We get our kittens tomorrow! We're excited and a little bit clueless

[GalensOyster]

The title says it all. We've been planning to get a cat for a long time and an opportunity came up to get 2 kittens (8 weeks old) at very short notice. I blithely said yes thinking they were too young to be parted with their mother and that I had a few weeks to read up and get what organised. Well, I get them TOMORROW MORNING!! They are babies! Are they too young?

The kids are so excited and have made a bed and thousands of kitten toys. They are familiar with animals and understand that they will need peace and quiet to settle in. I've bought kitten food (I wanted to get the same stuff as they have been on so far but haven't been able to find out), a litter tray and have dug out old fleece blankets.

What I would really appreciate are some top tips on welcoming our new family members and helping them to settle in. Thanks in advance.

Awwwwww Jealous

A "safe" area they can recognise as theirs to go to- like a cardboard box lined with a blanket or whatnot.

Oh and photos please!!!!!

I have a travel box thing that I've lined with fleece blankets. I was planning on putting it in a quiet corner of the kitchen where they have a good view of what's going on. Will that do?

Pictures will follow!

If you can bring a blanket or towel home along with the kittens that smells of mum & them, that can help reassure them as it will smell familiar. Or take a small towel with you and see if you can stroke mum with it a few times especially around her cheeks where the scent glads are. Having two of them should help them settle, but when I was younger and we got kittens we used to put a ticking clock near their bed as something akin to a heartbeat to comfort them. And a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel to cuddle next to.

It's best to keep them to one room to start with, giving them somewhere safe that's their area to get used to first before expanding out to a whole house. And that makes it easier to kitten-proof as you go, before worrying about breakable ornaments and them sneaking in to the washing machine or falling in an open toilet or getting tangled in blind cords. Work on the basis that they're small furry toddlers who will get into anything and everything! Be careful about windows and doors being left ajar, they can sneak through tiny gaps and can't be allowed outside until they've had all their jabs, are neutered and aren't so tiny and clueless.

Microchipping and looking in to cat insurance would both be recommended.

So, your new owners are coming to stay with you at very short notice? "givemushypeas* has covered everything I can think of.

I've always found clumping litter easier to deal with than the other stuff - you might want to get a few choices to see what your new owners prefer.

Thanks for all the tips. I hope our new owners are kind.

Roll on tomorrow!

I would book them in with the vets asap for general check up and advice on de fleaing, injections and neutering.

Otherwise all they need is food, litter tray and cuddles!

Pictures are mandatory!!

Small furry toddlers with NO BRAINS who can climb and jump (looking at you BOgBastardKitten).

When are they arriving?

I hope you have a camera ready by the way - havig posted about them, you now have to put up a picture. That's the rule here.

Get a large box they can't climb out of, then keep them in there at night for a few weeks until they are big enough not to get stuck somewhere and need help at night

My boys always behave much the same. Come home, spend a few hours bonding (and eating/eliminating if we're lucky) and then a slightly faraway look comes into their eyes and they start looking round - a sort of 'OK, Mum - where's BED?'

(I tried putting Twoago in a box with an old fleece on his first night. I put him in, he jumped out, I put him in, he jumped out, I put him in........ and so on. He thought it was a great new game until he decided that it was time for bed. At which point, he jumped onto the bed, squirmed under the duvet and went to sleep.)

Well, the new bosses have arrived and are busy arranging things to their liking. They don't like the bed that was made for them and have decided that under the sofa is the best place ever. They've eaten, pooped and seemed entirely at home.
:D
Photos will be shared once they emerge.

...They don't like the bed that was made for them...

Now how could I have guessed that!

I have three very posh cat beds... They have toys in them.

All three like to sit behind the TV, in the box for shoes or "in" and yes I mean in my bed.

Congratulations on your new addition just had my third join my family and it's so much fun xx

Avoid clumping litter for kittens. Being young and silly, they may eat it, which can cause all sorts of (sometimes fatal) intestinal problems.

BogBastardKitten has a very posh cat bed lovingly selected by DD. It looks ever so pretty

Meanwhile he sleeps in all our beds in rotation, in the drawers under the bed, in the nice warm nest of wires leading to the router, on the bookshelf on top of the books, increasingly precariously on the back of DS' chair (he's getting wider, it isn't) ....

Do you think the people who make posh cat beds know these things and are laughing at us?

Cat trees are another thing that I am sure the manufacturers are laughing at us about. A quick straw poll amongst friends with cats suggests none of them use their cat tree. Bookshelves are better.

Quick update: Oysterkitties are wonderful! Completely bonkers and crazy and snuggly but one has got the squits quite badly. Hopefully it's just the change of food but we're off to the vet this afternoon to check. Fingers crossed please.