Exposing new kittens to the house...

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum, and to the world of cats. About a month ago, we rescued a stray who was hanging around the front of our house. We brought her to my brother, who has 4 cats of his own. Turns out the girl was pregnant and gave birth to 2 kittens a few days ago. In about 8 weeks, we are going to take the kittens home with us.

My question concerns exposing the cats to the house for the first time. I have heard it suggested to establish a room (with food, water, etc...) where the kittens can stay and slowly get exposed to the rest of the house. That makes sense to me, but what does "slowly" mean? When do we first start doing this? Do we follow them around? How do we know when to let them see more of the place? Do they spend all the time in there at the start?

Thanks in advance for your help!

I base it off the kittens reaction. If they are scared then wait. If they do well the first day and are very curious I would leave the door open.

If possible, I would let the kittens stay with mom for 10-12 weeks instead of bringing them home earlier. They will be a lot more confident with things if allowed that time.

If you have to bring them home earlier (8 weeks) then you will need more time with them to adjust. I'm glad you are bringing both together - that will help a lot

Anyway, confine them to one room (bathroom/bedroom) with the litter pan - make sure its not too deep for them, food/water. At 8 weeks old they probably will not make it back in time to the pan if allowed too much freedom (unless you put out several litter pans for them in other rooms).

As far as how; I supervise them. Follow them around somewhat or put them in one room and sit down and keep an eye on them. Only allow them about 1/2 hr of exploring. And watch for signs of needing the litter pan. Usually if they go and hide in a corner or behind a chair they might be looking for a place to go....so watch them carefully.

Be sure to kitten-proof. And get some Bitter Apple spray to use on all wires so they don't chew on them.

In regards to spraying this on cords, it is required to spray every inch of the cords, or just enough to make it smell bad?

thanks

I usually run a few squirts of BA up the cord; be careful when getting close to the plugged in part

I wanted to correct part of my reply. When I said allow 1/2 hr of exploring time supervised, you can do it a few times a day - after the 1/2 hr is up, put them back in the room for a few hours, then let out again for exploring. Didn't want you to think only 1/2 of time once a day

Post pictures after you get them