What do you wish you knew before bringing home your first cat?

[yantzee]

I've just met our pfc (precious first cats) for the first time - we'll be bringing them home in just under three weeks. I've got a week off to welcome them.

They're brother and sister (Albus and Luna - thoughts?? I know not factually correct but I can't ignore that lightening bolt on his head and Harry is too obvious!) and will be 10.5 weeks when we get them.

We're in central London on the second floor (huge balcony and the run of a big flat), and have disposable income to spend on them if we need to - toys, treats etc

What do you wish you'd known before you got your kitty?? What's a waste of money, what should we spend money on, how do we make them feel safe and secure?? They're already very loved but I know they'll be scared. Help!

My 3all use scratching posts and landing carpet
Your bed,pref freshly made clean bedding is waaaay better than a cat bed.
One of mine only drinks from a designated mug
Be careful changing food-if it's not slowly changed maybe explosions in the litter tray
In my house bare toes are fair game for a nibble by the kittens. They also partial grabbing fluffy socks as you walk past
Don't feed human food as you are eating. In time my Scoutcat got very cocky n try pinch off plate whilst I was eating it!
If they access your bedroom whilst you asleep you probably will get bat in face/jumped on in night.I get head butts for breakfast sometimes at 3am
Expect have your heart stolen and to be enslaved as full on kitty servant
Enjoy!

Re the names... they both look like tortoiseshells so they SHOULD both be girls!

The breeder was adamant one was male, so I was quite excited about having such a special boy but I'm erring on the side of caution and am considering Rosa (Parks) and Emmeline (Pankhurst). Both important ladies in our house!

All other women of note ideas welcome! Helen Sharman is one of my favourites but Helen is not a very cattish name...

Please get them high quality cat food! I can recommend Wainwright's. The difference to brands like Go-cat etc is immense. I saw a difference in 2 days with mine.

Male torties are possible but only when something's gone wonky genetically (chimerism - when two fertilised eggs fuse into one in early development; or Klinefelter's syndrome - XXY genotype). Definitely more likely the breeder has made a mistake but will be interesting to see what the vet says! They are both adorable either way :)

Notable women - how about Nobel Laureates?

gerund can I call her Aung?? Such a wonderful woman. Thank you for reminding me.

I'll keep you updated!

@GerundTheBehemoth that's fascinating re the male tortie genes!

I was about to say the same as Gerund, they both appear to have tortie markings, almost always female. I remember one poster on here called her kitten Bella, and he turned out to be "Bella the Fella". They are truly gorgeous btw!

They love those fishing rod type toys. Little M played with his for 2 hours solid when we first brought him home as a 13 week old kitten and let him out of his carrier.

Bella the Fella is black-and-white I think? I've read about male torties occasionally but never ever met one.

The reason genetically normal XY boys can't be torties is because the gene that has ginger and not-ginger versions (alleles) resides on the X chromosome. So boys can only be ginger or not-ginger, depending on whether their X has the ginger allele or not. But girls are XX. So they can be ginger, not-ginger, or - if one X has ginger and the other X has not-ginger - they're a mix of both (ie tortoiseshell) :)

The fishing rod toys are excellent.

That 2 won't be enough. You are a cat person now. There is no escape. My bedroom is 3 floors up and TSScat will go out and teeter dangerously because of his fat arse sit on the sill.

I wish I'd known how committed you have to be. Non cat slaves say, "oh it's only a cat, why all the fuss", but your life revolves around them and they are not as straightforward as you'd imagine. A few things to note - they have to go to vet at least once a year, but in between these visits, they'll probably have some kind of condition that needs attention. Cats get all sorts of ailments, or maybe I've just been unlucky with mine. Monthly worming. Lots of people swear by pet insurance. They need to be microchipped, neutered and passports if you're ever likely to move abroad. Cat boxes for trips to vet or if you're taking them somewhere. Cat tower or high shelving for them to perch on. Litter boxes & hopefully, they'll be litter trained already for you. And lots more, but I can't think at the moment.

You'll have lots of laughs and fun with them and you'll be totally smitten!

Here's mine.

How many floors up are you?! Cats can seriously jump mine shocks the life out of me where he get get too

Two torties? Ha, good luck with that!

YY to both our cats drinking out of a bedside glass of water - one stands on the clock radio to get her head right into the glass and invariably switches it on.

