New Kitten

[littlepinkgiraffe]

DP has rescued a kitten at work today. We have been to the vets and she's been checked over and seems to be fine. DP wants to keep her - what costs are we looking at assuming she has no future health problems?

We have bought some kitten food and milk on the advice of the vet. They've said to leave it a little while before having her vaccinated and neutered and let her settle for a week before worming her.

The vet advised the annual vac would be £52 but didn't say the cost of neutering. They also put some flea spray on her - how long do we need to leave it before we can let her on the sofa / let DD stroke her?

Aww she's cute. I'd recommend pet insurance. Vets for Pets at Pets at Home do a vaccination for life. IIrc it cost £99 and it lasts the lifetime of the cat. They also have other schemes too.

Don't bother buying a cat bed, they never sleep in it. I used a cardboard box with an old pillow and a blanket.

Yes the vet told us to buy some kitten food and kitten milk. I will try and source a better brand kitten food tomorrow then and look into the pet insurance and book vaccinations for a few weeks time.

Thanks for the tip about the cat bed - we won't bother to begin with and will see how she settles in. We have left her in her box in a separate room for most of this evening to settle down away from DD.

We will get rid of the kitten milk and just stick to water from now on.

We got a kitten a couple of months ago and just had her neutered. We got the £5 cats protection scheme chip and neuter as my daughter is on benefits. If your not on benefits you can maybe get a cat's protection voucher. Vaccinations cost about £60 once a year and flee/worm treatment about £10 once a month if you get it from the vets.

First, congratulations on your gorgeous Calico baby!

Based on many years' experience of rescuing little ones from as young as two weeks old, my very first thought was this kitten looks young enough to be bottle fed (and may not yet have learned how to drink from a dish). What did your vet say?

It is true that cow's milk is not good for kitties but we (my husband is a complete Crazy Cat Guy ) have successfully fed ours kitten formula. It is cheaper when bought powdered and mixed with water but can be bought canned, ready to drink.

I think you are wonderful for adopting this little creature, by the way!
(Back to lurking.)

How cute! Did the vet weigh her? Apparently they estimate 100g as birth weight and then weight gain of 100g per week when tiny. My cat was a stray too, estimated by vet at 7 weeks from weight & appearance - yours looks a bit younger I'd say

Thanks all for your advice and opinions again.

I'm starting to think that she's younger than 8 weeks too as she really is tiny. It won't let me attach another photo so I'll try and post one tomorrow showing her full size.

We will try and weigh her tomorrow and look at the formula too. She was drinking water from a small dish earlier but didn't touch the kitten milk (which has now been taken away).

Lily's kitchen is one I feed, they do a kitten food. Decent meat content. Applaws and natures menu are good but not sure if they do a kitten one

She's beautiful! She's definitely younger than 8 weeks. The vet doesn't sound brilliant recommending cat milk tbh.

Please do get insurance if money is a consideration. Vet bills can run into the thousands (we were into five figures on the same cat within 18 months). Also, you need to budget for paying bills up front and then claiming them back from the insurance unless your vet accepts direct payments.

Best of luck, I'm sure she'll bring you many years of happiness

I forgot to say in my last post - the vet really didn't say much at all. We took her in as DP rescued her and they checked her eyes and just said they seemed fine, gave her some flea treatment spray and then said to buy some kitten milk and food.

I asked about vaccinations and neutering and she said to wait a while but didn't give specifics. Said to worm after a week or so to give her time to settle in.

So weighing, looking into formula, pet insurance and booking vacs, neutering and microchip are all on my list.

Might be worth researching a good vet too.
She is lovely, I hope she settles in and you have to keep us up to date!

The tail of a very very young kitten is quite short, straight & stubby - as they age it gets longer and they start to curl it round their feet when sitting, like an adult cat (learnt this from finding my stray kitten, who I thought was 5 or 6 weeks but others saw photos of him & his longer tail & thought more like 7/8 weeks)

My kitten insists on cat soup every day.

She looks about six weeks. Medivet do a pet plan £15 a month and it covers everything. Mine has the all in one flea treatment monthly. The neuturing is about £70. I like my plan.

Insurance is £25 a month.

Try and give the best food u can afford but never feel guilty for giving the cheap stuff. My kitten was a rescue and has thrived with felix kitten i just give expensive dry to balance it out.

Shes beautiful btw.

About 6 months old before neutering. I think it can be done earlier as they can breed from 4 months, but hold out to 6 if you can. keep inside until after neutering and she's old enough to defend herself against adult cats (or fast enough to run away ;))

Try not to touch her neck / flea drop area for a couple of days. Stroke head only and if you, dp or dc get some of the treatment on your hands / fingers then wash straight away so that you don't spread it anywhere else on the kitten where she can lick it. It's probably not good for humans either ;)

Has she gone to the toilet yet?

Have her eyes looked at and I would keep a close eye on her sneezing / snuffles. She may need a second vet opinion. If she gets worse at all then bring her to another vet straight away to check for cat flu.

Keep her on kitten food to get her weight up.

Overall good quality food (royal canin / science hills / applepaw) and insurance.

Cat protection offer neutering vouchers.

She is adorable btw! ❤️

I've just got 2 rescue kittens myself, cat protection have given us 90% off vouchers x

She's so cute!

Put money aside in a separate account each month to cover vet fees that the insurance won't cover e.g teeth cleaning, so that you don't get future vet surprises. I save £100 each month for my 3. It's their pension account

Oh we were told when kittens first arrived that one 'didn't eat', was very 'picky', not gaining weight etc and would only eat dry food!

I put a bit of chicken, on top of cat food and he was tucking in by the next day!! Apparently after eating nothing but a few cat biscuits since he was born!!

The vet mustve put her on the scales??

She's beautiful - I rescued a calico kitten from work years ago (ours was a bit older but equally full of fleas!)

Shop around for insurance on the comparison site - make sure you go for lifetime or a decent maximum benefit policy or it can become useless fairly quickly. Good job we did for our calico girl as she went on to develop diabetes! Kitten insurance tends to start at about £6 per month but it goes up as they get older.

Initial vaccinations should be around £50 ish, then the £99 Vets 4 Pets vacs for life deal is good as after 4 years it's paid for itself.

Spaying can range from £65-85 depending on the vet.

Have a look at zooplus for food, it can work out cheaper if you buy in bulk.

Enjoy your kitten - she looks like a sweetie!

Where are you all working that you find kittens? I'm very jealous!

MOUSE shrieks so cute

Morning all
Thanks for the advice again - it's much appreciated!
The vet didn't weigh her, or if they did they didn't tell us. Perhaps we should take her to a different vets to be looked at and checked over.

I have emailed the local cats protection to see if they have any offers we can use for neutering and chipping and we have looked at the £99 vac for life too.

Here is the better pic which will hopefully show her size a bit better. We had her in a box with everything in last night - I know once she's roaming her litter needs to be away from food.

She went to the toilet last night (on her litter too!)

Glad you like the name Mouse - DP is trying to change the name but it's not happening!

Oh god she is tiny take her to a compassionate vet. I go to medivet and am pleased with them I couldn't bear not to
Have her weighed just to measure how far you come

Omg i want her 😍😍😍😍

She is so tiny and absolutely beautiful!!! I love her little tail 😍😍😍

Very jealous. Shes one very lucky kitty

She's a little cutie :). Pop a small cuddly toy in there with her if you can - she's small enough to want to cuddle "mom" and "siblings" so the teddy bear will be a substitute