settling rescue cat into our home.

[youbethemummylion]

We have finally chosen the perfect rescue cat for our family and she will be coming home in a few weeks when she can leave her kittens. I have been searching for advise on how to help her settle in and all the advise seems to be to keep her in one room for a while until she is settled. Due to the layout of our house this is pretty much impossible along with the fact we have a 4 year old and 1 year old who are forever opening doors etc. Does anyone have any advise besides keeping in one room?

If the room can be gated so the kids can't get to the cat, that would be good. She'll need a bolthole, so to speak, where she can feel secure and safe.

Make sure there is somewhere that she can go that nobody is allowed to touch her - this could be high up if you have a 1 year old as I know from experience it's very difficult to police otherwise! Also if possible you should put her food in a place that the children can't get to, or teach them not to touch her while she is eating. I feed my cat on top of the fridge, which is counter height and freestanding (kitchen counter wouldn't be very hygienic otherwise)

hi thanks for the advise. I've put the bed and food bowls on top of a sideboard in the living room and the 3 tier cat scratching thingy that has a box thing for hiding in at the bottom (didn't explain that very well did I !) on the half landing (stair gate at top and bottom of stairs) so hopefully she will see that as a person (especially child) free zone.

The people at the rescue centre are feeding her very expensive cat food (James wellbeloved) I have bought some of this but can't afford to feed her this for the rest of her life (she is only approx 1 yr old at the moment.) How should I introduce a different food to her I was thinking give her the food she recognises for a while to help her settle in then mix half and half old and new food increasing the amount of new food until until eventually she is only on the new food does this sound ok? (she will be fed on mainly dry food with wet food every now and again as a treat on the advise of rescue centre if this makes a difference). Thanks

Yes, do a gradual changeover, or she'll turn her nose up at it. Mine are on dry only.

Sounds like you have set things up well for her. The stair gate might help to keep the cat in one area while she gets used to things (I know she can probably jump it, but she might choose not to).

Every cat is different, but be prepared for her to run under the bed or settee and stay there for a while. I had one cat do this for days (only sneaking out for food/litter tray when no one was there), and my most recent cat only stayed under the bed for 2 minutes before exploring.

Stairgates are great with cats, as they can go through the bars whereas children can't! So they can come out at their leisure and then run away if needed.