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Emergency Kitten Adoption [1st Vet visit oh noes]
Delzhand
Agrias Fucking OaksRegistered User, Transition Team regular
Agrias Fucking OaksRegistered User, Transition Team regular
Just got a kitten less than 30 min ago, pics incoming
No name, but wife wants to see what he's like before naming. She had an unavoidable engagement, or she'd be here helping. I've been calling him Eschaton for now.
I've got a litter pan and litter, and I've placed him in that setup, but I've never owned a kitten before - what should I know? How do I make sure he doesn't go to the bathroom anywhere else?
Edit: Oh my god, he's sitting on my knee quietly watching me type. *uncharacteristic glee*
No name, but wife wants to see what he's like before naming. She had an unavoidable engagement, or she'd be here helping. I've been calling him Eschaton for now.
I've got a litter pan and litter, and I've placed him in that setup, but I've never owned a kitten before - what should I know? How do I make sure he doesn't go to the bathroom anywhere else?
Edit: Oh my god, he's sitting on my knee quietly watching me type. *uncharacteristic glee*
Delzhand on
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Cats are pretty easy to housebreak.
buy warhams
Things to keep in mind are not moving the litter box around much after introducing it. Keep it out of tightly confined spaces as this has seemed to encourage cats I have known in the past to start going in closets, cubbies, and other places.
Food near by, but not too close, has also seemed to act as a reminder.
I personally steer clear of the covered litter boxes for the same fear as mentioned above.
If you ever decide to discipline the cat (most people use a squirt gun) always do it RIGHT as the crime is being committed, and never at a later moment, for worries of confusing the cat.
I also suggest looking through cleaning options at your local pet store. There tend to be items specifically for cleaning up urine, this is very important because cats will use odor to determine where they can go (and the odor really sets in, and is on a level we can not smell)
I hope this helps.
Get him some good kitty food, like, not some crap you get at the grocery store, I can't remember the brands we get our cat but we get two and mix them together, so that if one is discontinued we can switch to another and it will be a gradual thing and not screw up his intestinal tract. Make sure he has a bowl of water and dump it and refresh it at least once a day... cats like fresh water.
Get him a scratchy post and teach him to scratch that and not your furniture, put his paws on it and make scratching motions, or scratch on it with your nails when he's looking.
He's a kitten, there will be accidents. It works best to encourage behavior you want, since you can't always catch him doing something he's not supposed to.
Find out what he likes to play with. Our cat has a few balls he bats around, and a mouse, but for just playing by himself he thinks a wadded up ball of paper is amazing. We also have a mouse on a string to drag around for him to chase, which he loves. (He will stand in front of the shelf we keep it on and stare at us and meow until we play with him)
There is nothing better about cat ownership then settling down somewhere and the cat planting himself in your lap.
Also, cats are great with computers. Mine just helped me type this.
This. It'll go "oh hey, you can dig in this stuff!" and remember that for when it needs to go.
As for training, the litter box should mostly take care of itself. Is he a longhair? You might want to start brushing him now, even for just a 30 seconds or whatever so he's used to it.
Nature's Miracle is also amazing. We should probably own stock in them with how much we buy (4 cats), but it is awesome for hairballs and other assorted messes.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Genetic memory. Tada.
Or something like that. Our friend gave us a 2 month age estimate, but honestly it only looks like 5 weeks. Probably because it's so small.
So the poor thing was starved for food and attention. It ate probably 3 servings of food at the friends house, but she couldn't keep it because her cat was freaking the fuck out.
So after my wife and I saw it at her house, we agreed to bring it home. It's asleep on the couch right now. As soon as I find my usb cable I'll upload the required materials.
A good estimate for kittens under 6-7 months is 1 pound/month old. My cat was feral when we got her, and at between 3 and 4 lbs and the fact that it was winter when she was picked up, the vet estimated about 4 months old.
Cats instinctively want to bury their urine and feces, so as long as there's fresh litter it'll go there as a matter of preference. If you have potted plants and the like, keep in mind that those might compete for attention in that field. "Bury" is a relative term. Some cats will just move their paws after they go, like that somehow magically counts. I've seen other cats kick up a shitstorm, which is why there's a market for those covered litters. You'll find out soon enough what you need when it gets older and gets some habits.
Costco actually sells high-quality pet food, so if there's one nearby and you have membership I'd get it from there. You want to avoid stuff that's high in corn. It is basically indigestible, and is an indication of poor-quality industrially-produced pet food (i.e., it's the same stuff they feed Holsteins, and they have to pump those things full of antibiotics largely for that reason).
I'd highly recommend looking into getting another kitten at around the same age. It's not much more work or food, and two cats will keep each other company and play with each other, especially if they are familiar with each other when they are young. Exercise and companionship, even for "independent" animals like cats, are important. Unfortunately it sounds like you can't get one from the same litter, but the sooner you do this the better, as the longer you wait the harder and less possible it becomes (if they're too old they just won't get along and the best you can hope for is that they stay out of each other's way).
Most cats are smart enough to get the message.
Satans..... hints.....
So far, this is the gassiest cat I've ever seen/smelled. My wife wanted to wait to name him, see what he's like, and if this keeps up he's going to be Gasbag, because seriously, wtf. I expect this is because he was starved for so long that yesterday he gorged himself. He's also really small, except for his big gut.
We're taking him to the vet on Tuesday to get him checked out. We think he has ear mites and some sort of eye infection, because he squints.
We clipped his nails - not much, just enough to take the points off so they don't go right through our clothes and flesh. He didn't object too much.
The gas is probably from crap previous food, its going to continue for up to a month, but it will get better. What are you planning on feeding? Quality of food will factor in how stinky this cat will be for the rest of its life.
