Kitten advice/help needed

My hubby and I are hopefully soon to be proud owners to a gorgeous lil kitten, dad is a full BSH mum 1/2 BSH X 1/2 Devon rex,

I am going to meet him tomorrow to check everything is in place, and put down a deposit, he is £180, they say he will be de flead and wormed first,

are there any questions I should be asking or anything I should know before hand

also when it comes to getting him vaccinated how old does he have that done also what sort of price, what sort of jabs etc

what sort of tempermant do these breeds have

are these cats able to be out doors?

Sorry for all the questions I don't want to go into this blind,
this is the lil lad in question (if pic works!)

thanks in advance

Gothic~mermaid

Welcome. I don't advice for you. I just wanted to say congratulations. he is absolutley adorable .

Welcome to TheCatSite.
Your adorable kitten is fortunate that you are asking these important questions in advance.

TCS has a couple of forums that might be relevant to your questions.
Our Health and Nutrition and Behavior Forums both come to mind.

You will want to know your kittens age, what food he/she has been eating and have any inoculations been given yet?
Also, what kind of litter have they been using?
I am sure that other members will have more ideas for you.

Your kitty is a cutie pie...
keep us updated.

Aaaww! You're going to be melting hearts all over the site Welcome, to you and your husband, and congratulations on your soon to be new addition! Let's move your thread to our Health and Nutrition Forum to ensure that your excellent health questions are addressed. I very strongly recommend keeping your little sweetheart inside only.

Welcome to TCS!

Kittens should stay with their mothers until they are 10-12 weeks old, so they learn "good" behaviors. Kittens taken from their mom too early after often behaviorally challenged - some do not understand not to claw people, some bite, etc.

First shots can *usually* be given at 8 weeks. I suggest the distemper shot, and when your baby is old enough, rabies. (Depends on your location) If your kitty will be going outside at all, talk to your vet about the Feline Leukemia vaccine. All my kitties are Feline Leukemia & FIV tested.

An intial vet visit is a good idea, not only so your baby can meet the vet & get a exam, but so that the vet can start to become familiar with your kitten. Also, it allows you to ask all sorts of basic questions (like when to give shots).

Interesting combo of Brit and Devon. Brits are laid back cats; Devons the opposite. So the kitten may take after one or the other in temperment.

I do hope you are not getting this kitten unless he's a minimum of 10-12 weeks old. Any younger and you might have some behaviorial problems as they need to spend time with mom/siblings to learn more. Its not enough to be weaned and litter trained. They need socialization.

He's a cute kitten. He should have his first shots at 8 weeks old and then approximately 3-4 weeks after that. And he should be neutered by 4 months old.

hiya

thanks for all the replies, well I met the gorgeous lil boy today! Its was so funny, he is a tiny fluff ball, I picked him up, and he attmepted to try and scare me, he hissed and batted a lil paw at me, making him seem even more adorable, I laughed and he kinda cocked his head to one side as if to say OI cheeky!!
He eventually snuggled in and had a cuddle! When I put him back on the floor so I could see the mummy and daddy cat, he procedded to lick the wall!!!!!
I got a couple pics, and one of daddy who is hugeeeeeee!!!


i asked the questions, apparently he will be frontlined and wormed and vet checked once more before coming to me, he was born the first week of july and they want me to take him end of august? If this is to early I will request I would prefer to take him later, he is used to a mad house which is cool!
he is good with the cat litter tray already, so thats one good thing!

heres some more piccies,





and big daddy!


there is a picture of mum here shes called wendy

http://www.bigbadstevie.adsl24.co.uk...=58&fullsize=1

MOST on here think kittens should stay with parents till about 12 weeks

He is very cute. I think the end of August is a little early, Mid September would proably be better.

Thank you, Il email the owners and let them know, maybe even refer them to this thread so they can see Im not being awkward

xx

Oh he is soooooo cute...
that sweet face.

Mommy kitty is beautiful.

What an adorable kitten!!!!!

Any time past 6 weeks that your kitten stays with mom and siblings will pay dividends in better behavior later. That's when they learn not to bite, how to hunt (OK, sneak up on the kibble), how to interact, etc.

That said, any time past 10 weeks or so is time they won't be socialized with you. My mother always gave kittens away at 6 weeks. Our wonderful Wickett was only 5 weeks, and very well-behaved, but his brother always had separation anxiety problems.

I know the customs of cat rearing, etc., vary a great deal from the U.S. and the U.K.

If they are planning on letting these kittens leave at 6-8 weeks old - that's way too soon - they are still nursing at that age. Better to be a good 10-12 weeks old. I'd get them to hold onto the kittens till then. And they should at least have 1st shots too.

Plan on getting him neutered by 3-4 months old.


MrBlanche - I don't know where you got the idea that after 10 weeks they won't socialize with you????? Breeders won't even let kittens go to new homes till a MINIMUM of 3 months - and most are 4 months old. I never let my rex kittens go before 4 months old and they were VERY well socialized in all ways.

No, you misunderstood my maybe-no-too-clear sentence. Kittens that go to a new home quite young are definitely socialized with the new owner, who serves in-loco-parentis, but may not be properly socialized with cats. I have no problem with 12 weeks, but by 10 weeks, most kittens are well on the way to forming their personality and lifetime attachments.

One of the problems of adopting older cats is that you have no way of knowing the experiences that formed their personality. There is a current thread about a cat who was suddenly, unexplainably aggressive, and the owner had no good knowledge of how that might have come about.

My only point was that the longer a kitten stays with its original family, the more likely it is to develop attachments, phobias, habits, etc., that will be with it for a lifetime. Everything it sees after that it puts in the light of its previous experiences. I've seen this in kittens in the shelter. We have two pairs of kittens right now that if you mixed up their tags or put all four in the same cage together, you'd have a hard time sorting them out again...except for the fact that they are very different in personality. You'd have no trouble telling which two went together, just by interacting with them for a few minutes. And they're about 10 weeks old.

Now, in theory, to have the ideal cat that you'd like to grow old with, you would raise it from birth. But we know that's not going to happen, and even then, there is a definite variation of personality among littermates. So the old nature/nurture argument comes into play. At 5-6 weeks, nature is probably the stronger influence, assuming a cat is raised indoors, with humans around. By the time they get to 12 weeks, their personalities will have been affected a lot by the nurture they get. This is why, as we all know, if you can pick up feral kittens by the time they're six weeks or so, they can become very acceptable pets. Wait until 12 weeks, and they may never be tamed.

My personal fear with very young kittens (less than 8-10 weeks) is that they are very small, and humans are very BIG. I've had several people come into the shelter tell me that they had a previous kitten who was accidentally stepped on, shut in a door, etc., and injured or killed. I actively discourage adoption of the younger kittens, especially by families with children. So, there are a lot of reasons to go older than the 6-8 weeks we see so commonly, but there is an age that nurture by a new owner becomes a factor in the eventual bonding.

Sport and his litter-mates were abandon by their mother at birth. He was only 5 weeks old when I brought him home. I very much recomend that they stay with their mother for 12 weeks if possible. Sport is now 11 1/2 weeks old and we are still working through nursing issues...like getting him to stop nursing on my ear lobes in the middle of the night. It's very cute, but it makes for an awful nights sleep.