Kitten care !

selena16

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This is my soon to be new kitten biscuit! I have not met her yet :( but as soon as I saw her pic I fell in love with her ! She is only 7 days old , so I have to wait a bit till she is weaned :( in the mean time can anyone tell me what type of cat biscuit is ?? I forgot to ask the owner and I don't want to just call her to ask her that . Anyways I heard a lot of stories about kittens that shouldn't use clumping litter , I wanted to know if it was true. And how many times would I have to feed this little munchkin ?last thing is it wise to declaw ?? I heard it in humane :( please let me know thanks :)
 

pawpurrints

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She's cute :)

I'm on the no-declawing side.  :)  People have their reasons for getting it done.  But for me, I could never do that to my cat.  I have a friend who was interested in one of the orphan kittens I'm raising, but I know she was going to have it declawed because she says she's allergic, but only when the cat scratches her.  I would not have given her one.  Either way we decided to keep them  LOL

What are your reasons for looking into declawing?  I had a cat since he was 3 months old.  He died at a young age of 7 to cancer.  But he never once clawed at my furniture.  Each cat is different, and you don't really know if this kitten will be a furniture scratcher.  I know some people will have it done as a last alternative to putting the cat in a shelter.  Or they've tried everything to get the cat from ripping apart their furniture.

As far as it being inhumane, I've heard some cons, one being that if your cat leaves the house for some reason, a declawed cat will not have any way to defend itself.  Plus I've read that because the claws are an extension of their feet, you're practically having the vet remove a part of their feed. Also check your local laws.  Some places ban declawing.  My state doesn't.  In fact, my vet's office has brochures on declawing.  The pro of course being that you guarantee you won't have ripped furniture  LOL (but again, my cat never touched my furniture)
 

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It would be best if you could take her when she's 12 weeks old. She needs to learn a lot from mommy and siblings. If you were taking 2 kittens, they could be separated from mommy a little earlier.

Yes, a non-clumping is necessary because kittens are curious and like to taste stuff and clumping litter inside kitten would not be good.

How often you should feed depends on how young they are. The younger they are, the more often you need to feed. Figure on at least 4 feedings a day.

I am also very anti-declawing. Aria is my first cat ever, and I never had to even think about declawing because she has never been deliberately destructive with her claws. Since joining this site, I have learned that declawing is actually amputation and can cause many problems (biting, litter box problems, arthritis, etc.). I would never put a cat through that.
 
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selena16

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LOL yes she is very cute ! My only reason for declawing would be biscuit attacking my furniture . I've had cats before and I've always liked them having claws and being able to climb up my leg . I'm waiting to see how she'll react at her "foster" parents home . Their my ginepigs to test her claws haha . Um I know another option is to trim her nails that helps . So non clumping litter would be preferable ?? And I'll probably be getting her around 8 weeks old . I am against declawing but if she goes after my floors it would be a problem because I had to beg him to allow me to have a pet ! So if she wrecked the floors my on,y resort would be to nip those claws ! Thank you for the help you two ! Oh yeah one more question after she has been weaned , is she able to eat dry food? Or must she eat wet ??
 

pawpurrints

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I fed my last cat exclusively dry.  But now, after reading in books and information online, I realized that wet food is best because cat don't drink water too much, and they get most of their fluids from wet food (including in the wild, where they eat the raw prey and get fluids from there).  So naturally you see all these cats getting URI due to dehydration.  I might actually do a mix of dry and wet...mostly wet.  I like that the dry cat food helps keep their teeth clean.  
 
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selena16

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Yes I have heard on websites that you can also mix dry food with warm water and mash it up , which I guess is wet food . How old is your cat?
 

franksmom

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Declawing is not just removing their claws it is amputating their toes. It causes immeasurable harm to cats as it is ten separate amputations and will cause a lifetime of pain and problems. Behavioral problems are often present in declawed cats because of the pain from the amputations and many stop using the litter box and start biting. Here is a great post writen by a vet on what declawing is (http://www.littlebigcat.com.php5-16.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/?p=200). I really urge you to read the whole thing.

As for the food young kittens do well with wet food and sometimes mixing it with goats milk or kmr works well. Dry food is actually not good for cats and you can read another good site written by a vet at www.catinfo.org

I agree it would be best to wait until the kitten is 12 weeks before bringing her home.
 

franksmom

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Oh and I think from the picture she is an orange tabby, which is actually pretty rare for a female. Very pretty kitten!
 
