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It is Never Too Early to Start Preparing For Your Little One’s Arrival!
Where to Start
I always advise our pet parents to start preparing early. The better prepared you are, the easier the transition will be for them. When deciding what you will need, I find it’s always best to start with the basics. Your kitten’s basic needs are: safety, shelter, bathroom, food, water, comfort and play. Simple enough.
By the time they leave, our kittens are able to navigate our home quite well. They generally have free reign during the day and spend the night in a safety proof kitten room. Keep in mind
this didn’t happen in a day. The kittens explored little by little, as they learned the house and started feeling comfortable with it. To them our home is their whole world. It can be terrifying for a small kitten to suddenly be taken to a new world with strange people, strange smells and strange noises. To help them adjust you will want to start with a small space at first. The most common choices are a bedroom, bathroom or laundry room. You can also use a small zip up playpen or even a large dog crate. This works especially well in homes with other pets and small children. It gives the kitten a safe place to observe from and meet their new siblings without feeling threatened.
Kitten Proofing
Once you choose the room you’ll use, you’ll want to take a good look around. I advise getting on the ground and eyeing things as your kitten would. Make sure there is nothing in their reach that can be dangerous. Pick up all trash and any small objects on the floor. Tie up any curtain cords and tuck away your electrical cords. You’ll also want to remove all plants from their reach, remember your kitten will be able to climb quite well from even a young age, so to be on the safe side make sure any get rid of any dangerous plants. You will want to block off furniture your kitten can fit under if you don’t want them going under it. Be sure to remove and put away any rubber bands, ribbon, string, needles, and twine, all of these can be deadly to kittens. If you chose a bathroom make sure the toilet bowl lid is securely shut. If you choose a laundry room, make sure the dryer vent that leads to the outdoors is secure. Kittens have been known to pull them off and get outside.
Creating Their Safe Place
Once you have finished kitten proofing the room, the next step will be creating an area they will feel safe and secure. Kittens have the instinct to seek covered shelter. In the wild, they can easily become prey to birds hunting overheard. You will want to create a covered area for your kitten that they can escape to if they start to feel anxious. There are many different ideas, ranging in price and size. It can be as simple as a cardboard box, you can also purchase fancy cat houses or use a covered cat bed. Some cat climbers have hidey houses built on that work perfectly. You can also use a dog crate with the door off or propped open and covered with a blanket to make it private. Just something where they can go and have private time, especially during their adjustment period. If you use a playpen, be sure to give them a covered place inside where they can have privacy when they want it. Also make sure they have something soft to lay on, you could use a cat bed, cushion, or even just a folded blanket. I recommend putting a few around. At least one in their private place and one more in the open for when they want to be more sociable.
The Litter Box
Next, you will want to think bathroom. You will need a litter box and litter. We experimented with just about every litter and every system out there. Some work quite well and others, not so much. For years not much really changed. Nothing worked as well as the good old clay litter. It wasn’t until quite recently a cattery we work closely with mentioned they were trying out a new litter system that used Pine Pellet litter. After some initial research it looked really promising. So we decided to give it a try. I just put out a couple boxes of the pine litter alongside the regular litter boxes and to my surprise the cats took to using it quite willingly. I then noticed cleaning out the pine litter boxes were a little easier than the clay 
ones and I noticed less smell, I was feeling encouraged.
It was two other things I didn’t even consider that ultimately convinced me to switch. The first was my surprise the first time I completely emptied and cleaned the box. Nothing stuck and everything slid out cleanly and easily. It cuts, washing out our of litter box time in half! I also noticed I was sweeping and vacuuming a little less often. I hadn’t considered that the pine pellets would not track all over our floors. Dare I dream of a litter free floor?
Over the next few months we completely transitioned to using only the pine pellet litter. At first I was happy buying bags at Pet Smart for $20 apiece. It was actually cheaper than our regular litter. Then I discovered you could purchase a 40 lb bag from the Tractor Supply Company for only $5! This was unbelievable! Our litter cost went from $200+ a month to under $50. Since the switch I am much happier with our litter situation. It’s not perfect, but certainly a step above our old clay clumping litter. The hardest part was giving up our expensive auto litter boxes, now if only someone can invent an auto litter box for the pine pellet litter!
