resource related. Indeed some cats do like the company of other cats but my point is that they won't miss it if they haven't had it. Just like a female cat wont miss not having a litter of kittens because she is neutered.
For some cats a multi cat household is a massive welfare issue and if I had a happy singleton id have to think long and hard before running the risk.

I agree that in some multi cat households it is a problem (and I have seen many like that) but in many it isn't. It entirely depends on the household and the cats. I have twenty years experience in a vets and in rescue - dealing with welfare issues and particularly feral cat colonies. It really does all depend.

And whatever the science books say I totally disagree about feral colonies - having studied them first hand for years. Many individuals in feral colonies are incredibly closely bonded. The same goes for individuals in multicat households. In my multicat house (20 plus cats) for example, even though there are many, many beds, the cats will usually choose to all share beds in big huddles, while other beds remain empty. There is a lot of mutual grooming and some pairs in particular are inseparable. But it really does depend on the individual cats. And I only take on/keep cats that evidently like other cats.

In our rescue we see many cats who are desperate to be in the company of other cats, some that don't care and some that don't want anything to do with other cats. So I agree that you need to be careful when introducing a new cat, and you really need to choose one that has been proven to like other cats, but I would never say to anyone that they shouldn't do it.

Weirdly, I would have said that our BigCat didn't like other cats. She was rehomed to us with that warning as she was bullied by her siblings, avoided our other elderly cat for years and was very unkeen on hearing foster-mother cats in the house. She just seems strangely keen on this kitten.

I think much of it depends on what your cat is used to living with. A solo indoor cat of many years is less likely to take to a new arrival than a cat that's always lived in a multicat home. If your current cat goes out, you can tell something from their reactions to other cats there. If not, then it's more guesswork. In general, kittens are more readily accepted by cats in such circumstances.

I agree with what thecatneuterer says above that many cats just seem really drawn to each others company and genuinely enjoy it. I currently have four cats and pretty much 90% of the time they choose to be in the same room if not even closer together, even though we have a 2/3 bed house with a garden and plenty of cat trees, high places, warm places, all sorts of places they could choose instead. They are all used to always living with other cats though (and are two sibling pairs). I did have an older cat before who never took kindly to other cats and had mostly lived solo.

And probably some multicat home problems people have are down to inadequate resources provided... I know some homes that have just one litter box, and one bowl of dry food left out all day, one small scratching post in the whole home... it's not hard to imagine why the cats become competitive over territory in those circumstances...

I would love more cats so we are fostering kittens. It means we can try before we buy so to speak. One of my cats is very sociable and is very good teaching kittens how to cat. So far we haven't had one that she and I have both fallen for. We would be knee deep in kittens if this one had her way.

I currently have five cats... I have about 20 beds(in various locations around the house), six litter trays and three feeding stations... They choose to sleep together by choice in the same room. Use the same litter tray by choice and mostly eat from only one of the feeding station altogether by choice. Two are pedigree, two came from a terrible hoarding situation and one is a long term foster with multiple health problems. They actively cry out for each other and will sit outside my downstairs loo if one of them gets shut in there by accident.
Just saying....

We have an older Ragdoll (14 years old) and we got a kitten Ragdoll (I say kitten, she was about 7 months old at the time but still young). Old lady ragdoll has had a dog and another cat in her life share our home, she's never had any problems with them, doesn't bother with them and quite happy.

She took a real dislike to new cat, new cat also isn't really laid back like her, far more insane (only way i can describe her). We tried feliway plug in, I guess it worked to an extent. She tolerates kitten, it's been over a year now and she's still not sold on the idea.

It's a bigger age gap than you have for sure, but looking back I don't think we would of done it again. Feliway plug in is a really good one to try (as well as pet remedy). When we brought kitten home, we had pet remedy plugged in to ease her transition to a new home and it totally chilled her out.

I think if you're going to do it, do it while the other cat is still young.

One of my cats is very sociable and is very good at teaching kittens how to cat

I think our littl'un is teaching BigCat how to kitten! She missed out on it a bit through being a much-bullied BillyNoMates when she was tiny.

Have recently introduced a pair of kittens to my resident cat after her chum died earlier this year. I think although she was only a singleton for a short period, she rather liked it! There's been a bit of hissing and cat is hiding away a lot, but they all have lots of space and I shut the kittens away at night so other cat has free reign over the house. I expect it will take a while.
I don't think cats always need company, we got the kittens for us not for the other cat.

Many years ago when my kitten had grown to about 18months old, I got a second, adult cat. They hated one another for the rest of their lives and made each other miserable. (Both moggy rescues).

I now have only one cat, she is very spoiled and contented. I really don't think she minds being home alone when we're at work/school at all, she sleeps or prowls around outside (cat flap always open).

So from my personal experience, unless I got a pair from the off, I wouldn't introduce a second.

I’ve just been reading a book called ‘What Your Cat is Thinking’ and it presents the evidence from studies on various different aspects of cat behaviour.

There is a study mentioned in there that looked at stress levels in cats in multi-cat households and single cat households, by measuring cortisol levels. They found that in cats under the age of 2, stress levels were lower in multi-cat households compared to if they were the lone cat. For cats older than two, they found no difference in stress levels between multi-cat and single cat households. They thought this was due to younger cats being able to satisfy their need for play more easily when there is another cat around, which reduces stress.

We currently have an 18 month old boy and an almost 12 year old girl and we’re getting a kitten at the start of next year. At the minute our youngster has nobody to play with (we adopted his brother too but he died earlier this year). In my experience of introducing new cats, it’s stressful for a while but in time usually settles down - even if they really don’t get on at first!

I have a 10yr old Bengal and even though I'm tempted there is no way I'd even try. He's a indoor and treated like a king by all his servants so to introduce another would really upset the water. But if because yours is not so old or spirited as mine by past experience , I'd get a girl and not a boy as he might see the boy as a threat then except to leave them to sort it out over a couple of weeks and they will be fine fingers crossed 🤞

Here's a photo of said spoilt Bengal

Lots of points for thought here. Thank you.