No longer the object of ridicule, the crazy cat lady persona is embraced by the internet and pop culture. But when does it go beyond a quirky personality trait to something concerning, dangerous, or even deadly?
A stable multi-cat home is unmanageable when the cats are kept in inappropriately sized spaces and deprived of their essential needs. Laura Cassiday, certified cat behaviour consultant and founder of USA-based Pawsitive Vibes Cat Behavior and Training, says these basic needs are known as the ‘Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare’. They are broken down into: “freedom from hunger or thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain or disease, freedom to express behaviour normal for their species, and freedom from fear and distress”. You have too many cats when these essential needs aren’t met.
Learn more about how many cats are too many and the challenges surrounding this topic. This includes when multiple cats turn into animal hoarding.
What Determines How Many Cats Is Too Many?
If you’ve been questioning your number of cats, rest assured that there’s no single number considered too many. If you’re looking for a specific number, though, Cassiday feels having three or four cats is the sweet spot and the maximum that most people can reasonably care for.
Ultimately, the answer varies because the capacity to care for them reasonably differs. For some people, that might mean they’re best suited to care for a bonded cat pair. For others, it might not be too much to have five cats. Beyond that, many situational factors come into play when it comes to determining what is the perfect number of cats to have. These include the following.
- Your living space. Smaller housing, such as a studio apartment versus a house, can make providing enough space and resources for them more challenging. Bringing multiple cats into a single bedroom you’re renting is just asking for constant conflict.
- Other people, animals and children. Besides your living space, you should examine who else lives there with you. For example, fewer resources are available for multiple cats if you live with roommates and other animals.
- State and municipal laws. Your landlord likely has pet restrictions or limitations if you rent an apartment or house. Sometimes these are for specific sizes, weights, and breeds of animals. Other times it’s a set number of total animals.
5 Signs You Have Too Many Cats
“The more cats you have, the more likely you are to see some sort of behaviour problem, whether it’s something like urine marking or aggression between cats,” says Dr Mikel Delgado, certified cat behaviour consultant, founder of Feline Minds, and Rover’s resident cat expert.
Fighting between cats and territorial behaviour like spraying and urine marking indicate something is amiss. In addition, there are other red flags to look out for, including the following.
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1. They’re malnourished
As obligate carnivores, cats have very distinct nutritional needs. They rely on their diets to get the essential vitamins, minerals, and amino acids they need to function and thrive. Commercial wet food and dry kibble is fortified with two especially crucial amino acids: taurine and arginine.
If they don’t have these nutrients, they’re more susceptible to heart failure, blindness, seizures, and ammonia buildup. Cats with improper access to food are prone to severe malnourishment and untimely death.
2. They’re chronically dehydrated
Beyond malnutrition, improperly cared-for cats are often chronically dehydrated and sick due to competition. Cats aren’t hardwired to seek out water, so they often need to be enticed with water fountains or rely on wet foods to get moisture into their diet.
The average 4.5 kg cat should drink at least 235 ml of water daily. If they’re chronically dehydrated, it can lead to organ failure, heart problems, and neurological issues.
3. They have fleas and worms
It’s a myth that indoor-only cats can’t get worms and fleas. When cats don’t get proper flea treatment or are neglected, all it takes is a single cat to unleash these tiny, bloodsucking terrors into the house, putting all the other cats at risk. Fleas can lead to itching, skin irritation, open wounds, and deadly infections.
Kittens are especially vulnerable and at risk of being seriously harmed. Internal parasites like roundworms are also easily transferable between cats and can even be passed from an infected mother’s milk to her kittens. Untreated worms in cats can lead to life-threatening gastrointestinal issues and severe viral and bacterial infections.
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4. They aren’t bonded with you
Cassiday says cats in unhealthy households miss socialisation and learning to live with other animals. Unfortunately, this also means they miss out on the ‘critical’ socialisation period between two and seven weeks old and become fearful and mistrustful.
According to the American Association of Feline Practitioners, a strong bond between cats and their human caregivers can “increase the quality of life” for everyone and reduce the likelihood of behaviour problems.
