Kitten

[HarHer]

Hi,

We have acquired a kitten from my brother's farm. She is perhaps seven or eight weeks old. In my opinion, she is a little young to leave her mother, but she was a gift.

My first question is this. Our kitten is happy, apparently healthy and eats solid food. However, she will not lap water or milk. We have to warm her milk a little and let her drink it from a feeding bottle. How can we encourage her to lap?

Secondly, she is a lovely, friendly little cat, but she is used to the active, hunting, cat family environment of the farm. Consequently, she craves stimulation and company. Can anyone suggest some kitten friendly toys so she keeps out of mischief?

Thanks

Yes she is too young to leave her mother. Ten weeks is the recommended age.

If she is eating wet food then I wouldn't worry about her lapping as she will be getting most of her required moisture from her food. Just provide water and she will drink it if she wants to. Don't give cows' milk as it upsets cats' stomachs. You can buy milk for kittens if you really want to give milk.

Her best stimulation would be another one of her siblings to keep her company. She is really too young to be on her own, without her siblings and without her mother. And kittens love to have a companion to play with and sleep with.

Will the mother cat be neutered? Do you know what age your kitten should be neutered?

Hello,

I would love to get her one of her little brothers or sisters. There is a little ginger one who looks like s/he will be as friendly as Dotty.

Dotty is eating wet food, so thank you for the reassurance. The mother cat is rather wild so I don't know whether my brother will be able to catch her to have her neutered. What age should our kitten be neutered? We will be taking her to the vets this week for a health check and to book her for her jabs.

Thanks

Your kitten should be done at four to five months, depending on her size.

As for the mother she will need to be trapped to be neutered. Are you in the UK? If so Cats Protection should be able to help.

Ours are booked in to be spayed now they are over (I think) 2kg. Cat neuterer will soon tell you if I'm talking garbage. They also had to be over 4 months.
Make sure to keep kitten in until then.
Is it using a litter tray?
Re toys ours love scrunched up paper, soft foam balls and a laser pointer (careful of eyes) from sainsburys!
We also got a cat tower thing as they like to sleep up high and their first scratching post met with an unfortunate kitty related accident.

OP, you can't post a thread titled "kitten" without a photo.....!

Yes OP, you cant's say kitten' and then leave us hanging like this!

I hope this works - picture

Op, entrancing!

OMG so cute!

silent scream. Such a baby.

Get her a Flying Frenzy to keep her entertained. Cats, esp. young cats/kittens need loads of interactive playtime. Mine love it. You can get about a million different attachments to clip on.

Hello,

Thank you for the advice. We have made Dotty a sock monster out of one of my son's old socks, stuffed with a pair of old shorts. The monster is just the right size for Dotty to wrestle with. She also plays with my son's yellow stress ball. It is light and bright and she loves to dab it and chase it. I have just a couple of extra questions. First, Dotty's right eye often seems a little sticky. We bathe it every day with warm water and it seems to be getting a little better, but is there anything else we should be doing? Second, Dotty sleeps on my son's bed (my son has mental health difficulties and Dotty is the best therapy he has had!). She seems to love the warmth and companionship. She is completely littler trained, so there are no 'accidents' but (and this may seem like a stupid question) is there any danger of my son (who is 16) squashing her in his sleep?

I think I may be worrying a bit too much, but she is the first tiny kitten we have had.

oh she is adorbs

I would also worry about her being squashed, however irrational it may seem. Can she sleep in a basket next to the bed?

About the runny eye - if she's from an outdoor/farm/multiple cat situation, she's probably a coronavirus carrier. It's usually nothing to worry about (I think something like 65% of cats carry it at some point and almost all outdoor ones) and remains as a low level thing in their system until they shed it with no major symptoms (I don't think it's treatable but if any vets can correct me on that please do). There's tiny, tiny chance of it mutating into something bad but it's very improbable and there's nothing you can do about it anyway. I know for a fact both my cats have had the coronavirus at some point and I never worried about it.

We have a 14 week old kitten and his favourite toys are

Ping Pong balls...sometimes in a box, we find them all over the house, especially in OH's boots

Fluffy Thing on a spring

Tunnel with two balls attached

Any dangling limb

Laser pointer

The springy toy and tunnel were not expensive and he adores them. I looked at the all dancing cat towers (and died at the price) but his springey is just the right size for him

We are happy for him to eventually sleep where he chooses but at the moment are worried we may squish him

She is gorgeous

HarHer

I've slept with kittens in my bed - none of this on business for Siamese - since I was knee high and not had a squishing or near-squishing yet. (And that's a goodly number of kittens over quite a few years.) It's almost as if there's some instinct even in the deepest sleep that you have a kitten in with you - and as to the older ones, if they're uncomfortable, they soon let you know. So that you move!

(In fact, I'd say any damage has been to me - my arm joints have for years had to be splayed in a pretty unnatural position to allow most of the cats to sleep 'just so' in the crook of my arm in the way that they like best.)

I wouldn't worry.

Well I took the plunge and kitten slept on the bed next to me. I bought his favourite blankie up and after a bit of playing he got on the bed and stayed all night, waking just in time for OH coming home just after 6

I always thought he would be active during then night

Sorry to bump this post. However, Dotty the kitten is happy and thriving. her sticky eye has cleared up and it looks like her eyes are beginning to change colour (I hope they will be brilliant green like her mother's). I have just one query. A poster in another thread said that the vet had advised that his/her kitten should have perhaps half a pouch of food and some biscuits each day. Dotty eats much more than that, perhaps two pouches a day (and a few Dreamies). Are we overfeeding her? She is a bundle of energy (and fun), but I want to keep her healthy.

I have just seen this, she is the absolute spitting image of a cat we had called Dot (brother was a tuxedo called Dash). They came from my uncle's farm, she was always very small and feisty, not cuddly at all, although when old she would sit on knees if you put a newspaper on your lap first. She lived to be 22. I think that you should feed kittens on demand, they go through growth spurts just like human babies. they use up tons of energy climbing the curtains and chasing their own shadows after all.