One cat likes scratching posts and the other preferred the sofa - the more expensive the better.

Kittens like to climb curtains.

Remember that quite a few things are poisonous - chives, garlic, onions, bread dough, chocolate, grapes, raisins, and lots of plants - lilies, chrsanths, poinsettias, tulips, daffodils etc

All these cat pictures are gorgeous. I'm temporarily looking after 2 8 week kittens. But used to have indoor older cats until they sadly passed away.

The litter trays stink! Definitely get a covered one. Clean poos as soon as you spot them. The cats will likely go back in again as soon as you've cleared it and do another. Put the poo bag straight outside or it will still stink even from your kitchen bin. If you're going out for more than a few hours, leave windows ajar (safe amount so they won't get through - not recommended for kittens) in order to minimise the impact of the smell upon your returns. World Best Litter for multiple cats was the only thing i found that had any positive effect on the smell. Really pricey though but lasts longer than others, i find.

They loved a big tall cat tree and used the scratching posts attached to this but not an individual scratching post.

They didn't use any of the cat beds we bought them.

Girl cats can start to stink around their bums because they have sacs there that fill up every so often. The vet can empty these and can teach you to do it at home.

After you get them spayed/neutered, they may hiss at each other because they won't smell the same as they've been at the vets. Mine got over it after a day or two.

My vet recommended more kibble than wet food as this was better for their teeth. However, it gave them constipation. So we stuck with wet food but gave them teeth biscuit things each day.

My current kittens love love love love this crinkle tunnel toy from pets at home www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/crinkle-play-tunnel-cat-toy

Also enjoy a dangly toy with a feather and rattly ball at the end of it.

Much prefer our shoelaces and fingers and toes though.

Oh also - they WILL jump up on your worktops. There is no stopping them. With my old cats, we tried putting sellototape, tin foil, lemon juice and all other sorts of stuff on the worktops to deter them, but it never worked.

And if you leave piles of laundry or ironing anywhere, they will lie on them and you'll need to wash them all over again.

Also, my old boy cat had a total change of personality after being neutered. He was a bit stand offish as a kitten and not at affectionate. After he was neutured he turned into a right big softy. As soon as we sat down he'd be on our laps and would lick us. Aw i miss him

RandomlyGenerated - good point about poisonous things! When I adopted my cat one of the first things he did was go and chew on one of my house plants ( I'd already googled which ones were safe thankfully!) He will still chew on any plants/ leaves he has access to but ignores the grass- maybe it's the movement of leaves that attracts him? Needless to say all the plant choices in may garden are now being based around the ones that are 'safe' for cats.... little sod ignores all the cat mint plants I've got for him though 😹

Oh, that it's not just dogs that unashamedly hump stuff in front of guests and make eye contact whilst doing so.

Was coming on to say, no need for an expensive igloo/ nice cat beds to keep them cosy cos they'll sit on roof and sleep on it instead but much prefer a cardboard box...but I see that's been covered already.

Mine love playing with drinking straws, also helps with teething/chewing. Youngest one will help herself to new ones inside the plastic box if it's left out regularly wake up to find a pile the floor. Got about 50 in a box from Tesco.

Oh yeah you can't leave any food out uncovered, ever!
We often call the oven or microwave (turned off) the "cat safe zone".

When are you picking them up??

each in 11 days. Not that I'm counting! I spent the weekend kitty proofing

They aren't even hear yet and they are so spoilt, I've had a bit of a field day on zooplus with treats and cat milk and stuff. DP thinks I've finally lost it, I asked if they should be eating exclusively organic and he had to remind me that we don't eat organic at all, let alone exclusively organic...

No don't do that. I was the same but now I've got the second I realise that it's expensive and they soon go off the food.

The kitten and the older one both love this dry food qnevit has fab reviews so I'm sticking to that. I only used to give Lily's and carny wet but now I don't mind if Sainsbury's taste the differenc or Sheba slips in. Did your posh toilet come?

It's already done! I will try and stop, but no promises at least it's helping to curb my ASOS habit!

I ended up getting quite a basic (but covered) peepee. We do a bin empty basically every day (with biodegradable bags, before anyone judges!) so I'm hoping the smell won't be too much of a problem.

They arrive tomorrow and I can't sleep because I'm so excited!

Are you going to pick them up in the morning?