Getting a kitten - need some top tips please!

[navyeyelasH]

Heya, I'm picking up a rescue kitten tomorrow and I've fully investigated everything it will need in terms of jabs and stuff. But I would love some top tips on the following:

Insurance - What sort of cover do I need; I'd only need it to pay a vets bill I think?

Feeding bowls - Stainless steel seems to be the best one but is there anything non offensive you can use to make it look neater/stop spills etc. I don't really like the all the weird designs of things I've seen in pets at home etc.

Cat food - lots of people say more well known cat foods are terrible for cats; does anyone have any ideas of what might be better and how I'd go about making the switch from what the kitten is used to.

Sleeping - I am perfectly fine with the cat sleeping on my bed, but would rather it slept on it's own blanket on the bed. Is there some sort of material that kittens and cats find more appealing? Or would it's own bed be better?

Also would it be really mean to keep all the cat paraphernalia (litter tray, food etc) in the garage with access to it via a cat flap then access to the house with a cat flap. The reason being I work with children (6 each day, pre school aged)and it'd be safer from a hygiene perspective I think. If this was considered ok, would I need to do it from when I brought the kitten home or introduce it after it's settled in?

Sorry for all the questions - just want it to be happy!

ok, this may be unhlepful but....

Insurance - I've never bothered. And that's not to say I haven't had to spend money on all of the 3 cats I've had. However, I can appreciate that if you're on a very tight budget you might prefer to be covered.

Feeding bowels - cats can be very messy eaters. One of mine insists on lifting his food out of the bowl and putting it on the floor to eat it. So I wouldn't stress about the type of bowel you use, but make sure you have a large wipe clean mat to put them on.

Cat food - IME most cats will eat what you give them and over time, you'll work out if there's something it likes more or less than others. (eg neither of mine like beef flavoured cat food and one doesn't like fish ones!) Start your cat on a decent kitten food - major brands are fine, but I use a supermarket own brand - then move on to adult foods when indicated. Your cat will appear fussier if you feed it too much.

Sleeping - normally clean washing is a cat's favourite place to sleep! Other than that, something that smells of you might be preferable for the cat. I'm not aware of any preferred materials.

We keep our cats food etc out of the main part of the house (in our utility) so I don't see a problem with you using your garage.

The cat'll be happy as soon as it takes it's rightful place at the head of your family! Happy owning.

(apols for the typos!)

You can't make a cat sleep anywhere or on anything.

It will usually curl up where it fancies (regardless of how uncomfortable it looks)

My cat, for example, would only sleep on my bed if I wasn't in it.

Be prepared to get cat fluff everywhere.

Just realised how unhelpful my post was.

What I'm saying is be prepared for the cat to sleep anywhere and everywhere. Mine changes its favourite place every few weeks. Sometimes its in the middle of the floor or the landing (great for stepping on in the middle of the night), sometimes the bed, sometimes the sofa, arm of the sofa, head hanging off the back of the sofa....

My brother's cats get under the duvet with them. And in the shower . Nothing you can do to stop them except lock the door (closing doesn't work, they can open them)

For food, follow max's advice. My cat is very fussy and prefers the cheapo food to the expensive stuff. But its trial and error.

We do have insurance - its more useful if you're planning on letting the cat out. Very useful if they have an accident - vet bills can quickly get into the hundreds if they need an operation.

Am so at you getting a kitten. They're lovely.

Thanks Maxpower & Fluffydonkey; hmm the sleeping thing is a bit of a bugger, I'm trying to decide what I do and don't need to buy and it seems like a waste if I buy a bed/blanket and it just sleeps any old where.

Insurance wise, I don't really get it - is it just in case you have an unexpected vets bill is that what it covers?

Good news about the garage, I might keep the kitten upstairs for a few days and then introduce it to downstairs (and the crazy children!) and when it comes downstairs leave a litter tray & food in the garage and upstairs and then phase the ones upstairs out?

I'm one of life's over thinkers I'm afraid so like to plan things a bit too much!!

Insurance - you pay an annual sum then can claim back on vets bills, although you usually have to pay the first 50 quid or so. Think it covers all vet bills - I'd check on a website.

If your cat gets leukemia (sp?) or has an accident I think it's well worth the insurance. You haven't said if you'll let it out? (don't let it out for the first 6 weeks though)

For example, once my cat cut her eye open (eugh) and had to have 3 operations. Without insurance this would have cost over 1000 pounds.

Insurance - I've never had my cats insured so can't help with that one

Feeding bowls - I use metal camping bowls as they are nice and deep so the food doesn't spill out.

