New rescue cats, lots of questions!

[dancemom]

We are adopting 2 cats this week, they are 3 and 4, Turkish Angoras and have been living together. Being rehomed for a genuine reason and we have already had a home visit which went really well. They have always been house cats and will continue to be. Just back from Pets at Home where I spent an absolute fortune but I have so many questions!

Food - owner has told me what they currently eat which is Felix wet food and Go Cat dry food. I'm aware these aren't high quality but I think it's best to keep them on these at least until they settle in. Owner said they get half a wet pouch each in the morning and another half pouch in the evening and dry food down constantly. Cats look in great shape, not underweight but when I bought the Felix it says up to 3 pouches a day? Is this just to get you to buy more? When cats came for a visit they took a dreamie treat but didn't seem overly hungry so should I stick to the half pouch as advised?

Litter tray - I have bought 2, one large covered and one smaller uncovered. I have bought the same litter they currently use, if I poop scoop as soon as I see them, will the litter tray last a week before it needs emptying and cleaning and replacing? I have also put puppy pads around the trays but hopefully the cats will use the trays from the start. I have also bought a cleaning spray for any cat pee accidents.

Haven't bought cat beds although did buy blankets. Should I get some cat beds or just wait and see what they prefer once they settle in?

Bought a few toys and have flat cardboard cat scratchers in order, again what they had at their previous home.

And I have purchased Feliway and it's plugged in hopefully doing its job for their arrival!

Is there anything I have missed or not thought of?

And I promise to post pictures as soon as they arrive!

You may find they use 1 litter tray for poops and 1 for wees. I have 3 cats they use 1 for poops, 1 for wees and ignore the third one. It means the poop one just needs scooping as and when but the actual litter lasts a week (or longer) the wee one needs changing almost daily.

That amount of wet food is fine seen as they have their dry food down all the time so can eat if they are hungry.

Thank you @Hellocatshome that's reassuring, I was anxious about underfeeding or overfeeding them.

Thats interesting about the litter trays too!

What sort of litter is it? If it's clumping litter then pee and poo can be removed and it lasts a lot longer than non clumping

My cats get half a pouch each morning and night and dry left down. Sometimes they get some chopped cooked chicken too

My two cats are grazers so they share half a pouch morning and evening. They have dry food down all the time. If we gave them a pouch each they'd leave the other half to dry out and go bad.

It's non clumping cat litter, I just got what they were used to.

Can I also ask .... if they are house cats will they still need flea treated and wormed?

Yes its still advised to flea and worm treat. Fleas can be brought in on clothing. Get advice from the vet on how often you should treat them

Thank you @dementedpixie

My vet advises to flea and worm twice a year for indoor cats. She thinks that they don't need unnecessary chemicals in their system.

Cats don't need beds really, but I have two indoor cats and their most used items are:
A window bed that suctions on (Amazon) and their cat trees.
Top entry litter boxes are great because you don't get litter tracking through the house.
I have tried every brand and find Biokat the best. You can get it from Amazon.
My two boys share a litter tray and I empty out the clumps every evening.
One bag lasts 2 weeks.

Sheba is better than Felix and most cats will take to it. So that's an easy swap, although you can go ahead with the better quality food from Zooplus if you choose. My boys won't eat it though, they love Sheba.
Dry food isn't great for cats. My boys only had a little bit a day, but my vet recently asked me to get rid of it all together. My boys now have about 4 pouches each and no dry.

I would also advise getting a few cardboard scratching things for them.

You will probably need window screens also, so you can have fresh air, but prevent them getting out

Good luck!
Can't wait for pics!

I switched all of my 8 cats onto high quality food as soon as they get home. They always go crazy for the better food.

For my indoor cats, possibly the best thing I bought was Flat Cats window screens. Can have the windows open on the hotter days with no worry of cats escaping, and even keeps the larger insects out!

Perceived wisdom is that you keep new cats on the food they were used to and slowly replace with the new food bit by bit. This helps prevent upset stomachs, and at the same time you can try out which of the other foods they prefer. Mine have Felix AGAIL as their wet, but that's mostly just for enjoyment and they have good quality dry down 24/7 - unlike dogs, most cats self-regulate with food.

I flea & worm once or twice a year, and of course they do get their annual jabs mainly in case they ever need to go to a cattery in an emergency plus for insurance purposes.

Insurance is a must, preferably with lifetime cover especially for breeds - I understand many of the more eastern breeds to have a tendency to heart issues.

If you don't have lots of high places they can access, you may want to consider a cat tree?

Thanks @Allergictoironing I'll look into those window items and for now I have the windows open an inch and locked in that position.

I started looking into insurance last night and I'll need to register them with a local vet too.

Their microchips are from their country of origin in the Middle East, can I get them transferred to be registered in the UK?

