I'm not really a cat fan, I always figured I'd get a dog one day, they're always loving and 'needy', whereas my limited experience with cats is that they're standoffish, 'snobby'. In fact, 48 hours ago I could have said in all honesty I had never once in my life even considered owning a cat.
That changed yesterday, while at a friends house, someone else I knew brought over a kitten they'd just adopted that same day. It was cute, affectionate, friendly, basically the opposite of every other cat I've had any experience with. I was pretty drunk as well, but the next morning (ie. today), I woke up still wanting to own my own cat.
By noon, during my lunch break I headed out to the local RSPCA, and paid for the adoption of another kitten, from the same litter as my friends kitten. I couldn't take it back to work, so I said I'd pick it up the next day, which I'll be doing in the morning.
My main problem is that I've never had a pet before, nevermind a cat, so I know zilch about cat care, and I don't think my tiny apartment has been made cat-safe to either protect my furniture and other possessions from the cat, or protecting my cat from all the dangers that could be lurking in my apartment. So what I'm doing now is reading up online trying to get as much info as I can before tomorrow morning. After work I went past a petstore where the sales assistant recommended me a litter box and some kind of crystal litter. I don't think I've ever seen a litter box before today, and am only now learning how they work.
I guess with my little story out of the way, I should get down to some of the questions I'm hoping some kind and experienced cat-owners here can help me with, as well as any miscellaneous advice that you can think would help:
(btw, just to mention, this kitten is about 4-5 weeks old)
1) litter box stuff...how much should I put in this litter box? It's a fairly big one, I'm guessing the saleslady was just pushing the most expensive of everything I was asking about at me ie. from the litter box, toys, food etc. Either way, I have what I hope is a good litter box, if the kitten can actually climb in. Not sure how much litter to put in it, or what to do with it. The lady says I should dump the entire litter box contents down the toilet every day, which sounds pretty expensive. At that rate my 7 litre bag of litter will struggly to last a week, and I don't want to be spending 40 bucks a month just on litter.
2) How do I train the cat to use the litter box? I'm hoping it would have been trained by the RSPCA, I'll find out tomorrow when I collect it. Even if it has been trained, it wouldn't have seen my litter box. How can I let it know (and enforce) that it should be using this new litter box and not poop or piss anywhere else?
3) how much food should I put out for the cat? I don't want it to overeat, and I don't know if cats know to stop when theyve had enough or they keep going like me at a buffet ie. beyond all reasonable limits. A co-worker today told me not to give it any milk, as they get diarrhoea, but I thought cats were supposed to love milk?
4) As a guy living on my own, I have lots of crap all over my apartment. It would definitely be a risk for a kid, but I don't know if cats are the same, do their kittens try and swallow everything and risk choking?
I have so many other questions but I thought I'd start with some basics that might hopefully get me through the first day tomorrow!
Thanks all
That changed yesterday, while at a friends house, someone else I knew brought over a kitten they'd just adopted that same day. It was cute, affectionate, friendly, basically the opposite of every other cat I've had any experience with. I was pretty drunk as well, but the next morning (ie. today), I woke up still wanting to own my own cat.
By noon, during my lunch break I headed out to the local RSPCA, and paid for the adoption of another kitten, from the same litter as my friends kitten. I couldn't take it back to work, so I said I'd pick it up the next day, which I'll be doing in the morning.
My main problem is that I've never had a pet before, nevermind a cat, so I know zilch about cat care, and I don't think my tiny apartment has been made cat-safe to either protect my furniture and other possessions from the cat, or protecting my cat from all the dangers that could be lurking in my apartment. So what I'm doing now is reading up online trying to get as much info as I can before tomorrow morning. After work I went past a petstore where the sales assistant recommended me a litter box and some kind of crystal litter. I don't think I've ever seen a litter box before today, and am only now learning how they work.
I guess with my little story out of the way, I should get down to some of the questions I'm hoping some kind and experienced cat-owners here can help me with, as well as any miscellaneous advice that you can think would help:
(btw, just to mention, this kitten is about 4-5 weeks old)
1) litter box stuff...how much should I put in this litter box? It's a fairly big one, I'm guessing the saleslady was just pushing the most expensive of everything I was asking about at me ie. from the litter box, toys, food etc. Either way, I have what I hope is a good litter box, if the kitten can actually climb in. Not sure how much litter to put in it, or what to do with it. The lady says I should dump the entire litter box contents down the toilet every day, which sounds pretty expensive. At that rate my 7 litre bag of litter will struggly to last a week, and I don't want to be spending 40 bucks a month just on litter.
2) How do I train the cat to use the litter box? I'm hoping it would have been trained by the RSPCA, I'll find out tomorrow when I collect it. Even if it has been trained, it wouldn't have seen my litter box. How can I let it know (and enforce) that it should be using this new litter box and not poop or piss anywhere else?
3) how much food should I put out for the cat? I don't want it to overeat, and I don't know if cats know to stop when theyve had enough or they keep going like me at a buffet ie. beyond all reasonable limits. A co-worker today told me not to give it any milk, as they get diarrhoea, but I thought cats were supposed to love milk?
4) As a guy living on my own, I have lots of crap all over my apartment. It would definitely be a risk for a kid, but I don't know if cats are the same, do their kittens try and swallow everything and risk choking?
I have so many other questions but I thought I'd start with some basics that might hopefully get me through the first day tomorrow!
Thanks all