Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I am new to the board. Sorry if this is long

Background:
My husband and I recently adopted a new cat. She is an 8 year old purebred snowshoe cat that was used as a breeding cat for most of her life. She is quite skittish and it took her a month to warm up just a little bit. It’s now been 6 weeks and she still likes to hide most of the time and she gets very scared if you walk by her quickly or by loud noises etc. The odd thing is that she is less skittish at night; actually, she is very active and very talkative at night. She usually stops talking if I pay some attention to her. She has also started to be taken by me and seems sad when I leave for work.

Question:
I am afraid that she gets bored during the days (and night), as we both work full time. I am also afraid that she might get depressed because she is alone all day. Should we adopt another cat? Is two better than one, or is one better? Initially we thought it would be great for her to be alone with us and to get all of our loving attention, because before, she was one of 10 - 15+ cats in a cattery. She might have even spent some time in a cage, and the owner said that she never bonded with her. And if we should adopt, what is generally better? Another female or a male? An adult or a kitten? We are leaning towards another adult as most people always wants kittens. How about breed? Are some more easygoing than others?

We saw this other 1 year old female snowshoe cat up for adoption at Petsmart by an organization called “Cats in need”. She looks just like our current cat and though it would be a cute fit. However, she was abandoned as well as just pregnant. She has already had her kittens…Would a recent mother be an ok fit? Is she too young still? In addition, because she was abandoned she is also likely to be a skittish cat, and my other thought is that perhaps we should adopt a more relaxed/curious cat so that our current cat could “learn” from the new one.

Thank you so much,
Sylvia

This is hard to address. Your cat may be an "only" kitty at heart. But she also may be getting lonely. In this case another cat would help. However from your description, she is very skitterish and may not adapt well to a new cat. She is still learning to trust you. I would give this some time to see if she mellows once she has been around you enough.

>>Hello,
>>
>>I am new to the board. Sorry if this is long
>>
>>Background:
>>My husband and I recently adopted a new cat. She is an 8 year old purebred snowshoe cat that was used as a breeding cat for most of her life. She is quite skittish and it took her a month to warm up just a little bit. It’s now been 6 weeks and she still likes to hide most of the time and she gets very scared if you walk by her quickly or by loud noises etc. The odd thing is that she is less skittish at night; actually, she is very active and very talkative at night. She usually stops talking if I pay some attention to her. She has also started to be taken by me and seems sad when I leave for work.
>>
>>Question:
>>I am afraid that she gets bored during the days (and night), as we both work full time. I am also afraid that she might get depressed because she is alone all day. Should we adopt another cat? Is two better than one, or is one better? Initially we thought it would be great for her to be alone with us and to get all of our loving attention, because before, she was one of 10 - 15 cats in a cattery. She might have even spent some time in a cage, and the owner said that she never bonded with her. And if we should adopt, what is generally better? Another female or a male? An adult or a kitten? We are leaning towards another adult as most people always wants kittens. How about breed? Are some more easygoing than others?
>>
>>We saw this other 1 year old female snowshoe cat up for adoption at Petsmart by an organization called “Cats in need”. She looks just like our current cat and though it would be a cute fit. However, she was abandoned as well as just pregnant. She has already had her kittens…Would a recent mother be an ok fit? Is she too young still? In addition, because she was abandoned she is also likely to be a skittish cat, and my other thought is that perhaps we should adopt a more relaxed/curious cat so that our current cat could “learn” from the new one.
>>
>>Thank you so much,
>>Sylvia
>>
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

Hi,

Thank you for your comments. We are going to incorporate all the advice; wait a while until she is more comfortable and then adopt another cat. She is slowly but surely getting better. This morning she came over to use as we were getting ready for work and wanted affection. We actually did not notice her, so she meowed to make sure we saw her. This was the first time she initiated contact, so needless to say I ended up being late to work because I wanted to make sure she got a lot of affection

I am still wondering is a neutered male is better or another female?

As far as the cat that we were considering, we were told that she was very aggressive and would even beat up the big males.

Thank you very much,
Sylvia

Well, I've found that two cats are better than one! My husband an dI both work full-time and the two kept each other company. Especially since your cat was in a very socail area with a lot of toher cats, she probably craves other cat companionship. Most likely this will not change her attidue towards you giving her attention, because that is not the same, but having another cat will keep her social and might even help her through her currnet bout of fear.

As for the age of the cat you want to adopt, there really is no good or bad age. And adopting one who recently had kits should not affect her. In fact, it may help her to bond better to your cuurent cat since she probably misses her kits. If introductions are done slow and patiently, the two most likely will get along famously! Cats do get depressed and lonely, they also greive. Let us know how it turns out!

You may want to give it some more time for you're cat to adjust being skidish and all.

But a tip on adoption if you do decide try working with a local rescue. Most rescues will offer a foster trail to see if the idea of another cat/kitten is going to work or not. And of course if it doesn't they are more then happy to take the adoptee back. I volunteer with a no-kill foster group for cats & dogs and they are 100% interests in everyone being happy with the adoption for life for both party's the adopter & adopted pet.

And usually the rescues cats/kittens are already in Foster homes and they pretty well will know what may be a good match for you're situation.

