Taking your Kitten Home

and Helping it Settle...

There are a few things you need to consider when taking your kitten home and during the first week or two as they acclimatise to their new surroundings.  All kittens have different personalities and as such will settle themselves at different rates; even two taken at the same time will differ to some extent. 

Prior to collecting your kitten, make sure you have a safe and quiet room set by for them – the “kitten room”. Making sure that anywhere they could possibly get into that you don’t want them to get into, is blocked off – stuffing towels and blankets into gaps works a treat!

So the big day is here and you’re about to take your kitten home!  There are a few things you’ll need to remember to bring with you. First and foremost your kitten carrier, make sure it’s well padded with a soft towel or blanket and I advise vet bed to line the bottom of it (we use adhesive Velcro to hold it in place so that it doesn’t slip around and make the kitten/cat feel unsafe).  If you stitch one side of the Velcro to the vet bed it can be washed and used again in the same manner. If it’s cold weather or a cold time of year, it’s best to have a “Snugglesafe” microwavable heating pad with a cover fitted. These stay warm for hours in the car or carrier and ensure that your kitten doesn’t become chilled.

First of all when you get your kitten home place them in the prepared “kitten room” with their litter box, containing Cat's Best OkoPlus Cat Litter like we use here and therefore what the kitten is familiar with.  Keeping to the same litter at least for the short term will help reduce the risk of the kitten having an accident. Place your kitten in its litter box occasionally, especially following a long sleep or a meal. If your kitten has a accident it should be cleaned up thoroughly with something like Petzyme that kills all smell as well as removes stains – this will help reduce the chances of your kitten repeating this sort of accident, by confusing the place that smells like a litter box with the real thing.  Even if you can’t smell it, a cat or kittens sensitive nose certainly can!  Never tell your cat or kitten off for an accident, it will only add stress to the equation and can easily make a simple accident into a serious problem!

Your kitten also needs to have a water bowl or fountain in the “kitten room”, a small supply of dry food (Royal Canin, Baby Cat or Kitten) and regular dishes of its wet food.  Here we feed the kittens at about 8am, 12:30pm, 5:30pm as well as last thing at night.  Try and keep to this sort of timing for meals if you can and remember a time release bowl (such as a PetPod) can be your friend if you can’t do so yourself! Mostly we feed HiLife kitten here, but check with us closer to the time you collect your kitten to see what they like the best at that point in time.  Make sure you have a supply of both dry and wet food in before collecting your kitten; it saves a lot of fuss and running about!

Once you see that your kitten is settled and relaxed you can start thinking of introducing your other pets to it if you have any.  Always start with the most laidback and relaxed one; this will help your kitten gain in confidence.  Introduce children in a similar way if they are young, making sure they understand that they will scare the kitten if they are too loud and boisterous, plus it’s essential they understand just how delicate a kitten is and how easily they could be hurt! On the whole kittens and cats will avoid children or keep their distance from them because of this.

All our cats and kittens live indoors and are homed only with people who understand this.  Even a small kitten can jump 4ft or more, so be careful with windows as well as doors. You can buy fly screening that will prevent accidents and this is a very wise thing to look into, especially if you can’t lock your windows in place with just an inch gap for ventilation.  If you have questions!  Honestly, it’s a horrific feeling to realize your cat or kitten has taken a 1-2 story drop from an open window… 

While we might be used to it here, it’s easy to forget how a young kitten can manage to get under your feet. Watch when you step backwards, especially in the kitchen or you might find a kitten there and even if you don’t hurt the kitten you could well hurt yourself by dropping a hot pot or the like due to the shock!

Since kittens tend to jump first and learn that it was a bad idea later, never ever leave the toilet lip up, a bath running or the cooker on unattended! All can cause serious accidents that a moment of thought could have prevented… Additionally watch for staples, paper clips and the like, don’t leave sharp knives where they could be jumped on or pulled down from, not forgetting that dishwashers, tumble dryers and washing machine doors should always be shut between loads.  Heck I’ve even had a cat who tried to climb into a hot oven, so it always pays to be careful and think of them as 2 yr old children!  Oh and exposed electrical cables should have a plastic cover put on them for safety, especially the little thin ones like mobile phone charger cables - Maplins always stock this sort of thing and to be honest it can help tidy up a muddle of thin cables rather nicely!

Make sure any under furniture gaps are either way too small for your kitten to access, big enough for you to get them out from or are packed with towels or similar to save accidents. Open fires and candles are out too as kittens are too curious to use common sense with them! Over time your kitten will learn and mature though, so this is a temporary stage you’ll get through… 

To discourage your kitten or cat from walking on a surface you don’t want it to, such as your kitten worktop or your dinning room table; keep a spray bottle full of water handy.  After a few sprays your kitten will start to react to your picking the bottle up and/or shaking it. Over time and with consistent training your kitten will give up trying to get to those “taboo” places.

The other main thing to watch out for is blinds as kittens and cats can easily get caught up in them and strangle themselves.  This is one of the reasons I don’t put collars on my cats too, it’s all too easy for them to get caught up by one, even if it’s a quick release or stretchy type made to prevent such horrific accidents, they’re still not as safe as the cat going “au natural” – one of the reasons I promote microchipping is you can positively ID your cat this way, while they remain totally safe from added choking hazards.  We are always happy to get your kitten microchipped using the Petlog Tracer micro chip, prior to you collecting your kitten.  You’ll just have a little paperwork to fill out and I’ll take it back to the vets to be sent off for registration with Petlog.

While the above should help you prevent most accidents as your kitten settles in to its new and permanent home with you, the other way of keeping your kitten safe is to make sure it is neutered in a timely fashion – that is prior to it obtaining sexual maturity. This saves a whole host of problems from male cats spraying, becoming aggressive and trying to brake out to get to some local female who may or may not be a disease carrier, FIV like its human counterpart HIV is sexually transmitted, additionally FeLV is passed by direct contact, such as licking or biting which may well occur if mating takes place!  Your female kitten on the other hand will start to “call”, you’ll know what it is when it happens and nothing you can do will successfully stop her until her cycle is over. Female cats can call every few weeks throughout the year and they seem to always get louder and more insistent at night.  As with an entire male cat, she will try and get out of the house again risking a mating with a disease carrying tomcat and all that that entails.  It has also been conclusively shown that females who aren’t neutered prior to the onset of sexual maturity run a higher risk of developing mammary cancer. Talk it over with your vet, but 4-6 months is the time frame I tend to advise for neutering in both male and female kittens.

If you have ornaments on window sills or the like, either secure them with Blue Tack or similar or find them a new home until you’ve let your kitten acclimatise at which point they are less likely to cause an accident as hopefully you’ve persuaded them it’s one of those “taboo” places.  After years of doing this successfully I now have cabinets for all my little bits and can give up worrying about them!   Other than that look out for new things that your kitten may see as a toy, such as your Christmas decorations, bows, ribbons and foil wrapping paper… Fake Christmas trees and shatter proof decorations make for a calmer happier Christmas with a new and inquisitive kitten!

 ©Lovelynx Abyssinians 2007-10