Can You Have To Many Cats

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Well said. I love cats really. I don't personally have any because I live in a third floor apartment and don't like the idea of keeping a cat in the house all the time. But my mother has three lovely cats including a big Maine Coon.

It's like kids, IMO. You should only have as many as you can take GOOD care of. So, someone with a lot of time, energy, and resources may be able to have a great number while someone else may only be able to care of 1 cat well. It just depends. Cats are awesome though, BTW. I have 4 myself. That is my cap (and they are ALL sterilized). No more

i have three cats, all the same breed so look similar but with such different personalities. collecting cats for the sake of collecting is only fine if one also looks after them very well too. i imagine it must be hard to keep more than 4-5 cats happy unless one has help from family/friends to help out or they are outdoor cats. mine are indoors only british shorthairs. they need attention all day everyday. i doubt i'd be able to look after any more than the 3 that i've got.

I have 2 cats, it's enough for me.


I have seen those cat hoarders on TV.

a man had something like 35 cats. The RSPCA had to come and take a whole lot of cats away because there were not cared for properly. (35 cats are way too many for one man)

Where the **** do you live

In a normal sized house you should only have 3, more than that, they will start fighting.

If you have plenty of land and can afford food and medical care for them, though, feel free to have a horde of cats

Neutering males will keep fighting down. Our cats don't fight. They all really seem to care for one another. They LOVE my dog, Dee, too. One of the cats (Teddy) will rub against her the whole time I am walking her. I have to shoo him away when she needs to go potty! All the others follow us on our walk around the property so it looks like a parade.

Well like everyone else said here...as long as you can care for them then go for it, but cat vacinations are expensive and one cat can cost up to 300 dollars in all needed vacinations, so if you are on a limited budget, then yes you can have too many cats and they can get diseases. It happened to a friend of mine who had too many cats because she did not have the money to completely vacinate them all and many died of horrible diseases.

You can also have too many cats if you are unable to make sure they are all fed and well taken care of.

But on my end...we have always had a manegerie.

Right now, I have 2 dogs, a parrot, and 2 fish which I am comfortable with. We moved so we had to find homes for the other animals we had.

At one time, we had 4 rabbits, 23 chickens, 8 cockatiels, 1 cockatoo, 4 fish, 6 dogs, 2 snakes, 20+ hamsters (we got them when they were babies and were told that they were both female...uhhh nope), 5 breeder-feeder rats, 1 cat, 1 turtle, 1 goat (we had to give it back because the dogs kept chasing it)

The only ones I had trouble taking care of were 3 angora rabbits....their hair tangled so easily and were prone to infection.

I know from experience that this many animals is alot of work...it seemed all I had time for was to feed/water them but as far as personal time with each one of them...that was difficult.
My mom got "a little" carried away on animals....but then I was expected to take care of them.
The number we have now...I am able to give each of my animals individual time. Although I do like chickens.......

Actually, there is such a thing as having too many cats. I remember watching an episode of Oprah, when she was still bearable to watch, in 2005 and she had one woman on her show, who had 100 pet cats.

A cat will not be unhappy indoors if you give it plenty of things to do--you know, toys, play sessions, cuddles. Mine stay inside all the time because my neighborhood is not safe for cats. I have neighbors who would literally think it was funny to shoot a cat with a bb gun, and other neighbors who will not brake to avoid a cat in the road. Some areas are just not safe for cats. They can, however, be happy indoors, because a cat is a small enough animal that even an apartment is the size of a shopping mall to it, with quite enough adventure, especially if you provide things like window perches, cat trees, boxes to hide in, etc. I can't afford a cat tree, but my cats seem to consider cardboard boxes quite as entertaining.

I hate cats

one cat can be too much, espicilly if it's a tiger

I love cats

I think this thread was started with a tongue in cheek question, not a serious question. So it should read "really now (laughing) can a person have too many cats?"

I love cats! I love chocolate! In the memorable words of Mae West, "too much of a good thing is wonderful".

With that enthusiastic endorsement for cats, I am realistic about my limits, and therefore have only two cats. There are of course, vet bills to consider, food, and cat litter. Plus cats are territorial and establish a hierarchy, so too many cats in a confined space becomes very stressful for the cats as they continually work to maintain their place in the hierarchy.

My cats are able to enjoy all the comforts of indoor living, AND the adventure of outdoor excursions. I happen to live on a quiet dead end street with virtually no traffic, in a neighborhood of dead end streets. I have one cat that is even house trained, and asks me to go outside to do his business.

I would love to have a bigger home, and a bigger budget, because my heart is big enough for dozens of cats. But alas, I have neither the home nor the budget, so two cats will always be my limit.

I think it's essential to have two cats, unless you are a stay-at-home cat person.

However, I am equally of the view that two is the limit in an apartment setting, about 4 if you are talking about indoor cats in a house setting, and then the limit rises depending upon how much outdoor space there is for them. Farm cats? Sky's the limit.

The limiting factor, to my mind, is animal health. Having too many cats in a confined area means that any infection that one has, is likely to spread to all of them in short order. While two cats in a home who are both FLV+ is unfortunate, but can be accommodated, exposing 15 cats to FLV when one winds up exposed to it begins to look selfish.

No matter how well you water, feed, show affection to and care for the animals you live with, disease is disease, and it spreads faster in crowded situations.