new cat or kitten advice (merged)

emslondon

With any luck he should be used to the litter tray already - we have never had any problems with this. Just make sure there are plenty around (one on each floor at least) while he is little.

Is there no way you could get two kittens? They do entertain each other brilliantly and you feel less bad leaving them alone all day.

One thing to think about is who might be able to feed him when you go away. We managed to find a neighbour with cats and we feed each others' cats when we are away.

lucielle

emslondon we have a dog, the kitten is with a family who has dogs so he should be used to them, so he won't be on his own. Neighbours will look after them whilst we are away.

katie1

This is our second week with our knew kitten , she is very good goes to the litter tray etc.... but the only thing i can advice is put the litter tray where you don't mind the litter being tossed out lol. our kitten kicks most off it out before she has a poo. I had it in one place but the stones was ending up every where so i have now moved it where nobody can walk them through the other rooms off there shoes .

P.s I have given up with the litter bags for the bottom of the tray she just make holes in it and digs it away to go toilet under it .

emslondon

Ooh, the other thing is to remember he will need specific kitten food. Luckily mine prefer Sainsbury's own brand kitten food to Whiskas!

Jet

I have a cat who decided to move in with us about 4 years ago. :rolleyes:

She belonged to a lady across the road who rescued cats - she had quite a few cats she was looking after and quite often found that they moved out and moved in with a neighbour! She was quite happy for us to have her and she's been very content with us since. She originally came from an old lady who had died. The vet aged her by looking at her teeth and I think she's probably around 11 years or 12 years old now.

She's a lovely cat and will make friends with anyone but does have a tendency to scratch and bite if she doesn't like the way someone strokes her. :rolleyes: She's incredibly lazy and has a striking resemblance to Garfield. :rotfl:

I would really love to have another cat, but don't want to upset the old lady. She's not very tolerant of other cats who try and help themselves to her food and has a hate for one of her ex housemates! She turns into a psycho when she sees her.

How do I know if she would accept another cat before I get one?

lady_stardust

That's a hard one. Sometimes elderly cats are very motherly towards kittens, others can't abide them. I think the latter is more likely to be the case as kittens idolise older cats and can get a bit too boisterous with them so if your old lady is a bit fractious anyway she probably won't like it.

She might accept a fellow old lady though - would you consider an elderly rescue cat?

Jet

lady_stardust wrote: »

She might accept a fellow old lady though - would you consider an elderly rescue cat?

Actually, I think I would prefer an older cat anyway, just wondered if a kitten might be less of a threat?

dexters_mum_2

We used to have 2 old cats but one sadly died, the remaining puss pined terribly and in haste, we got a kitten.

For a few days old boy wouldn't so much as look at me, however the kitten latched onto old boy and followed him everywhere.

One day, about a week later, we found the old cat and kitten snuggled up on the spare room bed, kitten was fast asleep and old cat was washing him.

Later, an odler cat adopted us, we found him in the garden and despite putting up notices etc, we don't know where he came from or what, he wasn't chipped. So we let him inside, we found out he was about 5 and he got on like a house on fire with the older cat and the kitten.

At this moment in time old boy and the 5 year old are cuddled up to one another and the kitten, who is now 3 is sat next to them.

ms.prong

dexters_mum wrote: »

One day, about a week later, we found the old cat and kitten snuggled up on the spare room bed, kitten was fast asleep and old cat was washing him.

.

Same thing happened to me, our first cat was a year old, then we got a kitten. She hated him at first then about a week later we found them cuddled up washing each other. They are best of friends now.

I think cats are always a bit funny about change. The kitten got run over recently and was in the vets for a about a week. When we brought him home the older cat hated him again. It took about a week for things to get back to normal.

I was once told that it is better to have a male and a female rather than 2 of the same sex...not sure how true this is but seems to have worked for us.

ms.prong

When you get your kitten try and feed it the same brand of food that it has previously been used to then gradually introduce the food that you want to feed it, this way you can hopefully avoid any upset tummys as their little bellies are really sensitive.