How many pets are too many?

[Cruisin]

We have 2 cats (well, technically one is ours but the other belongs to the neighbours and lives at our house ), some fish in the aquarium and the fish pond.

There is a cute little stray cat that has been living at our house since the beginning of May. (outside only)

My Husband thinks 2 cats is enough.

How many pets do you have and how many do you think is enough??

 

[Meriweather]

We have 4 cats (just lost one in Feb ).
3 are in/out.....one an adopted stray that stays outside.
You will know when you have too many!!

I do like just 2 cats, but can't say no when strays turn up.

As long as they get along, you can afford to take proper care of them......the more the merrier!

 

[catsrule]

Take the kitty in and let it claim you as it's human!

 

[Planogirl]

We've had three cats and it's just about the same as two cats. My husband protested too but he ended up bringing the third one home himself. He's a soft touch.

 

[mommytotwo]

We have 3 dogs, a cat, lots of birds and many fishes. To many birds and fishes to count.

 

[bballmom56]

Originally posted by Meriweather
I do like just 2 cats, but can't say no when strays turn up.

As long as they get along, you can afford to take proper care of them......the more the merrier!

We just got adopted by our 4th cat in March - just showed up crying on our back porch. He was like a skeleton. Now he's beautiful. We just had him neutered. There are 4 cats at the house, plus the dog, fish, frogs, bearded dragon, 1 cat in the barn and 4 horses. I figure there's always room for one more (especially one in need). Thank goodness, DH agrees.

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

We have 1 dog, 1 fish, and 5 cats....we took all 5 cats to the vet at the same time and people looked at us like we were insane.

 

[Danauk]

We have 2 cats (we had 3 but lost one ), 3 rabbits (one we took on from someone who was unable to look after her), tropical fish in an aquarium and countless fish and frogs in our outside pond. I don't think that is too many. I think the number of pets you can cope with depends on the size of your house and grounds and if you are able to care for them all well. If another stray cat turned up I would take it in too (Cheeky was a stray but we got him when he was 10 weeks old! - we later found out where he had come from but we got to keep him.)

 

[JESW]

Well, we have 2 cats and 10 birds so I guess I am not one to ask how many pets are too many!

I think that cat has already chosen you.

Jill

 

[MeanLaureen]

Umm.. I have 5 dogs, 14 birds and 2 fish. I think you can never have enough puppies but Matt keeps me in check

I think as long as you have the proper amount of room for them to live and you have the means to take care of them in the way they deserve and need (vet, grooming, food, treats, etc) then I say go for it. Just remember you will have to have ways to care for them if you travel and things like that - don't forget the big picture!

 

[Skywalker]

Do you have kids? The reason I ask because the rule at our house is once the animals outnumber the people, that is too many! LOL. But really, I think exceptions have to be made for "cute little strays" that are living right outside your house.

 

[workinggal]

Right now we have 2 dogs and a cat. We used to have those 2 dogs, the cat, a hamster, hermit crab and fishes. I felt like I was coming home to a zoo. All of them eventually died. We had that darned hamster for over 2 years!

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Currently I only have the Monty Dog. Occasionally we take in a foster animal until we can place it with a forever home. We have done this several times over the couple of years when we knew people who were going to give their pets to the pound. They have all been placed in loving homes.

But when I lived with my parents growing up at one point we had over 15 pets at one time.

At one point in my adult life, living on my own I had 7 ferrets at one time. That was my max though.

As long as you can afford the money and time to take care of them properly and feed them and take them to the vet, I think there is no limit on how many is okay.

If you think you can easily provide for the pets, I see no reason why having another is a bad thing. There are a lot of homeless pets looking for loving families to take them in.

One thing to keep in mind though, some towns have zoning laws for how many pets can be in one home.

 

[MinnieMe2]

Right now, we have two dogs and two cats. However, I hope to bring home a third basset one of these days soon. My little Matilda was supposed to be my show dog, but she was very ill and almost died last winter. Though Tufts was unable to diagnose what happened to her, there is some permanent damage and she has difficulty walking. She will be my little couch potato, hopefully for a long time, but I still want to show. DH thinks three dogs will be too many, but I figure if I could raise four kids, I can certainly take care of three dogs!!!!

