Kitten Care

Cats are more than pets, they are family

PREPARE YOUR HOME

Before you bring your kitten home, prepare a small room or space that will be it's own for the first few days or weeks, preferably your bedroom. Secure all electrical and blind cords, block or remove things that they can get stuck under. Clean your house, because having a short nose, exotic cats don't like dusty and dirty houses. Make sure, that you don't have any loose small objects anywhere, because kittens may swallow it. Check your house and garden for plants that are toxic for cats and remove them. Some of them are very common, for example: lilies, chrysanthemums, tulips, and narcissus are toxic for cats and may cause even death. Click here to find the list of poisonous plants.

Cats don’t like to eat next to the litter box. Place the litter box on one side of the room and the food and water dishes on the other. Make sure that your kitten can get in and out of the litter box without help. To help your kitten feel secure, make sure that the room has hiding places. If there isn’t furniture to hide underneath, place cardboard boxes on their sides.

When you bring your kitten home, put the carrier in the room you’ve prepared. Open the carrier door, but let your kitten come out when it is ready. After your kitten comes out, leave the carrier in the corner as another hiding place. Each day, scoop out the litter box and provide fresh food and water.

The stress of leaving mom, siblings, and a familiar environment may result in loose stool. In this case, have on hand your veterinarian address and phone number. Dehydration is very dangerous for kittens as for human babies. React immediately.

Your kitten may cry at first and hide form you, but will explore the room, when no one is watching. Eventually in a few hours or days your kitten will become more comfortable. Later, your kitten will want plenty of attention from you and you will fall in love with this exceptional creature.

After becoming comfortable in his room and developing a regular routine of eating, drinking, and using the litter box, you can let him explore the rest of your house. At this point, you need to make sure that your kitten stays safe and has enough privacy to eat, sleep and use the litter box. Keep your kitten’s bed, litter box, food and water dishes in the same place so that he knows where to find them.

5 Requirements For Kittens Care

1. Keep kittens warm. Keep the temperature in your house at summer time not lower than 25*, because they may get sick.

2. Provide kittens with adequate nutrition.

3. Keep kittens clean.

4. Provide socialization with people.

5. Do your best to protect them from infectious disease. Vaccinate and avoid contact with ill animals.

Spay/Neuter

You will need to spay or neuter your kitten between 6 and 8 months of age, or else he/she will start to mark territory (your house) with urine. They also may try to escape from your house to find an opposite sex cat, and you might lose your pet. The prices for spaying/neutering are different at different vet offices. Shop in advance and find the best price for you.

IDEAL TENDER LOVING CARE PLAN FOR EXOTIC CATS

Daily. Feed according to the age, clean litter box, clean food and water bowls, clean eyes

Weekly. Comb beautiful plush fur. (In the shedding season more often, as often as you can.)

Every 3 weeks. Clean ears, trim claws

Monthly: (for long haired cats) give a bath and dry

The difference between short and long hair is that a longhair will need more attention to their fur.

SPECIFIC EYE CARE FOR EXOTIC CATS

Caring for Exotic cats is not much different from caring for other breeds. The only exception is eye care, exotic cats have tearing eyes, similar to dog breeds such as Poodles and Maltese. Taking care of them will only take a few minutes, you just need to be prepared and organized. You can choose one of the following methods:

If your kitten/cat is not tearing a lot and doesn't have stains around the eyes, you may clean eyes with cotton pads and previously boiled water
Simple and cheap method: Clean eyes daily by carefully washing with a soft washcloth and solution of Boric Acid, which you can buy at Wal-Mart Pharmacy or other drug stores. Prepare the solution by mixing one teaspoon (3g.) in a cup (200 ml.) of warm previously boiled water
More expensive and more effective method for white coats/light colored cats:
Clean your cat’s eyes two/three times a week with a soft washcloth and Eye Envy Tear Stain Remover Solution, then apply Eye Envy Tear Stain Remover Powder. You can order it from Amazon

GROOMING

When you will get your kitten from our cattery, it will not shed a lot, but you will need to brash it a few times a week anyway. This way you will prepare your kitten for the shedding season. During the shedding season you will need to brash your kitten/cat more often.

You don't need to wash your kitten/cat if it will not get dirty. From time to time you may clean it with waterless foaming shampoo. If you will decide to wash your kitten/cat, you will need to dry it after washing.

FEEDING

Have fresh water available 24/7. Change water every day.

Do not let your kitten overeat. It may cause diarrhea. Some kittens/cats have tendency overeat. Pay attention to the portions and correct eating habits. If a kitten/cat overeats, stop to feed it for 12 hours and give only water and Authority. Digestive Support. Dog Food Supplement. Pumpkin Puree. Not every kitten/cat will eat it, but try. Otherwise, you will need to go to a vet office.

All food must be room temperature, not cold and not hot.

When you will get your kitten from our cattery, you will receive the samples of food your kitten eats. Please. continue to feed your kitten the same food. If you wish to introduce new foods to your kitten/cat, please do it gradually by mixing and adding to the food, that your kitten ate before. Start from adding ¼ new food for 5-7 days, than add ½ new food for 5-7 days and so on. Some kittens/cats are very sensitive to changes in their diet.

