Settling in a new rescue cats - room of their own?

[SunnyAgain]

Hello, we have decided to adopt a pair of young cats from a rescue centre, and they'll be coming to us next week. I haven't owned a cat since childhood so have been doing lots of reading, and the advice seems to be to shut the new cat/s in a room on arrival, with food and litter tray. Leave alone for a few hours, and over the next few days keep them in "their room" but with quiet human interaction, then gradually let them explore the rest of the house at their own pace.
Just wondering if it would be ok to use my bedroom as their first room? We have a smallish 3 bedroom house, and downstairs is a good sized living/dining room which can be closed off from the hallway, and a small kitchen which has an open doorway onto the hall (no door). So it seems an upstairs room would easiest to close off, and quietest, but it just feels a bit strange to have cat food and litter in the bedroom! The children's bedrooms are probably less suitable as they are in and out of them more. Would the bathroom be better? (Loo is in a separate room.) At least the floor isn't carpeted there, in case of accidents!
Once the cats have the run of the house will the litter tray(s) need to be moved gradually to new locations, or can they go straight there? And same with food?
The cats are about 7 months old, siblings, and were happy being petted when we saw them, so not particularly shy.
Thank you in advance for any advice!

[Gabilan]

I got two feral kittens of about that age last winter. I got them from the CPL who said to shut them in one room where they could look out over their new territory. I have a big downstairs living room that's too cold for me in winter but my reasoning was that this would be fine for feral cats used to being outside. They could get up onto a fairly large windowsill to see what was going on and once they settled they spent a lot of time there.

I don't see why you couldn't use a bedroom. Mine were never litter trained but they just used the litter tray straight away. Don't leave anything soft around and you should find they're fine with the tray. Personally I would leave them in somewhere where you can leave them absolutely alone if need be. True mine were feral rather than being rescued but it took them weeks to be OK with me being around. In fact one of them still wouldn't come anywhere near me and spent a lot of time hiding in really odd places even when their 3 weeks confinement were up and they were allowed out.

One of them is now on my bed and the other one is curled up on the rug near me so I think I did OK with them. Black cat is so tame with me you wouldn't think she'd had a hard start in life, though she is shy with other people. Grey cat has started to enjoy being stroked, which is brilliant.

Good luck. It's lovely having cats that have been rescued and very rewarding as you develop more of a bond with them.

[SunnyAgain]

Thank you for the advice. We haven't got any kind of spare room in the house which the cats could have to themselves, but from the way they seemed at the rescue centre, hopefully they'll be happy to have company and settle fairly quickly. They came from a hoarder situation but don't appear to be nervous or frightened, so I don't think they were ill-treated, luckily. They are a sweet pair, black and white brother and sister. I was smitten!

They were due to be neutered yesterday so I'm going to phone tomorrow and see how they are, and then should get a date for them to be brought to us.... Very exciting! The rescue centre is bringing them and doing a home check at the same time. I just hope we don't fall short in any way when they come to look round!

By the way, when you said not to leave anything soft around, does this mean they might wee on my bed?!

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

We don't have a spare room of any kind so when we adopted H he was allowed the run of the house straight away. We thought he might find himself a hiding place but he didn't, he just walked out of his box, walked into the bathroom to check out his litter tray (almost as though he knew where it was!) and then settled down. I think we were very lucky with him as he adapted so quickly!

Don't forget the pictures of the cats!

[code]

I got a room ready for my two but they were very confident, strolling in and taking over the house on their first day. So we didn't need to contain them. A bedroom sounds fine though, they'll go in the trays if you leave a couple in there. At night ours have always been settled in the dining room, they prefer to be in bed with me though and sit in bed with me until DH comes up. My friends cat in her old age has had toiletting problems and has had to be shut in the kitchen at night which she's found hard as previously in the bed. So I thought I'd establish a nighttime dining room routine from the outset and they seem happy .

[BettyCatKitten]

As you are having 2 cats you need 2 litter trays. Good luck and please update with pictures

[SunnyAgain]

Thank you, the 2 litter trays I'd ordered from Amazon arrived this morning, along with some cat toys and a big sack of litter... Very exciting! (Plus we now have 2 boxes for the cats to hide or sleep in!). I will just play it by ear depending on how confidant they seem when they arrive, and see whether they'd be better staying in one room for a while or not.
I will definitely post photos. The cats are arriving a couple of days later than anticipated as they weren't neutered on Wednesday as planned, but will be on Monday. I am so looking forward to them being with us!