Hope that idea helps
Best wishes & keep everyone posted how things are coming along whether it be with one cat or possibly more in future.
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Cheri,Shelby,Lily & Lucy

As far as the cat that we were considering, we were told that she was very aggressive and would even beat up the big males-and she was a pretty small female! So not a good fit

The nice thing about the adoption people is that they are familiar with the personalities of the cats and if things do not work out, they will work with you (as you said).

We have a few more candidtas that we are considering

Thank you very much,
Sylvia

Hi Sylvia! It sounds like your new kitty is warming up nicely to you. My daughter had a breeder's cat for quite a while and she too, was very skittish, probably from being in a cage most of her life. She warmed up to my daughter's family very good.

Here's a picture of my male cat, Simba.

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Ruby and the Kitties
Simba, Samantha, Katrina & KatyKatt
Meow!! Meow!! Meow!! Meow!!

How wonderful to do nothing and then rest afterwards. Meow!

Sorry that is has taken me a while to report back. My motherboard on my computer burned up (literally) and I never bookmarked the site. Plus we just got another cat two weeks ago. This is long….my apologies.

However, now I am regretting getting another cat. We ended up getting a kitten thinking that it would be easier for our 9 year old cat that we adopted 3 months ago from a cattery (her name is Pocket and is a purebred snowshoe). We thought that because she was a mother for 8 years, she would take to a kitten easier. Plus because of their smaller size, most kittens tend to be submissive etc.

Well, we were wrong. We started with the slow introductions, keeping the cats separate etc. We have the little one (also a female Siamese mix and named Paws) spend most of her time downstairs, and the older one upstairs which is her favorite territory and is usually were we used to spend most of our time. Right now, my husband interacts with Paws downstairs, and I with Pocket upstairs (Pocket is very attached to me). But the little kitten is not only very vocal (loud) (she really dislikes being alone, which is understandable), but she has also turned out to be the reincarnation of Houdini. She managed to jump and/or climb over some very high barriers and sneak upstairs were the Pocket is; so Pocket saw her before we could do any small introductions. Needless to say, the Pocket was not happy. Pocket hissed at her and also swiped at her when she pushed her luck and tried to get to close (both are female). Then she hid, but kept her eyes on the little one, hissing from time to time. Afterwards, when I tried to pet her and console her (Pocket), she would growl and make some other noises I have never heard before indicating that she was very displease and unhappy. I have a felling she was growling at me for letting the other one in “her” house. She didn’t purr for a week afterwards and she has started to distance herself a little bit more again by hiding more.

It took me two months to get her to be comfortable around us and not hide as much after we got her. She also seems to gets either depressed or growls when she hears the little one (it impossible not to hear her at times). I will pet her and she will turn her head away from me, kind of like sulking. Or she will look really sad. One time she even sighed like a human would do. So I feel really bad like I have done a bad mistake by adopting the kitten, and I am contemplating giving her back to the owner who is a volunteer for the cats in need organization. The kitten came from her personal home. I also feel bad for the kitten because she is alone at night downstairs, while the older one sleeps with me upstairs. She meows like crazy when we close her in her room for the night. So I feel terrible because of that as well. So all of this boils down to a few questions.
1. Should we keep trying? And if so, how long does it take before cats get along (if at all).
2. Should we give the kitten back and let her find another home for her. My husband will be crushed because she does have a wonderful personality (Not because she is a kitten and cute, but she is very friendly and cuddly).

Sincerely,
Sylvia

Pocket

I wouldn't give up yet! It took Crash my now 7 yr old, 6 months or so to give up and get along with Gabby now 2. They even play together now. Sometimes it just takes longer. I tried the Bach Rescue rememdy which helped some. I rubbed it in her eartips. Also, you may want to try Feliway's comfort zone plug in.
Have you tried rubbing a towel on the kitten then rubbing it on the Pockets?
I even found giving the kitten and the adult baths helped because they smelled more like each other that way.
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Jaime owned by
Mya the dog
and the cats:Crash, Moxie, Gabby and sometimes Tucker

I agree with Jamie I wouldn't give up just yet.
Cats are really slow adjusters and it takes alot longer.

When I decided on a second cat it was for companionship for my first who was 2 at the time and we decided to go for the same breed a Maine Coon Mix type since we loved her tempertment and loving personality. Adjustment to the new kitten was as usual with the hissing, growling and nervousness. It probably to 8-9 months until total acceptence of the new member for our older cat to see she wasn't going anywhere. What I didn't like and made me nervous was the fact that my older Lily's personality changed. She wasn't cuddling was more withdrawn and abviously pist at us and let us know she didn't want much to do with us for quite some time. She didn't want to share any of her space of our home with no new kitten at all.

But to this date now it has been about 1 1/2 since our new cat Lucy and Lily has adjusted wonderfully her cuddling loving personality has come back. The two cats now groom each other and even share the same sleeping space (with me, LOL) double the cuddling POWER!

I hope that with some more time and kitten maturing things will level out for you're cats.

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Cheri,Shelby,Lily & Lucy

i dont think i understand how this works because i just posted a detailed reply and it got lost somehow, so this is a test.