Kitten Care

Keeping Your Kitten Happy and Healthy

We’re excited to support you in giving your kitten the best start in life. That’s why we’ve prepared this information sheet, filled with everything you need to know to keep your kitten happy, healthy, and thriving.

VACCINATIONS

Vaccinating your kitten is crucial for protecting them against several common and potentially serious diseases. Kittens typically require a series of three vaccinations during their early development to build strong immunity.

These vaccinations help protect against:

Your veterinarian will determine the appropriate vaccination schedule based on your kitten’s individual needs. Generally, the timeline is as follows:

6–8 weeks of age: Feline Herpes Virus, Feline Calici Virus, Panleukopaenia, Feline Infectious Leukaemia

10–12 weeks of age: Feline Herpes Virus, Feline Calici Virus, Panleukopaenia, Feline Infectious Leukaemia

14–16 weeks of age: Feline Herpes Virus, Feline Calici Virus, Panleukopaenia, Feline Infectious Leukaemia

Please speak with your veterinarian about vaccinating your kitten against Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), as this may be recommended depending on your kitten’s lifestyle and risk factors.

WORMING

Your kitten requires regular de-worming to keep them healthy and free of gastro-intestinal parasites.

Recommended worming:

It is important to use good quality worming products to ensure effective worming.

DE-SEXING

If you have no plans to breed from your pet, de-sexing them has many health benefits, most important of which is the reduction of pyometras, mammary tumours, wandering and unwanted kittens. Your cat can be de-sexed from 6 months of age. If you have questions about this, please talk to your veterinarian. They will be happy to expel any myths about de-sexing your pets.

DENTAL CARE

Cats, just like us, require regular tooth care. There are many options for helping to clean your cat’s teeth, and these include, dental sticks, greenies, chicken necks (frozen works well), and specialised diets such as Hill’s Prescription T/D.

DIET

There are many products available, but to help your kitten grow healthily, we recommend high quality diets such as Hill’s Science Diet, Royal Canin, Advance or Eukanuba. Many supermarket diets are nutritionally inferior and are not ‘complete and balanced’ nutritionally, although they may claim to be. It is important while your kitten is growing to feed him or her a kitten food. This is to help them develop all the necessary muscles, bones and nerves they will require for their lives. Ask your veterinarian if you are unsure. Although these premium diets are more expensive, your kitten will require less of the food due to its superior quality. As the old age saying goes, “you get what you pay for”.

FEEDING

Kittens require feeding multiple times a day. When they are young, begin with 3x a day feeding in set portions, and as they get older, change this to 2x a day feeding with set portions. Many kittens and cats prefer to graze throughout the day on biscuits which is okay provided that they aren’t getting more than their daily intake requirements to prevent weight problems in the future. Wet foods are great for cats as it increases their water intake. As a general rule, try to feed both biscuits and wet food to your cat. As a kitten transitions into adulthood, we recommend feeding them a dry food, portioned to their correct weight to prevent obesity.

LITTER TRAINING

Cats do take time to be litter trained. By the time you bring home your new kitten from the breeder, pet shop or adoptive agency, they should already have begun basic litter tray training. Always have one litter tray per cat in the household, plus one extra. Many cats will prefer to use their specific trays, so this lessens the chance of ‘accidents’. Using the litter tray is a ‘private’ affair, so another cause of not using the litter tray is privacy. Litter trays that have sides and a roof are preferred by some cats. Remember that any changes to your household, such as a new pet, new furniture, etc. can cause your cat to toilet outside of the litter tray due to stress.

KITTEN PROOFING YOUR HOME

Kittens, like all babies, love to explore things and get into things around the house that they shouldn’t. Keep electrical cords, houseplants and household chemicals out of reach of your kitten. Human medications, dog medications, vitamins, tobacco, household cleaning products, car products and toxic houseplants (Lillies) are common things we see sick kittens and cats for in the vet clinic.

BEHAVIOUR, SOCIALISATION AND TRAINING

It is a sad truth that the leading cause of cats being surrendered to the pound or RSPCA, or being dumped are because of bad behaviour. You can begin training your kitten immediately. Many people believe cats are unable to be trained as effectively as dogs but this is not entirely true. There are many different ways to train your cat but we prefer a positive approach with a reward based training program. Cats can be taught to use litter trays, to sit for meals, target training, to roll over, harness walking and many other tricks. Using websites such as youtube.com can give you many ideas when training cats.

Kittens have a window of opportunity called the ‘golden period’ for socialisation. This is 8-16 weeks for kittens. During this time it is important that you socialise your cat in a safe and controlled environment with other pets. To do this safely, we recommend ‘kitten kindergardens’ which some veterinary clinics run, or socialising them with friendly cats that belong to friends or family. Remember that not all cats tolerate other cats and it’s important to introduce kittens to older cats very slowly and in a controlled environment. Also remember that at this age, your kitten is not fully protected from cat flu (herpes and calici virus), FIV, or panleukopaenia at this age.