Problem Solving & Advice by Pam Johnson-Bennett Cat Behavior Expert & Best-selling Author
Congratulations! You’ve added a new kitten to the family. This is a fun and exciting time as you get to know this adorable little newcomer. This is also a time when a great amount of learning takes place and your kitten needs you to be prepared so you can start him off on the right foot. To make things easier, efficient and safe for everyone concerned, here is a list of some general essentials to guide you in the right direction. If this is your first experience with a cat though, I strongly suggest you take the time to read a comprehensive book on kitten and cat care because there are so many details that can’t be included in a brief article. Be prepared on how to safeguard your kitten, bond, train, and provide proper veterinary and nutritional care to help ensure your newest furry family member has a long and healthy life. It’s also important to know how cats communicate and show affection. For many first-time cat parents, they make the mistake of comparing cats to dogs and that’s a losing situation for everyone. Cats aren’t little dogs. There are also many training mistakes that are easy to make as you guide your little kitten through life.
This article will give you an introduction to the basic essentials your new kitten will need, so here we go.
Basic Equipment for Kittens
- Good quality kitten food
- Fresh water
- A “sanctuary” room where they can be initially confined
- Uncovered litter box (low sides for easy entry)
- Scoopable, litter
- Litter scoop
- Food bowl (a size that’s easy for a kitten)
- Water bowl (separate from the food bowl)
- Scratching post (sisal covered)
- Soft grooming brush
- Nail trimmers
- Safe toys for solo play
- Interactive play toys (fishing pole design)
- Cozy bed
- Hiding places (box on its side, cat tunnel, covered bed, etc)
- Cat carrier
- Cat tree (for climbing)
- Identification (microchip, ID tag, breakaway collar)
- Treats for training (or you can use the kitten’s food)
- Clicker (optional training tool)
First Stop for Your Kitten: The Veterinary Clinic
Your kitten will need lifelong veterinary care and the time to start is right now. Depending upon where you got your kitten and his current age, he may need to begin or continue initial kitten vaccinations and deworming. Even if your kitten had vaccinations before you adoption, an initial visit to the veterinarian for a checkup is important before bringing him home, especially if you have other pets at home already.
Your veterinarian can also give you guidance on nutrition, show you how to do things such as nail trimming and can provide answers to your questions about being a first-time cat parent. It’s also important to establish a client/veterinarian relationship now, while your new family member is just starting out.
A Safe Place for a Kitten to Land
Even though you’re probably so excited to begin your life with the new kitten, keep in mind that your home environment is unfamiliar and big. That’s a lot for a little kitten to adjust to initially so it’s best to confine him to one room. I have always referred to this as the “sanctuary” room. It can be an extra bedroom or any room you can close off. This way the kitten can get his bearings without being overwhelmed.
Your kitten is also just in the learning stages of activities such as using the litter box, scratching, climbing, exploring, etc. It’s much easier for him to have everything conveniently located right now. Depending upon how young your kitten is, it’s crucial to have a litter box very close by.
Equip the sanctuary room with your kitten’s litter box, a vertical scratching post, a horizontal scratching pad, a few hiding places (paper bags or boxes on their sides), a cozy napping area, food, and water (place these far from the litter box).
Your kitten will also need toys. Leave out some safe toys for solo playtime. For interactive playtime you will bring in toys so they can be used with your supervision. You don’t want to leave any toys out that have strings or anything that could pose a danger to your kitten.
Leave the carrier in the sanctuary room for your cat to use as a hiding place if he wants. Line the carrier with a towel and your kitten will have a safe place if he wants to curl up in there.
Start introducing your family members to the kitten while in the sanctuary room but do it in a way that doesn’t overwhelm your newcomer. When you aren’t there to supervise the kitten, keep him in the sanctuary room until old enough and confident enough to have the run of the house.
The amount of time your new kitten will have to be in the sanctuary room depends on age, personality, and whether you currently have other pets at home. If he’s the only pet and is comfortable and confident after about 24 hours or so, you can begin to let kitty explore the house a little at a time. Always make sure he knows where the litter box is and can return to the safety of the sanctuary room. If you have other pets at home then you’ll have to keep the kitten in the sanctuary room as you do a gradual, positive introduction. If he’s a very young kitten, keep him confined to a smaller area until he gets more comfortable navigating around and knows where the litter box is and won’t get lost or disoriented in the house.
The Cat Carrier
Even after your kitten is out of the sanctuary room, keep the cat carrier set up and ready all the time. This will help your kitten become comfortable with its presence and you’ll eventually be able to do some carrier training to help desensitize your kitten to the experience of being in a carrier and also travel itself. It’s never too early to start training to accept being in a carrier. You can do this by placing treats nearby and also inside the carrier. You can even offer some meals in there. While it may be easy to get a kitten in a carrier now, it will be much more difficult to wrestle a full-grown cat in there if he really doesn’t want to go. Training early will save you and your cat lots of stress later.
