adding an adult cat to the family.. questions.

[avocado]

hi catsite,

we recently lost our little girl Carmella due to complications related to anestesia... she was almost three years old, a wonderful cat, and we miss her terribly.

my house is just full of boys now, and we are thinking about adding another girl cat to our family to restore the balance and to take away the hurt of losing our girl a little bit.

i love kittens, but im done with having a kitten for a while. our youngest, Eli, is not yet a year old and im looking forward to him growing up a bit, ha ha. we were thinking of adopting young adult cat or an older kitten, maybe six months to a year at the the youngest. my other boys are pretty social animals and they accepted Eli as a kitten within a day or two. we have also had my auntie's cat come to stay when she went out of town and my cats were fine with her in a short amount of time, though Teddy (auntie's cat) never did stop hissing... she was an only cat, though.

my questions and concerns:

will my boys accept an young cat that is not a kitten.

will a young cat be able to get used to living with my boys (and two large dogs)... if we do adopt another cat, we will take our time and make sure to find one that is familiar with other animals and not too much of a scardy cat... scardy cat would not work in my house.


any input is appreciated.

 

[goldenkitty45]

Males seem to be more willing to accept a new addition. Make sure the female is spayed and used to other cats/dogs.

Confine her to one room for a day or two and slowly introduce them - one at a time - don't overwhelm them with her meeting all the boys at once!

Don't worry about some hissing or growling - that is natural. You can minimize the hissing by putting a little cornstarch baby powder on all the cats so they all smell the same.

 

[avocado]

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Males seem to be more willing to accept a new addition.

thank you, this is the kind of thing i want to hear

.

 

[white cat lover]

I am sorry to hear about the loss of your girl. I have added a female kitten to a home with a 3 year old female & that seemed to go worse than a friend who added a female to an adult male family. Then again, my Twitch can be crabby.

I would think that an adult female would fit fine in your family. Try to fit a cat personality wise. I know a family that had dominant hissy cats & fell in love with a timid cat. We(the HS) would not send the timid cat home with them.

Don't overlook special needs cats. If I were adopting, I would have, that is, until I met Damita. Damita is blind & yesterday, managed to jump up on the didnig room table from the floor! Not all special needs cats are really special needs. That's just my 2 cents trying to educate on special kitties! Good Luck!