First Time Cat Owner Advice

[joelh]

Hi, my girlfriend and I are due to take home a kitten within the next couple of weeks.
I've always been a dog person, have had a couple litters of pups and took good care of them. I know what it takes to raise a dog I just don't have the space for them anymore unfortunately .

So we got an offer of a lovely little tabbie kitten, she's currently 3-4 weeks old and with her mother and not on food yet.

I'm just wondering what do I need to prepare for having her? I've taken care of the strays around here, they often come in and hang around and i know that I'm good with them. They won't be coming in any more now once the kitten is around though!
I'm just wondering about what to feed her and how to toilet train her and the like. Right down to the basics such as where does she sleep and how to discipline her if she behaves badly should I give her baths etc. And also how to find out what specific breed she is and what vaccinations she needs from the vet and how much should i expect it'll cost me.

I fear even the words discipline and training might be laughed at because it'll be seen as a dog thing possibly and highlight my ignorance. I really don't know, but I'm willing to put the work in and take her seriously.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

 

[red top rescue]

You need to read a lot and talk to cat people.  You don't discipline cats, for one thing.  You have to motivate them.  Make them want to do what you want them to do.  If you provide the right food, litter, and the right toys and furniture for them, and keep their claws clipped weekly, you should have no problem.  I would HIGHLY recommend that you get TWO kittens, however, because they help train and socialize each other.  Kittens that are adopted when very young and without other cats to learn with often become real pains in the butt -- too rough with their humans, too demanding because they are bored and need a lot of play.  I would particularly urge YOU as a non-cat person to take two kittens together.  They will be fun to watch, better than TV, they will keep each other company when you are at work, and overall it will be a much happier situation for all of you. 

We have many great articles on here, just go to the search bar at the top of the page and type in what you need to know, i.e. about the "litter box" and pull up articles about that.  If the person you will be adopting the kitten from has any experience with cats, she may be willing to be your mentor.  If not, you might like Jackson Galaxy's YouTube videos.  He's amusing as well as very informative and accurate.

I recommend a few of books you can get inexpensively on Amazon.

Your Cat, Simple New Secrets to a Longer Stronger Life by Elizabeth M. Hodgkins DVM Esq.


and

Think Like A cat:  How to raise a well adjusted cat, not a sourpuss by Pam Johnson-Bennett


and

Catify to Satisfy: Simple Solutions for Creating A Cat Friendly Home, by Jackson Galaxy.

 

[Willowy]

Don't take the kitten away from her mother until she's at least 10 weeks old! She will start eating solids around 6 weeks but that's way too young, they need more time to learn all their manners from their mother. A kitten who has been well-trained by her mother will make a much better pet. And, yes, I'd recommend getting 2 kittens as well. A single kitten will require a lot more time and attention.

 

[catlover73]

I have a now 10 year old cat that I adopted when she was 6 weeks old. She was abandoned by someone at 4 weeks old. I do not know when she was separated from mom & siblings. I am an experienced cat owner and it took a lot of work and patience to get her properly socialized with help from my other cats. She was already eating on her own and litter trained.

A 3 week old kitten is way too young to be away from mom. A kitten that young still requires around the clock care and is not litter trained. Please wait until this kitten is around 10 weeks old. There is so much training that this kitten still needs from mom before being adopted by anyone. A 3 week old kitten will have no concept of boundaries. It took a lot of time and patience for me to teach my 6 week old that biting was not a form of communication. I had help from an adult cat that helped socialize her and it was still hard work.

I also think it is better to adopt kittens in pairs so they have a buddy to play with. They will keep each other company and provide a playmate for each other.

 

[joelh]

Thanks a lot for all the replies.

She shouldn't be going anywhere for a couple of weeks at least. Hopefully later rather than sooner but as far as I know the owner is looking to get rid of the litter as soon as she can.
Issue with pairs is this particular cat, as far as I know, is coming from a small litter of three and the other two are spoken for.
If it is that important for her to have another cat around it might cause me to tell the lady that she will have to find someone else who already has cats.
I don't want to give the cat a bad life like. There's a lot to consider. I'll continue reading up on it and make a decision of what I think is best for the cat rather than my own desires to have a pet around the house.
Thanks again for the replies, it's a big help.

 

[catlover73]

Thanks a lot for all the replies.

