Would a third cat help my second cat leave my first one alone?

LowCalCalzone

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Sorry if the title is confusing. We have a 2-year-old and 1 year old cat at home, both females. The 1-year-old has an insane amount of energy and wants to play 24/7. The 2-year-old is pretty lazy and is content with playing by herself most of the time. The younger one can be a pain at times and try to wrestle with the older one (which she DOES NOT like) and sometimes my older one holds a grudge. She'll sniff the younger one but hiss at her afterwards if she tries to do the same.

I'm wondering if maybe getting a 3rd will help my one-year-old have someone to run around and keep up with, but I'm worried they might gang up on the 2 year old. My ideal thought would be the 2 youngest would play with each other so the focus is not on the oldest cat, but I'm worried it might have the opposite effect and now he'll have 2 younger cats driving her crazy. She's our first cat and head of the household and I don't want to kill any confidence for her. But the one-year-old just has an insane amount of energy that even playing with her for hours on end is not enough. I'd love to hear your thoughts on any more of this. Thanks!
 

maggie101

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Maggie and peaches,7&8 yrs old, rescued when Maggie was 3 months, peaches 9 months, are just like your one and 2 yr old. I rescued Coco,who is a year younger. Nothing has changed except Peaches and Coco play to gether. Coco is afraid of maggie. Maggie is very territorial. If you get another cat, get a kitten from a foster that is not a scaredy cat like Coco and likes other cats. I make sure my cats have places to jump higher even just a coffee table, then maggie leaves Peaches alone.
 

susanm9006

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The answer is maybe, or maybe not. The younger two may for a bond and be happy to play together or they may form a posse intent on making the older cat miserable. I have seen it go both ways. Most certainly there will be a period of stress for both cats but probably worse for your oldest. I would suggest waiting another year for the youngest to fully grow out of kittenhood. I think she is still too young to judge what their relationship will be in the long term.
 

Newbee

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Ya I think you might be wise to wait a bit longer The younger cat will settle down sooner or later
My daughter had a female who was king cat at her house .She thought she was lonely so she got a male kitten who absolutely terrorized. the older female even after he was neutered he had real issues with the older one . I took the older one to my place where I had a very easy going older female and my daughter's cat ran my cat out of every comfy corner she established.It wasnt fair to my kitty who was so meek and mild .Although they didnt fight they needed to be separated so my kitty could have her own space and not be interrupted. When my daughter came to get this older one her male was 1 yr old and fixed but they really didnt like each other . They refused to let the other set the rules down . They both wanted to be dominate . She ended up rehoming the female.
 

ArtNJ

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I agree with Susan. You never know what you are going to get when you add a cat. It may work out to help occupy the kitten and keep it from bugging the older one, and some have said it did for them. Or it could make things worse. For me, the only time I ever adopted 2 when I had an older cat, one of the kittens was chill, and never caused trouble. Unfortunately, the active kitten did want to play with the older cat, whether it wanted to or not, despite having a playmate its own age, and this eventually caused serious problems. To some extent, adding another cat is . . . adding another cat, with all the variables that go with it.
 

cataholic07

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I would suggest fostering and see how your cats are with them. :)
 
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