3 cats?

[WildFlowerBees]

We've got 2 cats brother and sister now around 11 both rescues to us from kittens. We've been asked if we'd be interested in taking in another, we could possibly foster but is 3 too many given cats are meant to be solitary and ours are very well established?

I'd love to help but my poppets need to come first.

Any thoughts?

I have two cats, have had them for 10+ years and whilst they aren't best friends, they plod along fine together. Because rhwy were so amenable, I went and got a third. Well, one of the cars hated this little thing. I persevered for around a year but eventually my mum took the little one because the biggest cat bullied him mercilessly and I didn't feel he had a good quality of life.

So, if the status quo is nice with 2 cats, I would leave it be. I mean, you might be absolutley fine to introduce another but my experience was not great.

I tend to get pairs of cats (kittens) together so even if they don't get on with the incumbents they have each other.
So when I get down to 2 cats I then go back up to 4. Seems to work.

I would say, I think it depends on the ages of existing cats and how tolerant they are of change more generally. Are they anxious or pretty laid back?

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats I like that idea. I wonder if I could swing that theory with DH

It seems to depend entirely on the individual cats. And that thing about cats being solitary is crap IMO. You only have to look at feral cat colonies to see that they most definitely are not solitary.

Three cats is nothing (I presume they have outdoor access). So as long as none of them are out and out cat-haters it should be fine eventually when they get used to each other.

It depends on their personalities and how much effort you want to do with gradual introductions. My daughter got a kitten to keep her older cat company but not realising that a hunter cat wouldn't really want to mother a kitten....we all went grey trying to keep that kitten alive until it was big enough not to be seen as prey,they still fought horrendously at times but could tolerate each other enough. Personally I wouldn't want to upset my older cats by bringing in another, there are plenty of stories where the older resident cat goes off to live with neighbours due to another younger cat coming in.

I always seem to have 3. They all come from the streets and generally rub along nicely. thecatneuterer is right. I've got one cat that no other cats like, but I keep her separate and protected.

We have three and I know loads of people who have multiple cats without any issues.

I'm not remotely convinced cats are solitary animals either - as @thecatneuterer says, if that was the case, feral colonies wouldn't be a "thing", surely? Unless you have one cat who actively hates other cats, or who has serious anxiety issues, I can't imagine it being an issue.

Our three are different ages, different genders and from three different households - we've never once had an issue - they get on absolutely fine. They play together, share food/water/litter trays, curl up together in bes etc. It's fine.