Help with 6 (?) week old kitten!!!

Hello, everyone!

I've been wanting to commit to a cat for some time now, so when a student of mine (I am a public school choir director) let me know that her grandmother's cat had kittens a while back, I was elated and eager to take one home with me. When the kitten was offered to me, I was told she was almost 8 weeks old. I made arrangements to pick her up a little over a week from that date, believing that my fiancee and I would be bringing home a 9-week old kitten.

When my fiancee brought little Bebe home, I was shocked at how small she was. When I contacted my student's grandmother the next day to pin down Bebe's specific birth date, the grandmother responded with "about 6 weeks." Her first visit to the vet today confirmed that she is younger than I was led to believe; the vet estimated about 7 weeks old.

I was shocked that anyone would separate a kitten from its mother and littermates at such a young age, as I'd always heard that it's most responsible to do so at 9 or 10 weeks or so.

Bottom line: I, of course, feel terrible about this, but it has been done, and now I want to know how to move forward from here.

She is eating and drinking well. She is using the litterbox like a champ; she plays with great energy and bathes normally. She responds to other people with some amount of fear, but ultimately she's sweet and docile. There are no other pets in the house at this time.

My main concern is socialization for little Bebe. What steps can I take to ensure that she grows into a well-adjusted, happy cat who gets along well with humans and animals alike?

Thanks in advance, everyone, for your awesomeness and input.

TLDR: Kitten taken away from mother at young age; what can adoptive human do to ensure that she is properly socialized and well-taken care of?

There are going to be seasoned posters to help you out any minute but I thought I would say what I know until they get here haha...

I am working on my first set of foster kittens so I'm learning as I go but they are 6 weeks right now too.

Last week I thought I might have had to wean them and was told to add KMR(or some other kitten milk replacement) to their food. I would do that for sure since she was taken early. What did the vet say?

It's great that she is eating and using the litterbox!

Another thing I would add- is there anyway to get another kitten? You may not have wanted two cats but kittens do much better learning from each other. They learn how hard to play without hurting and they get into less trouble climbing curtains etc because they play with each other(remember I said less haha!). Kittens want to play play play! If you decide to have only one kitten, which is fine too, I would make sure not to use your hands as toys because again you are going to replace a sibling and a fellow kitten teaches them how hard to play. They will want to bite and scratch your hand. I break this rule a little with my fosters kittens because they have ringworm and I don't need even more things to wash but I see that everyday they get more and more gentle(keeping claws etc.) with me.

A picture of your baby girl would be great.

Good luck and congrats!

getting another kitten of the same age is the best thing you can do for your kitten and her development. and they are so fun to watch! two really are easier than one..

If you are going to add a 2nd cat to your household you would want either an older kitten who is already socialized or a high energy younger adult cat that could help socialize the kitten.  Getting a kitten of the same age may make a great playmate but would not help with socialization.

My oldest cat Starbuck was a six week old baby when I adopted her.  She was small but I had no way of knowing when she was actually born because a friend's family rescued her when she was thrown out of a car window out in the country in the middle of winter.  The vet estimated that she was 6 weeks old at her first check-up.My friend's family actually rescued her two weeks before I adopted her.  So she was actually abandoned at 4 weeks old.

Starbuck also ate well and had great litter box habits too. My two young seniors actually helped raise her. They played with her, kept her company and taught her boundaries.  I brought her home and she climbed out of my arms and ran up to the boys and hissed at them.  She actually bopped one of them on the head before I caught her and got her set-up in her own room.  My boys thankfully just walked away from her.  I kept her in her own room for a few days alone when we were not home. That did not last long because the boys wanted to be with her.  Since she was too little to be safe having free roam of the house my seniors decided they would rather hang out in her room with her.  I think they could tell she was lonely when we were at work. She stopped hissing at them and bonded with both of them quickly.  It is not normal for introductions to be successful that quickly.

She could not get up and down the stairs on her own  when she finally had supervised  free run of the house so I had litter boxes everywhere and food bowls with water everywhere.  She either got up and down the stairs by climbing on one of the boys when they were going up/down the stairs or riding on our shoulders. The boys let her know when she would play too rough so we really had very few issues with biting or scratching.  The only thing I had to train her on was that nose biting was not an acceptable form of communication.  She loved to groom our faces but would chomp noses.  I taught her to stop by gently tapping her on the nose and saying no biting.  If it happened again  she got put on the floor and ignored for a few minutes.  She learned very quickly that it was not acceptable behavior. When she was about a weeks old we had company and we warned our friend about the nose biting even though we were not seeing it anymore.  She was very cuddly with him but never chomped his nose.