So my son and daughter compromised on having a kitten as a pet.
This kitten has been in our house for just a week and everybody has fallen in love with him.
He seems to be friendly too.
if you own a cat as a pet do you want to share some tips?
Re: Cat as a pet.
i don't have one but one tip i can readily give:
have your cat neutered/spayed/castrated and have his vaccinations up-to-date. also take him to vets every month for cleaning and check for bugs.
Re: Cat as a pet.
i don't have one but one tip i can readily give:
have your cat neutered/spayed/castrated and have his vaccinations up-to-date. also take him to vets every month for cleaning and check for bugs.
We adopted him from an animal shelter so they have educated us about those things I am looking for some advice from cat owners.
Re: Cat as a pet.
We adopted him from an animal shelter so they have educated us about those things I am looking for some advice from cat owners.
oh ok...enjoy your furry friend. :)
Re: Cat as a pet.
Do you intend to keep it as an indoor permit or an outdoor one? Different set of rules for either although longevity decreases incase if outdoor ones.
Re: Cat as a pet.
Most people are advising to keep it indoor cat. He is two months old.
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Re: Cat as a pet.
Keeping cats indoors - Environment - Cats
Will be better as indoors because I’ve had one cat stolen and another run over by the neighbour’s car. You’ll just have to keep them entertained and litterbox trained.
Re: Cat as a pet.
that means theyll never make babies??? (indoor cats i mean)
Re: Cat as a pet.
For that the Cat would need a Catrina.
Re: Cat as a pet.
This may sound like a silly suggestion, but watch a few episodes of "My Cat from Hell" hosted by Jackson Galaxy. He's a sort of a cat expert, and the show teaches you a lot of tips of how to deal with cats with all kinds of behaviour and age. Since your kitten is only 2 months right now, you can establish a lot of "rules" and behaviour with her. But since she's a kitten she will need loads of play to tire her out and get her exercise. Buy plenty of toys for her, and play, play and play. Keep the cat an indoor cat, they stay safer and healthier this way.
Re: Cat as a pet.
awww lucky guys.. cats are soo much fun.. i have had a few.. and was in love with them all.. to begin with u will need to toilet train the cat.. try to find a place in your house thats accessible for the cat yet not around where the people are as cat litter can smell. make sure to clean it out daily or more and use liter with baking soda, that helps.. also i know this sounds cruel but if u are sure that u want to keep the cat inside, get it declawed. its not advisable if the cat is allowed outside coz then he cant defend himself but if u are keeping him inside declawing would save ur furniture. also get him a scratching post and make a little climbing area as cats love to climb up and sit on top of things... preferably high or warm (cats love to sit on a laptop for the same reason)...also one thing that might help is to find a cat boarder or pet sitter while u have time.. the biggest problem with pets is that its hard to travel with them.. if u have some one picked out earlier , u wont have to worry when u have to leave the lil guy behind.
enjoy ur kitty, he should be a ball of energy, they dont stay like that long:D
Re: Cat as a pet.
All very good advise, except for the declawing. Do not ever declaw your cat. That’s absolutely inhumane. Declawing is jus cutting off the first joint of the toes, and everyone saws that after the cat is declawed their personalities change.
Instead of declawing, look into Soft Paws. You can either get them put on by the vet, or you can do it yourself. Plus they come in so many pretty colors!
Re: Cat as a pet.
Geat advise by every one , special thanks to EM for info. about soft paws. Going to local store to checkout if they stock them.
Re: Cat as a pet.
I'm not a cat person or a pet person for that matter but I live with my in-laws and they have a cat so I have no choice but to co-habit with one.
One tip to keep in mind, if you let him outside and he eats grass, be prepared for him to puke up some hair balls. You may find puke and hair balls on your carpet, sofa etc. Usually before the cat will puke it makes a noise or cries so this is your cue to take him to a spot you don't mind him puking.
Re: Cat as a pet.
Hi
We have a cat. We adopted her last year when she was a kitten.
A few tips:
When she/he is sooo tiny and cute - its easy to allow them to bite and scratch you because its just so damn cute and doesn't hurt at all. However this behaviour gets very instilled and is very difficult to get rid of as they grow older. My cat still bites and climbes our arms and has wrestling matches with them. She see's it as play and nothing more but it has become impossible to shake the habit off. It hurts now that she has bigger teeth but the cuteness doesn't go away - its still cute and when the pain becomes un bearable we stop playing but otherwise I just let her. I know, its bad.
Secondly, try and get your kitten to eat as much dry food as possible, its better for the teeth
Play with her now and adore her, because she will grow up way too fast and then its all about her her her. ;)
Cats are very loyal contrary to popular belief. Any behaviours that you won't be able to keep up, its better not to start them in the first place. For example, don't take your cat to the food bowl by carrying her, otherwise she will fall into a habit to sit and wait for you to do that. Ours did that but now she goes by herself.
I hope your cat likes cuddles and curls up with you because my cat doesn't have that personality :( its sad because she always just runs away -- she hates being picked up. Very independant cat.