Using Pine Litter
Pine pellet litter works a little differently than you regular clumping litter. When wet the pine pellets 
break down to a sawdust-like consistency. You’ll want to purchase a sifting litter box to sift out the broken down pine when you clean your box. I have found the Arm and Hammer sifting litter box to work the best. I also have a couple of the extra-large Tidy Cat Breeze litter boxes. These work well with the pine pellets and a large enough for any size cat. To clean your boxes, first you’ll need to scoop out the feces. You’ll need a scooper with larger than average openings for the pine pellets to fall through. The Tidy Cat Breeze Scoopers work well. After you finish scooping you’ll use the sifter to sift the broken down pellet dust out and toss it away, which leaves only intact, clean pine pellets behind. I recommended cleaning once a day if you have one box per cat.
Switching Litters
If you do not have a Tractor Supply Company near you, Feline Pine in another good brand that can be found at most pet stores or ordered from Chewy or Amazon. Walmart also carries a pine litter that can be bought in small bags, but it is only offered online. It is recommended to use NON-CLUMPING litter until kittens are about 12 weeks old. This way, if your little one is confused and consumes the litter it won’t harm their insides. If you plan on switching litters, you’ll want to add a little bit of the new litter to the pine pellet litter and slowly over time, increase the amount of the new litter and decrease the amount of the old until you are only using the new litter.
Food and Water
Your new kitten will need a food and water bowl. Stainless steel or ceramic is best. Some cats can develop sores on their mouths from the bacteria that grows in the cracks of plastic. Plus the chemicals your cat will be exposed to with plastic are not ideal. I also recommended a water fountain if it is within your budget. They can range from $20 all the way up to $100 depending on how fancy of one you get. Cats love them and it encourages them to drink more. Again, stainless steel or ceramic are best.
Purina Pro Plan
(For Our Siamese & Non-Allergy Families)
We feed our Siamese cats and kittens Purina Pro Plan Premium cat/kitten food. A kitten will eat approximately one, 3 oz can a day and 1/3 cup dry. We usually split this into 2-4 feedings. We highly recommend you continue to feed your kitten Purina Pro Kitten.
Food is an essential factor in the lives of all living creatures. Siamese cats live long and beautiful lives. However, just as with people, pets need to meet their dietary and nutritional requirements to continue living a healthy, and abundant life. Life’s Abundance premium cat food is one of a kind. They make it easy for those that want to provide the best for their furry family member.
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(For Our Balinese & Allergy Families)
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If you’re planning to switch to a new food, mix a little bit in each time, increasing in frequency until you are feeding only your brand. This helps with their little tummy not going into distress.
Going Home Package
Because we want to give our kittens the best start possible, we send every kitten home with a new kitten package! This will include a whole week’s worth of our premium cat food from Purina, a bag of Pine Pellet non-clumping kitty litter, some fun toys we know our kittens enjoy and a small stuffed toy that will have the scent of their mom and littermates to help them adjust to your new home a little easier.
Comfort and Cleanliness
Just like people, cats need to be comfortable. Cleanliness is a must. Cats are very clean creatures. They do not like dirty food bowls or dirty litter boxes. Some can be a little pickier than others, but being clean is a top priority for cats and kittens. Always make sure they have a clean and healthy environment.
Cat Scratchers
One of the most overlooked necessitates for cats and kittens are scratchers. It usually comes as an afterthought when the kittens start using furniture. Most families don’t realize cats don’t just like to scratch,; they need to. Just as you might stretch
out your arms after a long period of rest, a cat needs to stretch their claw muscles. A scratcher is a must. I recommend starting with at least two scratchers. You will want one stand up scratcher and one that lays on the ground. Some cats prefer standing up and really stretching their claws, while others prefer short bursts along the ground. Some will also use both methods. I recommend a good sturdy stand up scratcher, sometimes you can get one combined with a cat climber as an extra bonus. For the smaller one along the ground I like cardboard scratchers. My cats are all big fans. You’ll want to put the scratchers in the open and not hidden away. Cats like to show off how tough their scratches are and to them their scratches will scare away all those predators they imagine are out there. It is ok to put your scratchers by your furniture, but never, ever on your furniture. There are scratchers that are sold that go along the sides of your sofa, this is a terrible idea and just teaches your cats to scratch your sofa. On the other hand a strategically placed scratcher by your sofa can entice them to use it, instead of using your sofa. If you want to put something on your sofa to protect it, you can use plastic shields or sticky tape to discourage them from using it to scratch while they are still learning.
