2 kittens - 1 kitten or none?!

[herewegoagogo]

Help me decide…

I have a 2y male cat now, a 5y dog, 11y & 13y children. My daughter’s best friend’s cat has had kittens and my daughter has fallen in love with one. I had intended to get another cat some day but this opportunity has come up. I’ve never had a kitten before. We rescued our other cat at 1y.

How hard are kittens? I keep reading 2 is ‘easier’ than one as they occupy each other and less destructive etc? Or do I not get one at all?!

Help as I’m being indecisive….

With an existing male cat I'd only get 1 kitten and make sure she's a female

Kittens can be chaos, but also highly entertaining!
Our current pair are not particularly destructive apart from being in their wire chewing phase so we're having to hide any wires and keep a close eye on them.

I'd say it depends on the personality of your older cat (and dog too) - kittens love to play whether older pets want to join in or not, and if the older ones are a bit more chilled then I'd say get two so the kittens have each other to play with. If the two year old cat is friendly and playful then one could be fine.

Thanks can you explain why for me?

Sorry, yes. Generally we say 2 kittens so they can play together & direct some of their kitten energy away from you but you've already got another cat and I wouldn't want him to be outnumbered. Hopefully he'll play with the kitten in time too - should certainly teach kitten manners!

IME getting a female kitten when you already have a male adult cat works best because it removes male competition and makes introducing a 2nd cat easier.

We adopted a single kitten (18 weeks) when our girl was 5yrs, she hated him as he wanted to play and she did not. When he passed from a heart condition at 4.5yrs we adopted 2 kittens. Our girl didn’t love them, but tolerated them much more as all the kitten energy went on each other.

The other good thing about 2 kittens is they play fight each other so they learn biting hurts, much less likely to grow up with bad biting behaviours when you have two.

I now volunteer at a rescue and unless you already have a single kitten in the home, we only adopt out pairs of kittens.