Getting to Know You
The time that your kitten is in the sanctuary room is the time to begin the bonding process. You can bring in an interactive toy (fishing pole design) to initiate what will hopefully become a lifelong routine for both of you – daily play sessions together. Kittens have lots of energy and they need to be able to learn about their emerging skills so they need to play, climb and jump. If you have a frightened kitten then the fishing pole design of the toy will help create trust because it puts you at enough of a distance so he can relax and enjoy the game.
Bring other family members into the sanctuary room to get to know the kitten. If kitty is timid, do it one person at a time.
Kitten-Proofing and Safety
Your kitten will most likely view everything in the house as a potential toy. He’ll also have a strong desire to be vertical so your curtains and bookshelves are potential jungle gyms. Kittens often get themselves into trouble by squeezing into the most unlikely places so take the time to go room by room to kitten-proof. There are things in almost every room that you wouldn’t think could be harmful so it’s important to look at each room from a kitten’s point of view For example, if you have a recliner, it can be easy for the kitten to hide in there and get injured when you put the chair back in the upright position.
Washers and dryers may seem out of reach but kittens easily find their way into there. One way is that a kitten can crawl into a pile of dirty laundry and hide there. You may unknowingly scoop up the laundry and toss it in the washer. Always put each piece of laundry into the washer separately. Also, check the washer and dryer before you turn them on and then again after you empty the laundry before you close the doors again.
Another danger due to a misconception many new cat parents have has to do with a simple ball of yarn. You may have seen lots of pictures of kittens and cats playing with balls of yarn and that might appear to be a convenient and fun toy for a curious kitty but it’s actually potentially deadly. All cats have backward-facing barbs on their tongues that are used in the wild to rasp meat from the bones of prey. The barbs also trap dirt, hair and parasites as cats groom themselves. These barbs are what give your kitten’s tongue that scratchy feeling when he licks you. Because of the way the barbs face, anything that gets attached to the tongue must get swallowed. The cat can’t spit out a piece of yarn or string. Swallowing these types of items can lead to choking and can also cause potentially deadly intestinal blockages. Don’t leave string, yarn, thread or rubber bands around where your kitten can get them. Also, if you see thread hanging from the back end of your kitten, don’t pull it because there may be a needle attached. Take your kitten to the veterinary clinic immediately.
Kittens are playful and curious so it’s crucial that you go through your house room by room and make sure you’ve kitten-proofed.
Here are just some examples of what needs to be done:
- Secure window screens
- Keep all medicine put away
- Don’t leave out string, ribbon, rubber bands or other things that can be swallowed
- Keep household cleansers put away in cabinets
- Use trash cans with lids or secure them in cabinets
- Cut handles off paper bags before offering as a toy
- Don’t let your kitten play with plastic bags
- Cover small openings where a kitten could wedge herself and get stuck
- Secure electrical cords so they don’t dangle
- Coat any dangling electrical cords with a bitter anti-chew product
- Use museum or earthquake wax to secure breakable objects that can’t be put away
- Check the washer and dryer before doing laundry
- Always double-check when closing closets and drawers
- Keep all household plants out of kitten’s reach (most are poisonous to cats)
- Close all sewing and knitting baskets after use and double-check for any pins on the carpet
- Don’t leave candles burning where a kitten could reach them
- Make sure fireplace has a secure screen
- Don’t throw boxes out without first checking if the kitten is hiding there
- Do a “kitten check” before leaving the house in case she’s locked in a closet or drawer
- Block the space behind the refrigerator so the kitten can’t get wedged in there
The above list is just a small sample of the types of kitten-proofing that may need to be done. You’ll have to customize it based on your specific household. Kitten-proofing may seem like lots of work but keep in mind that your kitten will mature and outgrow many of the dangerous behaviors. If you have children you know that both baby-proofing and toddler-proofing your home are needed but don’t last forever. And speaking of baby-proofing, you can find many items to help you kitten-proof in the baby safety section of department stores and baby product stores. Electrical cord covers, outlet covers, cabinet locks, toilet paper roll covers, etc., are also very useful when trying to safeguard a curious little kitten.
The Litter Box
Since your kitten is still in the early learning stages, the litter box set-up needs to be conveniently located and easy to navigate. The box should be low-sided or at least have one low cut-out so the kitten can easily get in and out. As your kitten grows you’ll be able to change out the box for a larger one but for right now, make sure it’s low enough while he’s young and is working on developing his physical and mental abilities.
Keep in mind that your kitten may not be able to remember where the box is located or have the bladder control to get to it in time so don’t let him have the run of the entire house until you feel he has the routine down. Also, get on a schedule of bringing your kitten to the litter box during the times elimination might normally occur such as after a nap, after a meal and after playtime.