Playtime!
Just like children, kittens learn through play. It is necessary for their well-being and growth. I send kittens home with a couple toys, a teaser and a few trinkets. Other toys to consider are laser pointers, they are popular, tunnels are fun, ball toys, basically at this age anything can be fun. Of course they don’t know the difference between a silly home made plaything and an expensive top of the line store bought toy. They just want to have fun. One of my favorite stories comes from a family that adopted their kitten right after the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic. They were staying in and also doing a lot of ordering online, which came with tons of boxes. Their kitten was having a blast with them. That gave them the idea of building an over the top elaborate box fort/climber/castle thingy. The kitten loved it and it cost them only a few rolls of tape and some time. They actually kept it quite a while too. They ended up adopting a second kitten from us later on and it was brought up again from the basement for a second kitten to enjoy.
Transportation
Although not in the direct necessity items, you will need a cat carrier for taking your kitten home and for those inevitable trips to the vet. I am really fond of the top entry ones. It usually makes loading and unloading easier.
Choose the hard sided carriers whenever possible. The soft ones are less expensive, but the hard ones are safer. We had a family lose their kitten because a suitcase fell on top of their soft sided carrier while traveling. By the time they noticed it was too late, the kitten gone too long without the ability to get enough oxygen and had suffocated.
Names
Technically not an item, but still important. A very common question we get asked is if we mind when families change their name. We use fun little nicknames for our kittens rather than just calling them by their collar color, although we have used color names before (we still think of you Greeny and Reddy!). These are just fun temporary names we use to set them apart until we learn their forever names from their new families. So please name away and share it with us. We love learning all the fun, unique and silly names our families come up with. Thinking of you, Sassafrass!
Extra Fun!
Cats and kitten love to climb! I highly recommend you look into a cat tree/condo/climber. We have owned many of them and want to offer our advice to those looking. Most cats like to climb high, so a good high pedestal is fun, the baskets are usually a big hit as are hammocks and hidey houses. The toys attached by strings always break, but are
great fun for the week or so they last. Some are on the cheaper end, work great for kittens, and not so much for adult kitties. They are smaller, and they use particle board and faux fur. They work great for immediate needs, but don’t last very long. Your kitten will probably outgrow it around 7-8 months. By that time it may be looking a little shabby too. The faux fur tends to shed, doesn’t clean well. If you want something that is going to last through years and years, you probably want something with wood and real carpet. It will be a bit more expensive, but personally We think it’s worth it. However, if you want something smaller that will work for just the kitten years, Walmart, Amazon, Chewy and other sites has some cheap ones at around $50 or less.
Medical Care
Be sure to activate your free 30 days insurance through Trupanion! This is an important part of protecting your kitten should they become sick or injured in the next 30 days. Keep in mind as well, since we use Trupanion to cover our kittens going home, in cases of high vet costs, you may not be eligible for any health coverage reimbursement should you choose to not activate your policy.
Your Next Vet Visit
Your kittens should see the vet for their boosters at approximately 16 weeks. Some vets recommended sooner, so it is best to contact your vet right away to see what they recommend. Our recommendation for spay and neuter is to wait until 6 months if possible. Unless you have an intact cat of the opposite sex around or allow your kitten to go outside (which we strongly advise against) waiting until 6 months seems to be the best for the kitty. Keep in mind kittens can get pregnant or get a cat pregnant as young as 4 months old, so if there is a chance of one of those happening, then the earlier spay/neuter at 4 months would be advised.
Also, don’t forget the cat carrier! You will of course need a way of transporting your new kitten home! A lap is always a good thought, however, I have found it doesn’t always go as well as intended! It’s always better and safer to have a carrier on hand just in case that lap doesn’t work out!