Introducing new kittens to an older cat

We have a 3yr old male cat (REX) who recently lost his sister. (The neighbors dogs mauled it to death, horrible scene.) We are very, very sad to say the least and of course so is REX. This weekend we adopted a 3 month old kitten from a rescue centre to give REX a friend. REX is not happy, although today, day 3, he is softening and hopefully will continue to accept his new friend. My question is....should we have adopted two kittens so that they can play and be together? Or do you think REX and our new kitten will becomes friends? We originally adopted REX and his sister together and they were very close, they slept together, cleaned each other ect.

Answer by kate
Hi
well let me start by saying that unfortunately adopting another cat in the hope that your existing cat will have a friend is i am afraid misguided. cats don' work ike that i'm afraid.

It is usually advisable to leave a period of at least three to four months after the death of one cat before even contimplating getting another. this gives your remianing ca time to come to terms with the loss.

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-grief.html

However now that you have the new kitten the importnat thing is making sure that the two cats are introduced properly to each other so that they can build confidence in a safe and calm environment. Please see this page for more details on this

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/introducing-cats.html

I'm sure that given time the two will at least be able to live togeather in harmony.

By the way two kittens would have been a mistake and probably to much for your existing cat to cope with all at once, so you did the right thing with only getting one.

I hope they get along soon

best wishes kate

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