should I get a 4th cat?

[mgraylorn]

Last year I asked ya' all your advise on adding a new cat (from a shelter) to my household (I had one already, a former stray). That went well and from June to January we were a 2 cat household. Then in January, another stray came by to stay with us. He was emaciated, basically a fur sack with bones in it. We fattened him up and now we have 3 cats, an 8 year old male, 2 year old female and 1 year old male. The young male has taken quite a shine to the old guy, follows him around, grooms him, wrestles with him. They both get a long with the female, but she mostly does her own thing.

Recently I've been thinking about getting another female from a shelter, but an older one, say 4 or 5 year old, to maybe be a buddy to my skittish little girl kitty. I have to convince my designated spousal unit that this is a good idea.

Is there much difference in going from 3 to 4 cats? How do females get along with one another? Yea, I have a particular cat in mind, and she seems to be pretty mellow.

[stlscape]

My vet recently told me that males cats get along together better than females. (I was telling her we'd taken in a 4 yr old female (10 lbs.) and our 9 yr old male (16 lbs) was terrified of her, and wouldn't walk (or flee) past her unless he was escorted by a human who stood between them AND kept a hand on New!Female.)

I'd have expected more problems between males, but based on what the vet said, I'll go with a male if I add anyone else to the mix. (If I have a choice, that is...you know, being the chooser and not being the choosee.)

[scrape_medic]

Another male might get competative with the one year old male and disrupt his relationship with the old guy.

A younger female may cause some friction between the guys, but would probably get on better with the female, IF she allows it.

We had three girls and one boy at one point, and have always found introducing new females tricky with dominant females already there.

But they settle down eventually and find thier own space, just don't have any firm expectations that the two girls will become friends; this is only more likely if the new girl is young and "adopts" the older girl as a mum and vice versa.

[mgraylorn]

Yea, I'm sorta hoping the young female will take to the new older mellow female as a mother figure. Or that at least they can tollerate each other. This might work better if the new female were older, like 6 or7, but as I say I have a cat in mind and she is 4 or 5.

We were completely wrong about the interaction that would develop between the 3 cats. We figured the 2 and 1 year old would play and not pay much attention to the 8 year old. The one year old is huge - long body, long legs, and his size and energy kind of scares the 2 year old female who is much smaller. They play some, but he often over does it and she hisses at him and hides. The older male who is bigger than the female figured out the young guy is just exhuberant but does not intend to harm. So the two of them roll around on the floor, and when the older cat gets tired of it, he just walks off.

[Clarsax]

I don't think four cats would be much harder than three cats, just a little more expensive what with extra food and vet bills for another animal. As for introducing them, I think a lot of it depends on the personalities of the cats. I had two female littermates and when they were both seven, I brought home an abandoned female kitten my friend rescued from a park. The cats hated her from the start, and now ten years later the surviving littermate still fights daily with the other cat. It's been my experience that males (neutered ones) are more generally affectionate than females, but that doesn't necessarily mean if you get another male it will get along with the other cats or if you get a female it won't.