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Taking home your new kitten

Taking home your new kitten

Taking home your new kitten

Advice

Taking home your new kitten

There is nothing more exciting than bringing home tiny bundles of fur! They are beyond adorable, ridiculously cute, and all you want to do is smush them all day long.

However, kittens are also a big responsibility. They are babies, and like human babies they need a lot of nurturing. Their safety and wellbeing is of the utmost importance.

đŸ˜» Remember they are only little at 10 weeks old.

Preparing Your Home

These gorgeous little fur balls will be into everything and anything and could get stuck in all kinds of places, so here are a few steps to kitten proof your home.

Hiding places

These little munchkins can fit into unbelievably small spaces, and will find all the hiding spots where they absolutely shouldn’t be and that you will struggle to find. So before they do their best Houdini impression and give you a cardiac arrest, blocking up and securing all hiding points is vital.

Behind washing machines, skirting in your kitchen, down the sides of appliances: absolutely everywhere they could use to win the world’s most stressful game of hide and seek!

Windows

All windows must be locked and kept shut at all times. Kittens will squeeze through a window even if it’s open just the tiniest crack, or if it’s just pulled shut but not latched. No window is safe, even a skylight, no matter how high.

Doors

It takes a split second for a kitten to escape through a door, so having a system in place will ensure their safety. Believe us, they are ridiculously quick and utterly fearless. If you have a double door system and can create an ”air-lock” that’s great. You could also add a layer of protection by using a door fly screen - but only one with a zip, not one with magnets.

Also, believe it or not kittens have managed to get out of letter boxes. They’ve got tiny lockpicks on each paw after all!

Cat flaps

If you have a cat flap in your home already, tape it up with heavy duty tape. We honestly can’t stress this enough. Tape, tape and tape some more. They use their tiny claws to open the flap at the bottom and off they go. Blocking it up will not work and your kitten will find a way out.

If you don’t have a cat flap but would like to install one, we highly recommend installing one only once your kittens are ready to go out and have been fully vaccinated, microchipped and neutered.

Happy pheromones

Feliway is a spray or plug-in that delivers “happy” pheromones around your home. It’s designed to help animals relax and feel calm. There is a specific one for kittens. Plugging in one or two around your home will relax and chill the animals in your home, including your new arrival.

Plants and flowers

Please ensure that all the plants and flowers in your home are definitely cat safe. Better to check and be safe than possibly very very sorry.

For the record, lilies are absolutely lethal to cats. They don’t even need to eat them – just physical contact can make them seriously ill
or worse.

Remember kittens are bouncy so any flowers and plants are at risk of being knocked over. Ensure they are somewhere safe and not in a breakable vase as this could cause serious harm to your kitten.

Food

Be careful that you don’t leave anything around that will get examined, mouthed and possibly eaten by a curious kitty. Some foods are toxic to cats so we would strongly suggest not feeding them table scraps as they may contain toxic ingredients. Check first before giving human food to your kitty.

Some of the foodstuffs most toxic to cats include:

  • onions
  • garlic
  • raw eggs
  • milk and dairy products*
  • chocolate
  • grapes, raisins and sultanas
  • alcohol
  • dog food

*Cats might like the taste of milk, but most cats are lactose intolerant as they lack the enzyme lactase needed to digest lactose. Giving them milk or dairy products can result in bloating, diarrhoea and vomiting. Bad in a cat – potentially fatal in a kitten.  

Breakables

Batten down the hatches for anything that can move. Kittens will jump onto any surface. Make sure all precious and breakable items are hidden away and help ensure kitty is safe from accidents and  injuries.

Shelves

Kittens like to climb and they love to jump. Anything that they can jump onto, they will. Book shelves, cupboards, kitchen units


Please make sure everything that can move is moved.

Hot surfaces

We highly recommend not allowing kittens in the kitchen whilst you are cooking or just after. Whilst they would very much like to come and “help“, it just takes a spilt second for those hot surface to cause horrific injuries to their toe beans.

It’s not worth taking the risk.

Picking up your kitten

Whilst we understand that the humans are excited to get “handsy” with their new bundles of joy, this is a very big time for such tiny baby beans. This will be the first time that they are leaving the safety and security of mum and siblings, and it will be scary, daunting and frightening for them.

Please bear that in mind and try to keep the picking up to a minimum. Staying calm and making no loud noises will help too.

Cat carrier

It’s highly recommend that you make it as comfortable as possible with lots of furry blankets so they have somewhere to snuggle into if they are scared. It’s also an idea to spray a suitable Feliway calming spray onto the blanket.

If you can sleep on the blanket that you will use to bring home the kitten, it will be covered in your pheromones. Hopefully they will transfer onto your new kitten making the bonding process much easier.

Please see our guide on cat carriers

Travelling home

Strap them in the back of the car. Ensure someone is sitting with them who can constantly reassure them and keep them calm. Always use positive reinforcement “it’s ok” “you're such a good bean” etc. 

Safe room

Put baby bean in what we like to call a safe room. No - not one you run to if there's an intruder - just a nice calm and quite room where they can slowly adjust, adapt and decompress.

Whilst they are very little, it’s important that you keep them with you, so your bedroom would be the best safe room, especially at nighttime. You wouldn’t leave a new human baby on its own!

Please ensure that’s it’s kitted out with everything they will need.

  • food wet and dry
  • water
  • litter trays
  • beds, blankets
  • hiding places
  • lots of toys

Odds are they will immediately try to find somewhere to hide, so if you can manage to make a hiding spot, tent or den for them to feel safe and secure this will help immensely.

Spending time with your cat in the safe room

We recommend that whilst bean is decompressing and finding it's paws that you go and spend as much time time as possible in the safe room with them. A kitten shouldn’t be left alone for long periods. Letting bean come to you is key and vital for a positive experience. It’s a big scary world when you are dinky.

Sitting quietly and letting bean know you are there will help them relax. Always use positive reinforcement (“such a good bean”)and take it at their pace.

It might take baby bean a few days before they even come and say hello. This is totally normal. It’s also normal that kitty might not use the loo or eat for a few days so please don’t panic, but it’s worth keeping note. Kittens do adjust more quickly.

You could try enticing kitty out with things they can’t resist like Dreamies, and of course the king of all bribes Lick-e-lix.

All kittens are different and have different speeds of doing things. Some will come on quickly and some may take a few weeks just to feel comfortable in their safe rooms, especially if they are naturally scared, timed or extremely frightened.

Kittens are nocturnal and will play at night. This is normal behaviour and may carry on for many months.

Whilst we understand that some people are light sleepers and bean might keep you awake, leaving a kitten on its own will have a negative impact on its mental wellbeing and it could become depressed and even more destructive.

Once bean has reach 4+ months and it’s not such a tiny bean, having it in a different room at night will be ok. Hopefully your kitten is now happily getting on with the other animals in your home so they will utilise them for help and support moving forward.

Your kitten should also now have the layout of the house down and is feeling more comfortable and settled in their new environment, so giving it more access to your home at night as long as it’s safe means you can catch up on that all important sleep.

Just remember when you are sleep deprived - a kitten's mental and physical wellbeing is of top priority.

...it is easy to forget how mischevious they are. 

Could you be a cat's forever human?

If you think you might be able to offer a cat their forever home, please fill out the adoption form and one of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you so much,

The Catitude Rescue TeamÂ