Thinking about getting a kitten..

[mrCide]

My biggest problem I think is the litter box. I just have no good place in my house for one. Only place that would seem okay is one of the upstairs bathrooms (regularly used). Thing is I want to find one that makes no mess and makes clean-up a cinch. Top of the line baby! Okay I'm really not wanting to spend hundreds (no idea what they cost) but I want something decent. Also, maybe thinking about keeping it in the tub since that's hardly used. Suggestions?

Also some questions.. is Humane Society adoption like the best option? I've always been given the impression that pet stores are a rip off / not a great idea but I don't know. Is it difficult to train them to use the litter or not really? How expensive is shots / vet?

First time (possibly) pet (kitten) buyer here. Will take any advice.
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Update

Meet Mio, she's a gem.

mio1.jpg

mio2.jpg

Got her from a local shelter, she's loving, behaves (so far!), and is adorable. Got her a tower (NAY to declaw after research, hopefully tower will work, otherwise will experiment with other options), did a buncha research on food (decided on authority from petsmart, and wellness in the future), and went with the scoopfree (which she's not used to yet cause of the crystals, will attempt to train).. anyhow, thanks for the responses from everyone.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: mrCide
My biggest problem I think is the litter box. I just have no good place in my house for one. Only place that would seem okay is one of the upstairs bathrooms (regularly used). Thing is I want to find one that makes no mess and makes clean-up a cinch. Top of the line baby! Okay I'm really not wanting to spend hundreds (no idea what they cost) but I want something decent. Also, maybe thinking about keeping it in the tub since that's hardly used. Suggestions?

Also some questions.. is Humane Society adoption like the best option? I've always been given the impression that pet stores are a rip off / not a great idea but I don't know. Is it difficult to train them to use the litter or not really? How expensive is shots / vet?

First time (possibly) pet (kitten) buyer here. Will take any advice.

Many local shelters include shots and neutering. For the pet, that is, not you!

Cats generally take to litter boxes very quickly. It's simply the most appealing environment for them to do their "necessary".

You can get a motorized, self-scooping litterbox like the LitterMaid, or you can get liners for a conventional litterbox that wrap up like a kitchen garbage bag. Nice and tidy.

Shelters are definitely the way to go. Also, your local vet(s) may have kittens for adoption. Some pet stores do have programs where they work with shelters in order to get pets adopted.

 

[swbsam]

I work for an animal shelter (as a web nerd) and have quite a few pets - 2 dogs and 1 cat, and one kitten..

I *hate* to say this because it's already so hard to adopt out adult cats, but kittens are definitely the way to go. Our first cat was an adult and had a very hard time adjusting to our place, especially the 2 dogs. Our kitten didn't have any habits she had to unlearn, and got along with the dogs very well - they all hang out and "hunt" together.

Also, litter training wasn't an issue - drop her in the litter every day for a week or so and the instinct will kick in. You may not even need to do that, but remember they're dumb animals - they need to know where the thing is.

We keep our litter in the bathroom, behind the toilet. A small litterbox will squeeze right in and, since it's flushable litter (NOT ALL LITTER IS FLUSHABLE, SOME CAN DESTROY YOUR PLUMBING), we can deal with waste right away

 

[alkemyst]

Inside the tub is a find choice and can be hidden. You will probably want to take it out to clean as it would be hard to do it there.

I have three cats and two boxes. I clean the two each morning and my wife will take any additional solids out after work.

I use pine litter one large rectangle box and a large corner box. There is never any odor.

My techinque is first to get a wide slot scoop (something that allows the pine to fall out but not the solids ) and a fine wire scoop (I use a Chinese Noodle spoon about 5-6" in diameter like this only a little finer)...and one one gallon baggie (no zip lock).

I tilt all the litter to one side of the box and then sift through for solids shaking the 'powder' left behind from urine into one of the free corners (along with some pellets) and then discard the rest to the other corner. I repeat this under I have one side all 'pee-powder' mixed with pellets and another side mostly all clean pellets.

I then switch to the noodle scoop and take small scoop of the 'pee-powder' / pellet mix and shake the scoop side to side over the baggie. All the powder falls out and I am left with clean pellets. I then dump the pellets into the clean side.