She shouldn't be going anywhere for a couple of weeks at least. Hopefully later rather than sooner but as far as I know the owner is looking to get rid of the litter as soon as she can.
Issue with pairs is this particular cat, as far as I know, is coming from a small litter of three and the other two are spoken for.
If it is that important for her to have another cat around it might cause me to tell the lady that she will have to find someone else who already has cats.
I don't want to give the cat a bad life like. There's a lot to consider. I'll continue reading up on it and make a decision of what I think is best for the cat rather than my own desires to have a pet around the house.
Thanks again for the replies, it's a big help.

If you can not adopt a sibling for this kitten from the people you are getting her from then perhaps you could adopt another kitten from a local shelter or rescue group in your area.  Don't let the fact that you would not be able to adopt one of her siblings at the same time stop you from adopting her.  If this owner will not allow the kitten to stay with her mother and you are in a position to be able to hand rear the kitten then you may not be able to wait.  It is better for you to take the kitten earlier than allow the kitten to wind up in a shelter.  If you do end up with a young under socialized kitten you can always look into adopting an older kitten as a playmate to help socialize the baby.  I did not realize you were in a situation where someone else was looking to get rid of the kittens no matter what you do.  If you feel you can deal with the time demands to raise a baby kitten due to the situation then I am sure there are other's here that have experience and that could help you learn how to be a great kitty mother.  I have never hand raised an orphaned kitten that was not litter trained and did not eat on it's own. 

I am going to see if I can find some an article that would give you advice about raising a baby kitten since I have no experience with a 3 week old. 

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/hand-rearing-kittens-what-you-need-to-know-to-save-a-newborns-life (This more for newborns but some of it may still apply)

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/weaning-how-to-get-your-kittens-to-eat-on-their-own (This may be more helpful)

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/kitten-development-stages-illustrated-guide

 

[caseydoll]

Thanks a lot for all the replies.

She shouldn't be going anywhere for a couple of weeks at least. Hopefully later rather than sooner but as far as I know the owner is looking to get rid of the litter as soon as she can.
Issue with pairs is this particular cat, as far as I know, is coming from a small litter of three and the other two are spoken for.
If it is that important for her to have another cat around it might cause me to tell the lady that she will have to find someone else who already has cats.
I don't want to give the cat a bad life like. There's a lot to consider. I'll continue reading up on it and make a decision of what I think is best for the cat rather than my own desires to have a pet around the house.
Thanks again for the replies, it's a big help.

The first cat I ever had was found as a stray and was approximately 7-8 weeks old. She was my only cat for several years and she did perfectly fine. Yes, sometimes cats do better in pairs but I don't believe that should deter you from getting this kitten. It sounds like she needs a good home anyway. You may have to play with her more than if you had a buddy for her in order to prevent her from getting bored. Believe me, there are plenty of people that only have one cat and they are completely fine. And like others have said, you can always adopt another cat from a shelter if you want to get another kitty. 

 

 

[joelh]

Thanks again for the links.
From reading up on everything I'm coming to the conslusion that it's not an impossible task. Just a lot of work, which I'm no stranger to with animals in the past.
Playing with a kitten doesn't exactly sound like a chore to me either!

It's great to see there's a full community here so forthcoming with advice on the matter, makes me a bit more confident.
Whatever we decide I'll let you know here how it turns out.

 

[joelh]

Just to give an update.
We have had her for two days and she has been great, very very clingy but she almost instantly warmed to us and her surroundings and she's playful and curious and just full of beans.
Her age seemed to have been poorly communicated, I was going off very little information. I believe she is just over 8 weeks old, still a bit young but as I said she's doing great.

The issues we've been having are hard to say because she's still getting used to the place. Right now she is using the litter tray fine, though she's only done a number 2 just the once. It looked healthy so I was happy but that was yesterday morning and she hasn't done anything since. This is more of an indication to me that she just isn't eating enough. She was eating solids before leaving her mother but since she got here she's only nibbled and only drinks kitten milk and water.
We've been trying to get her interested in her food by trying to get her to lick it off our fingers but almost immediately tries to walk away and will start clawing us if we try to keep her there. I got her to stand in her food, get it on her paws hoping she'll lick it off and get a taste but she just ran into the litter box and managed to clean it off her paws in there.. Hopefully this is just a phase that will soon pass, she's always interested in the food we eat but never her own, suitable food.

Besides solid food she's a bit too adventurous for her own good, even though I've tied down all the wires behind the TV and sprayed them with a citrus spray she still likes playing around there. And other than that I've a million cuts from her razor sharp nails, so I'll have to introduce her to a nail clippers once she's a little bit more settled in.