I would have to say that he definitely looks older than 5 weeks. IANAV, but I'd say he's around 10-12 weeks old.
As for the gas, it's probably because of the quality of food he's been eating, but it would be a good thing to bring up during the vet visit.
The Best in Terms of Pants on JCCC3
Not necessarily the quality of the food, but the cat's digestive system interacting with the food. Let him get used to whatever you're giving him and he'll be fine.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
You're totally fucking with this guy, right? I mean, you're not serious, ya know?
Sorry about that. Kind of a bizarre moment for me.
I think what he was getting at is when young, the kitten relies on its mother a lot for cleaning, and learns by example when it gets older. In absence of the mother, a warmish washcloth to step in for the mother's role would be teaching it to do the same thing. It's a substitute.
Vargoth: Destroyer Of Worlds
Mr. Pants
Yup. Mama cats tend to actually lick the base of the tail on the topside of the cat, rather than the anus directly. Which is also why grown cats tend to like it when you scritch the base of their tail -- it reminds them of mom. Thankfully it doesn't also remind them of pooping.
This is required until about 4 weeks, sometimes longer if the cat is having problems with their food. As others have said though, the cat in the picture is quite a bit older but this is very solid advice if the cat was in fact very young, too young to be taken from mom.
Really like it.
Caliph's First Catnip Bender
I went ahead and spoiled my advice because, let's face it, a former PetCo worker is going to know all this stuff.
Litter: I haven't seen anybody say this yet, apologies if I'm repeating, but be cautious with the type of litter you get. At a young age you do NOT want to get clumping litter. Kittens will play with it and possibly eat it, and then it will clump in their stomach and cause a lot of problems. (possibly killing them) There are special kinds of non-clumping "kitten litter" or there are options like recycled newspaper bits. (environmentally friendly!) Once the kitten is older you can move to clumping litter if you like.
However, I too have gone through the kitten adoption process and litter training (starting at 4 weeks, yipes) and this is what I did: A friend gave me clumping litter and I wanted to use it. I also had some non-clumping litter. So I layered the litter box: Clumping on the bottom, non-clumping on the top. As a result, when the kittens peed, the clumping layer would clump up and make it VERY easy to clean (non-clumping IS harder to clean, the only downside) but since the non-clumping was on top, anything the kittens ingested wasn't a danger. It worked out very well.
Also I highly recommend getting a litter box spray. Personally I used this Arm & Hammer stuff. I had a tiny apartment so smell was a slight issue, but that spray took care of it extremely well. Also there are smelly beads that you can add to litter, these work decently well but I felt that using the spray immediately after cleaning the box worked the best. However completely eliminating the smell can, at first, be a bad idea... more on that below.
Litter box training is extremely easy (compared to training dogs) because cats are instinctively good at it. They WANT to go in the same spot, they want a spot where they can dig and at least pretend to bury it, and a litter box fits that.
-Pick a location for the litter box and then DON'T MOVE IT. Some cats are also naturally shy, so if his box is in a high-traffic area and he's having problems sticking with it, consider finding him a more out-of-the-way spot.
-If he goes anywhere else, CLEAN THE SHIT OUT OF THAT SPOT. When cats pick a new spot, they'll want to return there, and also they'll return there by smelling it out. He will "forget" it if you clean it well enough. This ties in to the litter box spray: Don't clean it *too* well until he's learned the location of the box really well. Then you can clean it as much as you want.
-Make sure you remove the poop at least once a day. If the litter box fills up, he'll pick a new spot.
-If you have a multi-story house I highly recommend getting a box for each floor. If you get another cat, each cat will probably want their own litter box.
-As you are training him, keep him in an enclosed area around his box right after he eats. If he has fewer spots to choose from, and one of those is his box, he'll gravitate towards his box. Once he learns his box location, you can let him out after meals and he'll naturally return to it. This takes a week or two, usually.
-If he makes mistakes (and he will) do NOT shove his nose into the "mistake" which is what some idiots recommend. Just clean up after him, and make sure you babysit him after his next meal to make sure he goes in the right spot. The whole punishment mentality DOES NOT WORK.
-Litterbox training is very easy. At most he should be completely good to go within 3 weeks.
Someone mentioned getting him a "kitty companion" - great idea. I would recommend doing it soon while he's still young.
If you have a PetCo near you, they are EXTREMELY good at giving great advice. I spent about 50% of my time there in the few days after I did an emergency adoption, and ALL their advice was great and extremely helpful. You can bring little Caliph with you, too (might need some sort of collar and leash or a carrier at his age, my kittens were young enough that I just kept them in a cardboard box until I had a carrier). This is also a great way to "test-drive" toys, or let him interact with other animals in case you guys get another pet in the future.
Best of luck to you!!!
edit: my god I wrote a lot. Sorry... but if you need any more advice, feel free to ask. Also, a lot of vets are great about answering quick questions if you just need to call and ask something. If your vet always gives you crap like "make an appointment and pay for it to ask me something" then just call around to other vets until you find someone who will answer a simple question over the phone.
Also - have you checked him for fleas? You'd be surprised at how easily those little buggers can hide. They can be tough to get rid of, too. If he was living outside for a good period of time he might have them. Most flea sprays or flea collars have a minimum age of 12 weeks, so you might want to wait a bit before starting those unless your vet has definitely said he's older than that. Other options are to find an herbal flea spray that doesn't have the minimum age (those tend to be a little more expensive) or you can give him repeated baths with dial dish soap which works REALLY well on young kittens (but they do hate it
Best Buy gave us fabulous return service, since we were in the 14 day window.