Inviting your first cat into your house and your life is a significantly thrilling time, nevertheless it does include fairly a number of questions and issues. It may be considerably overwhelming understanding the place to begin with regards to getting ready in your kitten or cat’s arrival, to not point out the executive duties like discovering a vet and arranging pictures, spaying/neutering, or microchipping.
Should you’re utterly new to all of this, we’ve compiled these high suggestions so that you can use as a information in your first days, weeks, months, and even years as a cat mother or father.
The 11 Fundamental Suggestions for First-Time Cat House owners
1. Discover a Vet
It’s a good suggestion to begin researching vets in your native space earlier than you even carry your cat or kitten dwelling. There’s additionally nothing mistaken with contacting a vet to allow them to find out about your feline pal’s imminent arrival—this manner, you possibly can arrange your cat’s first vet go to and get recommendation on the vaccinations they’ll want and flea and deworming therapies.
This provides you peace of thoughts that you simply’ll have already got a help system in place not just for when your cat arrives however for the course of your cat’s life.
2. Get Your Cat Microchipped
Microchipping is a straightforward process by which your vet inserts a tiny chip underneath your cat’s pores and skin between their shoulder blades. This chip is linked to a quantity that, when scanned, permits vets or rescue organizations to search out out your contact particulars. Don’t fear—the chip doesn’t comprise data like your deal with and cellphone quantity, these are saved on a non-public database.
Microchipping could make it so that you simply’re reunited together with your cat in the event that they ever wander too removed from dwelling. In some places, microchipping for cats and/or canine is a authorized requirement for pet house owners—Australia and the U.Okay. are two examples.
3. Contemplate Spaying/Neutering
Spaying and neutering make it unattainable for a cat to breed, which might help scale back the danger of sure well being points down the road and scale back the variety of undesirable cat pregnancies. It may possibly additionally remove undesirable behaviors like roaming, urine spraying, aggression, and extreme vocalizing that may current in unspayed/unneutered cats.
4. Make Your New Cat Snug
Earlier than you carry your cat dwelling, you’ll need to arrange an atmosphere for them that’s inviting, cozy, and cozy to assist them settle into their new dwelling. We advocate selecting one room to place all their requirements in in order that they’re not too overwhelmed at first.
On this room, put a cat mattress with a roof (like a triangle-shaped mattress or a cat apartment) that they’ll cover inside, heat blankets, their litter field, meals, and different requirements.
5. Create a “New Cat Guidelines”
Along with a comfy mattress, your cat will want another fundamentals. Creating or following a “new cat guidelines” might help you are feeling extra in management. Right here’s one to get you began:
6. Handle the Litter Field
Some new cat mother and father might be shocked on the pace at which a litter field begins to scent funky—even tiny kittens might be accountable for some fairly terrible odors, belief us. To maintain your house smelling recent, carry out common spot checks and take away to take away any “eliminations” or litter clumps.
We advocate altering out the litter and giving the litter field an intensive clear with pet-safe merchandise a minimum of as soon as every week, however the frequency actually is dependent upon how efficient the litter you’re utilizing is. You may need to take into account including baking soda or litter deodorizer to your cat’s field to assist maintain smells underneath management.
7. Decide a High quality Meals
Excessive-quality cat or kitten meals from a good model can go a great distance by way of retaining your cat wholesome, their coat shining, and their litter field much less pungent. Effectively-known “premium” manufacturers do have a popularity for being dearer—a popularity that’s not unfounded in lots of circumstances—however you possibly can definitely discover extra inexpensive choices, too.
8. Give Your New Cat Time
Each cat is a person and every will adapt to their new atmosphere at totally different speeds. Whereas some make themselves fairly at dwelling inside a number of hours, some take a number of days and even weeks to totally settle. Should you’ve adopted a cat from a rescue group, they could have had trauma of their previous and so may have a bit extra time to really feel relaxed within the new atmosphere.
If you first carry your cat dwelling, place the service you transported them in within the room you’ve arrange for the cat—ideally a quiet room. Open the service and allow them to come out and discover at their very own tempo, ensuring there’s meals, water, and a litter field near the service’s door.
In case your cat is reluctant to return out of the service, don’t power them. They might not eat a lot and even in any respect for the primary day because of the stress of the change—that is regular.
In terms of bonding together with your new kitten or cat, allow them to come to you first. Be at liberty to spend time close to them within the room however keep away from fussing over them or choosing them up earlier than they’re prepared. In the event that they do strategy you, strive stroking them gently to see how they reply. In the event that they welcome the eye, stick with it! In the event that they again away or appear cautious, they want extra time to get used to you.
9. Educate Youngsters The way to Work together With Your Cat
You probably have kids, educate them find out how to gently and sensibly work together together with your new cat or kitten.
Youngsters will little question be excited when a brand new cat comes dwelling and can need to spend time stroking or cuddling with them and bolder, extra assured kittens could also be joyful to oblige, but when your cat or kitten is nervous, coach your kids to attend it out with you and let the cat come to them.
It is perhaps a good suggestion, if attainable, to provide your cat a while to get used to the room they’re in earlier than introducing them to kids and different members of the family. Early interactions needs to be very calm and quiet to keep away from horrifying or overwhelming the cat.
10. Introduce Different Pets Progressively
As with introducing your new cat to human members of the family, you’ll must take your time with regards to introducing different pets. You might want to attend for as much as every week to provide your new cat time to settle earlier than you introduce them to their furry brothers and sisters. Permit your new cat to discover your house solely when different pets aren’t round at first and use “their” room as a base.
A good suggestion is to permit your pets and new cat to get used to one another’s scent. You are able to do this by swapping their bedding or giving them gadgets with one another’s scent. Stroke every pet recurrently with out washing your arms to switch the scent from one pet to a different.
If you do introduce your pets for the primary time, be readily available to oversee carefully. Should you’re frightened about how one other pet will react, think about using a leash and introducing them from a distance—probably from behind a gate or display door at first—to maintain all concerned secure. From right here, you possibly can regularly progress to supervised face-to-face conferences in case your pets are responding effectively to one another.
When your pets work together non-aggressively with one another, reward them with reward and a deal with to create optimistic associations.
11. Cat-Proof Your Dwelling
You’ll need to be sure that your house is as secure as attainable in your new cat. This implies trying out which crops are and aren’t poisonous, ensuring your cat can’t come into contact with dangerous chemical substances or harmful objects (i.e., candles), and establishing window guards to stop your cat from falling or escaping. It’s additionally a good suggestion to ensure your cat can’t pay money for any wires and cables.
Conclusion
Should you’re a first-time cat mother or father and are frightened about how your cat will settle in, the most effective recommendation we are able to give you is to arrange prematurely to make the method much less anxious for each you and your cat.
The excellent news is that cats are actually adaptable—although it might take some longer than others, so long as their atmosphere is clear and secure and so they’re with a loving household, they are going to settle with a little bit of time and endurance.
Featured Picture Credit score: Veera, Shutterstock