All about your
Kitten care
Congratulations
On the arrival of your lovely new kitten!
Whether this is your first cat or the latest in a long line, you will hopefully find some of this information useful.
Vaccinations
We recommend vaccination against cat flu, feline enteritis, and feline leukemia virus when your kitten is eight to nine weeks old, with a second dose at 12 weeks old.
Full immunity develops two weeks after the second vaccination so your kitten should certainly be kept indoors until then. However, many owners will want to keep their kittens in until they are six months old so that they can be neutered first and will be less vulnerable when they first venture out.
We recommend you feed kitten food to start with, three to four times daily, reducing gradually to two meals a day at six months old.
It is common to feed dry food ad lib to cats which is fine to do as many cats won’t eat more than they need.
There are some cats, however, that will overeat so they may require you to offer a measured quantity of food each day. You should progress onto adult food at the age recommended by the manufacturer.
Insurance
We recommend that you consider pet insurance for your new kitten and it is ideal to take out insurance as soon as you get them home. If your kitten is unwell the last thing you want to worry about is how to pay for treatment.
We can link you up with an insurance company to provide a free month of cover to get you started.
Socialisation
Most of the socialisation window will have been at the breeder’s home, but it is important to continue socialisation of your kitten at home.
We recommend getting your kitten used to as many different experiences as possible and make sure that they are pleasurable so that your kitten does not become nervous.
Try and handle your kitten by touching them all over and gently picking them up for up to an hour a day, to get them used to being handled. Try and get your kitten used to being handled by at least four different people at this stage.
Discourage games that involve undesirable behaviour such as chasing fingers, as this may escalate when older.
Worming
We recommend that you worm your kitten every month until they are six months old and then at least every three months after that. Round and tapeworm treatment is recommended.
Remember tapeworms are often spread via fleas so if seen your cat needs to be treated against fleas too.
Toilet Training
Make sure your kitten’s litter tray is in a quiet part of the house and away from food and water bowls.
Neutering
Both male and female cats can be neutered from four months old. It is important to neuter females by five and a half months old if you want to avoid them getting pregnant.
Microchipping
We recommend every cat is microchipped as even an indoor cat can escape.
This can be done at vaccination, neutering or any other time that is convenient, but should be done before your kitten starts going out.