Hello and Few Questions

Hi everyone!  Artem here.  I'm a first time cat owner.  I've been browsing around the forum for a few weeks, trying to prepare for the arrival of my new kitten and I'm thrilled to say, everything went far smoother than anticipated.  He's a wonderful kitten.  Affectionate, playful and just the sweetest little guy.  But I'm entirely new to cats and am not quite sure what is and is not normal.  I'm much more familiar with dogs, so please forgive any stupid questions!

My kitten Hunter is currently twelve weeks old and has been with me for about a week.  I know 11 weeks is a bit on the earlier side, but something came up with his breeder's human family and he seemed to adapt fine and has no major health or behavioral problems thus far.  He's a blue bicolor ragdoll and weighed about 2.3 pounds this Monday, although I think he's already grown a bit since.  I'll try to get some pictures this weekend, but I'm waiting on a new camera to arrive first.  First thing I learned, cat eyes and flash photography don't mix.  Anyway, I have a few concerns and would really appreciate if someone more experienced could let me know if I'm looking at a problem brewing.  Sorry this is a bit long, but I figure it's hard for you to work out what's going on without any details.

Question 1- Was he poorly socialized or is he just shy?

When we got him, it took him about a day to trust us.  He didn't want to be left alone in his safe room and cried until someone came to sit with him, but took a few hours to approach us and two days to stop being startled by sudden movements.  He seems to adore me now but is still unconvinced about strangers.  I know most cats are more skittish than most dogs, but from what I've read it sounds like kittens are supposed to be curious about new people and I'm a little worried he's already this shy.  He doesn't run off and hide, but he watches from the other side of the room and he was not amused when one of my visitors tried to pet him (She didn't listen when I asked her to wait and let him come to her.  Fortunately, he didn't scratch, bite or hiss at her, but it was pretty clear he was unhappy and he scurried off as soon as she gave him the chance.  I didn't realize how far we'd come until I saw how he reacted to other people).

Question 2- Why is he falling all the time?  Can a cat be clumsy?

Hunter seems oddly clumsy for a cat.  He's fallen off of my windowsill twice and I've had to set up step-stools to help him get onto his cat furniture.  And he runs into walls.  He tries to climb and is definitely interested, but can't even make it to the first level of his cat tree.  I thought it was just him being a kitten, but I keep reading all these posts on here about other people's kittens making much more impressive climbs than the ones he's attempting.  His vet said he seems perfectly healthy so I'm probably fretting too much but I didn't even know cats could be clumsy.  Is it possible he's not the age we were told he was?  We were told the number and gender of kittens on his supposed birthdate and received photos (starting at either two or three weeks old, can't remember which) in which he's always looked about the right age, he has very good litterbox habits, knows bite inhibition and doesn't comfort-suckle, but he doesn't seem to have as much physical coordination as he should and is a bit smaller than I expected.  I love him anyway, as he's a great pet even if he is a terrible cat, but I'm not sure what the deal is with him and climbing.  Will he figure it out as he grows?  Is he destined to be a terrible jumper as well?  Do I need to make his cat tree easier for him or should I just wait until he's able to manage it?  I'm enjoying being able to leave things out of his reach but I also want him to be able to enjoy being a cat.

Question 3- His food.  Am I doing this right?

Wet food-

I'm currently trying to get Hunter onto a mixed dry and wet food diet.  I may switch him all to wet later on, but at the moment I want to be sure there's always food available for him while he's still growing.  Plus I'd like him to recognize both as food, because life happens and it seems short-sighted not to introduce him to both while he's still young enough to easily accept.  Anyway, he came to me eating dry only, as his breeder says wet gave some of her cats diarrhea, and I'm trying to introduce wet very slowly.  He seems to love it, fortunately, but I want to be careful in case it makes him sick.  I gave him one spoonful today, will give him two tomorrow and so on and cut back if there's any problem at all.  Anything else I need to be doing?  I'm really glad he seems to like it and hope to get him on two cans a day in addition to to his dry.

Dry food-

I am also trying to switch his dry food.  He came to me eating an all-life-stages formula, but when I showed it to my vet, she looked through the ingredients and told me he really should be on kitten food.  I've begun mixing a little of the new food into his bowl, but he doesn't seem super-thrilled about it.  He's still eating, but I can't tell if he's picking around the new food and he certainly doesn't seem as excited about it as he was about the wet.  I tried offering him a bit of just the new food on a spoon and he wouldn't take it.  I may switch brands if he still doesn't like it next week, but is there any way I can tell if he decides to accept it or not?