Repeat until done. This takes me about 10 mins tops. As the litter runs out I refill it. Every 3-4 months I clean the boxes fully with bleach.

Check your local newspaper's website, many are allowing space for free pets/shelters/etc.

Clumping litter many like, but it's dusty and messy when it does get wet. I don't know anyone that used an automatic box for a long time. Either they are too hard to clean (the parts that sift through the litter) or the pet doesn't want to go near it.

 

[trmiv]

Check out this automatic litterbox, it's awesome:

http://www.scoopfree.com/

We had one for our cat when he was a kitten and it worked great. The problem is our cat got massive (27 pounds, and not overweight according to our vet) so once he got bigger it didn't work because he filled it up in a week. For a normal sized cat though, the Scoop Free rules.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

You can get a motorized, self-scooping litterbox like the LitterMaid, or you can get liners for a conventional litterbox that wrap up like a kitchen garbage bag. Nice and tidy.

i used kitchen garbage bags. they were cheaper than the things sold as liners and look the same. just pull it off the box once a week, put a new bag on, and fill.

 

[x-alki]

There is some good advice above. Remember, a pet picks you, you dont pick the pet.

 

[mrCide]

Reading and looking, thanks for all the advice so far guys.

I really like the idea of the self cleaning unit. One thing that just hit me is that I wonder if a kitten will have a hard time getting upstairs to the litter box and maybe I have to keep it downstairs?

 

[Jeff7]

And there's no need to waste money on fancy toys, except maybe something with catnip. Even then, maybe see if you can get a locally made catnip toy - a lot of commercially made ones seem to have very little in them.

But for toys, my cats have played with laser pointers, balls of paper (good use of junk mail), or ping pong balls.
Or buy a mouse.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
And there's no need to waste money on fancy toys, except maybe something with catnip. Even then, maybe see if you can get a locally made catnip toy - a lot of commercially made ones seem to have very little in them.

But for toys, my cats have played with laser pointers, balls of paper (good use of junk mail), or ping pong balls.
Or buy a mouse.

Mine like the ping pong balls, lids to the 5 gallon water bottles (mini hockey pucks) and 1" mini plastic ordiments (round and solid plastic, not the type with glitter and stuff).

 

[torpid]

If you use clumping litter then you are going to have to clean your place more often (because it tracks and in some cases is dusty). There really is no way around it. Self-cleaning litterboxes just scoop/sift for you, and you still have to dispose of the waste. If you want to avoid having to additional cleanup around your house, you really can only accomplish this with non-clumping litter (such as the pine stuff alkemyst mentioned). But that has its own issues... you have to replace it quite often, and (IMO) it doesn't do as good of a job at covering up odor.

Ultimately the point is, you'll have a lot of work to do to keep up the litterbox no matter what approach you take.

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: torpid
If you use clumping litter then you are going to have to clean your place more often (because it tracks and in some cases is dusty). There really is no way around it. Self-cleaning litterboxes just scoop/sift for you, and you still have to dispose of the waste. If you want to avoid having to additional cleanup around your house, you really can only accomplish this with non-clumping litter (such as the pine stuff alkemyst mentioned). But that has its own issues... you have to replace it quite often, and (IMO) it doesn't do as good of a job at covering up odor.

Ultimately the point is, you'll have a lot of work to do to keep up the litterbox no matter what approach you take.

Actually, I don't do this anymore (it's pretty wasteful), but when I was single I would get the cheapest non-clumping litter I could find, and just dump/refill the entire litter every few day. It was superbly easy and didn't smell too bad. I suppose the liners would make it even easier.

 

[swbsam]

Also, crystal litter is awesome but expensive. No smell at all and easy to know when you need to replace the stuff. It's heavy enough not to leave a dust trail

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: torpid
If you use clumping litter then you are going to have to clean your place more often (because it tracks and in some cases is dusty). There really is no way around it. Self-cleaning litterboxes just scoop/sift for you, and you still have to dispose of the waste. If you want to avoid having to additional cleanup around your house, you really can only accomplish this with non-clumping litter (such as the pine stuff alkemyst mentioned). But that has its own issues... you have to replace it quite often, and (IMO) it doesn't do as good of a job at covering up odor.

