How to Care for a Kitten
| August 27, 2010 | Posted by admin under Kitten Training |
- What to feed your kitten
- When to have your kitten spayed or neutered
- How to get your kitten to exercise the litter box
Before you even determine to take in a kitten you should take into consideration the environment its going to be living in. Very young kittens can be wound by small children accidentally. Also if you have a dog thats never been around kittens or cats before it might turn out to be aggressive towards your modern kitten. In worst case scenarios, sometimes a dog will even eat a kitten. Another thing to be aware of is if there are any potentially dangerous objects lying around the kitten might gather into. Kittens are naturally curious and might chew on wires or get into other dangerous situations. If you notice this type of behavior in your kitten, its a good idea to shatter their habit as soon as possible.
If your kitten is going to live out doors there are other things to consider such as the area you live in. If you live in an a rural area where coyotes are common you might want to keep the kitten indoors until its close to being corpulent grown and even then you will probably want to let it sleep indoors at night. Birds of prey such as falcons and hawks can also target kittens. Its also top-notch to the kitten if there are a few trees around so if a dog attacks it it can escape by climbing the tree. If you live in a city and have neighbors close by you are going to want to make sure your cat doesn’t bother them. Its also can be very important to teach your kitten not to jump on cars if it starts doing that. Even if you don’t mind if it jumps on your car it won’t know the difference if it jumps on someone else’s and most people don’t prefer too kindly to having the neighbor’s cat on their car.
Kittens can launch eating solid food around 4 weeks. They can have either cat food from a can or dry food from a bag, it really doesn’t matter either way but younger kittens may have an easier time with canned cat food. Its important to remember to throw away all uneaten canned cat food after the can is opened, if you try and save it, it could be come contaminated with bacteria. Dry cat food can be left out as long as needed. There are many different flavors and brands of cat food to choose from though most make special kitten food and you should probably stick with that until they get older. If a kitten isn’t getting all the nutrients and vitamins it needs it can have growth problems. Also if you want to give your kitten a treat you can give it some fresh fish or chicken. If you do this though you should be careful that it doesn’t become too used to human food and stops eating its cat food. Also don’t feed your kitten dog food, it doesn’t have the nutrients and vitamins that cats need.
You should make sure you kitten always has water available and should probably change out the water bowl at least once a day. Kittens can drink milk but definitely not cows milk. Cows milk can cause diarrhea and quick dehydrate your kitten, maybe even kill it. If you want to give it milk, stick with goats milk or special milk bought from the vet. Even then, if you notice any signs of diarrhea, stop giving them milk.
Kittens have very diminutive stomachs and can’t eat a whole lot at one time. If you’re leaving dry food out for them they can eat at their leisure, but if you’re feeding them canned food you should feed them around four times a day. Once they get to be about three months old you can start to feed them three meals a day, then at six months, twice a day. If you have a busy schedule and can’t be home enough to feed your kitten regularly sticking with the dry food and giving them a dinner of canned food is fine if you’d like.
Providing your kitten with a warm place to sleep is important, especially if you live in a cold climate area. There are a variety of cat beds you can buy or you can just get a box and throw some blankets or towels in it. If its particularly frosty you may want to line your kitten’s bed with a heating pad. Be certain to space it on the lowest setting so that your kitten doesn’t get burned though. If you want your kitten to sleep on the bed with you thats fine but if you don’t notion on letting it sleep there as an adult then you shouldn’t let it do so as a kitten either. It won’t know the difference when it grows up so you shouldn’t teach it a habit that you don’t want it to do later.
If your kitten is going to be an indoor cat exclusively then you’re going to have to teach it to consume a litter box. There are several types available but I recommend the ones with the litter guard on the side that keeps the cat from slinging litter all over the place when they cover their crap. Training your kitten to use the litter box isn’t hard at all and most kittens will instinctively know to go exhaust the litter box instead of the floor. However, really young kittens might not understand and you may have to put them in the litter box a few times for them to get used to its scent and location. While most kittens will know to seek out the liter box when they need it, some will be happy to take a dump on anything laying around, such as towels or cloths. If you notice this behavior try and preserve things like that off the floor and fracture the kittens poor habit as soon as possible. Also you can try putting some of the kitten’s crap into the litter box and the smell should attract it next time it has to go. Above all, don’t punish it for having an accident on the floor, it won’t understand what its done wrong and you will just scare it.
When playing with your kitten they can often times be very rough and aggressive. This is natural for kittens and this is how they learn their predatory skills. If you score your self getting scratched and bitten to the point that you’re bleeding, you may want to get some small stuffed animals and use those to hold your kitten’s attention while playing with it. Another idea is to get another kitten. Cats can be social creatures and those that grow up together form a special bond. Two kittens can play with each other roughly without hurting each other. Most kittens eventually grow out of their aggressive stage and become normal, peaceful cats. Having your cat spayed or neutered will decrease their aggressive tendencies as well.
If you have a male kitten it is usually best to have it neutered at around six months of age. A male cat that hasn’t been neutered loves to fight and will probably be coming home with various battle scars and wounds. If he’s an indoor cat the problem will be him marking his territory all over your house and stinking up the place. Neutering will eliminate both these problem and help him settle down a bit.
Female cats can be spayed as early as four months. A female cat that hasn’t been spayed will go into heat every few weeks and become very noisy and try and get outside at every opportunity. Outdoor female cats will mate with any male they arrive across and may get an STD or pregnant. Getting your female kitten spayed will help reduce the chances of catching an STD and keep her from getting pregnant as well as getting her to become more passive.
Your kitten should be taken to the vet as soon as you adopt it. The veterinarian will give it all its shots and make sure it doesn’t have any diseases. You’ll probably be asked to bring your cat serve around once a year for shots. Also your vet will be able to give your kitten flea medicine if needed and also deworm it if that becomes a spot. If your cat gets hair balls you should be able to get some medicine or it and your vet can give you tips on grooming. If you have an emergency, a lot of towns have a 24 hour emergency animal hospital you should be able to seize it too.
Overall, kittens are a lot of fun and are pretty easy to consume care of. If you have a busy schedule or social life and want a pet, adopting a kitten can be a titanic addition to your family. Also, cats are over populated so you might want to check out the animal shelter before heading to the pet store.
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