And when they came to visit they instructed me to clear the recipe books off the top of the fridge and the music books from the top of the piano so they could perch up there 😆

Yes good idea to have some nice high places for them but if most cats are anything to go by they will sit up there regardless of the books
As for cat beds only purchase if you won't be disappointed if they don't use them, also save any cardboard boxes as they will probably much prefer them.

Hah I was actually about to go back to Pets at Home as we bought fleecy blankets but no beds, are they really not worth getting?

I have two indoor-only cats and my advice would be:

Buy a cat tree-a large one. Mine is over 6 feet tall and the cats love it.

Alongside that, I also have a large, thick scratching post that they can fully stretch up on that they love. Bought both from Zooplus.

I free feed mine dry food, and give one pouch of wet food between them in the evening, so they graze on the dry as and when. It sounds like your new cats have had the same set up. Buy the best possible dry food you can afford, it makes a big difference not just to their health but also to their poops (you don't want really smelly poops with indoor cats!) I feed Royal Canin dry food and Sheba wet food. Make the transition slowly.

I have two large litter trays. In terms of changing the litter, I poop scoop when they go. In the winter, I completely empty, disinfect and re-fill their trays once a week. In the summer I do it twice a week. I use litter-tray disinfectant-all pet shops sell it.

I wouldn't buy beds yet, see how you go first. Hope that helps!

Thank you @JonahofArk

Previous owner has a 6ft cat tree and says cats refuse to go near it. Ditto with scratching post but says they do use the flat cardboard floor ones so we have bought a few of these.

Resisted buying beds but bought even more toys and a laser toy too 🙈

Definitely intend to change over their food but will do it slowly once they have settled in.

So excited about their arrival tomorrow!

I second the recommendation for Flat Cats window screens, they're absolutely brilliant. We had cat nets from zooplus up for a few years and they were so ugly, plus they got stretched over time when we needed to open the windows. The Flat Cat screens are almost invisible and just attach with Velcro (the nets we had before had to be nailed around the frame.)

A good tip for beds: I've seen many people say their cats won't use a new bed so they've wasted money etc, and my cat was the same. Then we put one of my husband's tshirts in the bed and the cat started sleeping in it straight away! He now has two beds with tshirts in (they are clean btw but the first time we tried it, dh had worn it that day) Cat loves his beds now. He has one in the lounge and one in the bedroom. He also has a radiator bed in the lounge that he loves (needed a tshirt in that for a while too, but not anymore).

A Kong Kickaroo is a much loved toy as it has good catnip inside. Also a really good quality cat nip spray is good to refresh his toys, my cat goes wild for it!

My cat doesn't eat just twice a day because he only eats tiny amounts so we spread it out over several meals instead. But Over 24 hours he has two pouches of Felix and dry food left out all the time.

Another tip: keep the water bowls at least a foot away from the food bowls, and consider another water bowl elsewhere in the house. They often won't drink if their water is too close to their food.

I'm only here for the photos

My cats have the cheap Felix pouches (prefer them to the more expensive ones) and are very healthy and happy.
I have tried the “better quality” foods from zooplus but they like the Felix (fish only) best, and although it might not be the best quality meat, it is still all protein, no cereal.
3 cats (a big male and 2 smaller females, all aged 6+) have 3 pouches a day between them, plus 2 small bowls of Royal Canin neutered biscuits.

Mine don’t like proper cat beds in general, but in the winter they do like this. I’ve only got one (no space for more) but it gets shared fairly amicably!

@ItsNotNormalLove I didn't know you could refresh catnip toys, thanks for the tip

@janopolisdeNorthEast promise I'll post pics tomorrow

@GiantKitten that's good to know about the food, I was shocked when I read the Felix box saying 3 pouches a day per cat! We saw that radiator bed today actually so that just might be my next purchase ...

The 3 pouches per day assumes that you're only feeding them the wet food. Mine have 1.5 pouches between the pair (0.5 am, 1 pm) as well as the ad lib dry.

Posting for photos too...

Mine (almost 8 and almost 1) have a 75g untamed tin each morning and night and a small quantity of grain free biscuits morning and night. 7yr old boy is v greedy and over weight so he gets slightly less biscuits than 11 month girl who grazes at biscuits - microchip feeders are fabulous in this situation.

Both use beds at differing times. Both are currently snoozing / looking out windows on their window beds (girl on left, greedy boy in right).

We have 3 scratching posts in various places round the downstairs that all get used.

We have 2 litter trays with clumping wood chip litter. Boy doesn't use them, he goes outside, girl uses both interchangeably. Remove waste morning and night and the remainder lasts ages. I get a 10l bag every 5-6 weeks ish

Thanks everyone for the posts, can't wait for them to arrive tomorrow!

Meet my new fur babies