Treats-

For treats, I've currently got him taking deli turkey and roasted chicken.  I need something he's excited about to reward him for grooming and lure him in to the carrier, but if either will harm him I can certainly get him something else more appropriate.

NOTE: I did look into raw feeding but don't think it's for me.  If he doesn't do well on commercial foods, I may switch him to home-cooked but raw is not an option and I'd prefer to keep him on commercial if I can.

Sorry to double-post but I can't work out how to edit.  I have one more quick question.  I'm planning on getting Hunter neutered at five months but is that too late?  He's indoor only, with no way of getting out as we live in a high rise, so I'm mostly concerned about him getting in the habit of spraying or beginning to act aggressively towards me.  The vet seems to think he'll be fine but I've second-guessed the decision a few times.  We're trying to him at the vet as little as possible but we'd like to get him neutered a weekend we have to go out of town and he'll need to be boarded anyway, this way he'll be near help if anything goes wrong.  I know it's a fairly low-risk surgery but it is still surgery.

Welcome aboard, Artem!  You've come to the best place for your questions!

Here are the links to the areas of TCS that you could post your questions in. I think you'd get more responses that way:

Behavior:

http://www.thecatsite.com/f/5/behavior

For feeding questions:

http://www.thecatsite.com/f/64/cat-nutrition

I hope you find answers to your concerns.  I'm sending you a PM (personal message) on how to edit, etc.

  Hi Artem

Oh gosh, new kitten and no camera yet!  You are very wise not to bother him with flash photography, but they grow so fast and do so many funny / cute things a camera is a great thing to have.  

It sounds like you have been really responsible in your adoption, done a lot of preparation and your questions are far from stupid.  Hunter is really lucky to have moved in with someone caring enough to check everything is going OK and he is getting the food and nutrition he needs.

@MargeCat  is right with the places for you to post the questions you have.  If you do what she suggests then more people with the knowledge and experience in those areas will see your questions and it increases your chance of getting lots of useful information and tips.

For a kitten, one week isn't very long for them to settle in.  Some settle almost immediately but others can take several weeks.  Mouse is one of the most bold and inquisitive cats I have ever met but as a kitten he was as skittish as they come! It took days for him to come in to my living room after he thought he met another cat in there (his first encounter with a mirror) and he was nervous in that room for over a year afterwards!  And when it comes to climbing, jumping, and general coordination and awareness of body in space - these are things cats learn with practice, and they have to build up their strength too.  Just like human kids it can take different lengths of time.  Also, depending on personality some kittens are more bold and some more timid in what they attempt.  Don't worry too much but keep an eye on your little guy:  Yes, let him build up to big climbs in stages to he can learn without hurting himself too much, and do things well so he doesn't become nervous of falls.  Give him lots of practice chasing after wand toys, fishing rod toys, catching toy mice and birds and see if his coordination improves.  If your vet has seen him and thinks he is healthy, the chances are he is simply taking time to learn.   If you see him do something in particular, or if he seems unbalanced walking normally or uncoordinated, his head shaking or anything unusual I would certainly speak with your vet, but even if it is simply that you are still anxious there is no harm at all in talking with you vet again.   If possible take a little video of what you are worried about so they can observe it if it isn't there all the time.  

We always imagine cats having great coordination and able to jump and leap and climb from when they are tiny, but they have loads of less successful attempts as they build up these skills, and in moments of excitement even well coordinated cats can forget the basics and have spectacular 'accidents' that they always try to cover up.      Please don't worry too much:  Mouse was hopelessly coordinated until he was about 9 months old, and still fails to plan ahead so he is constantly running in to walls, jumping in to walls and door frames, and failing to stop properly and doing full body rolls or splatting in to walls (again).  He also jumps up without checking what he's going to land on so will miss the end of a bed or table and do verticle drops to the floor, or land on any object that happens to be in front of him.  No pointed or sharp ornaments in my home any more due to one very nasty encounter with an unlit dinner candle.  He also doesn't know to use his claws to hold on to he skids on floors a lot and falls off furniture and high ledges almost daily. He is now 3 years old!