What would happen if I got another cat, or a kitten?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is a bit of a thought experiment given I have no plans to add a third feline to the household anytime soon. I had planned for 3 cats when I got the two I have, but the pandemic up-ended my plan when it turned out to be much more difficult to get a shelter kitten than the two purebreds I’d put deposits on the first week of lockdown.

Anyway, it turns out that you can in fact train cats. Linden (Balinese) and Poe (Maine Coon) took very well to me teaching them as kittens that nighttime is for sleeping.

I did this by starting from the first day putting them to bed in a room of their own (blocked off with a screen door when they were very little so I could hear them if they got themselves into trouble), and we have a very choreographed routine they expect and enjoy, which is when I’m ready to go to bed I give them fresh water, make sure their dry food is topped off, scoop their litter boxes, and dole out treats. Until they were 10 months old, this concluded with closing their door, but they now are allowed to do whatever they want at night anywhere but my room and the bathrooms.

Unlike most cats, this results in them spending much of the night sleeping, and all of it quiet. 99.8% of the time they don’t pester me and won’t yowl for attention until they’ve heard my alarm go off. Even if I end up sleeping in on the weekend.

They’ve also been trained to expect breakfast at 7:30am and dinner at 7pm. Generally speaking, they’re patient to wait until those meal times to complain.

So having them happily trained brings me to my question: if I added another cat to the household, would the new cat take his cues from Linden and Poe, or would he need to be trained too?

And if he did need to be trained, would that even be plausible if he was already 1-3 years old? After all, I started conditioning the two I have at 12 and 14 weeks old, so they don’t exactly have much of a base of comparison.

Worse, could a grown cat un-teach them how to behave at night?

I would prefer not to start all over with a small kitten, but I would rather do that than have everything devolve into chaos.

2

I have over the years added in cats of a wide variety of ages to a household in which, while I don’t expect the cats to sleep all night and how would I know if they did?, I do expect them not to significantly disturb my sleep. Usually this works, despite the fact that they are allowed into my bedroom and at least some of them usually spend the night on my bed.

While, as with anything that has to do with cats, it’s certainly going to depend on the particular cat: I think the chances are very good that you can add another cat to your household without having everything dissolve into chaos.

3

A kitten would be your safest choice, as a kitten is more likely to learn his cues from the older cats. If they’re very smart, they may actually teach him. A young adult cat would be more problematic. I think you would have to sequester the new cat in a room by himself for quite some time, separate from the others during sleeping time, so that he would learn the routine by observation. Cats are an enigma, though. We have two (and have had seven total in 48 years) and they all have had different personalities and ability to learn.

4

Another kitten? Really? Have you gone and lost your mind? Don’t you remember the insanity involved with two kittens at the same time? If you bring another kitten in, it will be like you have THREE kittens all over again.

Not only that, new kitten will have two teenagers to show it how to get into even more trouble. /touches your forehead, feeling for fever/

In all seriousness I have to agree with @thorny_locust . It depends on the cats. Our 12 year old cat just LURVED having her own kitten to play with, the 14 year old grumpy old man cat just wanted him off his lawn.

As long as you are consistent their gooshy fud schedule, you shouldn’t see much complaining.

5

My schedule’s erratic so the canned food delivery is also. Sometime in the morning, sometime in the evening; they’re used to it being erratic so they don’t get upset. Plus which, there’s always kibble – I expect they would get upset about waiting if there weren’t always kibble.

I’ve generally had three or four at a time, over about 50 years (not counting the cats of my childhood, whose feeding schedules my mother was in charge of). Most of them have lived into their late teens; but that’s still a lot of cats.

6

We only have three cats now, but I do get what you mean about having had a lot of cats over the years. I don’t want to start counting cause next I will start crying at the memories. I loved them all.

Cats are very adaptable, but kittens are a whole different animal.

I do like and admire @elfkin477, plus we have spent enough time talking about cats that I think they probably laughed at my suggestion of insanity.

7

I CAN HAZ PICS?

More seriously, it sounds like you’ve done a great job of managing two cats and should you decide to add a third* you’ll be a good cat parent.

As with humans, I think individual personalities have a lot to do with how you eventually proceed. My three cats (added one by one to my household) are each very different personalities (one entitled princess, one gracious gentleman, and one anxious, needy child). Take your cues from your cats’ personalities!

*you will. You know you will.

8

Can you haz pics? Of course!

Poe
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Linden
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Last week
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And, given we were talking about kittens, back in October 2020
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9

Thank you, they are beautiful! Poe looks a bit like my “entitled princess” cat.