Bringing Your Kitten Home

Before you bring your kitten home ensure that you have prepared your home and have all the items you will need to care for your new pet.

Helping your kitten settle in

Kittens can be unsettled for the first few days in their new home, possibly missing their mother or littermates. To help your kitten settle in it is advisable to confine it to one room of your house. Provide a litter tray, food and water bowl (away from the litter tray), a comfortable bed and some toys.

Once your kitten has had time to settle in and become familiar with its surroundings, slowly increase the area that it can explore.

Tips to help your kitten settle in:

• Plan to spend time as much time as you can with your new kitten.
• Put a ticking clock in its bed.
• Give the kitten a hot water bottle. Make sure it is not too hot, and wrap it in a blanket.
• If your kitten is reluctant to eat, encourage it by slightly warming its food in the microwave.

Introducing your kitten to other pets

Your kitten should have time to settle into its new home before being introduced to other pets. The introduction should be slow and controlled as some pets will become firm friends immediately, but others will be upset for weeks or even months after the arrival of a new pet.

Introducing your kitten to children: Actively supervise or separate

Introducing your new kitten to children needs to be done slowly and carefully. Let the kitten settle in before you introduce it to children. Never leave young children unattended with the kitten and actively supervise all interactions. Ensure you teach your children how to handle a kitten responsibly and provide the kitten with a safe place it can retreat to should it need to get away.

Explain to your children that cats should never be disturbed if they are sleeping or eating.