Kitten advice please

[Jczreptiles]

Me and my partner have been talking about getting another kitten, we already have 2 two year old neutered males and was just wandering if it is a good idea or would cause too much stress on the 3 cats? All advice welcome.

[feorag]

To be honest I wouldn't have thought so.

I worried about this when I bought my 3rd cat, because the 2 neutered boys I had already were getting on great and I worried whether another one would upset the balance in the household.

However, I worried needlessly. The third boy came in and bonded almost straight away with the youngest who was about 9mth old and they became best friends, which gave the other one who was 5 year old a bit of peace from the constant attention of the 9mth old cat.

What I would say is that if you have 2 boys that get on well, you'd probably have more success if you introduced a third boy rather than a girl, but that's just my own personal opinion.

[Jczreptiles]

Okay thankyou for the reply, Yes they do get on fine apart from the odd fight which I would say only occurs twice a week or so but they are always curled up together.

[Gemificus]

i only have two at the moment but i am looking into getting another maybe, i have always had cats in my family never less than two never more then 4 but growing up three was always a good balance for us, with the two i have now they hated each other when i got my youngest Cleo(10mnth) but now only a few weeks on they are very close, Willow(4) my oldest spends most of her time outdoors so shes not really a bother and Cleo is only in at nights as she likes to cuddle with me when she sleeps, i feed them twice a day and if i feed them half a tin each they leave a lot of it and the food goes off and smelly so I'm feeding them 2 tins per day and wasting a third of each tin, so for me a third cat wouldn't cause much difference in the food area and i definitely have the room and time for one,

i think you have to way up the options when it comes to a third cat, can you afford extra food, flea treatments, worming vet fee's,do you have the room, with two boys you may have a little territorial behavior at first especially if you bring in a third boy but if your ready for a new cat in your family there shouldn't be much of a problem with the cats themselves once they learn to accept a new member of the pride

[feorag]

You feed half a tin to each cat, twice a day???

No wonder they don't eat it all.

[Gemificus]

i followed the feeding guide on the tin that say's each cat should have 1 tin per day,

pouches are the same even says on the iams advert that cats can need upto four pouches that's 400g which equals as 1 tin

[feorag]

Hmm.... well I don't have enormous cats, but when I was feeding wet food I only fed one-third of a tin at each meal and I none of mine were skinny cats!

[Gemificus]

none of mine are skinny but none are overweight either I'm one of those sloppy owners that puts down food for them and a few biscuits and just lets the eat what they can at their own pace then throws out the old smelly its like they were fed 3rd of a tin each about 6 and they still have food in their bowls it'll be thrown out soon and bowls washed up then they get nothing till about 10

[feorag]

That's how we feed ours. We give them each their dish of food and then whatever is left when they leave the kitchen is put into one bowl and it's left out until the next feeding time, when any that's left is thrown out, but usually there's either nothing or very little ever left.

However, when we go away on holiday nothing is ever left when they leave the kitchen! Why they eat more when they're away on holiday I've no idea, but they do!

[Shell195]

Originally Posted by feorag

That's how we feed ours. We give them each their dish of food and then whatever is left when they leave the kitchen is put into one bowl and it's left out until the next feeding time, when any that's left is thrown out, but usually there's either nothing or very little ever left.

However, when we go away on holiday nothing is ever left when they leave the kitchen! Why they eat more when they're away on holiday I've no idea, but they do!

I thought everybody did this