New kitten advice please...

[Cakes4Teatime]

We welcomed our first ever family cat this week and I’d be grateful to know thoughts on the best way to...

Wean off kitten milk onto all solid food (dry food ideally)

Age to stop kitten milk altogether

How to decide whether to have an indoor only cat or allow her out and timescales for this.

Currently keeping her in one room only - when do we allow rest of the house?

It’s hot this week so it’s warm in that room with window and patio door closed! Once she goes into rest of the house we will need to close all doors and windows!

Kitten was 8 weeks old this week and has been here 24 hours. She has explored the room and us, played with toys, used litter tray, slept and drunk kitten milk (and a lesser amount of water). Not interested in the dry or wet food though.

Is there a reason that you've collected her at 8 weeks, as usually kittens are homed at 12/13 weeks once they have had their vaccinations? When they come to you they should already be on solids and so weaning isn't an issue.

All that aside, I would try mushing us wet food into the kitten milk until it's porridge like, and see how she gets on with that. Also, discuss with your vets when you take her for her vaccs and flea treatment/worming.

Indoors/outdoors is personal choice, unless you've got her from a breeder that stipulates indoor homes only. Ours are outdoor cats, but our garden is cat proofed, so they go out into the garden but can't escape. If she's going to have free roam outdoors, you just need to be prepared that you run the risk of her going missing/getting injured, particularly if you live close to roads.

With regards access to the rest of the house, that's dependent on your kitten and how curious they are. Advice is that you should allow them to get comfortable in one room first and then let them explore at their own pace.

We got our kitten at 8weeks several weeks ago (they recomend 8 weeks to leave their mother) but she was already litter trained and eating wet and dry food so I'm not sure how to solve that! Ours will be a house cat (ragdoll) but she is too little to get up to the windows at the moment so that's not really an issue. We have bought net screens for our patio doors which work fine.

She has been eating some solids where she was and we have bought exactly the same foods. She has come from a friend and a loving family home and their vet said from 8 weeks which matches what the RSPCA website advises. We are going to register her with a vet today. Already researched vets and got good recommendation from local friends. We are more than happy to pay for her vaccinations. She was a wonderfully kind gift, not sold to us. Will obviously ask vet advice too but always good to hear experiences from others. Your mixing milk and food idea for example sounds great.

Sorry took me a while to type. That was in reply to first poster!

Oh and our downstairs is open plan so ended up keeping her to just the downstairs living/dining/kitchen for 3 weeks and then started leaving the door to the stairs open. She has had run of the house for a week now. Keeping her to downstairs to begin with has meant that so far she hasn't tried to come upstairs at night. We just close the door and leave her downstairs and she doesnt cry/scratch at the door

She was/is already litter tray trained and ate some wet and dry food, she does seem to prefer the milk though - based on a whole 12 hours of observation I should probably be more patient instead of worrying now about that!

indiamay
Patio door screen sounds good idea. How do they secure in place? Do you have a link to them please?

aconvivialhost she wasn’t from a breeder, she was from a friend. So yes, totally our choice. How do you make a garden cat secure? What stops them climbing over the fence? Or under the side gate etc?

We used Flat Cats website

We have rollers on the top of our fence panels, so when the cats jump up they can't get any purchase. There's also other ways of cat proofing - have a look at Protectapet - or you could think about a catio which is an outdoor cat enclosure.

Thanks both

FlatCats here as well but i wouldnt keep mine in once they are neutered.

Talk to your vet about food recommendations. I’ve never fed my cats only dry food although I did have one who preferred it. She will need a kitten formulated food which will be softer on her digestive system.

www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/royal_canin#Kitten

Also, I think we need to see a picture of her! 😻

Best advice would be get one of these floor scratchers will save your furniture in the future it will get used to using this