Kittens On The Loose!

 

What age do you start leaving kittens loose in the house when you're gone/at night? Mine are 7 weeks old and currently they stay in a pen I built them when I'm not home/at night. The pen is pretty roomy and contains everything they need, and they can't get out of it (yet. lol). I'm mostly worried about them getting into trouble or getting stuck somewhere, but also about them consistently making it to the litter. They are FANTASTIC about it right now, except that earlier in the week when they weren't feeling well, Miami had two accidents in the same corner, and today she peed there. So I'll have to de-smell that corner to discourage her. 

I'm thinking to wait until they've had their first vaccines and dewormed, and then have had their tummies settle from that and transitioned back onto the food I want them on long term (they are currently on vet food [medi-cal GI] so that their tummies stay happy, but I don't want to do this long term both for their nutritional needs and my wallet!!!!!), so I'm thinking about 9 weeks old? [hopefully. hoping for a smooth food transition with no more runny poops]. Is that too early to leave them loose?

I work long long hours, so I'm gone 13 - 14 hours a day (4 days a week, the other two days are shorter) but my landlords are the best landlords in the history of landlords and they take them upstairs to hang out in their apartment for a few hours every afternoon when I'm not home, so they are getting plenty of activity and interaction . 

Kittens will get into places you'd never believe they could, lol! I remember my kitten sitting in an open drawer one minute and I left for a sec and he was gone. He had squeezed himself into the cabinet through a space in the drawer I would never have believed he could have fit!

I would kitten proof one room in your house, one with the least amount of stuff that they could get in trouble with, and let them loose in there when you are gone until they are bigger, older kittens. The kitchen and laundry room especially are places little kittens love to get lost by squeezing behind appliances and crawling into the walls through openings there. They also love to climb up into furniture like recliners so be careful! And you wanna make sure they can't get to any electric wires or cords, etc.

But my kitten was perfectly fine loose in my kitten proofed studio apartment when he was 7 weeks.

I agree with the above.  At that age they are usually allowed to be loose, as long everything is kitten proofed.

But good you are careful not to getting into unnecessary risk.  the life is risky enough by itself...

I think it is high time for start deworming NOW.  I suspect their runny poo may be in much because they do have worms.

Kittens coming from other moms then well dewormed, inside only moms, do usually have round worms. They get them from their moms...   If they had fleas, they may have tape worms too. but that is less common.

Use a preparate with Pyrantel as the active ingredience, or some mild broad working dewormer. Like the british Milbemax.

If you cooperate with a vet, the easiest is you follow his advices.  If you dont afford, it is possible to find dewormers on your own, but you must research some.  Many dewormers sold to the public OTC arent good.

Good luck!

unfortunately I don't have another room that they can stay in. I have a HUGE one bedroom apartment with a tiny bathroom (where they were previously to the pen building) and I don't want litter pans in my bedroom . 

My vet said not to deworm them since they are going in on Friday for vaccines and at that time will be dewormed for free, but if they start to get bad again I will pick some up from the pharmacy. A good friend is a tech at the clinic that I use so she can help with the dosage when necessary. They finished their meds yesterday so fingers crossed. (also they did not have fleas, shockingly, so probably only roundworms?)

If I could find a way to block the kitchen/laundry off from the living room then they could be out in the living room all the time, I'm just not quite sure how I'd do that. A baby gate is not even close to wide enough.

I laughed at the "they love to get into recliners" because my furniture isn't mine, and has been previously 'loved' by my landlords cats. Second day here, Cairo found a hole in the bottom of one of the chairs and climbed right on in there lol. 

I wasn't able to block off my kitchen either. So I just blocked off the dangerous openings. I duct taped window screening over the horizontal openings such as under the fridge. I taped the screen from the bottom of the fridge to the floor, lol. And I blocked off the vertical spaces around the appliances with things like cereal boxes and muffin pans that he couldn't climb. Yeah, it didn't look pretty, but it was only for a few months. Then he got too big to fit in those spaces. I've watched him try though!

fluffybeard, that would look funny! I had a tissue box wedged behind my sink in the bathroom while they were in there so they couldn't get into the floor (hole in the floor behind the sink that I didn't even know about until one of them hid there lol. Now I just keep that door closed. 

I was thinking on it last night though and I can move the panels of their pen over and they will block the kitchen off, so post appointment on friday, I'm going to try that out.