Adopting a kitty - is it required to get a kitten in pairs?

No, it's not required to adopt kittens in pairs, but it is often recommended. There are many benefits to having two kittens, such as:

• Better social development: Kittens learn social skills from interacting with other kittens, which can help them be more well-adjusted cats in the long run.
• Reduced boredom and destructive behaviour: Kittens have a lot of energy, and having a playmate can help them burn it off in a healthy way. This can help reduce boredom and destructive behaviour.
• Companionship: Cats are social creatures, and even if you are home a lot, a kitten can benefit from having another feline friend.

However, there are also some things to consider before adopting two kittens:

• Can you afford the cost of caring for two cats? This includes food, litter, vet care, and other supplies.
• For life: remember adopting cats is for the life of the cats. And they anchor you; make it less easy to go away. With two cats you have a double responsibility.
• Do you have the space for two cats? Cats need room to roam and explore.
• Are you prepared for the extra work of caring for two cats? This includes cleaning litter boxes, playing with them, and grooming them.
• Important: When siblings are kittens they get along fine. Great company and this friendship may last into adulthood but it may not. They grow to become independent-minded and one may see the other as a hostile invader of their home range. Living indoors the home range is small for each cat and there can be stresses. But it may work out. No certainties.

If you are not sure whether adopting two kittens is the right decision for you, talk to your local shelter or rescue organization. They can help you assess your situation and recommend the best course of action.

Here are some resources that you may find helpful:

• Are cats better in pairs?
• Should I adopt one or two kittens?

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Help! 5-year-old black cat sibling marking all over the house. Possible reasons.

 This is the Reddit.com post supporting the title. What to do?

He has 3000 sq ft of house and attic to roam and play. Has a brother from same litter and both are very socialized. They sleep w us every night in our bed. He has a massive outdoor catio jungle in my backyard (50ft x 80 ft) with a 100ft tunnel that runs under Palms and leads to his lizard hunting paradise. 3 litter boxes scattered throughout the house that are always clean w fresh litter. I’ve tried just about everything… still always cleaning up cat piss from walls, carpets, couch. It’s a nightmare 😱 need advice??!!

My answer would be three possibilities on the basis that the cat has been neutered which is the default situation.

The picture is here to illustrate the page only. This is not the cat in question. Image in the public domain.

Clearly, if the cat is not neutered then there is a much higher chance that they will mark territory. But as mentioned on the presumption that the cat is neutered one possible reason is that the brothers no longer get along. 

Siblings become independent

This may well happen because when siblings in the wild grow up they become independent. They leave the natal home range and go in search of their own home range. Their sibling then becomes just another individual occupying their territory. They are independent cats. They are solitary, essentially. The fact that they are siblings no longer helps to ensure that they get along.

So, this particular individual might feel stressed by the presence of his sibling and is marking territory to send a message to his brother that this is his home range and he is unwanted. Marking territory helps to calm him down because he creates his little home which smells like him.

Although siblings can get along it is not a certainty. The idea that adopting two siblings automatically gives you two cats who will keep each company and get along all their lives is a fallacy.

Separation anxiety?

Another possibility is that the owner is not around enough which is creating separation anxiety in one cat. This is happening despite the fact that the person has created a very nice cat environment with lots of things to do and to stimulate them mentally. That is irrelevant in terms of the particular problem clearly otherwise the problem would not exist.

Medical

A third possibility is that the cat who is said to be spraying is not actually spraying urine but is depositing small spots of bloody urine around the home due to cystitis. This is also heavily linked to stress. Dry cat food may exacerbate the problem.

These are three possibilities. When a cat is spraying inside the home it is invariably to do with a mental issue triggered by stress of some sort. That needs to be addressed. The source of stress needs to be found, isolated and then removed.

One kitten hates the other after they were neutered. What's happening?

This is a question on the Reddit.com website which I would like to also answer on this site. This is quite a typical problem actually. Domestic cats identify almost everything that they encounter through their sense of smell. Or to put it more accurately, they confirm the identity of the object. This happens as you can see when they eat. They sniff food because at close range their eyesight is not that great and therefore, they've got to identify whether it is edible and nutritious through its smell.

One kitten hates the other after they were neutered. What's happening? Image: u/jkamio

When a cat goes to a veterinary clinic for any procedure including a minor operation like a male neutering, they come back smelling of the veterinary clinic. And the veterinarian has probably used a sterilising agent on the site of the wound which also will have a strong smell.