The food is the biggest issue anyway. Is it normal for an 8 week old to not have her eating habits settled in yet?
The food we have for her is the exact same as she was eating before we took her, so I'm hoping it's just her surroundings that's upsetting her and time will resolve it.

 

[joelh]

Out of curiosity after writing that, I got her to sniff tuna, she took a tiny tiny bite and left it again.
Then I was eating a bit of toast, she got up on my shoulder looking interested and I pulled off a crumb and she ate it.
So it's like monkey see monkey do. Got her licking crumbs out of my hand and without her seeing I replaced the crumbs with her kibble and what dya know she's now changed her mind about it!

So we just learned that with a lot of convincing we can feed her from our hands.. The sound of her chewing is like music to my ears!

 

[red top rescue]

If she was with her mom before and not separated, then she is undergoing traumatic weaning which is akin to cigarette withdrawal, if you ask me.  Feeding from your hands is liike her mama feeding her, that means love to her.  As said earlier, it is best to wait until they are at least 10 weeks, but everyone wants their kittens to be little tiny things and it is harder on them.  I have four that were trapped at about 11 weeks and they went through all sorts of nursing withdrawal, including trying to burse on each other and on the big black neutered male I put with them to act as a Nanny.  They were old enough to be weaned but by taking them away from their mama suddenly, their sucking instincts were still strong, even though they could eat food.

Since she is alone, be sure that you dont use your hands to play with her, always use a stuffed toy or something between you, because otherwise she will not learn that hands are ot supposed to be scratched and bitten and that can be tough later on in life.  You have to parent very firmly ith a single young kitten if you want them to grow up sweet and not bratty.  Wishing you the best of luck....

 

[joelh]

Thanks for the good luck!

She's eating well today thankfully.
She won't eat wet kitten food yet, even from the hand so I've been mixing her kibble with a little kitten milk to get her used to eating wetter food. She finally did a number 2 today which I was very happy about even though she looked a bit shocked by it and made a little mess with her litter.

I also gave her an hour alone time today to get her used to being on her own in a totally kitten proof room. She pined for the first ten minutes or so but by the time I went back into her she was cuddled up with her teddy in bed and wasn't even that pushed about coming back out into the sitting room.
So that was a success.

One small mistake I may have made the first couple nights was letting her sleep with us because I saw that she really seemed scared to be on her own. But we have far too many scratches on us and have so much sleep to catch up on so it can't continue.
So I think I'll set her up with a little warm hot water bottle under her bed in the bathroom tonight. There's no wires for her to chew on in there or hurt herself. I feel cruel for leaving her on her own but it really seems to be the safest place for her to get a bit used to being on her own for short periods of time.
She will be home alone for a few hours during the week so it's a necessity.

Getting her to stop scratching us has been tough, she uses her claws a lot less now but she still gets over excited. Sometimes I'll think she's cuddling up for a nap, I'll rub her and next thing she'll claw my hand and/or bite my finger. I was playing with her with a toy earlier and she got me in the face. I'm just going to try to continue discouraging her rough play and hopefully she'll calm down there a little.

For the sake of anyone like me a few weeks ago thinking of getting a kitten for the first time and happen upon this thread, I'll continue updating this to give them an idea of the experience and the amount of work needed to be put in. It's a myth that cats are so much easier than dogs. It's just different.

I'm reading every piece of advice being given so if you've anything to add please do.

 

[joelh]

Where she gets annoying is when she wake up from naps and goes on a high energy rampage, one which she's on now.

She'll climb up the back of the couch and pounce on me, then I'll try to calm her down. She night cuddle up to my leg and sink her claws into me.
No matter how much I move her and say no she doesn't get it, she'll bite my hand as I pull her off of my leg.
It's so common it's not like I can spray her with water or anything to get her to stop because I don't want her to be afraid of me, the same way she'll get ready to scratch me is the same way she'll cuddle up for a nap.
Absolutely everything is a toy for her,I scratch my arm (rubbing one of my many cuts) and she'll see it as a toy and scratch it. She'll casually walk past my foot and painfully pounce on it. You put down the remote for the TV and she tries to tackle it, then you.

Its just constant and I don't know how you can discourage it.

Any advice there would be great. It's just like everything is a game to her when she gets giddy, which is about 50 times a day!

