Adopting A Kitten That Already Bonded With Someone Else

[Dacatchair]

I have the opportunity to adopt a 4 month old kitten that was previously adopted from it’s Mom at 12 weeks. Something has come up and it needs to be rehomed.

I have no doubt it has bonded with it’s new family and I am wondering how hard it will be on the kitten to get torn away from it’s Mom and first family and then adopted and loved and then torn away from that family and introduced to a new one (me)?

Is there anything I can do to make it easier?

Will being uprooted like this affect the kittens ability to form bonds?

My last kitten was strongly attached to me by that age and I was planning on adopting a 12 week old kitten, but I am hoping this could work.

What have other people experienced with adopting kittens that have already bonded with someone else?

 

[jcat]

The kittens at our shelter bond with their caretakers, especially when they've been bottlefed or nursed through an illness, but that doesn't seem to stop them from bonding with their adopters. It's true of most adult cats, too, so I don't think you have to worry about it. Those that come back for boarding have no trouble at all recognizing the people they'd been attached to and shower them with affection, but they don't act as if they were pining for us.

Our current cat was 9 months old when we got him, and had two stays at the shelter and one former owner behind him. He had no trouble at all becoming our baby.

 

[Dacatchair]

Thanks...that is encouraging!

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

If it was first adopted at 3 months, and is about 4 months now, I think the new transition with you could be relatively seamless. That's only 4 weeks difference; not a ton of time.


If it had been with its previous owners for many months, it could have gotten used to the daily patterns its people went through and also the words those people said a lot to it while they had the kitten (words like, "You cutie!" "I love you!" "Dinner!!" "Let's play!" "Hey, stop that" "My hand is not a toy!", etc. --grin--). So for people adopting cats or kittens in those situations, I'd recommend finding out from the previous family common words or phrases they used for affection or food or play ... then you can pick up those words and use them as well, if you want. You'd think a young kitten wouldn't recognize body language and sounds, but that's not true. They do come to recognize familiar sounds and patterns, and it couldn't help to try to keep up the ones that the previous family had used -- if you like those words and patterns as well.

 

[Dacatchair]

Thank you for the suggestions! I am planning on trying to use the same food and litter but using the same words and phrases had not occurred to me. Last year I was looking to adopt a kitten and I could have gotten one from a Mandarin speaking family, but among several things I had concerns the kitten would feel like I was speaking Chinese... except in reverse. In my experience cats and kittens understand a lot more than we give them credit for!

My last kitten who passed away really surprised me by climbing in my friends lap and having a totally relaxed cat nap. This happened 1/2 hour after she walked in the door the first time. He was a very social and confident kitten and always wanted to be close to the middle of any visiting that was happening, but he never let any of my friends hold him or even pet him more than once. (He was often a lap cat with me) But my friend who lives hundreds of miles away, he greeted same as me and acted like he had known and lived with her too. We have been close since we were teenagers and we talk using speaker phone a lot. The only thing I could guess is he knew her voice and knew how close we were from the tone and my body language and even though they just met, and he considered her family.

 

[jcat]

You'd be surprised at how easily cats and dogs learn other languages. I work at a German shelter, but use my native English with the animals. People say it's the tone, not the words, that counts, but the dogs pick up the English commands within 2 or 3 days. The cats seem to prefer the softer sound of English.