As a potential British Shorthair cat owner, you may wonder about purchasing multiple kittens. One kitten or two? Which is best?
As a long standing British Shorthair & Longhair cat breeder I get this questions ALOT! Personally, I have never raised just one kitten alone. While I feel that we humans can offer a great deal of love and nurturing, there is a special type of feline companionship and interaction that cannot be duplicated or reproduced by human beings.
Felines crave two types of interaction for a healthy mental self-esteem:
1) Human Fellowship
2) Feline Friendship
We as humans can shower our feline friend with our time, fun cheerful toys, soft fuzzy beds, tall elaborate kitty towers, grooming & brushing, great quality food, cuddling, and excellent veterinarian care, but the power of feline to feline friendship cannot be cloned by objects or humans.
They offer one another a confidence and intimacy factor we humans simply cannot; such as cleaning one each other’s face or chasing each other throughout the house at tops speeds. I swear they can sometimes reach over 80 KPH!! LOL
Their bond is very apparent to see as you watch them sleeping all curled up together or both trying to smash their faces in the same food dish.
So, without hesitation my recommendation is always two.
Kittens kittens everywhere
Kittens chewing on my hair
Kittens climbing up my jeans
Kittens hanging from the screens
There’s a kitten on each shoulder
Will they do this when they’re older?
Kittens fighting on the chairs
Kittens tumbling down the stairs
There’s a kitten on my head
There’s a kitten in the bread!
There’s a kitten in my shoe
I don’t believe we just have two!
~Author Unknown
Double the Love
British Longhair Silver Blotched Tabby Kitten
Now, for those of you who have raised two cats together and one passes away and you find yourself wondering…
Should I get a new baby kitten to help with the grief the older cat is enduring?
I will say this, that bond between those two older cats is equal to two elderly people who grew up and old together. When one crosses over the rainbow bridge the other is completely lost and life without their soul mate is usually not something they want to face any longer.
Many times they too give up on tomorrow. The fact is their furry friend is no longer by their side to chatter with or just feel one another’s warmth. So if this is the situation you are dealing with, I will also give you my professional thoughts…
Think of grandparents, their bodies are not what they used to be in their childhood. They used to race one another out on the playground and sled ride down the hills after a new blanket of snow had just fallen.
It doesn’t mean that they no longer enjoy those things, it’s just that most grandparents would rather watch their grandchildren do those activities.
It’s the same for the older cat in the house, for the most part they are not as physically youthful as they once were, yet mentally they are & love watching little ones run, flip and play. However when you add just one new baby kitten to the household thinking that you have helped out the older kitty you have in fact, just annoyed the older one because he or she is content to watch, not join in and play. So once again I suggest TWO, that way it is as though the older cat is at the movies! They get the mental thrill and entertainment, but are not physically exhausted.
I know that adopting two at the same time is not always an option, but if possible it is always best to pair them up with a furry friend within that first year of life.
The other question people often ask me is what gender combination’s are best to go with.
I always say the same thing: FEMALE/FEMALE or MALE/FEMALE but to avoid MALE/MALE unless they are adopted at the same time and are either litter mates or nursery mates (born within a 2-3 month age range of one another).
So to answer your question on one vs. two, I ALWAYS prefer them to go in pairs.