 

[imaginewizard]

PICTURES PLEASE

 

[DreamerRose]

She sounds like a typical kitten, and this behavior will continue for a long time. She will eventually cue in to what you don't like. You might get some toys for her to distract her when she starts climbing your leg. All cats love laser lights and that will get her off right away. Da Bird is a wand toy with feathers that make a cat go bonkers chasing it. If you can play with her with some of these toys, it will use up a lot of that kitten energy, and her behavior will calm down. She may even play fetch with you if you toss her a crinkle ball.

Most people sleep with their cats, so I don't see anything wrong with it. If you play with her until she is tired, she will sleep more during the night. And by all means, trim her sharp little claws.

 

[joelh]

IMG-1483644417804-V.jpg

• joelh
• Jan 9, 2017

There's a photo of her on her first night with us.

I'll definitely get her a dangly toy, that's very good advice. We did well this evening passing her toy mouse to each other having her run from one side of the room to the other, that tired her out and she didn't go for our hands when we held it which was good to see.
I had a laser pointer for my last dog and he became fairly bothered by it, he chased it everywhere but was always looking for it even if we hadn't used it on him all week so I stopped using it because he just seemed very bothered! So I'll put a bit of thought in before getting one for the kitten.
Because we both have to be out at the same time tomorrow and she'll have to be home alone from about 10am to 12 or 1pm I think I'll be kind to her and let her sleep in our room tonight (the only place she wants to be is with us), rather than having her alone all night, have an hour for breakfast and then alone again.
I just don't know if its smart having a lack of consistency about where she sleeps but I feel like it'd be pretty cruel on her to have her on her own for so long when she's still so little and clingy.
Any opinions on this?
I just don't want her to be sad cold and alone for so long,i think I should build up her alone time gradually rather than have her in shock by the morning.

 

[DreamerRose]

She's so pretty! Much like my Lily. Do let her sleep with you - she will bond with you more. And remember, she's missing her mom and litter mates. You can step into their shoes.

Cats don't figure out that they will never catch the red dot from the laser pointer. They only stop when they're exhausted. There are a lot of memes on this subject, so give it a try.

Da Bird or the same from I Love Cats is better than most wand toys because of the fluttering bird feathers. Cats HAVE to go after it.

To entertain your kitty while you're gone, you might get a cat tree so she can look out of windows. Cats love to do that. I put up a bird feeder outside the window, and mine will watch for hours.

Enjoy your new kitty. She will bring you hours of pleasure.

 

[tiptopper]

Kittens love to play in boxes and paper bags which may help in getting her tired. She is a beautiful kitty!

 

[imaginewizard]

Cats like to change their sleeping spot anyway so I don't think consistency is an issue regarding sleeping spots.

 

[joelh]

You could never be angry with something so cute.
She mostly slept at the end of the bed last night wrapped up in a dressing gown we left down there so hopefully she'll make more of a regular thing of that, I'll let her go where she wants to tonight again which will definitely be the bedroom but so be it.

I think a laser pointer will be very handy for keeping her away from the one main place I don't want her to be, behind the TV. Even though I tied up all the cables and sprayed the whole area with a citrus spray she doesn't mind, the one cable I can't move is her favourite to toy with too. So for her own good she just can't be left in here on her own! I just hope she will grow out of her fondness for wires, they're at an absolute minimum but all it takes is just one for her to go mad with when she has one of her energy bursts.

I'll get her a tree soon, I think it'd be a good distraction if anything else because she just loves wires, she's already broke one lamp by pulling it over!
The next cardboard box I get is hers too, anything to tire her out before bed!

I trimmed her nails today and it's done the world of good. At first she was pulling away a lot but thought it was a big game we were playing, only managed to snip one nail.
But after that she was a bit sleepy and she didn't mind at all, she just lay back and we got every nail easy peasy. I was a bit apprehensive about cutting it too close to the vein so I just took the point off the nails and just that has meant that I haven't gotten a single scratch all night! I was so happy that she was so relaxed about it.

She's getting better every day and it's just getting easier.
When I read about other cat's behaviour she almost doesn't fit the bill. She's so outright affectionate and she's only getting warmer every day. Before I left the house earlier today she must've learned the routine and knew what was coming, she climbed up my legs and up the back of my jacket and clung onto me obviously not wanting me to leave her. I had to peel her off, set her in her bed with a rub on the head and out I went.
She was delighted when I came home again with no love lost at all.