Same here, basically. We have three cats and three boxes, and they never fight over them. We’ve had as many as seven cats (during which time we had five boxes - three upstairs and two down) and not once did anybody ever get into it over them. Everybody just used whichever one they were near at the time, and nobody objected.
I’ve always heard the “one litterbox per cat, plus an extra” thing, but YMMV. Cats are all different, and their interactions are as varied as humans’.
I’ve only ever had dogs, so this thread is pretty interesting to me. In the dog world, females are vastly more commonly the alphas in a household, so it’s not a good idea to introduce another female. We learned this the hard way. Two stitched ears later…
Typically, they say not to have two females; a mix of male and female or two males is fine.
No gender issues like this for cats?
I recall reading somewhere once that cats are the least gender-defined domesticated animal. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I’ve had various combinations of cat genders and it hasn’t matter much - of course, they’ve all been spayed/neutered. With unaltered cats I suspect it’s a different story.
I have heard it said that male cats are more affectionate than female cats. In my experience this is largely true, although I’ve witnessed exceptions.
This is said about dogs, too, and I’d agree it’s true. Thanks for the info. Very interesting.
Two cats are happier than one. Three years ago we got two cats from a farm. One of them disappeared a year later (possibly stolen), and we found a replacement six months later. The new cat was about 7 months old. the existing cat was about 21 months old and definitely not kittenish any longer by then. They did not take to each other at first, we did nothing special to help them, but they accepted each other after a while. The younger cat is more playful and loves to chase the older one.
Being lazy, we did not get a second litterbox at first, since we have a very large one. We did get more feeding bowls for them; one each for fresh food, and two bowls for dry food, plus just one bowl for milk or water. They seem to use the dishes indiscriminately. We have not needed a second litterbox, bearing in mind that the one we have is very large and deep, as the cats seem to do their business outside most of the time.
To answer your question; I suggest providing more bowls, and see if you need another litterbox.
BTW, the older cat tolerates ordinary milk, the younger one does not, so we solved the problem by giving them lactose-free milk. The younger one drinks more, and loves milk.
If true, then I’ve had an unusually large number of exceptions.
But most of my cats have been quite affectionate, at least to me; and the willingness to be friendly to strangers and/or people they see rarely doesn’t seem to line up by gender.
I’ve never had a group of mixed gendered cats when the/one of the females was not the dominant cat.
Both of my kittens are boys, and if I manage to find a shelter kitten/very young adult soon, that’ll be a boy too. Males (fixed when old enough, obviously) get along better IMHO.
Forgot to mention this, a few larger litterboxes will tend to be much better than numerous small ones. Some cats have territory issues with their litterbox, which is where the whole cats+1 comes from.
As to the whole food thing, as @What_Exit says, check with your vet. I did a lot of research and have owned several cats over the years and it’s still a learning curve. I’ll re-iterate that everything I’ve read and discussed with vets and people who know a lot more than I do about feline nutrition consistently say dry food is the least desirable option. My own vet feeds her cats wet Friskies and they’ve had long, healthy lives.
Since we switched Kaiju and Jambalaya’s food away from the dry food they were getting at the shelter to a wet only diet they have been more energetic, and their fur is soft and glossy. I am certainly not attributing that to the food only as their stress levels are now far lower and they are in a stable home, which is huge. I do believe it plays a part, however.
Obligatory pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xTxBQPhX5Erh7fni8
I feed canned food twice daily plus dry food free choice. Most of my cats have lived to between 16 and 20. (They’re also partially self-feeding; mostly mice.)
I use multiple brands as well as multiple flavors; partly because the cats seem to like some variety, partly because over my life a number of brands have either disappeared or been reformulated or become harder for me to access, so I don’t want the cats accustomed to eating only one thing in case I became unable to get any of it.
If you do have a cat accustomed to eating only one thing and you can’t get or don’t want to use that, shifting them over gradually by mixing the old and the new may work better than changing suddenly to the new stuff.
– I’ve usually had mixed-gender groups of cats, and have noticed more individual personality differences in their getting along than gender differences. The dominant cat hasn’t always been the female – though note my post above about inconsistent dominance patterns in the same group of cats. The most dominant cat I’ve ever known, however, who kept in line both a number of other cats and a somewhat grumpy boxer dog (not to mention her house full of humans) was indeed female, and usually the smallest cat in the batch. She wasn’t in any way visibly aggressive about it – but all the time we had Boots, nobody argued with her. Or with each other, either (humans sometimes excepted); she wasn’t having any of that.
swampspruce, those are gorgeous kittens!
Thanks! They had pretty bad lives and were feral by the time the Humane Society got them. They had been living outdoors for an unknown amount of time and were found covered in oil on the side of a highway. I can’t say enough good things about our HS and what they’ve accomplished with these two.
Initially the only thing they’d allow near them were kittens, and they had a job at the shelter training them how to cat. After a lot of fostering and patience by the staff they started trusting humans again.
We think they’re about 3-4 years old based on the vet’s assessment, and they have saved us as much as we’ve saved them.
We also feed them Tiki Cat and they’re pretty good about ANY food that is in front of them. 
Beautiful cats indeed! and clearly their lives have taken a massive turn for the better. Very glad that they’re now able to relax into believing that.
On the food front - my last vet was a proponent of canned food but the veterinary practice here (where I’ve probably talked to at least 3 different vets) seems very happy with Iams dried. In fact, I have one cat who tends to have inflamed gums, even though she’s only 2, and they’d rather she eat dried than canned. (Which is easily done, as she’s not fond of canned cat food.)
Anyway, the cats share a can of wet food in the morning, and have ongoing access to bowls of dry Iams. With the exception of the one cat’s gums, they are all healthy and their fur is wonderfully shiny and soft.