Kitten Wants To Be Held All The Time

Hello,

We got a kitten last Saturday, so about a week ago, and she wants to be held by me all the time. Don't get me wrong, I love it but I think she needs to learn to be alone sometimes. She cries when she is not held. How can I help her to adjust to not being held all the time?

I work from home so not holding her all the time is paramount. Thanks!

We always try to adopt kittens in pairs. It is not natural for them to be alone when they are this young, they usually have a mama and litter mates too. If you are not up for adopting a second kitten (which would be my recommendation), then you would do well to set up a schedule. Cats do well on schedules. When I raised an orphan, we had a set schedule of play time (using a stuffed animal to wrestle with him like another kitten would - don't make your hands into play things!) and after about 20 minutes of that I would feed him, then cuddle a bit and put him in the other room to sleep so I could get work done. He had a comfy dog crate in there with a litter box and a bed and some toys. I fed him every 4-5 hours as he was growing up and he got very good about his schedule and would not fuss when put back in his crate. His adoptive family found the crate idea to be very helpful sometimes when they had things they had to do without having a kitten underfoot and in danger of being stepped on!