new kitty today, need advice

[KC5AV]

Originally posted by: bozack

Originally posted by: godmare
Get good food (eukanuba, scinece diet, purina one if you're cheap😉)and stick with it, don't change it around at all. Cats respond poorly to food changes.

Eukanuba is on the banned product list as the parent company does animal testing 🙂~....

For a new kitty, get come cat litter and a litter box and a water gun and good luck.

How terrible... they test cat food on CATS!!! 😀

 

[dirtboy]

Don't masterbate; it might die! :Q

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Roger

7 weeks.

A water gun? For negative reinforcement?

You are going to require an eye dropper to feed it, keep it warm and let it snuggle with you as much as it wants, people should not give kittens away until they are at least 8 weeks old.

I got my kitten (a stray) when he was about 7 weeks old. Of course, the age was just an estimate by the vet. At 7 weeks he was perfectly fine with dry food.

As for the person who said not to change the food; that's not a good recommendation. A kitten needs KITTEN food, and a cat needs CAT food. At some point (usually at about one year) you will need to switch from kitten food to cat food. Do NOT feed a kitten food that is designed for adult cats. Kitten food has higher protein and more fats as well as coming in smaller pieces so that it's easier to chew. When you do eventually switch from kitten food to car food, mix the two foods together, gradually increasing the amount of cat food in the mixture until there is no more kitten food. Take about two weeks to make the switch-over. Also, be very sure that the kitten eats the cat food and not the dog food. The two foods are formulated differently and dog food lacks certain nutrients that cats need.

As far as the water gun goes, if you use it do nor make it a habit (i.e. save it for really bad circumstances). If you use the water gun too often the kitten will come to fear you and he won't adjust properly. The best thing to do is start with a scratching post early and encourage the kitten to use the scratching post by running the kitten's paws over the scratching post. A helpful tip for keeping a cat from scratching your furniture is to put double sided tape on the corners (the most common scratching areas). Cats don't like the feel of tape and will avoid scratching areas that have tape on them.

ZV

 

[ElFenix]

train it to puke on the linoleum instead of the carpet

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: SuperSix
I find Eukanuba being being on a sh*tlist for animal testing is ironic.

They got bought out by P&G in the mid/late 1990's. Eukanuba does not engage in animal testing per-se but other P&G divisions are known to.

I should point out that almost all pet food companies do "animal testing", but it's usually on the order of blood tests and the like to determine the health of animals and thus optimising nutrirional value of their foods. Purina (parent company: Nestle) has one of the largest "animal testing" labs in the world.

ZV

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
train it to puke on the linoleum instead of the carpet

Words of wisdom!!!!

 

[bozack]

You can also put aluminum foil on top of your chairs and stuff so that the kat will not sit on them as they also generally do not like the feel of it. We never bothered with this for our cats since they have free reign of our place, our furniture blows anyway.

We use Friskies cat food or also purina I believe...

good luck, cats are great friends and alot of fun but can also be a financial burden and a big pain in the rear sometimes...I had my cat peel all of the keys off my my laptop once, man was that a pain.

 

[smp]

Originally posted by: bozack
You can also put aluminum foil on top of your chairs and stuff so that the kat will not sit on them as they also generally do not like the feel of it. We never bothered with this for our cats since they have free reign of our place, our furniture blows anyway.

We use Friskies cat food or also purina I believe...

good luck, cats are great friends and alot of fun but can also be a financial burden and a big pain in the rear sometimes...I had my cat peel all of the keys off my my laptop once, man was that a pain.

man if this kitten touches my laptop I'm gonna kill it.

🙂

Thanks for all the advice ppl.

 

[hdeck]

awe i love baby kittens. pics?!

 

Originally posted by: hdeck
awe i love baby kittens. pics?!

Yeah dont forget the pics.

 

[smp]

pics?

well I gotta get the thing first 🙂
can't take pics of my non-existent cat.. 🙂

 

[RayH]

If you hear scratching noises in your bedroom at 2 in the morning, the litterbox is downstairs and you earlier fed the cat something it never had before, be prepared for some cleaning up to do...

 

[Turkey22]

luckily our new cat hasn't touched my computer yet. He's been amazingly well behaved except he likes to attack sleeping feet. Unfortunately my wife has no clue what to do with the cat (that she brought home) and picked up bad habits from her mom and cats. When I went home for lunch today there was an empty can of tuna sitting with his food. More than likely he just licked the can clean but I really want him to stay as he is and not get spoiled.

 

[jaeger66]

At this stage give it lots of attention and definitely direct the scratching tendencies to acceptable places. 7 weeks is the perfect age to adopt, as training him/her now will save many headaches later. And definitley have it checked at the vet for leukemia(FeLV). And a 7 week old should already know how to use a littler box and eat solid food.