5. They make your home smell bad
One of the hallmarks of having too many cats is unhygienic living conditions. The lack and sometimes complete inability to clean and adequately sanitise litter boxes, bedding, toys, and food and water dishes can lead to many issues. Besides a dirty and smelly home, this lack of hygiene leads to more parasites, bacteria, viruses, and diseases.
Some problems can cross the species barrier and infect humans and cats, leaving them reeking and ill. Combined with the number of cats crammed into an unclean living space, the poop and pee odours from territorial behaviour contribute to an unsanitary home.
Why Is Having Too Many Cats Bad?
Having too many cats without being adequately equipped to meet their basic needs physically, socially, and medically comes with its dangers. In addition to other negative consequences we covered, like illnesses and poor health, here are four more ways having too many cats is bad:
Contributes to overpopulation
There were estimated to be 250,000 urban stray cats in the UK in 2021, with numbers likely increasing since then. And there are approximately 11-12 million owned cats in the UK, based on research from the charity Cats Protection and Petfood Industry, and many of these will roam. And, without neutering, cats can get pregnant when they’re as young as four months old and have two litters a year. Many pet parents with a concerning number of cats leave them ‘entire’.
Dr Delgado explains they are often not spayed or neutered and come from online sites or off the streets without regular vet care. This means these cats tend to reproduce quickly and beyond, triggering a mini household cat overpopulation crisis that feeds into the larger one worldwide.
Increases behavioural issues
Cassiday says competition over fewer resources leads to behaviour issues. Though the cats are generally very well socialised to other cats, it’s not always positive socialisation. Crowding and lack of resources mean these cats are stressed and fighting. This fighting can manifest in three types of aggression: territorial, status-induced, and inter-cat aggression.
Considering these cats are usually unneutered, their sex hormones amplify this aggression, particularly those in entire males. Unlike play fighting in stable multi-cat households, cats in other environments claw and bite to injure. Because of that, they can damage each other seriously and leave wounds prone to becoming infected. Humans also risk contracting bacterial infections like cat scratch disease if an aggressive infected cat bites or scratches hard enough to break the skin.
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Spreads disease
An unclean environment breeds other infectious diseases besides parasites, fleas, and bacterial infections. For example, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) are highly transmittable diseases that can quickly hop from cat to cat. Because they attack cats’ immune systems, it makes them susceptible to other illnesses and, left untreated, can cause a lifetime of painful symptoms. While cats usually transmit FIV through bites, they spread through saliva in mutual grooming, breastmilk, faeces, and urine in shared litter boxes.
Cat parents will work closely with their veterinarians in healthy situations to care for their cat’s particular needs. While FIV and FeLV have no cure, they can be managed with medical care. Unfortunately, the outlook is much grimmer for cats in hoarded situations who are denied medical treatment.
Leads to financial problems
Another consequence of too many cats is financial strain and insecurity. Cats are not low-cost pets. For example, a single cat can cost as much as £2,025 a year for food, litter, toys, enrichment, and general wellness visits; that’s only the essentials! That amount doesn’t take into consideration additional annual expenses like dental cleanings, grooming appointments, pet insurance, and emergency vet visits together that can tack on as high as an additional £1,580, meaning that it can cost over £3,500 to care for one cat for one year.
Multiple cats mean doubling, tripling, and quadrupling those numbers. This cost can rise even more for cats with chronic illnesses requiring frequent veterinary care or are in life stages, like pregnancy or their senior years, where they need more supplies and food. The financial implications of having a large number of cats can be devastating.
What Are Special Care Requirements For Multiple Cats?
Not all multi-cat homes are bad. Dr Delgado explains that having multiple cats can be fun for everyone when done right. So, how is this done well? Above all, care requirements for multi-cat homes come down to resources.
Cassiday says a proper number of litter boxes isn’t the only vital resource. Other necessary items for complete enrichment include the following.
“When it comes to anything your cat finds important, they should have one of their plus one extra,” Cassiday says. She says they can’t be in one spot either since cats want to guard their stuff against other cats, especially litter boxes, food bowls, and water bowls.
