New kitten - tips please

[dusty79]

Hello all,
Our big boy sadly passed away last year and left a huge hole. We now feel ready to bring home a new furry friend!

Meet teeny Blossom. She’s only 5 weeks so won’t be home for a few weeks or so. My boy passed at 18 so it’s been a long time since we did the kitten stage so please hit me with you tips! She is the smallest in the litter if that makes any difference…

Obligatory pictures of kitten attached! Plus one of my boy as he was so handsome!

Oo she is adorable! No advice as I've not had a kitten!

Sorry for your loss, but wow 18, I can only hope my 2 reach somewhere near that!

What sort of tips are you looking for?

Do you have another cat and need to do introductions?

Our girl cat is totally DP's and loves him more than anything. She tolerates me. So I took a week off work so the kitten would bond with me! It worked and while he's now a 3.5yo independent cat, and a right softy with anyone, I am his firm favourite.

Thank you 😊

Tips wise:
Best kitten food?
Best cat litter?
Essentials?
How to help her settle?
How to stop her scratching up my new carpets….
Safety points around house?

Food & litter: use what they've been on and phase in your preferred over a few days/week. But remember they'll have a preference too and it may not match. I'd try grain-free and filler-free food, high protein food and eco friendly litter.

Essentials: no different to an adult cat but I've heard they can reject items that smell of another cat. Not sure how true that is.

Settling: let her spend time in 1 room with you. You should be relaxed, ignoring the cat even. So try the living room and just watch TV and lether hide behind the sofa. It could take days or hours. But when she emerges, be calm & friendly. Don't expect too much too fast. Feliway might help if your house still smells of your older cat, which it might not to you, but may well to the new cat.

Scratching: Provide plenty of scratching posts. Show her where they are like you will for food & litter tray and encourage her to scratch them regularly as part of playing & when you catch her scratching where you don't want her to. We've had no issues with carpets, just our sofas... don't encourage behaviour in a kitten that you wouldn't tolerate in an adult cat.

Safety points: like kids, cats are all different so keep an eye on her & watch to see what interests her. If dangerous or something you don't want her near, work it out on a case by case basis to keep her & your stuff safe.

I really liked the lilys kitchen kitten food. My little monster was tiny and she really gobbled it up. Unfortunately when we switched to the adult stuff she went right off it!

i got her a small fiddly toy that five years later she still plays with!! It is a lamb - for one of those Disney series I think. She now
carries it around like it’s her kitten!

she enjoyed playing in tunnels - and still does.

also loved chasing a ping pong ball
around the bath!

Blink cat food is brilliant, we have it on subscription and they do kitten versions too. No rubbish in their food.

my new cat just loves Amazon boxes and sitting on bubble wrap. Feather toys and a little catnip fox from Sainsbury’s 🤣

We got a kitten for the first time in September 2021. My tips are:

Get them the best food you can afford. Ours had horrid runny poos on supermarket food for two weeks. His bottom was raw until we sought advice (Pets Corner if you're in the South East).

We now have two and they eat The Cheshire Cat's Garden wet food and Canagans dry food. We love them to bits and they seem very happy.

We had one for a year and then got a second. We'd read it would be a nightmare, but it's been brilliant. Within two weeks the older cat assumed the subservient role (typically the younger cat can be the dominant one) and it's just all worked out.

Aaaah. We added a kitten to our menagerie fairly recently. It was a little like having a toddler again - eyes in the back of your head as they get into all sorts of scrapes.

Tips

We plugged Feliway into the two main living spaces (did this a week earlier than kitten arrived as we have other cats).

Got same kitten that was being given at its birth home (Purina, but have since switched to Iams kitten food with no Ill effects.)

Got same litter as being used at birth home, but after a couple of weeks changed to a wood based clumping one which is far easier to use.

Introduced kitten to the house one room at a time. The whole house st once is overwhelming.

Bed was just a shallow cardboard box with a blanket in (kitten has now claimed the back of the sofa and various other spots - bed no longer required.

Several toys - fishing rodstyle ones to chase, little straw mice with rattles in, ping pong balls. Again like having a toddler - there are toys left around everywhere! Our kitten also loves watching You Tube - there are loads of videos of squirrels and birds. We found this quite useful at mealtimes at first as kitten was intent on getting in on the human food so would be popped infront of the TV so we could eat in peace. (Bad parenting probably but it did help).

And most important of all - lots of cuddles!