Kitten or young cat ?

[halfpenny43]

Hi all. Have had kittens as pets before and was looking at getting a Sphynx kitten - just waiting for the right one.

However I came across a stunning Sphynx from a lady who has two (both males) - one is nearly a year old the other is 7. The older cat does not get on with the younger cat at all and the owner has decided to let the younger cat go to a new home.

My question is - is taking a young cat as opposed to kitten more difficult re training ?

Thanks in advance
1/2p

[solo2]

Kittens are lovely cute bundles of fluff but they are hard work. Personally I'd always opt for the cat against a kitten.

Cats are intelligent so learn quickly (if the little stubborn buggers want to) but what exactly do you mean?

[BigMon]

We've just taken a 2 year old from the Blue Cross and he's training us nicely!

It depends what you mean by training. He was litter trained so that was fine, we had no accidents or anything like that.

We've had him just over a month and he's learnt this is his home so goes out and comes back OK.

[DKL]

We've always had resue kittens which means we can "train" them as to what we expect them to tolerate. When little they get handled alot, put on their back to stroke tummies that sort of thing so that they get used to it and are not a nightmare at the vets or occasionally in attack mode with us. It seems to have worked on the whole, they are fairly placid with being poked by others, vets small children etc and generally very affectionate with us with no tendency to swat etc.
One of ours was bought privately many years ago and whilst only 10 weeks old he had been dropped a few times by the children there and generally not "loved" as we would want. Not abused but not appreciated shall we say. He was probably the least affectionate/cuddlable we've had but ovely all the same.
At nearly 1 you may be ok but you don't know how they were brought up in their formative months which you may not be able to undo.

[halfpenny43]

DKL said:

At nearly 1 you may be ok but you don't know how they were brought up in their formative months which you may not be able to undo.

Thanks all for the words of advice - this point above was exactly what I was thinking of.
I have not been to see the cat yet - but assume they are litter trained. It will be an indoor cat so will rarely go outside.
I was morning thinking of scratching, chewing, attacking etc etc. If these were not trained out at a young age - is it still possible to train these out later in life.

Thanks again all