Adopted a new kitten today

Hello everyone! I just went to the pound and adopted a male kitten, he is about 2 months old. Its been a while since i have had a kitten. He will be my only cat. I havnt yet picked him up, he is getting nuetered tomorow morning, so i get to pick him up tomorow afternoon.

So I made up his very own room for him. I just finsihed kitten proofing it, taking away all wires and what not, cleaned it and got his stuff set up in there. Im not planning on keeping him in there forever but to use it as his rom while he gets acustomed to me and my doggy family.I put my dogs beds in the room so that way he can get use to their scent before meeting them. My dogs are VERY good around cats especially kittens, im wondering how long do i wait before introducing him to the dogs? Can i do it the same day if he doesnt seem nervous or should i wait a day or two? Also im going to be kitten proofing he whole house today as well, luckily there arnt many dangers, but im wondering when would be a good time to let him explore the whole house? How long should i wait before doing that?

Also since my house is two stories I made sure to buy two litterboxes, one for upstairs and one for his room downstairs.

Part of me feels like I should get him a buddy cause now im starting to worry he will be lonely, what are your guys thoughts on havinh one kitten as opposed to two? Just curious, he was with his siblings at the pound but they got adopted while i was looking at him, so i would have taken two but it was too late.

Anyways thanks for any advice you might give. Ill have to start thinking of names too, if anyone has any names ideas that would be great too! He is a male shorthair light grey tabby.

Thanks!

Hey! Congrats on your new addition. It's sounds like he is going to be very comfortable. I've always heard that it is easier to have 2 cats rather than just 1.

Congrats on your new kitty.I just got mine as well.
I was only going to get one,but decided on two...so it would make things easier for them while they get used to everything and so they have eachother and won't be lonely.

If he's only 8 weeks old, I strongly advise you to get an older kitten - maybe 6-8 months old. The ideal time to adopt is 10-12 weeks minimum. At 8 weeks old they have a lot of physical/emotional issues and an older kitten/cat can teach them important cat stuff that you can't.

Besides at 8 weeks, they really need their mom/siblings. I'd adopt another male (neutered) kitten for best results.

As far as exploring the entire house, you have to remember he's a very little baby - you'll need more then one litter pan for awhile. And I would not let a kitten explore unsupervised till at least 5-6 months old!

I'm so excited for you!

Even at 8 weeks, he won't necessarily become buddies with another kitty right away. It is easier when bringing in more than one to have kitties of different ages, though older cats sometimes get sick pretty quickly of kitten antics.

As to whether or not you should get one or two right now? I really don't know. We have six, and it has become really apparent over time that our first rescue would have been completely happy as an alone cat. He's fine with the others (for the most part), but there's just no way to know. So if you want two, get two - but don't do it for the kitty. At least that's the way I see it.

Here's an article on introducing cats to dogs: http://www.thecatsite.com/Behavior/5...s-to-Dogs.html

Hope this helps,

Laurie

I agree with the person who said only get another kitten if its right for you.

When I started posting about my new 10 week old kitten, everyone said get another. It was not something we could afford financially, and to be honest we didn't want another cat (Jack found us, otherwise we wouldnt' have a cat in our household). Granted I had the benefit of being home most of the time since we've had Jack he hasn't spent a long time alone. He has done great when we've gone out of town (we have someone check in on him if we are gone more then 24 hours). He is very attached to us and likes to "help" with what we are doing.

Jack's safe place is currently our downstairs bathroom (we are moving soon so this will change). Two big reasons made us select the bathroom, fleas and learning to use the litterbox (the only room with tile floors besides the kichen).

I will be honest, Jack still does not have free reign of the house when we aren't here. There are just too many dangers because we are smooshed into a place that we have too much stuff for. He sleeps in our bedroom at night, with the door closed and does great. He has a litter box in his bathroom downstairs and one in our bedroom. When we are home he has free reign (we had probably had him 3 or so weeks before he was allowed free reign.)
At our new place he will have free reign even when we are not home.

I will admit Jack does have a biting issue which mostly has to do with teething however, we are not sure how long he lived alone on the streets, and it could very well be that he never learned from his mother or siblings what is okay. We pray he grows out of it, but we love him regardless.

Good Luck and congratulations

Leslie

Thanks everyone for all the advice! Im definitly thinking of getting another kitten to keep him company, but im going to wait till I get him today and see how he is on his own first.

I do have a question, the room I am going to be keeping him in while he gets use to everything, does not have a light. I rent and the landlord hasnt fixed it yet, so when the sun goes down he will be in the dark till morning, i know cats see well in the dark, but will he be ok? While im home I can keep the door open and let him wander out supervised if he wants to come out, but im feeling bad he will be alone in the dark. I also wanted to pet him and get him use to me tonight but i cant in his room since there will be no light. Will he be ok?

Thanks!

I think it depends on the individual, if he doesn't seem afraid and the dogs aren't going to be too much for him, and as long as you can supervise, I'd open the door and see if he wants to come out to explore/play. Do watch the dog situation, it's great that you already know they are good with kittens but he won't know that so don't let them overwhelm him. Have them sit or down and stay and let him approach them.

While I appreciate the need for a kitten-safe area when you're not there to supervise, I've always let mine have a run round when I've been there. It may be different for particularly fearful kittens, but when I got Radar at that age I just let him out in the sitting room as soon as we got home and let him explore - just making sure to follow him around making sure he hadn't found any potential hazards that I'd overlooked, and returning him to the safe room if I couldn't give him my full attention. He's not going to break

If he's going to be confined at night, best to buy a night light. He should be fine, but a low light might help.

Laurie

You don't need to provide a light for a cat. Animals are naturally attuned to diurnal rhythms... they're more used to it than we are, and a regular succession of day and night is what's natural for them. Even domestic indoor cats are used to all the lights being out at night, when we humans are sleeping. Then there's the superior night vision.

I'd get a few plug in nite lights to put in the room. While cats don't need light, I'm sure it would be appreciated by a young kitten; especially for using the litter pan

Cats are animals. It's anthropomorphizing to imagine they dislike the dark or can't see to go about their business.

Of course it's not going to hurt the cat to leave a light on at night. But it seems a shame, environmentally, to use electricity on light for a creature that doesn't want it.