Ultimately the point is, you'll have a lot of work to do to keep up the litterbox no matter what approach you take.

Actually, I don't do this anymore (it's pretty wasteful), but when I was single I would get the cheapest non-clumping litter I could find, and just dump/refill the entire litter every few day. It was superbly easy and didn't smell too bad. I suppose the liners would make it even easier.

Good point... it will probably be pretty decent if he did that. How much litter did you go through each month when you did this?

 

[nanette1985]

Originally posted by: mrCide


I really like the idea of the self cleaning unit. One thing that just hit me is that I wonder if a kitten will have a hard time getting upstairs to the litter box and maybe I have to keep it downstairs?

Not for very long. The kitten quickly figures out the routine. And, kittens grow. Fast.

 

[trmiv]

Originally posted by: mrCide
Reading and looking, thanks for all the advice so far guys.

I really like the idea of the self cleaning unit. One thing that just hit me is that I wonder if a kitten will have a hard time getting upstairs to the litter box and maybe I have to keep it downstairs?

If there is one thing you'll quickly figure out about a cat, they won't have trouble getting anywhere. Maybe when it's tiny, the stairs may be a struggle, but after a few weeks they will be a non issue. I remember buying this "big" cat tree wondering how my little guy would get to the top. After a month of having it he was able to jump to the second level from the ground without even trying.

 

[lokiju]

I'd say get a littermaid for a litter box.

I have 2 cats (one that's 20lbs) and I only have to tend to it once a week.

But there is no perfect litter box out there, they have all their faults. Like the littermaid for example, uses these plastic bins that you have to buy (can get them anywhere pet stuff is sold) and the idea was you just let the bin fill, take it out, throw it away and put in a new one. In reality it'd be pretty wasteful of your own money to throw it away each time it fills up and everyone just tends to dump them into the trash before you take it out to the curb or whatever your preference is. But because of this disposable bin system, it allows for some litter to fall down between the cracks where the bin sits and the littermaid meets and as a result, over time you'll end up having a large pile of (mostly clean) litter underneith the litter box that you'll have to deal with. My advice is that if you do get the litter maid then invest in a cheap bagless canister vacuum to deal with this issue as there is really no better way to do so.

That being said, it's well worth the cost to get one if you can fit it (a lot wider than most litter boxes) and have a power cord near by that you can plug it into.

The fact that I don't have to sift through their litter box every day is well worth the minor gripes about it.

Also, hands down get from a pound. The pound will probably try and talk you into taking two cats, the usual "trick" is to put two kittens from the same litter in the same cage and then say something like "get the second one for free" or "you don't want to take this guys litter sister home with you also?". Worked on my wife and I

It's really not a bad idea having two cats though, they really do keep each other entertained, which is good if you're like most people and are away from home at least 8 hours a day.

Also you'll want to consider the claws, they do and will claw stuff up, it's their nature and there's no sense hoping they won't and then getting mad if they do.

There are a few solutions to this issue, you can trim their nails on a regular basis to reduce damage done by them clawing, you can take them to the vets on a regular basis to have these caps glued to each nail, but trust me they'll hate the experience and it'll get costly.

Or you can fight all the nay sayers on here and get them declawed.

Declawing isn't something to take in stride, it is removing the first knuckle of each digit from the kitties little paws, it really is terrible if you think about it to much, but the way some look at it is it's a small price for the animal to pay to be given a loving home for it's full 15 (give or take) years of care you'll give it.

I had both of my cats front paws decalwed after a lot of research and debate with my wife on the topic, I always grew up with cats and none of them were ever declawed, but I had a lot of cuts and scratches over the years playing with them and I'm sure my parents furniture would have held up a lot better also if it were done.

My wife on the other hand, also always had cats growing up but they always decalwed their cats and they never had any negative experiences by doing so. A lot of sites or people that are against doing it will claim that it changes a cats personality forever in a negative way.

