new cat or kitten advice (merged)

clairewp

hi all so excited getting 2 kittens soon (born weds) well quite soon for my children well ok and me my question is we live in quite i quiet area but have several cats and foxes around and am just wondering should we bring them in at night when they are old enough.

Tortieshell

I personally would let the cats decide! Theres nothing worse not sleeping because they are going nuts wanting to go out and play!

KILL_BILL

pleiades wrote: »

Hi this is my first post but feel i must help out with your kitten problem.

My kitten was manic when he was little and especially used to love attacking my feet in bed! there's no need to worry, it's perfectly normal - it's just them playing and learning how to attackfor the future.

blowing in their face is definately a good one and something that worked for me is getting an empty bottle of window cleaner or something, filling it with water, and spraying it in their face.

every time they bite your hands just pick them up by the scruff of the neck and put them on the floor. the kitten will grow out of this behaviour anyway...

Handling
Contrary to popular belief, it is quite wrong to pick up a cat or kitten by the scruff of his neck; this can damage the muscles. Hold the cat or kitten with one hand under the chest and with the rest of his weight supported by your other hand. Kittens particularly must be handled gently as their bones are fragile.

Racklen

when we had kittens to be stern we would also grip the backs of their necks (NOT HARD OR TIGHT & NOT TO SUSPEND THEM) just a gentle way as their mothers would pick them up that way and they never liked it and it ment you could use your stern voice infront of it with out it running off even more excited in play mode , just dont over do doing it but they have a scruff at the the back of their necks which doesnt hurt them if your not too rough

clairewp

Tortieshell wrote: »

I personally would let the cats decide! Theres nothing worse not sleeping because they are going nuts wanting to go out and play!

Thanks for that didn't really think of that
claire

tankgirl1

personally i would always get them in at night. i have always done so with my cats, and the one time i didnt, my tortie girl never came home again - still don't know what happened to her

i think that was just bad luck though. to be honest most cats are probably fine out at night, but i would worry if i didnt have them in. none of mine have ever caused problems, and kept me awake- they just seem to accept that they come in at night and thats that.

milkydrink

Ted has a curfew, I try & get him in before dark. I think thats when all the trouble (cat fights) starts.

The CPL always advise you to keep them in at night.

xLolahx

I like my cats to come in at night, but I have a hard job trying to get them in.

milkydrink

I rattle the tube of "Good Girl" catnip (I buy a good few tubes when they bring them out every xmas, if I buy the small bags I have to put them in the tube otherwise he won't eat them, LOL), he comes running for his sweets/drugs!!!

duchy

I have a cat-flap-they decide. They are always home for breakfast
Our new kitten will be interesting though-he hasn't worked out the cat flap yet-if he works it out whilst still too young I'll be setting it on "in only" for a while. (Had to do this once before when one of my two (kitten makes three) was recovering from a fight with a fence-the fence won)