I learned the hard way that many kittens do not do well left alone all day. Frankly, Apricat probably would’ve fared much better in a household with many people so that she could get attention on a regular drip from various people in the family.

She would have also fared even better if there was a second kitten to play with.

And I’m now 100% sure that she has single kitty syndrome.

A lot of kittens do not do well in a single households whose owners are often away for hours at a time. Apparently, a lot of shelters have a recommendation that you need to adopt kittens in pairs.

In 2021, I house sat for a friend and helped care of her two cats while she was away for two months. I realised how healthy it was that they have each other. Watching the two play was entertainment in itself! A lot of times I had to be away for half a day, but the cats were none the wiser and forgot that I was even away.

But imagine a single kitten alone for two months with just the occasional visit from a pet sitter. I can only imagine the horrible loneliness they must face, especially if they are social, playful cats.

This infographic describes Single Kitten Syndrome quite well:

Apricat had almost all these behavioural issues! Fortunately, she did not have litter issues (thank God for small mercies), but was very aggressive with it, as if she was beating the crap out of it lol.

So, tips for people wanting to adopt a kitten:

• Please adopt two, especially if you are away a lot for work. It is healthy for their social and mental health to have a companion. And try get an already bonded pair as sometimes some kitty relationships don’t work out. I pored through Reddit threads to search an answer for this issue (I was thinking of getting Apri a friend), but it seems that there’s a 50-50 chance that it won’t work out because your current cat prefers to be alone or it just doesn’t match.
• It is not a good idea to get a single kitten when you live alone, as her care depends 100% on you. It will be very taxing on you as you need to play with her a lot and probably discipline her if behavioural issues crop up. Of course this depends on the personality of the cat. Some kittens are very chill. But if you happen to get an super energetic one, be prepared to spend up to 3 hours playing with her a day.
• Kittens taken from their litter mates too young, unless socialised with other cats, may develop bite-y tendencies as they’ve not learned the rules of proper play from their littermates. It will take a very patient and probably experience cat owner to discipline and modify her behaviour. A friend who had such a cat said her cat never really improved, but fortunately the entire family took the load off her by managing her cat.
• It’s better to adopt a cat whose energy matches yours. Let’s say you are struggling with an illness that tires you out a lot. Getting a high energy cat is probably a bad idea.
• It’s also best to match a cat with another cat of similar energy. For example, an older cat who just wants to lie in the sun all day will find a rambunctious kitten really annoying.

Far too often new cat owners are just not educated about this. I certainly wasn’t! I was quite shocked that single kitten syndrome was even a thing. And the scariest thing is if not corrected at a young age, it may worsen with age, meaning, you may end up with an aggressive, ill-mannered cat.

So I wrote this article as a way to get the word out there so you will be able to find the best cat for you. 🙂