Getting a kitten tomorrow- help!

[Teenmam]

We were thinking about it and mentioned it to someone, now we have somehow agreed to take 2 kittens tomorrow. First time pet owner, aaaggghhh! What do we need? Could someone tell me the exact food and litter to get? They are 6 weeks old. Hopefully I'll get more info when we collect tomorrow but for now I'm panicking!

I would find out what food and litter they're currently using and get the same.

But I'd say that 6 weeks is too young for them to be separated from mum. Can you ask them to delay it for at least 2 weeks (preferably 4)?

That isn’t how you acquire pets that could live for over 20 years. This should be a well considered and planned move. Please tell me they are rescue and you’re not giving money to someone who CBA to spay or neuter.

Please wait at least two more weeks (unless they are orphaned)

6 weeks is too young. How has this come about?

Six weeks is too young for kittens to be separated from their mother and no rescue would allow this.
Educate yourself I'm the care of kittens and cats before you consider giving a home to them.

6 weeks! That's appalling on the part of the breeder who is disgracefully negligent. If @Teenmam you think the llkittens may be unsafe where they are, go ahead. For starters:

Confine to a small, warm, comfy room.
Small kitten beds, fleece, warm hottie, ticking clock (their mother's heart)
Two litter trays and good q litter
Good quality cat carrier
Feliway diffuser
Urgent vet appointment to check them over and to make spay and neuter appointments in advance
Microchips
Pet insurance
Vaccination schedule
Good quality kitten food, min 60% meat/fish

Probs £500ish immediately.

FFS

The rest of the litter is gone so I assumed it was fine but now I'm worried so I'll go check a few things. I thought I was clued in other than the brand of food to buy but very obviously I'm not! Thanks for all replies. I will update when I know more.

6 weeks is too young, they will barely be on solid food by then.

Six weeks old? Where's it's mum. We didn't get our kittens until 14 weeks (they were ready for rehoming at 12). Apart from being too soon to be separated from their mum, the extra time allows for litter tray training and being socialised.

Hi Op as others have said 6 weeks is far too young to be taken from mum are they even fully weened yet.
They should ideally be with mum until 12 weeks for the best possible start in their life they can go at 8 weeks but 12 is much better. Mum teaches them most of their social skills it benefits you and your family to have healthy well rounded kittens as well as the kittens.
They should also have had a health check by vets fist along with wormer treatment/flea treatment.

you will need plenty of toys and scratch posts for them be prepared at that age to have them chew and scratch everything. Do you have a room that is safe to keep them in over night? If not I can highly recommend a pet pen for night time where you can place them along with food and water and litter tray and beds again these are on Amazon for the very big sizes B&m do them but they are small ok for a one off emergency night but going forward would need a large size plenty of space and room for them to move around.
I have three cats 5 year old and two 4 month old kittens.
List of what you will need
Litter trays x 3
Litter what they are using at moment
food what they are on both dry and wet
I would suggest a water fountain for them stainless steel if possible but as you are getting these sooner can pick up plastic one from pets at home until you can get stainless steel it’s more hygienic and less risk of bacteria fountains also encourage them to drink more water.
Again ceramic or stainless steel food bowls.
Bed/Beds for them.

If you have the space I would highly recommend a cat tower so that they have climbing and high place to sleep you can purchase these off amazon at better prices than pets at home.

You are going to need pet insurance for them as soon as you get them as well as registering them at your local vets and getting them seen as soon as for a health check and booking them in for vaccinations.

6 weeks is far too young. Please don't encourage irresponsible breeding. Go to a rescue where they will match you with the right kittens and will give proper advice.

Several of our cats came to us at 6 weeks old, not ideal, but they have been wonderful happy calm cats, and lived to be 20 and 24.

I agree you are looking at spending at least £500 before you have the kittens to get them set up.

I have spent that easily in the months preparing for our twos arrival.
cat carriers
toys
beds
extra litter trays
scratching tower so that all three could have a place to snooze and play.
various toys
high quality food
grooming products

We had the health checked with our vets as soon as we had them.
They had already had two sets of vaccinations, microchipped flea and worm treated and had a health check but we wanted them checked over again.
They had their third vaccinations last week and are due for spaying and neutering next month.
So the vets have cost will cost us £400 in less than a month for that so just under £1000 we have spent preparing for them to arrive and for the extra care they need to help keep them happy and healthy.

Impulsively taking on (buying?) 2 kittens who are too young to leave their mum, from a random backyard "breeder", presumably with no health checks, and who certainly won't be providing any good advice on taking care of such young kittens, is not a sensible or ethical decision.

No but if the op looks after them and loves and nurtures them their fate could be far worse. The op is not an experienced cat owner, that doesn't mean she will be a bad one. That trophy is for the idiot breeder.