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selena16

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Thank you very much !! I never declawed any of my cats I would hate to start now
 

msbedelia

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She is a pretty kitty, that is what she is! ^^

Keeping those claws trimmed and giving her lots of acceptable scratching posts/surfaces should be enough (both vertical and horizontal, if she is inclined to go after the floors). Using double-sided tape (or special double-sided tape marketed to pet-owners for this purpose- either one will work) on places shes inclined to scratch will also teach her not to do it but to use the alternatives instead. There's also an option called soft paws, which basically involves temporarily gluing little plastic covers onto the kitty's nails. I don't think that will be necessary- my cats are good at leaving stuff alone too- but it is a good alternative to declawing, which is generally considered inhumane. Declawing does amputate part of the toe. In addition to the negative health effects, it can lead to litter box avoidance (bc the paws are too tender to use the litter) and going to the bathroom elsewhere (which probably wouldn't be better than clawing the floor!).

There is actually no evidence that dry food helps keep kitty teeth clean, so that's not a good reason to feed dry. In general, research on feline nutrition does indicate its not very healthy and that wet food is better. (We do supplement with a little dry in their puzzle feeders to give them something to do when we're gone for long hours, but we feed our cats wet as their main diet.) It may sound crazy, but brushing her teeth is the best way to keep them healthy. This may be easier to train if you're inclined since she is a kitten. http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/pet-owners/cat-teeth/entire-video

And yes, research also indicates that waiting until 12 weeks will result in a more well-behaved and well-socialized kitty, though I know its so hard not to bring that sweet girl home!

Congratulations on your new family member and thank you for putting time and research into her care. :)
 
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selena16

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Thank you very much for all these compliments about her! I'm so glad I found her ! Well I decided since most people are against it that I wouldn't declaw sweet biscuit ! I think I will just trim her nails and buy her scratching posts ! Also to fed her wet and dry food just to nibble on . I heard its not wise to buy your kittens beds right away because they are very fussy and would like to chose where to sleep , is this true ? Or shall I just buy everything and set it up ?
 
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selena16

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These are just some other pictures of biscuit and her brothers
 

pawpurrints

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She is so adorable!  She'll be spoiled no doubt :)

Glad you decided against declawing.  As many have said there are other alternatives.  I've seen those nail caps...ingenious!  Just curb her scratching tendencies from the start.  Don't let her start on your furniture.  Give her plenty of scratching posts and teach her where she can and cannot scratch.  They learn fast.  My kittens have been chewing the bottle's nipples...so now, we pull it out immediately and hiss at them.  Now, they hardly bite, and when they do, they correct themselve quicker.  It can be done!

As for my cat's age, my last cat passed away a few years ago.  I haven't had a cat until now, when we took in 4 orphan kittens when they were a day or 2 old (1 passed away, but I have the 3 left).  We were already looking at ways to curb kittens' future bad habits, and those nail caps were one option.  But I think in general, if you keep your pet active with enough toys, you will be able to control them.

Thanks for the dry cat food info. Like I said...the internet is full of conflicting info :)
 

msbedelia

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Like I said...the internet is full of conflicting info :)
The Internet, and the world itself! As much as we love to be high and mighty here about what's best for cats, we're all just making educated guesses. I think with nutrition especially- and we know less about HUMAN nutrition than we would like to admit!- it is a mixture of research, educated guesses, and intuition.
 
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selena16

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Aha I agree !
 

StefanZ

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Yes I have heard on websites that you can also mix dry food with warm water and mash it up , which I guess is wet food .
You can mash up dry with water in emergency, but this is NOT what is called for wet food!

Canned wet food is typically done by another way, dont contain all the carboydrate fillers up necessary to held the kibble togehter.   So a decent wet food is practically just only  animal proteins and fat. = a copy of a mice, so to speak.

I know there are brands being really dry food mixed with water and sold canned, but this is ridiculous.

Re declawing and alternatives.  I want to stress:  IF you would run into great difficulties and be desperate, there are alternatives; nail CAPS  (somebody mentioned it in this thread).  You fasten them on the nails, and it works!   Not so verry nice to the cat I imagine, but still better than declawing.

Soft claws, Soft paws  are a couple of brand names.  So there are several producers.

Good luck!
 
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selena16

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Um can you recommend a brand that is good for kittens to get there protein ?
 
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