Ok, so I’ve never owned a cat before, and I have no idea what to do with it. How often should I feed the cat? What type of food is better for a kitten? Does it litter train itself? Is she too small for a flea collar? Do I even need one if she’s going to be an indoor cat? I’m completely lost at to what to do. I know I have to take the kitten to the vet and they can answer these questions for me, but I can’t take her to the vet until next week and in the meantime, what should I do to make sure the basics are covered?
Any suggestions?
with our cats, we feed them canned food in the morning, and leave out dry food for them to eat whenever they are hungry. i dont think i can help you with the litter, with my cats, the mama was already trained, and the kittens seemed to pick up on what mama was doing. i have heard that if you use newspaper, then move the newspaper to into a litter box, then put litter in the box, you can train it that way, but have never seen it done. When she is trained, make sure you clean that litterbox!
she is probably too small for a flea collar, maybe even too young, but she may get fleas even if she’s indoors, especially in winter when the fleas move indoors. and make sure she has water, and what is that other thing, oh yeah, love!
Find a web site that specializes in cats (there can’t be more than three or four thousand of them) and hang out, then check for a related message board.
We brought home a seven-week-old Burmese pointed Manx about three and a half weeks ago. We have been giving her one measured tablespoon of kitten chow and approximately the same amount of canned food each morning and evening. She initially left a bit more than a teaspoon of the mix for or Boxer after each meal, but she has been forcing the Boxer to lick hard to find enough to taste recently, so we’ll be increasing the amount this weekend.
To litter train a kitten, wait a few minutes after it has eaten and place it in a litter box. If it does not paw the sand right away, gently “help” it to paw the sand. It will get the idea pretty quickly. Follow it around after eating or if you see it drinking for a day or so, moving it to the litter box if it appear to be squatting to do its business. Our was fully trained in one day (and my memory is that that is about par for the course).
No flea collar at this age. If it never goes outside and no other animal comes in, you may never need a flea collar.
Our cats are outdoor cats and we’ve only had two flea infestations in 18 years. On those occasions, we used Escort™ collars (available only from vets) and they worked like magic. (We’re in Northern Ohio; YMMV.)
Relax. 
Some answers:
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I’ve found that the easiest thing to do for feeding is to have a bowl of food out at all times. Animals will rarely overfeed themselves unless you’re giving them treats above and beyond their normal food. Your best bet is to find one brand of food and stick to it. Constantly swapping brands will make for a finicky eater.
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Some sort of kitten chow is best for the first 6 months or so. I highly recommend buying a quality food (I buy Hill’s Science Diet for my cat, available only in pet stores). Quality food will seem expensive compared to the bargain foods in the grocery store, but if you’re going to be keeping the cat indoors, you’ll notice one huge bonus with “expensive” food: the better the quality of food you feed the cat, the less its poo is going to stink.
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Cats will generally litter-train themselves. I recommend getting a covered catbox and a quality clumping litter. Scoop the box daily, and you’ll never have that cat-pee stench that tends to permeate the homes of less than diligent cat owners.
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I don’t think that flea collers are recommended for cats that young, and if she’s going to be an indoor cat, she won’t need one anyway (unless your home is already flea-infested, and I’m assuming it’s not).
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When you take your little beastie to the vet to get shots, don’t let them talk you out of the feline leukemia shot. A lot of vets will say that if you’re keeping the cat indoors and away from other animals, it doesn’t need the feline leukemia vaccination. This might be true in most cases, but I’ve heard that you can track the virus in on your shoes, clothing, hands, etc. and pass it to your cat. The extra few dollars are worth the heartache you’ll experience if your cat whom you thought was safe comes down with the disease and dies.
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Buy a water gun or spraying water bottle. This is the best training tool you can get for a cat. If she goes where she’s not supposed to go, or starts to scratch furniture, spritz her with the water gun and yell. It’ll really get her attention.
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Cats aren’t pack animals like dogs, so they don’t need quite as much interaction, but kittens are frisky. My cat loves to play with anything on the floor that wasn’t there 5 minutes ago, but you can buy toys if you want. I don’t recommend encouraging your cat to attack your hands, no matter how cute it is. This only trains them that hands are fair game for scratching/biting later. I bought a fluffy feather thing on a stick that my kitty loves to play with, and it gives her something to attack that’s removed from my actual being.
Good luck, and let us know if you have other questions.
We feed our older cats the same way that Tars Tarkas mentioned. The kitten has been getting special treatment while the older cats adjust to her intrusion. (She has started nibbling at their food, already.) And, yes, I was seriously remiss in not mentioning a constant supply of fresh water.
Hwo old is said kitten?
As for a flea collar, I wouldn’t know, I use soem monthly goop on the back of the neck for my cats. (But I seem to recall thet kittens may not have the body weight for the chemical.)
Find out how old the kitten is and do some google searches for care tips.
Just how old the kitten is will effect a lot of your questions. If you visit PetSmart’s website, look at section Cats, then Answers–I won’t post the link to avoid commercial link issue–there are lots of hints and tips related to what you asked. It even has a cat food calculator. We give dry food all day and moist food at night.
Even if you can’t take the kitten to the vet, when you call to make the appointment, you can ask some questions. Also, most bookstores have some fairly inexpensive books entitled things like “Help! I have a new kitten: What do I do now?”
As others have said, flea collars are not recommended for the very small. Check her over carefully for fleas. You can place her on a light colored surface (blanket, towel, etc.) and ruffle up her fur some and look for black specs on the surface–this indicates she may have fleas. Watch for scratching. If you know or suspect she has fleas, take her to the vet ASAP. Fleas on a kitten are dangerous because they can cause serious anemia and other complications. I forget the age cut-off, but they can start with the flea topical treatments (prescribed by your vet) at a fairly young age so long as her weight isn’t a problem.
Our cats never go outside and they managed to get fleas last year due to our apt location and the climate here in VA. We used the prescription-formula topical (Advantage is one and I forget the other one, but the over-the-counter brands didn’t work for us), and they were gone quickly.
Regarding the litter-training issue, Tom’s covered it pretty well (no pun intended). If the cat does urinate or defecate on the carpet/floor, do not reprimand her–just pick (soak) it up with a paper towel and put that in the box. Bring the kitten to the box and let her smell it. That can help her understand what exactly the box is meant for…
To add a helpful hint, start clipping her nails while she’s young. When you go to the vet, have the vet show you how to clip them so you don’t nick the quick of her nails (you can eve buy the clippers at the vet’s office, if they’re not too overpriced). If she gets used to you doing while she’s young, you’ll be able to do it as she grows and gets older. And it will really help avoid damage later if you maintain them.
Congratulations!
Thanks guys. I don’t know why I didn’t think to check the web. I’ve got an appointment to see the vet tomorrow morning, so I panicked for nothing. She’s just so tiny it sort of scared me. As soon as I get a picture of her, I’ll post it somewhere so everyone can see how cute she is.