We've had a lot of cats in my life time, and at one point, we had 18 cats at once! They were mostly fosters, so they weren't in our house for more then a month or two at a time. But, we did have an abundance of them at points. Some of them we were trying to rehabilitate and get them used to humans again.
Here's a photo of some of the cats we had at one point. (This is from way back in '08, so we only have one of the cats that we're in this picture.)
What's the largest amount of cats that you've ever had?
I am still in shock at how many cats you've had at once. 18?! I don't know how you do it. If fleas or other pests begin to take toll, what do you do? It just seems so hectic. But it must be wonderful to have 18 cats giving you unconditional love throughout the months -- whether they are yours or fosters.
I live with five cats. It's the most that I'll have and the most I'll ever have. It's so difficult to clean with five cats shedding at their own pace. So I commend you in being able to keep a clean environment with 18 cats! But one things for sure is that I love the amount of personalities I am able to spend time with. My cat, Wolfy, is mainly independent unless he chooses to cuddle, Timmy loves to cuddle, Muzzy loves to meow, Benjamin loves to play hide and go seek, and Vie loves to just meow and get into your face. Definitely a great spectrum of cat traits to spend time with.
Wow that's a lot of cats! The most I've ever had in my home was 3. Even three seemed like a lot lol. You have to clean the litter box so much more often. It's usually suggested to have one litter box per cat plus one. We always just had one because it took up too much room. It was the large domed litter boxes. It would sometimes start to smell so it had to be cleaned twice a day. Right now I have two cats and this seems like the perfect number. They have each other if they want to play but can easily be alone if needed. Their hierarchy is less complex since it's just the two of them.
Minus the times when I had Mama cats and their babies, I think 4 Adult cats all house cats in a 2 bedroom Mobile home. I love cats, but that was enough.
At one time I had 13 cats in my home. That was when I realized I had a potential problem and was on my way to becoming a cat horder. I immediately found homes for all but 4 of them. Litter box smell was a real problem when I had so many. We had 2 bathrooms with a little box in each. The rule was, that whoever went into a bathroom for any reason scooped the box. That did help considerably. Once I narrowed the fur people down to the 4 cats, it was much easier. Plus I had a dog at the time, too. Now I have no cats, just a little 10lb fur ball of a dog.
The most cats we have ever had at one time was two. We have toyed with the idea of three but we live in the city so we don't have a lot of space and didn't think it would be fair to have three cats living in close quarters. Additionally we have a dog so a dog and two cats in the city is sort of pushing it. I have a friend who fosters and she always has at least 20 cats at a time, the most she ever has was 33 and they keep her busy. The best part is that she tends to find all of them forever homes and the ones she can't place she keeps.
We currently have five cats and four litterboxes. We didn't mean to have five. We were originally going for three total. Then we adopted a bonded pair of tortoiseshell sisters, and a year later a bonded pair of tuxedo brothers... oops! So now we have five. That's our maximum, and since our cats range in age from five to two, we count on having them for a while without increasing again. The good side is that there's almost always a lapwarmer available. The downside is four litterboxes.
The most we've ever had was eleven when I was in college. That was an accident - we had a couple of "teenage" kittens and mistakenly believed they had to be at least eight months to be spayed and neutered. At seven months, they decided that being sister and brother was no bar to true love and presented us with four kittens. Then we took in a cat of roughly the same age from a college "friend" who said she was going to dump the cat in the woods. Said cat came to us pregnant. Another four kittens!
We worked with a rescue organization to get the adults and all the kittens spayed and neutered. The group also helped us place the cats. We had found out we needed to move soon so we decided to rehome all of them. I learned a lot about cats then, and it also cemented my love of rescue organizations. I also discovered how tormented female cats in heat really are. It's not a pleasant experience for them. I wouldn't have a cat who wasn't spayed or neutered now.
Wow I'm a total cat novice. I've only had two at the same time, and that didn't work out nearly as well as with just one. The older cat (in terms of how long he'd been with us, not actual age) immediately set to work proving he was alpha. They never fought seriously and no one was ever hurt, but I felt bad for the new cat, because he just had a sweeter disposition. He'd want to sleep with me on my bed, but the older cat wouldn't let him and would sit on the bed and glare at him until he left. When I moved, I left the new cat with my (now ex)boyfriend, and he told me it was like he became a whole other cat, who was more confident and friendly.
As long as I have my grumpy cat (with resource-guarding issues, I think), I'm probably going to stick to just one cat. So much for my dream to be a crazy cat lady.
A few years ago, we had a boy cat and a girl cat. No, they did not "hook-up!" ha. The girl cat got outside when she was in heat. When she came back, I knew our family would get bigger. Sure enough, she had a litter of five kittens. So, that brought our total to 7 cats in the house. Once the kittens were old enough, they found new homes, and we were back down to 2 cats.
Hmmm... The most I had was four. However, one died due to renal failure. I have my cats spayed/neutered when they are old enough because I believe that there are already too many strays in the world. Well, at least here in the Philippines. I have three cats now, and sometimes, I feel like I want another. I just resist the temptation because I work full-time, and I am not home most of the time to look out after them. I also don't want to be tagged as a hoarder who cannot take care of her animals.
Outside of a mommy with kittens, the most I have had at one time is 4. There was a lot of litter box scooping and we used a lot of lint rollers.