 

[Lisa F]

We have 3 cats. We thought two was perfect until Bagheera (the black one) showed up on our doorstep. I took one look at that face and knew he was meant to be with us.

We have sinced moved and the lady down the street has a ton of cats who wander around the block. DH won't let me go near any of them because he doesn't want a fourth. I told him I am not going to steal someone else's cat!

 

[Cruisin]

Seems like we have a lot of pet lovers here.

Skywalker, yes, I have 2 older kids and a husband so we still fit into your rules!!!

Taking care of him financially is not a real problem. I took him to the vet yesterday for a checkup and his first vaccination and a rabies shot. I didn't want him to get some disease or worse yet give it to the other cats!!

When we go away on vacation, we already have 2 cats to take care of so one more will not really make much difference there.

My husband keeps saying, he needs a home. But I think everyone here is right.......... he has a home, here with me!

 

[Catzeyes]

We had two cats up till last month when a very sweet female showed up at our door and decided to move in. She was very fat lol. 2 weeks ago she gave birth on the guest room bed to 5 sweet little kittens. So now we are up to 8. We will be finding homes for all the babies but are keeping the momma kitty. She will be getting fixed as soon as she is done nursing the kitties.

 

[chyam]

Well I am glad to see that I am not the only animal lover on this site. I used to have 9 cats, 4 dogs, 2 birds, 1 prairie dog and a man and when someone would ask ........I would say who do you think is going first? The man and the birds since they do the most squawking! Well the man is gone ( I am looking though ) and one of the birds passed. At this point I am down to 4 cats, 3 all white ones and all strays and 1 grey (slug) he is huge and I never see him eat! All my critters live extremely long, 1 of my cats is now 20 and one passed last year at 21! My dog is now 12 (Saluki) and as much as I love her I doubt that I will get another dog, more cats yes but no more dogs! My prairie dog died in Jan. and I would love to have another. But she lived 8 years so I guess that is pretty old for them. I once was very involved in greyhound rescue and had several of them also, they make great pets it's just that my lifestyle these days is really not suited for dogs, since I work a 12 hour shift. Some friends think I am a little strange and was once given a birthday card that said "cats are like birthdays the more you have the more pathetic you look!" Oh well..............I love my fur babies!

 

[Rajah]

At the moment, 7 cats, 1 betta fish, and 4 other fish

7 cats is too many for long-term, but we're raising the kittens and they won't be with us forever.

Not counting the kittens, we have 4 cats, and we're debating keeping one of our kittens.

As for how many is too many....?

However many you can support with space, love, playtime, caring, keeping clean, and feeding.

 

[Amberle3]

I didn't know there was such a thing as too many pets!

We currently have 4 cats and 2 fish tanks. We started out with one cat, who died at the age of I think it was 19. We wanted to wait a bit before getting another cat, but a few months later my aunt found one in the paper being given away - a long tailed manx. So we took the cat (renamed her Saman, Sam for short). We existed happily with one cat for about a year, when my aunt found manx cats for sale in the paper. I'd never actually *bought* a cat before in my life. We went to the farm where the cats were, and came home with Kokopelli (Koko for short - this confuses people to no end because she's grey and they think her name is Cocoa, not Koko).

About a year or so after that a skinny grey cat showed up at our back door and started crying to get in. She wouldn't let us get near her though, so we put out food and water, and a box for shelter (it was November) with a heating pad and towel. 3 days later my nose neighbour stuck her head out her bathroom window when the cat was meowing and said "Is that YOUR cat?". I said "I guess it is now!", scooped her up and took her inside where she's been ever since. She's a lovely grey cat, probably a Russian Blue, that we've named Amber. That was about 5 years ago.

This past September we started seeing a black cat roaming around the neighbourhood, and in our yard a few times. Didn't think much of it as the neigbours let their cats run freely. Kept seeing him around and then in November noticed he was always outside, and was huddled up against the side of our house. Same as with Amber, he wouldn't let us come near him. It took 2-3 weeks of coaxing, but we finally managed to get him in the house. He's now very fluffy, and almost pure black, so we named him Kohl.

So from being happy with 1 cat, we're up to 4! And I still want a dog