Adopting older kittens

[Hereandthere2]

TLDR: are 6 month old kittens likely to be less adaptable than younger kittens?
Hi! New to this group but have had an older cat (adopted aged 10) who sadly recently died of cancer after 7 years.
my family is me and 3 boys (12, 9, 4) and we are looking at kittens. I have met some 5month old kittens recently. They’ve been in a shelter since 2 days old (came in with mum). The rest of the litter have now been adopted but these 2 have yet to clear ring worm so still there.

I went to meet them and sat in with them for 45 mins and they were initially very fixated on their lunch (I can relate!) then came to investigate me. I had to wear a bio suit and rubber gloves (which I imagine is mostly how they’ve seen humans) but they weren’t all that affectionate or playful when I was there. The shelter were happy with our set up and they’ve said we can reserve them.
I guess my question is-having been in a shelter for their whole life and now 6 months old are they likely to be a bit less sociable with people? I have 3 boys who couldn’t meet them yet due to the ringworm and I’m going to ask the shelter if we can hold off formal acceptance until I’ve seen how they are with them.
I (guiltily) met further cats at a different shelter yesterday and they were a lot more on it with looking for clues as to how the cats were finding the interaction, reading cat’s body language etc with my 4 year old and it highlighted to me things I’d never have noticed with the kittens.

I then thought maybe young kittens who grow up always around kids will be a better fit?

Forgot the kitten tax!

I've never adopted a kitten but we adopted an 18 months old cat who was never socialised, never played with another cat (after he was split up from his litter mates I assume) or anyone and was just going to be used to breed from. He is the most loving and playful cat we've ever had. I think that once kittens or cats settle and if they are encouraged they will play.

Why a gorgeous kitten. I think they will have been reasonably used to people because they’ve been in the shelter, it’s not like a feral cat who doesn’t have any trust or humans.

Hi Op did the rescue centre say how long they’ve had ringworm did they contract it from the shelter or have they had it for 6 months of being there sorry if it’s a dull question to ask.
My only concern would be that if this is an ongoing medical issue the costs for you and risks for your family if it was to come back or not fully cleared up.
I would perhaps carry on looking at other shelters with your children after all you need to make sure the kittens or cats are right match for your family as well as you for them.
If it’s kittens you want I would look for others to see how they interact/personality kittens adapt quickly when given time and space to settle into new home and like us humans some are going to be more friendly than others.

I don't think you would class him as a kitten, but we adopted our boy when he was just past one. He had been born in a woman's shed and lived outdoors with his sibling until she finally took pity on them when it got beyond freezing and brought them in - he was born early January and lived outside (I assume she was actually feeding them) until November. So quite a long time of either no or not much human contact. He took a wee while to settle - although was always polite and friendly, good litter tray manners etc - but is honestly the best boy now. He just turned three and is my funny, cuddly wee pal, he likes being picked up and cuddled like a baby, and will nuzzle right into the crook of my neck. (He always smells nice!) He absolutely loves toys and has a wicker hamper of various mouses and balls and things which he will play with himself if no-one's around, but he particularly likes things on sticks that we play with with him. When we started letting him out he was a bit wary - I think it took him a while to be certain he would get back in, but now he knows he's home he likes being out in the garden as well as lying on the heated blanket.

Like you, we had lost our ten year old cat to cancer before we adopted him. He is a very different cat to our beautiful girl, and I had to work a bit to get him to love me, but I am actually glad about that as he was a bit of a "project" (a "labour of love"?) which I really needed at a time when I was truly heartbroken at saying goodbye to her.

We adopted two kittens when they were five months old. They’d been in foster care the whole time. Apart from them being scared at first, and hiding under the sofa for three days, they soon came out of their shells!
One is more dog than cat, very affectionate and placid.
The other is slightly timid (but getting braver by the day). She is a lap cat though, and loves to sit on me at any opportunity she gets.

I really think it’s down to their personality, rather than age.

We’ve had them for 16 months now.

I agree it's more about personality. We adopted siblings aged 5 months who had been born in the shelter and the boy was friendly and affectionate from day one and the girl hid for 2 days. Both affectionate now and playful but the sister is less keen to be picked up and prefers to be the one to instigate a fuss, which is fair enough. However, in the shelter they both were climbing on us and asking for cuddles - boy went straight for it and girl a couple of minutes behind.

Thanks so much for all your responses. It’s really helpful to hear of all these gorgeous cats who started out from different places (an out door shed was sad) coming out of their shell. They said they ringworm had been an issue as they were all housed together a just kept passing it back and forth to each other. Since they split the litter up they’ve managed to get on top of it and these are the last 2 to still have it. I assume their mum must have had it as they were only 2 days old when thy arrived in the shelter with it. We aren’t allowed them
until they are clear of ringworm 2 tests in a row (and it takes 2 weeks to know if the test is negative) so earliest of 3 weeks time. They’ve not had vaccinations yet due to the medications they’re on so I presume they’ve been on them a long time. The rest of the litter have settled in very well into their homes apparently . They have had a rough start, been pretty ill with cat flu too so we know insurance will be tricky/lots of exemptions.

Ahh bless them I would look at insurance we sadly had to walk away from a kitten that had cat flu it broke my heart but as we already had an older cat at home and after consulting with our own vet it was decided it was in the best interest for the kitten to stay were it was so that it could get the best care possible it was heartbreaking had grown so attached to him but the medication wasn’t working his one eye had gone cloudy and we knew it would cost thousands in medical treatment if he needed to see specialists or continue on medications.
It would have been a different story if he had contracted that while living with us would have paid of course for him to be seen and cared for but I think when you are faced with that before taking ownership it’s something you need to look into if you could afford the high vet bills when not covered by insurance.
Also op if they’ve had cat flu they are likely to get it again you can read it up online stress can cause it to come back and it would be something you wouldn’t be covered with on insurance as they’ve had it before.

It’s great they are treating the ringworm seriously. Ours came to us with ringworm. I noticed patches and messaged to ask advice and was told it could be “dry skin” and to try Vaseline…! Eventually, we were told another kitten had ringworm at the shelter. We took them to the vet and the charity paid the consultation fees and we paid for the treatment. I then caught ringworm!! But, all worked out okay in the end!

I’m sorry to hear you caught ringworm from your cat-it makes me itch to think of it! I hope they clear it so we can collect them soon. Yes I was interested to read that cat flu is not like our flu is it. I gather it’s pretty common for cats to be carriers of it but obviously as we know, we won’t get insured for any related issues with it. I fully get why you walked away from the kitten who had it at the time funkymonks as vets are so costly now. I’m hoping we get lucky and don’t get many flare ups but you never know. My friend’s cat has cost her thousands as it’s just been run over and got a pulled tail so lost sensation and function to its bowel and bladder. They’re giving him a few weeks at home to see if he recovers but she has to manually press on his bladder to get his bladder empty. I think it can be hard knowing where to draw the line with what you could do (if you pay enough) and what you should do when it comes to pets. Insurance is vital now but be bot something my parents would ever have dreamed of getting when I was young.

The outdoor shed is very sad, but honesty, he is truly living his best life now - look at him! Today he was having a snooze on our bed while I was working from home, so I put the electric blanket on to make it cosy for him. The shed days are very much in the past.