Fleas, etc were never a problem as none of them ever went outside except to go to the vet and the time I tried to take 2 of them out to play on a harness (It didn't go so well).
We have been down to 2 cats for awhile now, and I am enjoying having time to do something other that combing and cleaning litter boxes but it isn't going to last.
My husband filled out adoption papers for a Persian at a Persian rescue center. We haven't heard back from them yet, but the morning after he filled it out online, there was an "adoption pending" notice on Angles picture.
Not counting kittens, the most I have had at one time was five: Baby Girl, her two daughters, Cutie and Lydia; and Bird, and her daughter, Obadiah. Cutie and Lydia will be twenty-five next month, but I lost their mother to cancer when she was twenty-three, and both Bird and Obadiah were taken, probably by a fox, about a year ago. Bird was twenty-three and Obadiah was twelve. I miss them very, very much. When I was a kid, we probably had twenty or more barn cats, but I was the only one who made pets of them, and there were only a few that were amenable to it, at least given my skills at the time.
Our family had this cat. We called her Mama Kitty because she was always pregnant. lol. She had a litter 6 kittens and another litter of 5 not long after that. the previous kittens were still kittens when she gave birth again...and again..and again. My parents wanted to get rid of her but if she was pregnant the humane society here would have put her down, so everytime she had a new litter we would let her outside so all in all at one time we had 12 including Mama.
The most we have had is 3 at one time, mainly because I already had 5 dogs. But, I went through 5 cats one summer--they kept disappearing. Found out that my neighbors old Golden Retriever was eating them. Another neighbor had warned me, and then I caught him trotting through my back yard with one of my kitties (dead in his mouth). I immediately re homed the one I had left and didn't have any more until I moved.
Right now though we have one cat and one dog - they get along famously (often they fall asleep with one having their paw over the other one - it's SO cute) and so that's enough for us right now. Between a dog, a cat and a baby, and my husband working long hours I just can't commit to any more pets - it wouldn't be fair to them.
Perhaps one day if circumstances change we might add another kitty or another dog to our family but right now one of each is plenty!
The most cats that I have ever had at one time was two. For me, two cats are plenty and all I can really afford. I have thought about getting a third one but with the cost of vet bills I really can't afford more then two. I would never want to be in a position where one of my cats is sick and I can't afford the vet bill to get him taken care of. I feel with two I can give them a good home comfortably.
I can't imagine having 18 cats. That is awesome that you are able to do that. I am sure all the kitties are thankful to have you in their lives! You have an awesome heart.
Technically, probably about twenty-two but that would only be if I included the feral cats. When I was younger, my mom rented a country house that had cats that had been there since the owner's grandma had lived there. They weren't the kind of cats that would let you pet them, but they would accept food if you left it out for them. So even though the owner said we didn't have to, we fed them, especially in the winter. Toward the end our of time there, they would steal food straight from my fingers but dodge just out of my reach to eat the food. Stingy brats, but there was probably about twenty of them, but I'm not sure. Then we had two indoor cats that I got as a present from my Grandma. So that would make it about twenty-two cats.
But if you consider the cats we actually took care of the most we had in our direct care was three. My grandma's mom cat had a litter of kittens but they were getting eaten by something so my mom offered to nurse them until they got bigger. My cat Midnight, thought they were annoying and would paw them away when they wanted comfort. So my mom temporarily took care of them for a couple months and my cat Midnight taught them how to hunt in the backyard. When they were big enough, we returned them.
The most cats I ever had at one time was six, and they were all house cats that got along pretty well together. Typically we had three cats at once while I was growing up but for a few years it multiplied to that half a dozen that I remember so well. Right now I only own one cat and I personally feel that three, maybe four house cats is just the right number to have at any given time. My mom currently has seven house cats, and takes care of an unknown number of ferals that she rehabilitates, neuters/spays and gives outdoor shelter to. She and my dad live in a rural area where nobody apparently has ever heard of 'fixing' a cat, so there are always drop-offs and strays running around. In fact, that was how we got half of our cats when I was a child, through strays wandering into our yard and attaching themselves to us in some way. Us kids found a black kitten out in the woods while we were out wandering with our grandpa one day. He told us to put the kitten on the ground and see if he followed us. He did. So, we picked the kitten back up and took him home to stay. That kitty had a scar on his neck that remained for the rest of his life, and it's entirely possible that someone had taken a shot at him with a gun at some point. That black stray lived for 19 years with us. in fact, we only had one cat whom we actively sought out and paid for. The rest were all freebies who suddenly showed up in our yard looking desperate. The cat I currently have is a rescue, like all of those others, and that seems to be the usual way for people where I come from, to acquire a new kitty. It's funny how puppies don't seem to suffer that same fate in that area, mostly cats get dropped off, especially if people find out that you love them and will take care of them.
![[Image: proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-spho...09f8507d03]](http://www.happypetforum.com/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Ffbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net%2Fhphotos-ak-ash3%2Ft1.0-9%2F6528_237145115346_299805_n.jpg&hash=a60d171b99866bf9ff235b09f8507d03)
so all in all at one time we had 12 including Mama.
RE: How Many Cats Have You Ever Had At One Time? 
Kudos to you for opening your home to foster all those precious kitties!