Kitten Care: Kitten-Proofing Your Home

Kitten-Proofing Your Home

Getting a new kitten is a joyful experience. Having a new kitten bouncing and playing around your home can be so much fun. Caring for a new kitten can help your children learn responsibility and respect for other creatures.

However, you want to make sure that your new kitten will have a safe experience in your home — remember they are just little babies. They are also full of curiosity and an amazing ability to get into things you never thought they could.

Here are a few videos about kittens:

First is about kitten-proofing your home. It is a short video but it is full of very good advice — things that we might never think about, but will need to with a new kitten coming into our house.

The second video is just a sweet little video about having kittens in your house. Like little baby people, little baby cats need a lot of sleep and some of them just don’t want to admit they they need to go to bed. Watching this one little kitten struggle to stay up while his brothers and sisters play around him is a treat I wanted to share. This was obviously made by a very loving kitty mama:

Cat Product Review: Kitty Starter Condo Package

Kitty Starter Combo Package

Are you getting a new kitty?

Kitty Condo Starter Package

Great! However, when you get a new kitty, you need to get the kitty the things he will need — food and food bowls, litter box and litter, kitty toys, etc.

One thing your kitty will need is some kitty furniture. Little kitties love to climb around, play, jump, and scratch — a lot. One of the ways to keep your kitty happy is to get a kitty condo. That way, your new feline baby will have a place to play, jump, and scratch, and also have a nice snug hideaway for catnaps.

Getting cat furniture when you get a cat is always a very good idea. Cats will always want to scratch and pull claws — it is part of their nature. It is healthy and feels good. If you don’t want your cat to start scratching your furniture, introducing your new kitty to its own kitty furniture is an excellent way to start protecting your own furniture. Let your kitty know where you want him or her to be scratching — it will make you and your kitty both very happy.

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Start our life with your new kitty out with fun for everyone!

Kitten Care: Finding a Lost Kitten

Kitten Care: Kitten

A few weeks ago, my neighbors knocked on my door at night on a dark and stormy night. They had heard a kitten crying out in the rain and brought it into their garage. However, they had never been around cats and didn’t know what to do. Since they knew I owned a cat, they asked me to come over.

I ran over with a towel and a small bowl of my cat’s food. The poor little thing was so frightened and wet. I picked her up in the towel and examined her. She looked healthy and in good shape, just soaked and scared. When I set her down by the bowl of food, she immediately started eating.

They asked me if I wanted her, as they were allergic to cats and did not want to even touch her. I told them that I regretted that I couldn’t bring her home, as my cat and I have lived together for years, and, as she is the Queen of the household, I did not think bringing in another cat would sit well with her.

I gave them an old cat carrier I had, and put the kitty in it, and they took her to the Humane Society.

That was good and kind of them, but I was left with the question. What was the best course? Taking it to the Humane Society could get her adopted or could get her euthanized. On the other hand, she seemed healthy. Perhaps she already had a microchip that they could read and contact her owners, who might be frantic trying to find their little kitty.

After thinking about it, I decided that I should have taken her home and kept her in my garage with some food and water and a spare litter box overnight. Then, I could have taken her to my vet, who could check for a microchip and given her an exam for fleas. If she did not have a microchip, she might need rabies shots, deworming, or other tests.

Then, I could have taken her home, put an ad in the paper for a Found Cat, put up fliers in our neighborhood, and contacted Pet 911 listing a Found Cat.

Deciding what to do with a found kitten is a hard decision and I will always wonder if I did the right thing. Everyone has to decide for themselves. However, I do know that the worst decision would have been to leave her out in the cold dark rain. Those of us who love cats know that we don’t just love the ones we have in our homes and our hearts, but all the little furry ones.

Kitten Care: 8th Week to 12th Week

Kitten Care: Stages of Growth

8th week to 12th week

Cute kittens at 9 weeks old

Your kittens will be much more active and playing with each other and with new toys. Kittens love new toys. When my cat was a kitten, I bought the little plastic balls with jingle bells inside. I’d be asleep in the middle of the night and suddenly hear the “jingle ball” flying around the kitchen like a ping pong game. At least I knew she was happy.

By 12 weeks your kittens should have their first shots. If you got your kitten from the Humane Society, like I did, they may need to be dewormed, get their ears cleaned out from ear mites, etc. At 12 weeks, kittens can leave their mother and go to a new home. Unfortunately, my kitty was abandoned at the shelter at 7 weeks, much too young.

Cats are full-grown and mature at about 2 years of age, but the first 12 weeks are the most important and obvious stages of development.

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Kitten Care: Growth Stages 8th Day to 8th Week

Kitten Care: Stages of Growth

8th Day to 4th Week:

A handful of cute kittens

During the 8th to 11th day, the kittens eyes will first open, but their vision will be blurry. Their first teeth will appear. Their ears are not yet fully opened. They may begin slight crawling, but are still very helpless and need to stay close to the mother cat. This is a good time to begin picking them up and holding them for a short time, if the mother allows it. The sooner kittens become accustomed to humans, the more socialized they will be.

After 12 days, the kittens will begin crawling around. Their vision is developing, although it is still blurry.

They will begin clumsy play with their littermates.

Two week old kittens

At first, kittens cannot walk, but crawl along on their bellies. After a while, they will start clumsy walking, but you will find that when they first start to walk, they hold their tails straight up. They need to coordinate their legs before they can coordinate the tail with them, too!

4th to 8th Week:

Four Week Old Kitten

As soon as the kittens can climb out of their nest, they will need their own litterbox. You will have to watch to make sure they don’t try to eat the litter.

At 4 weeks, you can add some mushy soft food to their diet, supplementing mom’s milk. Kittens seems to like baby cereal with milk. It’s too early yet to move to kitty food.

Keep a watch on them along with their mother, to keep their play area safe.

Kitten Playmates

At 8 weeks, their teeth come in. Now is a good time to be playing with them, socializing them to humans and also introducing them to scratching posts, so that they grow up knowing to pull their claws on “their” furniture and not yours. Speaking from experience, my kitten was born loving to chew on electrical cords. I am amazed that she didn’t electrocute herself. With their new teeth and love of biting and chewing, this can be a very important thing to keep an eye on.

Below is a short video on playing with little kittens. They love to wrestle and play with their brothers and sisters. Adding a human touch helps them to be accustomed to being handled by people and learning that it is fun (play!), feels good (tickle the tummy!), and not dangerous (No Hurts!).