Best match for a 1 year old male cat?

[sweetleo]

Hi all. I am considering adopting another cat in the next month or so, so that Leo can have a friend. He is extremely playful, he is honestly just as playful as he was when we got him as a kitten. I had my heart set on getting a young girl kitten, around or under 6 months, but a lot of adoption places that I’ve contacted do not want to let kittens get adopted without a litter mate. Especially the females. The options I’ve been given have been cats that are 1-2 years old. I would be ok with that, but I worry that he won’t bond with an older cat the way he might with a kitten. I know kittens can be more moldable, and he’s less likely to get intimidated around one. I also wonder if maybe I should just get him another male, since I’ve read they get along better. I really just want whatever will be the best fit at the end of the day, and was wondering if anyone had any advice or personal experience. Thanks

 

[susanm9006]

A six month old cat should do fine with a one year old so I don’t understand their reasoning. A one year old cat is still very kitten like and playful but I guess you can’t argue them out of it. Male or female doesn’t make any difference. If you do go with an adult, try to get a one year old.

 

[cataholic07]

How long has he been an only cat for? If he was away from littermates/mom before 12 weeks old some can be quite rough during play. That can be an issue for some rescues as the rescue I volunteer with has had kittens returned because the one cat is too rough with them. Is your boy a big cat? If so I would go for an older kitten closer to a year old who has been very well socialized and be sure to go very slow with the intros.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi-along with the great posts above, I found a couple of articles that might help a bit;

Your Second Cat: How To Choose The Best Friend For Kitty – TheCatSite Articles
How To Successfully Introduce Cats: The Ultimate Guide – TheCatSite Articles
The Multi-Cat Household – TheCatSite Articles
Bored Cat? What Cat Owners Need To Know (including 10 Actionable Tips) – TheCatSite Articles

 

[ArtNJ]

I think you'll be fine with any cat from kitten to just under two. The chance of friendship does start to slowly decline after kittenhood, but its still very good in that range. A one year old plus a kitten is pretty close to guarrantied friendship, and two one year olds is not far from that.

Its really not a big deal or something most worry about, but I'd suggest trying to match sizes if you get another adult. Cats of about equal size tend to have more equal, and thus longer, play sessions. Well, potentially, other factors matter too of course, but size is definitely a bit of an issue when there is a big gap. When you have say a 12 pound boy cat and a 9 pound girl, they can still be great friends and enjoy playing, but the play sessions do tend to end a bit early with the girl disengaging. If you get a kitten, factor in that girls tend to be smaller on average.

 

[sweetleo]

Thank you for all of your replies. We got him when he was 3 months old and he was part of a litter then, but he hasn’t really been around another cat since. I think he’s an average sized cat, maybe a little small, at 10 lbs. We are going to visit a foster this weekend to meet her kittens, seems like she has a lot of different ages 4 months up to a year. Hoping we can find a good match, it seems like we can’t go wrong as long as we’re careful with the introductions

 

[danteshuman]

I think more than age you need to match your cat’s energy level (& I would get a boy.)

So temperament mismatch: We got Salem first, a calm passive sedate cat. When he was a year old I adopted a baby kitten, an insecure hyper bully. Dante treated his brother like a toy, whenever he got bored his entire life! (Thank goodness for outside time to entertain my bully!)

A couple months before Dante died, 3 bottle baby kittens came into my life. Weirdly enough he wanted to be near one particular hyper kitten, Jackie. Despite a 13 year age difference they were friends! I like to think he passed the punk torch to Jackie.

Then a personality match that went great. Jackie is hyper, insecure and skittish. His littermate and bff Nick (black) is calm, higher energy & brave. They click well together and love to wrestle.

Now both male kitties will pick on their sister by hunting her/ & occasionally pinning her. She is people friendly, calm and has a low energy level. She wants to play tag, the boys want to play wrestlemania

I included a picture of Dante & Jackie. I also included pictures of Jackie (lynx) and Nick (black) and thier shenanigans. I even included a pic of their play fight.

