Hi guys, I am so glad I found this place!
I caught a kitten on Tuesday, she’s a bit wild. We’ve been keeping her in a room in our house until she is used to all the other animals, but judging by her size she is about six weeks old (maybe younger- she’s much smaller than my cat when I got him at 6 weeks). She is eating kitten chunks, and pooping solid poops. I am giving her a bit of milk in water- she doesn’t seem to like plain water at this stage.
My questions are just basically behaviour questions- how do we get her litter box trained? We got her a box, put some litter in and put some of her poop in. Is that the way to do it? She is still pooping outside the box, but on newspaper at least. When we got our cat he was already litter box trained.
My second question, she obviously has never been in a home. She runs away the second you walk in the room, she hisses at you when you come close but never swipes. When you do grab her, she starts purring away. Last night we put her in the lounge with us and she wondered around a bit. She also started playing for the first time. How long, more or less, would it take for her to get used to us (so that she doesn’t hiss and run away)? Once we get her, she’s quite happy to be around us.
Last question- we have other animals. We have two birds (they aren’t interested in her, she isn’t interested in them), a cat (what a baby- he’s turning three this year and he’s petrified of her) and a dog (poodle, about a year and a half. She’s dying to play with the kitten). When the kitten was meowing last night while I was preparing supper for them, our cat was very interested in her. Our dog wants to play so badly, but the kitten REALLY doesn’t like her. She’ll get all puffy, hiss, arch her back, the works, but after a while she’ll get curious and start to go close to our dog (which is when our dog gets excited, barks at the poor kitty and gets crazy and scares kitty away). How long more or less will it take for her to get used to them?
We do work long days, but in the evenings we give our animals all the attention in the world. They get spoilt, and we stay up late in the evenings. With the easter weekend coming up (nice four day weekend), I am hoping to make some progress. And get the kitten to the vet.
I caught a kitten on Tuesday, she’s a bit wild. We’ve been keeping her in a room in our house until she is used to all the other animals, but judging by her size she is about six weeks old (maybe younger- she’s much smaller than my cat when I got him at 6 weeks). She is eating kitten chunks, and pooping solid poops. I am giving her a bit of milk in water- she doesn’t seem to like plain water at this stage.
My questions are just basically behaviour questions- how do we get her litter box trained? We got her a box, put some litter in and put some of her poop in. Is that the way to do it? She is still pooping outside the box, but on newspaper at least. When we got our cat he was already litter box trained.
My second question, she obviously has never been in a home. She runs away the second you walk in the room, she hisses at you when you come close but never swipes. When you do grab her, she starts purring away. Last night we put her in the lounge with us and she wondered around a bit. She also started playing for the first time. How long, more or less, would it take for her to get used to us (so that she doesn’t hiss and run away)? Once we get her, she’s quite happy to be around us.
Last question- we have other animals. We have two birds (they aren’t interested in her, she isn’t interested in them), a cat (what a baby- he’s turning three this year and he’s petrified of her) and a dog (poodle, about a year and a half. She’s dying to play with the kitten). When the kitten was meowing last night while I was preparing supper for them, our cat was very interested in her. Our dog wants to play so badly, but the kitten REALLY doesn’t like her. She’ll get all puffy, hiss, arch her back, the works, but after a while she’ll get curious and start to go close to our dog (which is when our dog gets excited, barks at the poor kitty and gets crazy and scares kitty away). How long more or less will it take for her to get used to them?
We do work long days, but in the evenings we give our animals all the attention in the world. They get spoilt, and we stay up late in the evenings. With the easter weekend coming up (nice four day weekend), I am hoping to make some progress. And get the kitten to the vet.