Your kitten will become an adult at 8 months of age. You need to start gradually switching to an adult diet at 7 months. Do not continue to feed your adult cat kittens' food, because it might develop kidney stones ( too much calcium).

Feeding schedule for kittens

1-2 month -- 6-5 times daily

3-4 month -- 4 times daily

5-6 month -- 4-3 times daily

7 month -- 2-3 times daily

8 month -- 2 times daily

Adults -- 2 times daily

We prefer to feed our kittens and cats natural raw foods, and recommend our customers to do the same, if you have enough time and are willing to do it. Do not feed raw if you are not certain of the quality of the meat.

When you buy ground beef for your kittens/cats, please watch the expiry date. Iven if the expiry day is good. but ground beef doesn't smell or look good, do not feed kittens/cats, and through it in the garbage. You need to be very careful, when you feed raw. After you buy ground beef, make small potions, freeze it in a freezer for 2-3 days. If there are some bacteria in ground beef ( you never know for sure), it will be killed in the freezer. Then get one portion, and refreeze it to the room temperature naturally without using a microwave.

By the time our kittens go to their forever homes, they usually eat all types of food. They eat raw ground beef, canned wet food and dry food, soaked in water ( to make it soft). Some kittens might develop sensitive stomach, if you start to feed them dry food too early and too often. Some kittens may not like to eat dry food or will start to eat dry food later in their life than their littermates. You can try different strategies and mix dry and wet food, or add some water to dry food and make it softer.

You need to keep in mind that just like people, kittens may like some type of food and may not like another food. Some prefer milk, while others hate it, and will not drink it at all no matter what you do. Some kittens will drink milk to the certain age, then will stop. If your kitten stops drinking milk, it's okay, do not force him to drink milk. Adult cats don't like to drink milk and may have diarrhea because of milk. There are also cats that drink milk all their life and don’t have diarrhea. Eating habits are very individual.

We try to feed our kittens/cats as little chicken as possible. It's the cheapest protein, but other proteins may work better to meet their nutritional needs. Also chicken may cause an allergic reaction in some cats.

We recommend to feed kittens

Raw ground beef, mild or regular

Canned food:

Authority. Kitten. Chicken and Liver Entree
Authority. Kitten. Turkey Entree
Authority. Kitten. Salmon

Dry food. Simply Nourish. Salmon and Brown Rice.

It is hard to find grain-free and chicken-free food for kittens.

We recommend to feed adult cats

Raw ground beef, mild or regular

Raw salmon

Sour Cream

Plain Yogurt

Light Tuna packed in water

Pumpkin Puree ( good for fur balls. weight control, diarrhea)

We buy this food at grocery stores.

Wet/canned food that we recommend for adult cats.

Authority. Adult. Turkey Entrée in Gravy
Authority. Beef Entrée
Authority. Digestive support. Dog Food Supplement. Pumpkin Puree.
Wellness. Turkey and Salmon Entree
Wellness. Chicken and Herring Dinner
Almo Nature. Tuna Recipe with Pumpkin in Gravy

We buy this food at PetSmart.

Dry food

For adult cats we recommend to buy GRAIN FREE dry food ( any brand)

Some examples:

Wellness. Graine Free. Salmon and Hearring Meal Recipe
Nutrience. Graine Free. Turkey and Pumpkin Recipe

VACCINATION

There is no “one protocol fits all cats” when it comes to vaccinating your cats. Each home must be evaluated individually and vaccinated according to their past history.

We don’t rehome not vaccinated kittens. Usually, we rehome kittens that have 1or 2 vaccinations.

We recommend only core vaccines FVRV-FCV-FPV and Rabies.

The vaccination schedule may be different.

Schedule 1

6 weeks old FVRV-FCV-FPV

10 weeks old FVRV-FCV-FPV

16 weeks old FVRV-FCV-FPV and Rabies

12 month old FVRV-FCV-FPV

After a booster at 12 months, cats should be revaccinated with FVRV-FCV-FPV not earlier than every 3 years. Rabies vaccines should only be used where a kitten/cat has a chance of going outside, or in the case of rabies in the area, or if vaccination is required by law.

Schedule 2

8 weeks old FVRV-FCV-FPV

12 weeks old FVRV-FCV-FPV

16 weeks old FVRV-FCV-FPV and Rabies

12 month old FVRV-FCV-FPV

We don’t recommend vaccinate cats against FeLV, FIV and FIP, because those vaccines are not affective.

Vaccination for FIV may cause your cat to test positive for this disease in the future, which can cause you confusion.

TOYS

The best is different sized soft balls. If you have toys with feathers, strings, beads, etc make sure that the kitten cannot swallow the parts.

NECESSARY ITEMS FOR KITTENS

Food and water bowls
Food (canned and dry)
Litter box and scooper
Kitty litter
Carrier
Scratch post
Nail clippers
Comb (metal). For longhair cats a sleeker and loose coat brush
Bedding
Cotton pads
Boric Acid
Shampoo
Toys, catnip toys

I love the smooth face!