Is Having Too Many Cats Animal Hoarding?
‘Collecting’ cats has many consequences for animals and humans alike. But first, what exactly is animal hoarding? To understand its impact on cats, we need a clear definition of what it is first.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, hoarding is a mental disorder where people can’t part with objects they see as valuable; typically, this happens in a highly disorganised setting. However, when these ‘possessions’ are cats, it crosses over into animal hoarding. For animal hoarding, 72% are women, and cats experience the highest hoarding rates.
So, how many cats count as hoarding? Animal hoarding has no universal number. So, instead of a fixed number of cats, a hoarding situation is determined on the home’s condition.
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6 Ways To Rehome Cats If You Have Too Many
The decision to rehome a cat is a difficult one. Luckily, the outlook is good for re-homing cats. “Many of these cats can be socialised and adopted into a new home,” Dr Delgado says. She explains this entails giving cats time to adjust and providing them with positive interactions with humans. In addition, a recent study found some benefits of medication to lessen stress in the shelter and get adopted.
The first step to safely and ethically rehome cats is surrendering them to a reputable organisation. Some organisations are humane societies, nonprofit rescues, or animal shelters. If someone reports hoarding to the police, local animal control gets involved; they’re the ones who choose where the cats go.
Once the rescued cats are transferred, there are typically six steps to re-homing a cat. They include the following.
1. Check the cat’s health and behaviour
The first and most crucial step to rehoming a cat is checking their health. This means a vet needs to examine them to see if they’re spayed or neutered and identify the toll of possible hoarding. This toll could include being infested with fleas or worms, malnourishment, dehydration, infection, or illness. Then, when it comes to their behaviour, organisations use various assessments to get a read on each cat’s temperaments so they can understand how to meet their needs and get them ready for adoption or foster care.
2. Provide necessary medical treatment
Beyond treating illnesses, infections, and parasites, this stage also includes spaying or neutering and getting starving and malnourished cats onto a balanced diet with the necessary nutrients. Grooming is recommended if a cat’s fur is matted or full of fleas. Once their basic survival needs are met and medical issues, some longstanding, are addressed, these cats begin to recover from their chronic stress and anxiety to let their personalities shine.
3. Screen and interview potential adoptees
After advertising the rescued cat’s background and posting it on websites and in shelters, the next step is to screen and conduct interviews with potential adoptees. Adoptees must know what they’re getting into and the rescued cat’s unique needs. For instance, the cat may need to live in a house without children or other animals, or they’ll thrive in a healthy multi-cat household. Expressing and emphasising this and the other requirements and responsibilities needed for each cat is vital.
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4. Schedule meet and greets
Like any cat or kitten, falling in love with their photo and bio isn’t enough. Because all cats, like humans, have distinct personalities, there are chances that not every adoption will be a good fit. “The most common challenge that former hoarding cats face is lack of socialisation to humans,” Cassiday says. Physically meeting and spending time with the cat they’re interested in through a casual meet and greet is the best way to see if there’s chemistry.
5. Offer fostering opportunities
Adoption isn’t the only answer for rehoming rescue cats. After assessing their welfare and behaviour, some shelters and organisations may find some cats will thrive in foster homes. When people choose to foster cats rescued from hoarding environments, it’s a kind of exposure therapy or a crash course in human-to-feline socialisation.
Very young kittens in the crucial socialisation period will do well in foster situations. In addition, fostering programs often provide essential supplies such as food, toys, and litter and pay for vet visits, making cat parenting more accessible for people who may not have the financial means to care for a cat permanently.
6. Keep communications consistent
It’s not the end once a cat is adopted or placed in a foster home. At least in the early months, shelters and organisations will likely communicate regularly with the cat’s new caregivers. This ensures the rescued cat is adjusting well to their new household. In addition, the shelter provides guidance, advice, and support as needed and troubleshoots problem behaviours. If the home isn’t a good fit for the cat and no interventions or strategies work, it could also mean taking the cat back and attempting to find a more suitable home for them.