Cat food - I use Sainsbury's own pouches but the ones in jelly as the gravy ones always give my cats the runs!

Sleeping - cats sleep where they like and not usually in anything you want them to sleep in. Mine do like a cardboard box with a hole cut in the front. although one of mine does sleep in the pets at home outside cat shelter that i forced dh to buy dh kindly bought me.

Cats are notoriously lazy. I think you may have some trouble getting it to bother with 2 cat flaps to get to the litter tray.
You could try putting the litter tray in the garage from the start but propping the cat flaps really open so the kitten can just walk thorough them. I did this with my cat flap using a clothes peg. Over a couple of weeks i gradually repositioned the peg until the flap was only just open and then the cat learnt to push it a bit or flick it up from the other way.
If you feed the cat where the tray is he/she will have the incentive to come through the flaps.

Good luck with your kitten. I love kittens. I hand reared 3 once, that was hard work!

I would definitely recommend insurance. Tesco only charge about £6 per month and it's worth the peace of mind. An uninsured friend of mine recently had to pay £800 for her cat's broken leg!

If you get insurance please please get a cover for life policy. A lot of policys will only cover you for a particular condition to a maximum amount, or for a specified length of time, at which point they will then put an exclusion on that problem and you will no longer have insurance cover for it. If for example you have a diabetic who needs insulin and blood testing regularly through the rest of his life then this is the sort of thing that will get excluded if you do not have cover for life.

I have sadly had too many clients come into the clinic without insurance or with exclusions in place and have had to make decisions based on the cost of doing or not doing things. It is heartbreaking for all involved when this happens and you can not do the best for the pet.

My cats go through phases of sleeping in their baskets - they're now completely free range after they broke out of the catflap during the night and locked themselves out, and it amazes me to find them snoozing in their baskets in the morning. Not every morning though - one often emerges from the spare room, and the other is nowhere to be seen. We've pretty much given up on our bed, but DD's bed has a separate cover which we put over during the day, to keep the cat hair off her duvet (and especially the pillow) and take off at night when the cats are shut out of her room. Neither of them has mastered opening doors yet, in fact one of them can't even get out of a door which is ajar!

I live in a city and definitely would like the cat to go out if they're up for it! Sounds like insurance is a must then. I will have a good look round for a lifetime policy - thanks everyone!

So excited now

Are your cat flaps magnetic to prevent other cats getting in? If they are then I would avoid metal bowls. We had our old cat for about three days before we realised that every time the poor thing tried to eat the magnet on his collar was sticking to the bowl and he was dragging it around with him!

I'd say that the most important thing to do, is to cat-proof your house.

Make sure that all electrical cables are inaccesiable for the cat. A kitten may chew them.

If you have floor length, nice curtains you might want to lift them off the floor. I have never known a kitten not try and climb up them.

As far your concerns about hygiene, I wouldn't worry too much. As long as you keep the feeding bowls clean and change the litter regularly it's fine. Some cats can get a bit touchy if their food bowls are near their toilet, they are clean animals with a natural abhorence for their own waste. Different rooms may be more acceptable to the cat.

As the cat grows up and if you have a garden, it may choose to only go to the toilet outside. With my previous cat, she only used the litter tray in very bad weather or if they were ill. It could go for weeks without being used.

I think that the best material for cat feeding bowls is ceramic. Old cereal bowls will do. To keep the mess down, put them in a new (unused) litter tray.

Regarding the type of food, I would find out what the kitten is used to. Whatever it is, even if you would prefer they ate something else, feed it to them at least in the first few days. Moving house is very traumatic for a cat and familar food will help immensely in the transition.

Your vet will sell decent kitten food. If you use a lot of dried, you must give a lot of water to compensate.

As for sleeping arrangements, I think you should know that you have zero say in the matter. You remember that saying: Dogs have owners, Cats have staff....

re the 2 cat flaps - our cats have to use 2 to get into the house - they aren't bothered at all

If you can't make cables inaccessible to the kitten (honestly, I don't know where I'd even begin in this house) you can get anti-chew stuff that should put them off. I anointed the cable spaghetti under the desk with it and, despite deciding to LIVE in it for the first few days they were with us, the kittens didn't once chew a cable. Mind you, they never seemed to be very chewy creatures. More scratchy.

Luckily enough as I work with children my house is very cable free and also curtain free! I collect the kitten tomorrow and am so excited! Got all the "bits" today - isn't it hard to buy plain things that don't say princess etc?!?!

Got her, she is so cute!! She's had a we in her tray and had some food which I'm taking as good signs.

Anything else I'm not thinking of? She's meowing quite a bit which I'm guessing is, "where the hell am I?" sort of thing?