Indoor cats advice - shall we add to the brood?!

highland74

Hi,
My partner and I are after some advice about our two indoor cats.
They are brother and sister about 1.5yrs old and are indoor cats as mentioned.
The whole point in us getting two was that they could get on and entertain each other, but its not worked out really as planned - they don't fight or anything but don't get on as well as we thought. The female one seems to prefer him not being around, and seems to thrive on our attention particularly (she lives for bieng brushed) and doesnt usually like to play with him (he wants to play almost constantly).
The question is, shall we attempt to get another cat, possibly another male that hopefully he can kick around with and satisfy his needs so it will take the flak off her a bit or is it asking for trouble, ie we could end up with 20 cats that don't get on!! lol
As far as activity, we're moving next year and plan to build a large outdoor run for them, so hopefully that'll entertain them too

Any advice much appreciated

gettingready

Not sure if it is male/female mix thing but.. I have 4 boys and they get on great.
Daughter has 2 girls and they get on great.

When all 6 were here - girls used to beat up the boys...

Hmmmmm

Fire_Fox

What are you going to do if cat three doesn't get on with either cat one or cat two? Do you have a large home at present?

highland74

Lol thanks for the info
The mother and her brother (so our cats uncle) get on great apparently but seems your theory so far holds up as with ours, its usually her (Peggy) thats on the offensive and he's (Sultana) wondering what he's done wrong!
We think she'd much prefer to be a single kitty or have a mother figure even, but perhaps getting this other male would work, if the males play together and she can get on with her own thing like she seems to prefer.
Cheers!

Fridaycat

I have 3 boys and 2 girls. One boy and girl are twins, the others are unrelated.

The twins are extremely close and get on OK with all the others.

The 2 boys get on very well with each other.

The other girl (Friday) much prefers me to her cat friends and gets picked on by the 2 older boys.

But cats are like people, they all have their own personalities and there's nothing to say that getting another boy will make things better or worse.

Other than planning on the outdoor run when you move, do you currently have lots of different activities to keep the cats amused when you're not there? And do you rotate them so they don't get bored of the same things all the time?

highland74

Hey firefox
Yeah thats what I was meant with the 20 cats that dont get on comment, lol. Got a feeling the one we have in mind to be the new addition could get on well, its kinda strange - looks just like one of ours but opposite colour, he's a few months older than ours and his name rhymes exactly with our males name - seems almost meant to be!

Homes big enough for 3 cats to be entertained I would think, next year we're moving to a smaller cottage we have but we'll be building a big outdoor run - we've quite a few acres and plan to build a big house that will have some cool cat friendly features
Cheers!

highland74

Hi Fridaycat, thanks for your comments!
Yeah we have quite alot of activities set up for them, we have noticed they do get bored more easily than outdoor cats so we try to rotate quite often and they play in several rooms with home made setups like cardboard forts and blanket tents etc - lots of toys too.
Im here all the time as I work from home, don't go out for months at a time as we're both self employed and cranking like devils to survive and save so we can renovate and then build a home. They follow me from room to room, ie if Im working in the office or in the living room, bathroom is no escape as theyve learnt to push on the door and open it unless we latch it, lol. They demand and recieve play and brushies and attentions about a dozen times a day so theyre pretty content individually and as mentioned they do get on at times, but getting to think they're just not paired as nicely as we thought!
Cheers!

scaredy_cat

i had a male and female from when they were tiny kittens and they got on fine. never used to play together much but would sleep together, eat out of the same bowl, they never had any fights between themselves.

Dumbe

I have two boys and one girl

We orginally had 2 boys and 1 girl .. Older boy kept to himself but tolerated the younger boy and loved younger girl who were joined at the hip.. All unrelated.

Older boy died ..

Boy and girl then totally besotted with each other .. Sleeping cuddled up together..Mutual grooming etc..

Got another boy .. Boy kitten latched onto older boy ( both super fluffy so maybe reminded him of mummy!) now all 3 get on fine but the two boys are never far from ach other and the girl sort of does her own thing.

They are all indoor pets

rising_from_the_ashes

Difficult to say unfortunately.

I have a boy & girl and they tolerate each other at best - and go through phases of having to be separated due to really bad fighting:( (although the last time was cut short due to the arrival of Maisie & strangely enough they were united in shocked horror upstairs ).

Before I had wee cat, I had another male cat who'd been an only for around 9 years before I got big cat. They were fine while big cat was little but had a bit of a dominance issue once he got older - they weren't close and didn't really interact at all (but at least there was no fighting).

Big cat is quite laid back but is dominant (which is the cause of the issue as wee cat also has a dominant personality). I'd love another but wee cat absolutely hates all other cats and goes ballistic is she sees one outside so it's unfortunately looking unlikely.

BECKIN1507

I have 3 boys and 1 girl, all my lot tolerate each other but are not really close. The 3 boys get on better, they can all be quite nasty to my little girly. I don't have any big fights, now and again they might have a little boxing match. I'm also not sure if it has anything to do with male/female mix but my female is less loved by the other cats. Not sure if cats really know they are related but my 3 boys are father, 1st son and another son from the next litter, my girl was a rescue who was going to be thrown in the canal!!! (she was only meant to be staying untill I could find her a home, 7 years ago)