teaching a kitten to wear a harness

My kitten Jack is about 11 weeks old now, today I bought him a collar, harness and lead, the collar is a little big but im keeping it on him to get use to it, i dont think he likes the tag on it, he keeps messing with it.

When he calms down I was going to try the harness, how do you train a cat to wear one, im sure he will freak out when i first put it on, anything i should do to make is a positive experiance? Maybe I should try playing with him right after I put it on?

Any advice would be great, I know once he is older he would love to be able to go outside with me.

Thanks!

Good luck - IMO collars and harnesses are too big for small kittens. And yes, the kitten will probably freak out at first, so put him in a room with little furniture and things the harness can get caught on and panic him more.

Either they freak out and run, try to get it off, etc. or they lay there "dead" like they can not walk in the thing. I'd only leave it on for 5 mins at a time depending on their reaction. And playing with it on is a good thing. Don't introduce the leash till the cat is ok with the harness.

We started at 12 weeks and he does well with the harness. The leash is a different story--he doesn't like the outside, it scares him (I think being a stray made him realize inside is much nicer) so once you hit the door he stops--he walks in the house on the leash though

Leslie

I never really had to train my kittens. They just accepted the harness with no problems. Now adult cats has been a different matter! I started using a harness on my kitten Church when he was probably about 7-8 weeks old, so I could take him to different parts of the house without him getting away from me when he was confined to one room, and also for visiting a friend's house. He didn't mind it at all even in the beginning. I used a ferret harness I had at first and then I bought a rabbit vest-type harness when he outgrew the ferret one. Finally he was able to fit into a small cat harness. The harness seems to have a calming effect on him when we go to places like the vet. However he hasn't been walking outside at all with it because it's just too cold.