Give me your top kitten tips!

[GingerPanda]

We have just taken on a lovely 16 week old furry face kitten who is confident and snuggly and playful! He is fabulous. I've never had a young cat before and he's quite different to my last boy who was an adult when he came to us. So any tips about helping him grow up into a lovely lad are very welcome. He is a lot fussier than the last cat who was such a greedy lump he'd try to eat uncooked pasta, so the first challenge has been finding food he'll eat. I do need to get a collar on him before he is allowed out, so any tips on that will be very useful. I'd also quite like it if I could magically discourage hunting and wandering too far from home, but I think that might be impossible.

So, please let me have your best advice for small and beautiful and curious cats!

My top kitten tip is to take photos and post them here 😻.

Cats are natural hunters and will roam at night given half the chance.

Top tips - claw cutters, brush, treat ball, scratching post, litter tray with wood pellets, one of the mats to put at the door of the hooded litter tray to capture any stray pellets, laser light. Radiator bed. Interact/play with them regularly. Cats usually like high spaces or somewhere to hide.

Research collars. I don't use them as one of my parents cats got hung whilst going over a fence when I was small.

I don't put collars on my cats either.
Lots of toys, but rotate them, cats love novelty. Wand toys/boxes/blanket forts.
Keep him in at night and feed high protein diet to reduce hunting. Wandering is just one of those things for some cats. They usually come home in their own time.
Enjoy your cat and take lots of photos.
Lick e lix is ideal for hiding meds in and most cats go a bit crazy for it.

I've given up on the collars. I'd just get calls saying they'd been found in this or that garden. Mine aren't hunters thank goodness, and they do stay close to home but unless you cat proof your garden can't see a way of making them do that if they like to wander.
I'd get him used to brushing asap. I didn't and one of my cats always gets matted.
Get them neutered as soon as allowed.
But the best thing is I got two! Oh and they are confined downstairs at night otherwise it's a 4.30am wake up call!

You will be very surprised just how tiny a space he can hide in if he feels in the mood! Even comparatively large cats can vanish off the face of the earth for hours at a time then eventually appear as if by magic looking smug.

Pay your cat tax!

Never use just your hand to play with the kitten, it'll teach your kitten jus to chase hands and bite them.
Only use toys for play, a bit T if newspaper on a string etc. Hands stroke and hold. Always surprises me when people get this wrong and end up with a cat that bites it's whole life - they simply trained them to bite! .

Don’t use a collar would be my first tip!
my kittens are fed untamed and absolutely love it, their poo doesn’t smell and the food looks tasty, even to me!

buy a nice big cat tree for climbing so they don’t use you as a climbing frame 😂

Cat tax!

Thanks everyone!! Cat tax picture is pending review.

I know collars can be a worry but if they are the safety kind surely the risk is v low? As you can see he is totally black and if he goes out at night he'll be invisible, I thought a reflective collar would help. It's not busy here but there are cars around!

You need a cat tree! Ours love it. Ours is from Zooplus

My top tip is only let them out in daylight and whistle train them. Every time you feed them and give treats whistle.

Yes do try and keep him in at night. Lovely looking boy. Get cardboard boxes for him to snuggle in.

Jumping on the thread! Sorry!
We have a new kitten arrived today! She's an absolute poppet, but wondered how to help her settle at night?

I generally find shutting kittens in a safe room overnight with food, litter box, toys and space to play is the only way to get a decent night's sleep (you & then) until they're a few months old. We released ours from about 6 months old. One now sleeps curled up next to me and her sister has a bed in DD's room.

My top tip is to train him to 'sit' for food like you train a dog. We trained our kittens to do this and years later they still do it. They usually do it without the command these days. It's super cute!

I would never use a collar on a cat. Ours all stay in at night too.

Get a chip-reading cat flap and programme it not to let the cat out at night.

CatOfHate still has a bald ring around his neck and I took his collar off six months ago. I wouldn't use a collar again, knowing that it damages the skin to the point that the hair follicles die.

But how do you keep them in at night? I get that you can shut the cat flap once they are in, but how do you make sure they are back before dark? Our old cat sneered at my efforts and just stayed out...

You feed supper after the curfew.

Mine get extra treats and lick e lix at bedtime to sweeten their captivity ,😄

Yes you only make food available at set times so they hungry enough to come home, lock the cat flap shut then feed them plus treats at "bed time"

I used to whistle every time they were fed or got treats. The boy in particular would respond and appear even when semi comatose it was just programmed into his semi-conscious whether hungry or not.

@GingerPanda as everyone has said, bribery! Food only at set times and we trained them with dreamies from when they were tiny. Occasionally one will push their luck and stay out but 99% of the time they're back when we call them.