Your Kitten’s Food and Water
Start with getting the right food and water bowls. Your kitten needs their his own bowl that’s a good kitten size. If you have a multicat household it’s a good idea all cats have their own bowls. With your kitten, he’ll need to eat a growth formula food and shouldn’t be eating another resident cat’s adult formula. You also don’t want any adult cats eating growth formula.
Kittens need to be fed several meals a day and your veterinarian can advise you how often and how much to feed based on your kitten’s age and specific health.
Your kitten needs fresh water available at all times. Don’t put the water bowl right next to the food and don’t use a double feeder for food and water. Many cats don’t like the food and water close together. If you have larger pets at home already, don’t just put out one giant water bowl. Your kitten needs a water bowl that’s the appropriate size.
You may have assumed your kitten needs or wants milk but he shouldn’t have any. Once weaned, cats become lactose intolerant so offering milk can lead to diarrhea. This can lead to dehydration, which in a kitten, can become deadly. If you have an orphaned kitten who isn’t on solid food yet, your veterinarian will recommend a milk replacement formula and that formula isn’t from cow’s milk. Additionally, milk should never be given to a kitten as a replacement for water because it can lead to dehydration. So unless your veterinarian instructs you that your kitten needs replacement formula, you should be feeding kitten formula food and offering fresh, clean water.
The Scratching Post
Get your kitten started off right by providing an appropriate scratching post. Keep in mind that your kitten’s claws are probably all the time right now but as he matures he’ll become better at keeping them retracted.
Texture matters when it comes to a scratching post. Choose a sisal covered one that’s tall and sturdy. Stay away from carpet-covered posts as they are ineffective. Place the post in a convenient location where your kitten will probably feel the urge to scratch – such as near the food bowl or by a favorite napping location. You can even get some corrugated scratching pads (they’re very inexpensive) and place them around for your kitten.
If you’re considering having your kitten declawed, keep in mind that cats can easily be trained to scratch on posts and not on the furniture. There’s no reason to put your kitten through such an inhumane procedure. We have several articles on our site about furniture scratching and training your cat to a post. Please take the time to read them before making a decision that will affect your kitten for the rest of his life.
Cat Trees
Your kitten loves to climb and it’s actually providing important skill-building for him. He’s learning about strength, balance and speed. Provide those opportunities by having a sturdy cat tree available. This way your kitten can climb there instead of scaling your curtains or bookshelves.
As your kitten matures, he’ll appreciate having the cat tree as vertical territory. Cats love being in elevated locations.
Grooming and Nail Trimming for Your Kitten
Unless you want to end up doing battle with an adult cat who won’t let you near his claws or will bite you whenever he sees a brush, get started now on the training. While your kitten is still young is the time to get him acclimated. Get a soft brush and start brushing him for a few minutes several times a day. Gently handle ears and touch his mouth as well. Get kitty comfortable with being touched so he’ll accept it later when you start cleaning teeth, cleaning ears or if he needs to be medicated.
Claw trimming on a regular basis is a necessity. You’ll just want to trim the very sharp tip off the top of the nail. If you start the process when your kitten is young and are consistent about doing it, he’ll probably accept the process without complaint (or with minimal complaining) when mature. You’ll probably need a hands-on lesson from your veterinarian the first time so you can learn the best method to do it and also so you can be shown how to avoid cutting too much of the nail. There’s a blood supply that runs through the nail and you certainly don’t want to cut the nail at that point because it’s very painful for the cat, will cause lots of bleeding and can lead to an infection. Ask your veterinarian or veterinary technician to give you a quick lesson in claw trimming.
Kitten Environmental Enrichment, Playtime and Socialization
The indoor environment is the safest place for your kitten but you want to make sure that environment is filled with stimulation, fun and also security and comfort. Instead of leaving toys piled up in a box in the corner, locate them through your kitten’s area to discover. Create vertical territory through cat trees and safe cat shelving. Engage in several interactive play sessions per day and also socialize your kitten to people, sounds and experiences. Socialization now is important because it will help your kitten handle changes, and the appearances of unfamiliar people as he grows. Acclimate your cat to the carrier and take him for car rides. Have friends over and show them how to gently handle so the kitten becomes comfortable with being held and also develops a good comfort level with people in his environment.
Training Your New Kitten
If you want a well-adjusted, well-behaved cat, you have to put the effort into appropriately and humane training. Start now and be consistent. Make sure all family members are on the same page as well so your kitten doesn’t get mixed messages. Training now will pay off greatly as your youngster grows into a full-grown cat.
Need More Help?
For specific step-by-step information on kitten training and behavior, refer to the books by best-selling author Pam Johnson-Bennett. Her books are available at bookstores and online. We’ve included links to Amazon here on our website.
If you have a question regarding your cat’s health, please contact your veterinarian. This article is not intended as a replacement for your cat’s veterinary care.