These smells transform the freshly neutered cat into a complete stranger to the sibling. Whereas once they recognised their sibling as a friendly cat who they knew, all of a sudden, they are encountering a stranger who has invaded their space.

In response they hiss at their sibling which is disturbing to their human caregiver. They hate to see this agonistic behaviour among friendly cats.

But the smell will fade and the kitten when then once again become a sibling who they like. And perhaps the smell of the operation can be removed with a damp cloth. In addition, a bit of bedding used by both cats could be rubbed over the cat who had the operation to speed up the return of their body odour to its true smell.

It is nothing to worry about although it is concerning initially. Years ago, I had a brother and sister siblings who got on well. The sister fell into a pot of white paint. It was water-soluble and I immediately washed it off. I also washed off her body odour. 

Her brother no longer recognised her and hissed at her. She groomed herself fastidiously for about an hour to put her scent back and at that point he recognised her and the status quo was renewed.

There is another point worth making. Siblings when they are young are normally friendly towards each other. When they become adults and independent, that friendship may disappear as they become competitors for resources.

That's the wild cat behaviour which looks peculiar in the home of their caregiver. There is no need to be independent-minded when they are both being looked after but of course it is instinctive. They may get along but they may not any more.

Are these cats playing or fighting?

A Reddit.com user asks whether, what appears to be siblings, are playing or fighting. My response is that they are doing both. When young cats play together, the basis of their play is fighting. It can get quite rough but the 'victim' at any one time tells the other when it has become too rough by screaming at them. 

Screenshot from video below.

This helps to keep the "violence" down to a reasonable level. But you see slapping, biting and kicking with hind legs et cetera and it's all roughhousing play. One might invite the other to attack by laying down belly up.

Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which would stop it working here. I have no control over this.

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I guess it is all preparation for independence when, if they lived in the wild, they would have to leave the natal home range and set up their own home range and defend it against incoming intruders with whom they would have to fight.

So, play for young cats as we see in the video is play-fighting. This is the default situation. There is a set of kitten play postures which include: belly-up, standing over, side-stepping, pouncing, chasing, vertical stance, horizontal leaping and face-off. You will notice that they are all to do with fighting an enemy which will no doubt happen in the future.

You will see play between offspring and mother which is not it seems to me "violence-based". Although even in this instance there is often a hint of violence because for example the kitten may bite their mother's tail or their ear. A modicum of violence appears to underpin all domestic cat play throughout their lives.

The other form of play that domestic cats engage in is also centred around violence namely play-hunting. All the toys that you can buy for cats are based upon hunting, chasing and attacking an object. The classic home-made toy is a piece of string which your cat will chase, catch and bite. This form of play is fine tuning a kitten's ability to catch prey. It is called object play. 

Adult cats also engage in "object play" and clearly, they aren't practising for the time when they will become adults because they are already adults but, in their minds, the adult domestic cat is still a kitten because they are cared for throughout their lives by their human caregiver.

It is interesting that domestic cat play is so closely tied to violence and aggression. The only reason I can think of as to why is because they are super predators. The cat is one of the world's best predators. Everything about their anatomy, being and mentality is to chase and kill. It is their raison d'être. We sometimes forget it because they become cuddly companions.

But at heart they are still that killer cat that is their wildcat ancestor who is still out there in Africa and Asia hunting rodents.

Domestic cats are not adapted to living in close proximity to each other

The title presents an interesting thought and it directly impinges upon what goes on in multi-cat households. Although domestic cats are social creatures and they can live in groups those groups need to be stable and the cats should be socialised to each other. In other words, the cats should be selected to get on with each other and ideally no new cats should be brought into the group which might destabilise it.

Domestic cats are not adapted to living in close proximity to each other. Montage: MikeB from images in the public domain.

Domestic cats don't have classic hierarchies when living in groups and they don't have signals which help to defuse conflict. Further, they don't have mechanisms such as reconciliation as discussed in studies by van den Bos & de Cock Buning 199b and van den Bos 1998.

In the wild, if there was conflict between cats, they would disperse to avoid each other and often this is impossible and in multi-cat homes and it certainly is impossible if they are living full-time inside a home. This is exactly what is happening with my neighbour about 4 yards from me right now. She has 10 cats and she hasn't got a clue as to what she's doing in terms of how the cats feel when they live in such close proximity to each other as far as I can tell.

