Where to get a kitten?

[howshouldibehave]

Our cat died earlier in the year and think it’s time to get another. Where do you go about finding a kitten locally?

We have always gone through the Cats protection league previously and got rescues but wanted to get a kitten for once.

Rescues often have kittens, there is really no good reason to get a cat or kitten anywhere other than a rescue tbh.

I got a dkitten via CPL on local fb page. Included microchip and neutering..

Good luck with finding kittens at a rescue centre! We called several last year and all said they had long waiting list for kittens. We'd always had adult rescues before but we have dogs now and thought a kitten would integrate better. We went to a breeder in the end (snd here they are).

Our local CPL has kittens. It would be unusual if yours doesn’t! They may not advertise them on their website but it’s very likely they’ll have kittens to rehome. They may insist they go in pairs, though.

Vast numbers of female cats are abandoned when they get pregnant or give birth, so at certain times of year rescues are over run with kittens. Though many do tend to rehome them in pairs.

There's also a large number of cats who have been abandoned when they grow out of the "cute kitten" stage and become young cats, and older kittens who are given up when the original owners realised they needed to put some actual effort into having a cat e.g. hair everywhere, cleaning up vomit/hairballs, emptying the litter tray etc.

Our local CPL only rehomes kittens in pairs. We already have another older cat, so wanted to just get one. Thanks for the replies.

I would go to a rescue like Cats Protection or RSPCA.

Adopt don't shop

We are getting kittens from a local rescue charity near us. Apparently there are loads of kittens around at the moment.

I know that CPL usually try to home them in pairs, but a smaller charity might be more flexible

Our local RSPCA have kittens. Contact all local rescues. Kittens don’t always end up on websites. If you don’t find any yet then wait for kitten season next year. Rescues will be overrun again.

Our local independent rescue is overrun with kittens at the moment, mostly from feral mums but socialised early to be loving family pets. The mums are trapped, neutered and released. Don’t get one from gumtree etc!

Our independent one homes single kittens in homes with an older cat.

We just got a single kitten from CPL. I'd speak to them and ask. They can't always rehome in pairs, there must be odd numbers sometimes! They will keep your details and come back to you. We have 4 cats now, all from CPL. we waited for a bonded pair of adults to come in and be available because that's what we wanted. They contacted us first when they got a pair that would suit.

Thank you-that’s good to hear we might be able to get a single kitten. I don’t think we have any independent rescues nearby but I can ask CPL.

If we are hoping to do this in a couple of months, is there any point in contacting them yet or should I hold off?

If you are anywhere near farms try calling country vets to ask if they know of any. Round us there is an abondance.

We adopted ours on Tuesday from a local charity.
I looked on line and a few local ones had kittens.
we got an older one too, both beautiful and great temperaments.
We bought one privately a few years ago, when we took it to the vets it was too young to be removed and they had sexed it wrong. Ended up with all kinds of problems.
Keep looking at rescues, even if you have to travel a bit.

Definitely rescues. CP will adopt kittens singly but this may vary depending on the branch or centre. There's lots of smaller local rescues around, look on Catchat.
If you're happy with a slightly older kitten there's often lots of them needing homes.

I volunteer at Cats Protection, we have seven or eight kittens at the moment. They can’t all go in pairs surely, we have odd ones too. And also very young cats (under a year).

please speak to them and tell them what you want, they will match you up. I adopted a single kitten from them, long before I volunteered there. He was part of a litter too.