Every single person who buys kittens from unscrupulous "breeders" is encouraging unscrupulous breeding though.

It's the same with puppy farms, they won't stop breeding until people stop buying.

It's not like there's a shortage of kittens and cats, rescues will be inundated as soon as kitten season starts.

Six weeks is way way too young. We got our youngest at that age as he was rejected by his mum and found abandoned in a bush - he was tiny and needed lots of socialising and close monitoring for a good few weeks.

I agree with everyone else, please don’t take them at 6 weeks. Tell the person you’re getting them from that they need at least two more weeks with their mum. When I was googling kitten care, US websites suggested 12 weeks is when they should be taken from their mum.

Regarding their care, we found 4 stray kittens this year. I just bought kitten food, litter tray, litter and cat carrier and took it from there. They can’t go outside until they’re a bit bigger and have had their vaccinations. They played with things I already had in the house, boxes, shoelaces, etc, and obviously they play together. I had fairy lights up and one chewed right through them, luckily they were off at the time. Apart from that they were mischievous and lovely but not dangerous and after that I ‘kitten-proofed.’ . They used the cat litter tray as soon as I got it, although at 6 weeks they probably won’t. I hope you leave it a few more weeks.

@Teenmam any update Op

Could you explain the back story, OP? Why are these people handing over tiny kittens - could they not be bothered to spay their cat? Did a stray give birth in their garden?

Aw those poor little babies. 6 weeks is just tiny! Try to leave them longer if you can.

Ask what food and litter they currently use and buy that you want them to have as much familiarity as possible. You only need one carrier for now and take them in there together.

I would ensure there’s lots of places to hide. Try and get a cat bed that’s like a little cave and as small as possible- they will feel save in there together.

Many have said cat towers but our little ones were too scared to climb when they were 8 weeks old so you don’t need anything crazy.

Ceramic food bowls if you can (plastic always ends up giving them acne later down the line). At least 2 litter trays, ideally 3 but ours have always got on well with 2.

Hi, sorry I meant to update. Got 2 kittens yesterday. They are 9 weeks old not 6, phew! A friend knew I was thinking about cats and offered his kittens. They were the last of the litter, all the rest had been given away, so I assumed all was fine. Naive on my part. Anyway they are here and are doing ok I think. Using the litter trays well. They were eating dry cat food so I got them kitten food and they're eating that and drinking plenty of water. Confined to one room and are tentatively exploring and playing with each other. Cuddling up together on their cat beds. Hissing a bit if we go too close so we are just sitting quietly near them for now. We really want to do this properly so any advice is welcome. I will ring the vet this morning and get them booked in. I'd like to take them into another room but there are extension leads/ wifi boxes etc on the floor that can't really be moved so any advice there would be welcome. We had them in that room for a few minutes yesterday but one kitty kept sitting on the extension lead.

9 weeks is better but 3 months is the ideal minimum - I really hope your friend is going to do the responsible thing now & get the mum spayed. Anything else is irresponsible & wrong.

It sounds like you’re doing well so far. Can you cover the leads with something if you can’t move them? When I was fostering a kitten who was a bit too interested in leads I covered them with double sided sticky tape that made them less attractive.

My tip on getting them into carriers is, if possible, have the carriers out all the time & put treats in them regularly so the kittens get used to going into them voluntarily.

Hi Op,
At night Time I would highly recommend keeping them in a room where there’s no cables or spaces they can get into and get stuck or use as hiding where you can’t get them back out again.
If you don’t have any room that is safe for over night I highly recommend a pet pen as previously mentioned you can buy these on Amazon but you will want the biggest size possible to allow for space bedding food/water and litter tray and movement for them when all that’s in there. It’s been great with our two kittens they have access to all of downstairs during the day time when we are all up and able to supervise them.
Another month or so and they should be big enough to be left like our older cat is he is happy always sleeping on the landing in his bed when we all go to sleep, although he does like to come in to our bed occasionally.
I would look to introduce them to wet food as well as sticking with dry food.
You can get good quality cat food from pets at home or online zooplus but personally it’s easier if you can buy it in a shop as opposed to ordering online and waiting/relying on delivery.
As a previous poster mentioned felliaway plug in is worth getting.

Make sure that they don’t have access to certain plants and foods that are toxic to cats
lillies deadly
chocolate
grapes
onions etc you can get the full list of stuff that’s toxic online same with cleaning products candles and plugins.

The vet will be able to give you good advice as well glad that they aren’t 6 weeks old.
333 cat rule look it up online it’s explains how long it takes them to settle and adjust so that’s normal although my two didn’t hiss at us and our little boy was more confident every cat is different. All the best Op 😊

I got them wet kitten food which they seem to love and are not touching the dry food, but omg it's expensive! I have them in the kitchen atm which is very safe, just have behind the fridge blocked with towels for now. They are coming closer to us this morning so that's good.