One of the major reasons for the creation of behavioural problems in domestic cats such as timidity, fear and avoidance behaviours come about because of what is called environmental stressor i.e. things that happen in the environment in which they live which stress the cats. A high proportion of the stressors are concerned with the relationships between the cats and the relationship between the cats and people living in the home. This was found in a study by Casey and Bradshaw in 2000.

Sibling pairs of domestic cats more often have amicable relationship compared to unrelated cats when living together. Although, I think it is fair to say that not all siblings get along when they become adults because at that time they become independent. It's just that there is a greater likelihood of the siblings getting along in multi-cat homes.

A point comes to mind. Jackson Galaxy says that when you adopt a cat from a shelter you might adopt a pair if the shelter knows that they are known to get along. I guess that makes sense but not infrequently cats are rescued as a pair and then they are rehomed as a pair for obvious reasons. When two cats get along well, both their lives are enhanced and they should stick together. It is not only better for the cats it is also better for the cats' caretaker because they can entertain themselves and enrich the lives of each other.

When cats are introduced to each other as adults they may not regard each other as part of the group but they are sometimes regrettably forced to live together in close proximity which may lead to agonistic behaviour. 

Aggressive encounters may occur not infrequently between cats living in a high density in the neighbourhood. I'm referring to indoor/outdoor cats. This is a typical situation in the UK for instance. Under these circumstances some cats may become frightened of going outdoors. The other, more dominant cats will be attacking the timider cat when in a public area.

It is wise for cat owners particularly in condominiums and blocks of flats to be aware of this interaction between cats in the common parts within these complexes.

Ref: Cat Sense by Dr Bradshaw.

Do cat siblings get along?

Do cat siblings get along? It is an important question. On the face of it, if a person adopts two siblings from the same litter when they first adopt a cat they give each cat an instant companion for life. This can take a load of responsibilities away from the cats' owner because they can entertain themselves. 

Domestic cats are social creatures despite what you read on the Internet about them being independent and solitary. Over 10,000 years of evolution in domestication they had developed into far more social creatures which means they need companionship which in turn means that their human guardian should be around. Sometimes they can't be around because of work commitments which is when a cat companion steps up to the plate.

Lykoi cat siblings. Photo: Brittney Gobble.

So the question as to whether cat siblings get along can be vitally important. And the answer is yes and no. When they are kittens and sub-adults they do get along. They entertain each other and play-fight with each other. The world is perfect if they are in the right home. But when they grow up and become individuals with better developed characters they can start to dislike each other. They may be incompatible. The relationship cools and they drift apart. Sounds familiar?

I do not have statistics on the percentage of siblings who are compatible or incompatible. But there is quite a good chance that they will be incompatible so you can't bank on adopting siblings in the expectation that they will get along for the rest of their lives. This means the policy of a double adoption of kittens from a shelter might not work.

That does not mean you can't adopt two rescue cats from a shelter who are adults. In fact there is an advantage to adopting two adult cats that need to get along because you know that they get along. The shelter staff will be able to assess this and tell you. The cats have been tried and tested. Their characters have matured so if they do get along it will likely be permanent.

I remember when I adopted my cat from an animal rescue centre, the organiser told me that cat siblings do not get along. She must have had a bad experience in adopting siblings herself. Or she had noticed that within the shelter siblings were fighting. She was partly right. Sometimes they don't, as mentioned, but they might and they often do. It's down to personalities.

But once they become adults they like to establish their home range. In the wild when kittens become adults and leave the natal nest they go out into the big wide world and establish their home range i.e. their territory. They want their piece of landscape and if they are in a home together they might be fighting over that territory. Or they might fight over some of the assets such as food and the litter tray.

And if they are incompatible they may urinate inappropriately, they may defecate inappropriately or they may spray urine and finally they may scratch furniture and walls to mark territory. So it will be a bad scene despite best intentions.

I think that the only surefire way of knowing if two cats will get along is by trying it out. That's why I think cat shelters should allow adopters to take a cat back to their home where there is a resident cat for a week to see what happens. They should be open to the possibility of the cat being returned. That should be part of the contract. It may be possible in some cat shelters. I don't know of any other way to deal with this very difficult question of multi-cat homes. Perhaps I'm being too negative because I know their are some very successful homes in which there are several cats.

And when you think about it in this instance domestic gas are being no different to human beings. How many dysfunctional families do you know? How many human siblings do you know who fight with each other because who dislike each other? It is very common for human siblings not to get on.

I myself don't get on very well with my brother and I never got along with my late sister. We were quite different characters. Hell, I didn't even get on with my parents that well either.