Well after having it done to my cats, I can say first hand that it did not change their personality in any way, shape or form. (they're a dumb as ever!)

I kind of wish sometimes that I also got their rears removed also since they do sometimes tear into me on the rare occasion that I'm holding them and something scares the ever living shit out of them.

FWIW I did have the laser declawing done on them since the healing and amount of time they're in pain is much less than with the traditional method, the next day even they were back to normal for everything we could tell.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: torpid
If you use clumping litter then you are going to have to clean your place more often (because it tracks and in some cases is dusty). There really is no way around it. Self-cleaning litterboxes just scoop/sift for you, and you still have to dispose of the waste. If you want to avoid having to additional cleanup around your house, you really can only accomplish this with non-clumping litter (such as the pine stuff alkemyst mentioned). But that has its own issues... you have to replace it quite often, and (IMO) it doesn't do as good of a job at covering up odor.

Ultimately the point is, you'll have a lot of work to do to keep up the litterbox no matter what approach you take.

I don't have much odor even...but I keep the boxes clean.

The larger $10 bag lasts for a month+ with our two boxes with the method I described above. I should make a youtube video. Most that I know that have cats have switched to pine and my method once I showed them..esp once they found out we have a little box in our family room that they never noticed.

Every day I throw out about 1/2 gallon baggie of poop, sawdust and some pellets.

 

[Gibson486]

They are so cute when they are kittens, but ince they grow up, the become lazy.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Get two cats (preferably from the same litter). Two are no harder to care for than one, minimally more expensive, and they'll have each other to keep company while you're away during the day.

Personally, I use wood stove pellets from Home Depot for litter. Exact same stuff as feline pine in pet stores, except way way cheaper. I love that there's no tracking of it throughout the house.

Everyone I know who's tried an automatic box hated it because it was a mess to clean, the cat wouldn't use it or it would break.

I have two of these litter boxes for my four cats. This is the scoop. Definitely get a metal scoop. Plastic scoops all break eventually.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: Jeff7
And there's no need to waste money on fancy toys, except maybe something with catnip. Even then, maybe see if you can get a locally made catnip toy - a lot of commercially made ones seem to have very little in them.

But for toys, my cats have played with laser pointers, balls of paper (good use of junk mail), or ping pong balls.
Or buy a mouse.

Mine like the ping pong balls, lids to the 5 gallon water bottles (mini hockey pucks) and 1" mini plastic ordiments (round and solid plastic, not the type with glitter and stuff).

Mine go crazy for bread-bag twist ties, and milk bottle rings.

I do advise getting a cat tree though. My cats love 'em. The ones at Costco are pretty awesome and cheap compared to what you'd pay at Petsmart.

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: torpid

Originally posted by: swbsam

Originally posted by: torpid
If you use clumping litter then you are going to have to clean your place more often (because it tracks and in some cases is dusty). There really is no way around it. Self-cleaning litterboxes just scoop/sift for you, and you still have to dispose of the waste. If you want to avoid having to additional cleanup around your house, you really can only accomplish this with non-clumping litter (such as the pine stuff alkemyst mentioned). But that has its own issues... you have to replace it quite often, and (IMO) it doesn't do as good of a job at covering up odor.

Ultimately the point is, you'll have a lot of work to do to keep up the litterbox no matter what approach you take.

Actually, I don't do this anymore (it's pretty wasteful), but when I was single I would get the cheapest non-clumping litter I could find, and just dump/refill the entire litter every few day. It was superbly easy and didn't smell too bad. I suppose the liners would make it even easier.

Good point... it will probably be pretty decent if he did that. How much litter did you go through each month when you did this?

I'd get a gallon jug of litter every week from the corner bodega. That's about 2 refills a week, which was enough not to get the roommates annoyed with the smell.

 

[waffleironhead]

Originally posted by: Gibson486
They are so cute when they are kittens, but ince they grow up, the owners become lazy.

FIXED!

I have older cats who still play a lot. I also know people with "lazy" cats who play just fine when I interact with them.

 

[jonks]

FYI, the Lamia has no interest in your cat

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: jonks
FYI, the Lamia has no interest in your cat

:laugh: