Kitten vs cat

[Frazzledmum55]

I’ve got the chance to get 1 year old cat. Aside from the cuteness factor what are the benefits of a kitten over a cat?
I do have my heart set on a kitten, have done for a while but I’m now wondering whether to get the older cat. Apparently a friendly lap cat.

Are all kittens bitey, scratchy, pouncy things? I haven’t had a kitten for a very very long time but I vaguely remember being it’s prey, and being scared to walk around corners as it would pounce on me What age do they grown out of that play and calm down?

I think I may be in a minority here - but I think kittens are absolutely brilliant.

There's no denying kittens are brilliant, but you have to weigh up whether a few weeks of kitten cuteness are that important when, all being well, your cat will be with you as an adult for at least 15 years!

I also love the "gangly adolescent" stage a PP mentioned. They look like proper little cats but are still rubbish at catting.

I love dogs but I would never ever ever ever have a puppy. Ever.

They look like proper little cats but are still rubbish at catting.

Our 10 month old gangly thug adolescent is better at catting than our 10 year old cat he is super agile, she is essentially a furry potato

I’m pretty sold on the one year old now. Just hope it works out as if not it’ll be back to looking for a kitten

Just to be clear, by work out, I mean that I get the one year old.

Good luck! Our first cats were a mum and son bonded pair. 2 and 18 months.
Old enough to behave like cats but young enough to play and be fun!

One year old is still practically kitten, in our books - hardly an ‘older cat’ at all.

They look much the same past about 16 weeks anyway.

Is he or she neutered? That’s a hassle that is good to get out of the way, if so.

Definitely still kittenish. Our old girl lived to be 19.

We took in a pregnant stray and kept both her and her kittens. We've had no issues with the babies at all. Mum taught them to use the litter tray and they didn't bite or scratch us. This is probably because they all had each other.
The nice thing is that ALL of them are lap cats. I suppose that's because we are all they have ever known though.
They are 1 in march and honestly, they are a breeze.

We got our two kittens as a brother and sister when they were 10 weeks old - they had occasional moments of trying to climb our legs and being destructive but they were generally lovely and have now turned into the most ridiculous/cuddly/affectionate/talkative little pair.

I think as they had each other they burnt out a lot of their energy playing together, learnt that teeth and claws hurt really quickly (we've never been scratched [except if they're playing and miss the feather!] or bitten), and they were super confident and friendly - even on their first day they were straight up and exploring rather than hiding away or getting spooked.

So I'd recommend if you don't get the 1 year old to get 2 bonded kittens - and much easier than getting one and then trying to add another cat at a later date.

That may be true about kitten pairs in general, Wiggle, but our two cats are unrelated, four years apart in age, both socially inept runts of their litters, and play together daily.

Our previous cats were twin siblings and loathed each other for a good 16 years.

Some of it’s just luck!

We have sister siblings who loathe each other!

I’ve had both. I’d happily take an older cat over a kitten.

I’ve had 3 older cats from rescue, ranging from about 3-5 when I got them and all have been amazing.