I hope you find the right kitten and they become bff!

 

[sweetleo]

Just wanted to post an update, we did end up getting a 4 month old kitten named Lucy on friday . We have her quarantined to her own room and have tried to avoid having any interactions with Leo. She has occasionally darted out of the room because she’s eager to explore and, of course, Leo runs over to check her out and she immediately hisses. We’ve switched around blankets that both of them have slept on to swap scents, and have set up feliway diffusers, and have just been trying to get everyone comfortable. They will sometimes paw under the door at each other. She seems to be handling everything like a champ.

Leo is not handling things too well, I think. He is still eating normally, going to the bathroom normally, he is just losing hair like crazy and I can tell he is having a hard time relaxing knowing she is in there. Whenever he remembers that she is in there he will stand outside the door and yowl and meow and sort of make a barking noise. I notice the few times she does get loose he seems upset, smacking his lips, dialated eyes. I think he is territorial over his space. But also, it has only been 5 days, and I wish we didn’t have the slip ups where she runs out. If it’s not her running out, it’s him running in. The foster lady told us that it should really only take 3 days to introduce… but I’m not really sure I believe that after what I’ve read on here and how stressed Leo is.

Here’s Lucy and Leo:

 

[ArtNJ]

A one year old will not hurt a kitten. Once the kitten is calm, has a few days to settle into the safe room and is accepting of the humans, you can let them do their thing and Leo will get over it quick enough. With a one year old and a kitten, making a lengthy introduction process just slows things down for no real gain. Its totally normal if Leo is a bit stressed and hisses and growls for a few days.

Its within the realm of possibility that Leo would charge and swat. That is different from a fight, and is more of a "back off you evil thing!" reaction. While a fight is not really possible - because again, adults dont hurt kittens -- get away swatting is possible. If you do a test and have that, it would confirm your belief that Leo is a bit more stressed than usual, and perhaps justify slowing things down a bit, although cats can and do get over charge swatting on their own. Really though, its highly unlikely that a 1 year old and a kitten will have any lasting difficulties or not become friends. The odds are ever in your favor here.

Once you let them mingle, the odds are good that things will resolved within three days, so I don't think that was bad advice. Could take less or a bit longer, but more than a week of tension would be very unusual for these ages.

 

[sweetleo]

I let them interact today and I feel like it isn’t going well, I have videos of her hissing and him trying to roll around with her. I’ll post the links here, not sure why it won’t let me embed them


kitty fight?
hissing kitty

 

[ArtNJ]

I could only see the first video for some reason, but that looks just fine. Thats a typical one year old trying to play roughly, and a kitten that is much smaller and still new to the one year old being a little intimidated and hissing. Dont see any evidence of the one year old being stressed -- looks like he is ready for rough play. Routine stuff. Will improve with time.

One to one and a half is kind of the absolute worst about playing "nice" because they have adult size but are still stupid over enthusiastic about play. So they play very roughly, and they do make kittens uncomfortable. Squealing, hssing, running and hiding will all happen even once the kitten is more comfortable with the older cat generally. But you'll know its ok, because once the kitten is a bit more comfotable with the one year old, he'll come right back out in a few minutes once the rough play is done and act like nothing happened. Might even initiate play sometimes. Might take a few days to get there. After you get to that point, things will continue to improve slowly.

Can't teach a one year old to play "nice" so not much to be done except gently separate if the kitten seems particularly miserable. Kitten gets a net benefit from having a big brother depsite the play being rough, and it will get more equal in time.

 

[susanm9006]

I could only see the first video as well but definitely playing and not fighting going on. The little one isn’t real appreciative at this point but the good thing is that the older one received the message and backed off. It I expect he came back shortly to try to start a another wrestling game. He just wants a playmate. It’s also good that your younger one is confident enough to speak up with hiss and growl rather than running and hiding.

 

[sweetleo]

Thank you for the reassurance! Looks like I was just being paranoid