Help! Am gettimg 2 kittens on Saturday at short notice and am utterly clueless newbie

[maxmillie]

No experience of cats, never had a pet (have 3 small children who have survived to now so hopefully we will be ok). All I have ready is a cat flap (preliminary, I know . All i know is they are brother and sister and have just left the shelter place where they were and so have just had their vaccinations and are ready to leave the mother.

Please give me an idiots guide type checklist as to what I need to get and how to look after them!

My plan, such as it is, is that they will be reasonably self-sufficient as I work and we will mostly be out during the weekdays 3/4 days a week. So the catflap is one of those microchip ones. I envisage getting an automated feeder which I can put food in daily (is this possible?) once they are a bit older.

What do I need to get for Saturday? Where will they sleep Sat night? help!

yep only water

and the dry food the lady that adopted gave me = Whiskers kitten food.

I bought some fancy smancy organic kitten food called Purely kiten food as well and yesterday i gave them a mixture. I am wondering if that might have upset them as wa snew so today have only given them the Whiskers they came with. I think maybe I over fed them yesterday and so today have given them much less in their bowls.

They are very alert and enerergetic - hoping that is a good sign.

It is a very good sign!

My cat is intolerant to maize in tinned food, he's ok on aldi pouch food because it has no cereals in it.

He gets awful runny tummies when he has canned food.

far lee poo this evening so hopefully is is settling down. They have only has dry food since we got them on saturday and I am hoping it will stay that way (is this ok? they dont need wed food do they?).

Assuming they are ok - what do you think about collars? They are chipped so don't need them but is it best to put them on anway to show that they aren't strays? Any recomendations?

far less! they are jumping on my keyboard!!

Good news!

Nothing wrong with only dry food, but it's very important they have access to plenty of water in that case.

so i am leaving a bowl of water out all day and changing it a couple of times a day - is that ok? they have drunk it all a couple of times.

Sounds fine. As long as they have access to water, don't worry about changing it more than once or twice a day. By all means top it up when it is low, but cats will drink out of puddles so I'm sure they won't mind if the water has been out for several hours

Changing a cats food quickly can give them runny bums - mine are dreadful for this. I was advised by my vet not to feed them on anything posh and just to stick to a very basic, cheapest-stuff-in-the-supermarket as many cats just cannot tolerate a rich diet.

So far this has worked - they were terrible for runny bot episodes / throwing up before.

If they do get diarrhoea, there is a great product out there called Pro-Kolin which really works well (on dogs and cats.) It comes in a kind of syringe and you just squirt a little bit into their mouths or put it on their paws to lick off.

It's not cheap but it works wonders, plus one tube lasts ages in the fridge because you only need one small dose and it clears right up.

I don't do collars - too easy to get caught or cat to get paw through.

Get one of those toys that are like a fishing line with elastic and a toy at the end - much fun to be had.

If you are leaving them all day you can put some food in one of those balls that has holes in so only small amounts come out over a long period of time and gives them the fun of a 'hunt'.

In my experience all cats love ham, but it is not good for their kidneys so as a treat only.