New kitten coming tonight - advice needed about her first night with us

[Itchyandscratchy]

All very exciting!

She's 8 weeks, being adopted via CPL so she's been chipped & 1st set of jabs. She's going to be dd1's cat and to be fair to her, she's done all the research, spoken at length to the CPL foster carer (who happens to be our childminder) and we've got all the stuff ready to go.

Kitten's going to sleep in the kitchen with bed & water etc one end & open litter tray at the other. Question involves this evening. I'm assuming she might want to be with us in the front room, esp after the dds have gone to bed. Do I put a litter tray in the corner? And do I bring her bed in too, in case she wants to nap?

Or keep popping her back & forth?

Or just leave her in the kitchen?

Thanks

[ClaraOswald]

You may want to find somewhere else for the litter tray. As a general rule, cats don't like to crap and eat in the same space.

To be honest, just get used to her being wherever she wants. Make sure you have no gaps bigger than about an inch or two.

[usualsuspect]

She might just want to hide for a few days. My kitten stayed under DSs bed for about a week.

[Itchyandscratchy]

Thank you. Our kitchen is long Victorian one so food & litter tray quite a distance. But could put litter tray in utility room I guess. I'd be scared of her getting in between/behind washing machine/drier.

What I was wondering about though was this evening. If she's n the front room with us, how do I now when she needs a wee/poo? Do I just keep popping her back into the kitchen and show her the litter tray?

[usualsuspect]

She will find the litter tray herself.

[Itchyandscratchy]

Will she? Clever little thing. I haven't had a cat since I was a kid so i cant remember. The books say that too but I didn't believe them & just assumed she'd be weeing all over the place. Sorry if I'm being thick

[usualsuspect]

I think I would show her the litter tray then leave her to explore herself if she wants too.

[Itchyandscratchy]

Thanks - will do. Shall I bring her little bed into front room for the evening or will she find her own place to snuggle before we all go to bed later?

[MeDented]

we were advised to keep ours in one room to start with, they really are tiny at 8 weeks. Like somebody else said, you probably won't see her for a few days, our 2 hid under the sofa, I ended up putting a blanket under there for them because we have hard floors and I was worried it wasn't very comfy. They did come out after a day or two but often went back under there.

[usualsuspect]

She will find her own place to sleep, my cat has never slept on his cosy bed once

[tabulahrasa]

In my experience once you've shown them where the litter tray is - that's it, they can find it.

And, they don't sleep in beds, no matter how many you buy or where you put them...I currently have one sleeping on a paper bag on a table and one curled up in the dog's toy basket. lol

[MeDented]

sorry meant to say, they competely ignored the lovely little bed we had bought for them, much prefered under the sofa! They eventually used the bed for alittle while but now sleep on sofa's or the children's beds (which I had said was big no no originally but they are so cute and DS little cat automatically curls up on the end of his bed when DS goes to bed, I often find him curled up on his pillow by morning! I couldn't stand it but DS loves it. And DDs cat curls up on her bed sometimes too, I am fascinated that they each seemed to know who they 'belonged' to!)

[usualsuspect]

Oh and at your kitten.

[Itchyandscratchy]

Lol. Glad I took CM's advice and just lined a cardboard box with a cut-up fleecy blanket.

Think kids might be disappointed with the lack of kitten tonight if she spends the time hiding!

[Itchyandscratchy]

That's why it's dd1's kitten. Both dds have lots of contact with the kittens being fostered at CM's house. But this one has constantly made a bee-line for dd1 and they've fallen in love

Even better, the kitten and her 2 sisters were named after Hunger Games characters - dd1's current fave read. Our new kitten is a torty called Clove. Bless!

Exciting!!

[QueenStromba]

Cats will sleep anywhere. She'll probably find a nice hidey hole behind the sofa or something. The best thing would probably be to put a folded up blanket in the most difficult place for you to access.

As for the litter tray, ask the fosterer for a bit of litter from the tray she's using now, sprinkle that one the top of the litter tray you've prepared and just plonk her in it when you get her home. She should get the idea and remember where it is when she needs it. If you ever need to move the litter tray just put her in it afterwards and she should remember. We moved our girl's litter tray from the hall into the bathroom (just a few feet) the day after we got her and she got confused. She was clever enough to yowl at us until we followed her and then stood where her litter tray had been and miaowed at us until we showed her where we'd moved it to.

Enjoy your new kitten and don't forget that it's the law that you must post pictures as soon as possible :)

[MeDented]

ah how lovely, kittens really are the cutest things ever, we had hours of fun just watching ours when they were little. They are still very lovely but over 1yr old now so not quite so mad/funny. Have a lovely evening / weekend with your new kitten

[QueenStromba]

Ooh - I just clicked your youtube link and you are going to be very jealous because I'm going to see Eddie Izzard in the O2 next month!!! Which is far better than a kitten, honest.