A new kitten - wisdom please

[katietatie]

As a forum of cat lovers I thought I'd seek your advice. We currently have a two year old male cat who seems to live quite a contented life, but is extreeeeeemly cautious of new people, to the extent that he will spend the entire weekend under the bed if we have guests. We originally adopted him as a kitten along with his sister, although she sadly died a year ago. When she was around he was far less cautious and would come out and be quite a sociable young man.

Anyway, to my point. We'd really like to get another kitten, although are worried about how our current cat will react. I've heard a range of things from 'he won't take any notice' to 'don't do it, he'll leave home'. Do any forumites have any experiences or advice they could share? We'd be very sad indeed if he left home.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Hi Katiekatie

I think the range of advice is probably accurate - there is just no way of knowing how 2 cats will interact. Sounds like you have a timid wee man anyway so in my experience the chances are he will react to any new contemporary as he does to visitors to the flat. Can you "borrow" someone elses kitten for a day and try that?

[Asset]

Cats in general are solitary creatures and are quite happy being 'only cats'. I've ended up with three of the damn things, two of which hate each other and are always fighting (mother & daughter incidentally).

Sean is correct, there's no way of telling how he'll react. He may turn into a monster and try to kill it for invading his territory or he may love it or he may not be interested one way or the other.

[spadetownboy]

our first cat is a pretty timid creature and when we got our second one as a kitten, the first one basically left the house for 2 weeks coming in only for food,but gradually she started coming back and now i cant get rid of her. by and by they tend to do their own thing, we get the occasional fight at feeding time but otherwise they ignore each other.

[peckham_perkster]

I've had quite a few cats, though this never makes anyone an expert especially as Asset says there is no knowing how he'll react. I've found that they do tend to settle once another cat arrives but agree that getting another in for a day to see his reaction will give you some idea.

I think if he's timid you would need to introduce a kitten so he still felt like the top cat (excuse the pun) rather than an adult cat.