By Auntie Jazz

Attention crazy cat ladies in training: taking care of a multi-cat household can be hard! Whether your house is full of cats because you just love them so much, or because you have multiple roommates who all own cats, adjusting to a growing feline family can be tough. Not just for you, but also for the cats. I personally feel a multi-cat household helps a cat to grow up more well-adjusted and friendly. If you feel the same way, read on.

Often the best thing you can do for your growing cat family, is to just let them figure it out on their own. When my sister and her cat, Fubar, moved in with me, my cat, Oreo, was not impressed, to say the least. My other cat, Princess Leia got along with Fubar almost from the start, but Oreo never quite warmed up to him. They fought. They refused to share a food dish. They wouldn't even get within sight of each other without raised hair and laid back ears. The most we ever did was separate them if the fighting got really bad. But in time, although they never grew to like each other, they did accept each other. Fubar understands Oreo's master of the house and pretty much just stays out of her way. But they will share a food dish. And, once or twice, when they thought no one was looking, I even caught them napping together.

One of the main things I find indispensable for my cat family is a fountain water dish. Even something as simple as a dish that holds a 2L pop bottle to dispense the water can be very helpful. I know Oreo by herself will go through a regular cat dish of water in less than a day. If that's all you're using for three or four cats, you'll be refilling it all the time. So invest in the fountain style water dish. The simpler models aren't expensive and you'll be able to ensure your feline friends never go thirsty.

How do you choose what to feed your pets? Everyone who's a part of a multi-cay or any kind of multi-pet household knows how hard it is to keep the pets from eating each other's food. Unless you're going to feed them at specific times, in separate rooms, with the doors shut, the answer is compromise. And most cats know when they need to eat and can just have a full dish left out, so compromise is easy. At the pet store, you'll find plenty of selection made specifically for multi-cat households. But you could go for something more specific, like indoor cat formula if your cats don't go outside. Our cats are all fine with eating sensitive formula, which Fubar needs in order to be able to chew his food. The most important thing though, is to make sure it's a healthy formula. The first ingredients in the list should be meat. Cats don't need too much wheat or anything like that.

Having a multi-cat household can be a bit of work, but the rewards are well worth it. Just imagine the smug cat grins on three purring faces. Isn't that worth every second?