new kitten

[Purplehonesty]

We have a new kitten - she is a long haired black and white and absolutely adorable.

She is almost 12 weeks.

How long do we keep her indoors for at this age? We have only rescued older cats before and kept them in a few days before they went out hunting!

We live very rurally so no male cats around that I know of but want to be safe!

*Elegant
*
Well the six rescues in our area didn't have any nor were they expecting any. We've been looking for a kitten for about three months and friends of ours have been waiting nearly a year.

So I guess it depends were you live.

I was prepared to drive a long way to get this little girl and by the time I got there they'd had five other people call about her....

Anyway. She had her first injections last night and was very good. When she gets the repeat in three weeks she wil be microchipped and wormed again. Vet said 6m for spay and if she goes out meantime stay with her.

I took out the monthly vet plan so everything is covered, wormer, fleas, six monthly health check, injections etc

But blurry sorry but the rest are on the camera

She is adorable

Brave little girl for her injections then!

You can get harnesses for kittens - I used them for mine when they went out before their ops. And yes I did have a pink one and a blue one!

She's just gorgeous. She looks quite confident already?

She's lovely

The thing is, we're at the end of kitten season, but in a few months there will be loads again. Most of our (15) cats have been found either in April/may or sept. I'm currently hand rearing a newborn that was found in a bin at the end of last week, there were two but sadly one didn't make it

PS - I hear what your vet said but you're really best not to let her out at all pre-spay. If she comes into season early, it will be as if she suddenly has the devil in her! Spaying should take care of any consequences but if they want to 'go party' and they see or smell a handsome bit of stuff nearby, they are quite capable of dashing across roads in the face of oncoming traffic.

You really can't control them when their mind is set on one thing. They become stupidly focussed.

I agree with Cozie. Please don't let her out pre spay. They are stupidly fast and if she whizzes off through a gap you can't follow through you could be in trouble.

I had a local hussy calling last night, costa.

Hope your little singleton is doing OK.

She seems to be, thanks. Strangely, the other one was the bigger,'stronger one when they arrived, but he started to go downhill Sunday evening and I found him when I went in to feed them about 6 oclock yesterday evening. They are so tiny though, only hours old when they were found, still with cords attached

She's had breakfast this morning and still seems strong, so I've got my fingers crossed for her

Sorry, should be vets spay females...stupid predictive text!

Somebody had to hand rear 8 newborn kits recently. (Eight!) How they even managed to stay awake to do it is beyond me.

the most I've bottle fed is 3, which my husband brought home last year - they all survived, we kept two and my mum has the third

I hope they were all different colours/sizes or you'd never be sure you'd got round them all!

cozietoesie - can I PM you please? Don't want to hijack the thread but need some expert info.

I actually feel weak at the thought of even one. (I'm not good in the early hours - understatement!- and .....every 4 hours is it?)

Best start a quick thread, Milk. I'm no expert - and that way, you gain lots of views from experienced cat people.

Mmm... might make me identifiable. I'll do a name change at some point and do it that way. Thanks.

I started off every 2-3 hours as they were so tiny and we didn't know how long they'd be alone, but she's now going 4-5 hours, so I stay up until 11.30/12, then I often wake up around 5 anyway. Luckily I work from home so can nap during the day if I need to

I take the point about how to keep count of a large number though. It sounds like a bit of a Forth Road Bridge task.

How long, roughly, would one kit take to feed, clean etc?

Oneago and his litter brother were abandoned by their mother at birth, pretty well, so the breeder had to hand rear them. He was fine but she said it had put years on her!

It doesn't take long when they're tiny 5-10 mins (ok with 1 or 2, not so good with 8!) - she's pretty reliable with toileting but I did have one a few years ago who was a nightmare, it took ages to squeeze a pee out of him.

She's a good feeder then.

She is quite confident yes.

She lived with a little boy before so she isn't bothered by my DC.

She has been really sleepy today after her injections - is that normal?