Thread: What's best one or two ?

So we got a second boy for our male MC when he was a bit over a year old. Up until that point he had been playing quite well with one of our girls, but as he got bigger and bigger she began to not want to play with him anymore--and made it very obvious by being mean. We found having the two boys to be really good for both of them. They played constantly until fairly recently (the younger is now 9mos). I think they are having some trouble adjusting to the larger size of the "kitten." When he was little, the older male would basically let him do anything, but sometimes when they start to play now it seems to get very rough and then one breaks it off. We are hoping they work this out so play continues, but we will see.... They still are great friends and obviously very happy to have each other around.

Our two girls have always been much less playful together than the boys. The older of them is not that much of a player. The younger girl (now 4 years) did play with each of the males quite a bit until they got close to her in size (even the 9mos old male now outweighs her).

So overall we have been pleased with having them all. They appear to like having the others around--at least most of the time--and they do help amuse each other some. Each of them has a very distinct personality. We like having both boys and girls as they do differ. On the other hand, if you get a male that is going to be much larger than the female, don't expect them to engage in very physical play for long. The females in general do not seem to like that type of play as well, and they particularly do not seem to like it with a larger cat!

Downsides? We did not find two a great deal more work than one, but four can sometimes make it feel like you are constantly dealing with cat needs (e.g., feeding, cleaning litter, picking up hairballs, grooming, etc.). And of course there is the cost, which is certainly not insubstantial (the food bills alone are rather horrifying some days, with two growing males).