Our cat was meant to be an indoor cat intially, however - the weather was good and we took her to the garden for a few seconds and since then she doesn't want to be inside. She will sit by the door and plead to let her go. So eventually she became an outdoor cat. However, by outdoor cat , we do not mean she stays out all the time.
Here is what my outdoor cat does:
Go out and sit on the shed watching the world go by.
Go into next door's garden either side and chase flies and wasps (our garden is paved)
Sit on the shed
Sit on the shed
Sit on the shed
Sit on the shed
Come in to eat and sleep throughout the day
sit on the shed
sit on the shed
come in and play ...meet greet...
If it rains, she stays in all day - she gets scared of the rain
Litter tray is only used in the winter and in the summer she goes outside somewhere. She does not use her indoor litter tray however every now and then she will go and examine the tray to see that we are still cleaning it regularly and that she still has an 'emergency' place. Bless :)
Re: Cat as a pet.
Oh and DO NOT DE CLAW -
That's horrible and not necessary - cats claws won't harm you or the furniture.
Get a scratching post as someone has suggested but do not de claw.
Re: Cat as a pet.
This is by far the funniest and cutest thing I have ever read about a cat 
Awww what a cutie
Re: Cat as a pet.
I used to have 2 cats. One was a stray cat that I took in, and the second one was adopted. Neither of my cats were kittens. Both were around 3 years old when I took them in. My advice:
1) Its better for him to be an indoor cat.
2) Please take him to vet once a year for check-up. I also took mine once a year to get their teeth cleaned.
3) Agreed with the comments regarding declawing. Its inhumane. Please do not even consider it.
4) Get scratching posts. I had one large scratching post in the living/family room, and small ones in the bedroom. I never used soft paws and trimmed their nails every other week. Never had an issue with them scratching furniture.
5) Dry food ONLY. Its better for their teeth. I only gave my cats wet food as a "special treat" like once or twice a YEAR. Otherwise, all their meals and treats were dry.
6) Get plenty of little toys to keep him busy/distracted.
7) Respect his personality. Cats are no different from humans in that they have unique personalities. My 2 cats were totally different. One was super friendly/cuddly and was like that 24/7. The other one was moody lol. She was cuddly at times and wanted to be left alone other times. As he grows up, if there are times he wants to be left alone and doesn't show an interest in being cuddly, give him that space. Forcing him to cuddle if he's not interested will lead to nothing but scratching.
8) Litterbox: I used to keep it in the bathroom and NEVER had an accident. I also used to buy a flushable litter from Wal-mart. That way, no need to bad it for trash or whatever.....I simply flushed it down the toilet. Also clean the box whenever possible. I used to scan/clean mine anytime I was in the bathroom. That way, they don't create a bigger mess by "looking" for a clean place.
Re: Cat as a pet.
We got our cat when he was 8 weeks old, he’s now 3 years old. I second most of the advice in the previous posts.
In regards to the above quoted, we also had lots of small scratching posts when he was young and now he has a very large one - we didn’t have any issues with him scratching furniture. If he ever started we’d pick him up and put his paws on the post so he knew that’s where he was supposed to scratch. My husband really loved buying things for him too, so we had a cat tree with different levels until he outgrew it. We knew about soft paws but never bought them. We trim his nails every week and he doesn’t fuss too much since we’ve been doing it from the start.
We have very absorbent non-clumping litter since I find it less dusty. He’s a very regular pooper now and goes once in the morning and once at night, so I remove it shortly after he’s gone. Once a week I get rid of all the litter, wash his tray with bleach and hot water and then put fresh litter in. That sounds pretty normal but you’d be surprised how many people don’t bother to wash the tray out. Make sure the tray is big enough and you use enough litter (in terms of depth). Cats are very clean and you can tell when they get uncomfortable because their litter or tray is dirty. Our kitten was litter trained when we got him and he’s never gone outside his tray.
Also, the litter tray, food bowl and water bowl should be in different places. Cats will not willingly drink water that is close to their food - it should be in a clean spot. If you want him to be a healthy adult cat, I’d advise against the common pet food brands (these are basically feeding your cat a junk food diet) and look for more natural foods that actually have a decent meat/fish content. We tried lots of different brands/flavours when he was little until we found one that he ate consistently and seemed to enjoy. He eats Applaws dry.
Since your kitten is only 2 months old, he’s still due lots of booster shots and stuff. Make sure you are aware of the schedule. Ours is also predominantly an indoor cat and since he’s a boy you will need to get him neutered at about 6 months. They can do neutering and microchipping in one go and it’s worth doing so.
Re: Cat as a pet.
Ewwww @ the bold part! Yes I also did the same. I did not use bleach but once a week, I threw out all the litter, washed it with hot water/soap, put in a fresh liner & litter. Although to be honest, if I had only 1 cat, I may have extended the timing into 2 weeks. And yes, great point in making sure the tray is big enough for the cat to comfortably move around & not bump into the sides.
100% agree with the bold part. As for the bowls, I kept the litter box in the bathroom. Their food and water bowls were in the kitchen. I can’t believe people out there put litter box next to their food. 