Female & Male cats living together?
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| Wed, 06-08-2005 - 5:49pm |
Ok, I am faced with the dilemna. My new kitten is supposed to be picking me Thursday evening (aka, tomorrow). I've talked to the woman who has the foster home. She has 3 male kittens, no females. I didn't make the decision on wanting a male or a female. I didn't want to rule out a fabulous cat, because I was fixated on one gender.
My question, has anyone had issues with having male and female cats living together? Of course my 2 resident cats are female. (Bad Annie, age 9, Chalimar, age 7) The odd thing is, ever since I decided to get another cat, I kept referring to it as He. I don't know why. And the first name I picked out, was the male name. But now I'm nervous about mixing genders.
As an asside, they have an appointment to have the kittens neutered on Friday. They're only 8 weeks old. Isn't that too young? I checked, and my vet recommends 6 months. The rescue org will charge me $25 for the neutering. I know my vet will charge around $100. But it's not about money.
** Noelle


It's usually no issue whether you get a male or female.
Hi Noelle,
It shouldn't make any difference whether you get a male or female as your going to have the kitten neutered any way and both of yours are spayed.
As far as the age goes, my vet too doesn't go along with the early spay/neuter so and Zach was due to be neutered the next day when I adopted him. I could have left him and then picked him up after the surgery but I opted to take him and get him neutered by my vet who I knew and trusted. It turns out that the group had fudged his age and he really wasn't 8 wks but 6 wks so he would have been quite young and my vet too recommends waiting until they are 6 mos. I then submitted proof of his neutering to the group and they reimbursed a percentage of the fee.
As a total aside, my friend adopted two female kittens who were part of the early spay deal and she's had problems with one of them. Because they were so young and small they left behind part of the reproductive tissue and she had to have another surgery after several months of actually going through heat symtoms to have it removed.
I know why they do it early so that they will have a higher rate of compliance, but since I was willing to be responsible for it I felt it best for Zach to wait.
Good luck with the new kitten.
Lynn
LOVE IS SHOWN BY DEEDS, NOT WORDS.
Thank you. I've never owned a male cat before, but I think if I introduce him correctly, all will go well with kitties. He's going to have to learn to deal with Bad Annie, though. Since she's deaf, I'm sure there'll be issues with him sneaking up on her. We'll deal with that.
I just think 8 weeks is way too young to neuter him. And like you, I trust my vet. They've been our family vet for 25 years, 4 dogs, 4 cats, 3 birds and 3 hamsters. They're expensive, but they're up on all the latest stuff.
I've got the new kitty's room all set up. Litterbox, food, water, kitty bed, toys (some new, a few old that my girls don't play with.)...scratching posts (1 vertical, 1 horizontal.) Feliway diffuser has been chugging along since last night. I think we're ready. My only concern is that he'll be bored, and he'll be too little to jump up to the window to see the birds outside. So I'm seriously considering dropping the cash to get him a 3-level cat tree, that would enable him to reach the window.
** Noelle
I haven't had a problems with males and females.