So here's the deal, I'm looking for general advice while I browse through these kitten school videos posted in another thread about rescues.
But the backstory is this about a week ago I rescued a roughly 4 week old kitten from work. We'd just had two severe storms and my work area is surrounded by poison traps which are mandated by the city. I could not find the mother or any of the other kittens and am unsure if they were alive, if they had gotten separated during the storms or what. But nothing that'd feed on small rodents lives for long by us because of the poison so after looking for the rest of the cats for awhile I gave up and took this little girl home. I still haven't seen another cat at work so I assume they've been poisoned or this kitten got separated.
I have taken this kitten in to the vet for her first round of vaccinations, blood work, stool sample, the works. She's luckily pretty healthy though still too young and small to be spayed and chipped.
I have little problem keeping this cat if possible but my real concern here is that I'm raising her wrong.
Already with just 1 kitten I fear she's not learning to play well as she has no playmates. My time on the weekdays with her is extremely limited, maybe just a few hours of interaction with almost a full hour being dedicated to just play. While she's not anti-social by any means, I have yet to get her to just settle down and relax with me while I've been awake. Never having owned a kitten that'd be around 5 weeks old now, is this normal? They seriously have this much energy?
My other problem is location, I have a small bedroom that I've given her to herself, I've kept her quarantined from my house cat while waiting on the last round of vaccinations the rescue kitten can get in another 3 weeks and I also wanted to get my cat vaccinated against some of the other more rare stuff that I never did due to her being a house cat and the kitten also had some fleas and ticks. Now, this is a decent sized room and she's free to do what she wants in it but she really, really wants out and I can't really do that yet as my apartment is not kitten friendly, cords she can chew through and get electrocuted on, crevices she can get stuck in like where the fridge is, just stuff I never had to worry about with my 14 year old 14 pound lazy cat that could be fatal to a kitten.
So I guess my real question is, can I do this? Should I be looking to surrender her, or would they be just as limited and she not be any better off? I feel I'm doing a terrible job here and don't know if this is something I can work through given a little time to reorganize the apartment.
I'm also totally at a loss as to how much to feed her. If I do Blue Buffalo their cans say to feed her what she can eat, and considering I watch her scarf down a full can twice a day I'm sure she can do a third, but if I look at the Purina's Fancy Feast Kitten can it says 1 can to every 3 pounds of weight when this girls just a pound! The caloric content's not too far off, is over eating an issue or not with a kitten?
My vet's not bad but they were clearly focused on her actual health and were pretty limited on real world practical advice for me when it comes to taking care of this girl when whether I could keep her alive or not wasn't really my concern, more could I properly raise her into a social cat that either I or some other family could adopt and feel safe with in the future and that's the part I'm unsure of.
As far as the good goes, she's litter trained and doesn't mind being pet or picked up.
Truth be told, if things can work out between her and my existing cat I'd like to keep her, we lost our other cat and since then I can tell this one's been different, she's lazier and more lethargic and I think having a friend here while I'm at work would be great. On the flip side she's already 14 and doesn't seem to like stress and I don't want her last years to be stressful years trying to adjust to a new cat. But I'd like to try, they're both already here so seems silly not to.
But the backstory is this about a week ago I rescued a roughly 4 week old kitten from work. We'd just had two severe storms and my work area is surrounded by poison traps which are mandated by the city. I could not find the mother or any of the other kittens and am unsure if they were alive, if they had gotten separated during the storms or what. But nothing that'd feed on small rodents lives for long by us because of the poison so after looking for the rest of the cats for awhile I gave up and took this little girl home. I still haven't seen another cat at work so I assume they've been poisoned or this kitten got separated.
I have taken this kitten in to the vet for her first round of vaccinations, blood work, stool sample, the works. She's luckily pretty healthy though still too young and small to be spayed and chipped.
I have little problem keeping this cat if possible but my real concern here is that I'm raising her wrong.
Already with just 1 kitten I fear she's not learning to play well as she has no playmates. My time on the weekdays with her is extremely limited, maybe just a few hours of interaction with almost a full hour being dedicated to just play. While she's not anti-social by any means, I have yet to get her to just settle down and relax with me while I've been awake. Never having owned a kitten that'd be around 5 weeks old now, is this normal? They seriously have this much energy?
My other problem is location, I have a small bedroom that I've given her to herself, I've kept her quarantined from my house cat while waiting on the last round of vaccinations the rescue kitten can get in another 3 weeks and I also wanted to get my cat vaccinated against some of the other more rare stuff that I never did due to her being a house cat and the kitten also had some fleas and ticks. Now, this is a decent sized room and she's free to do what she wants in it but she really, really wants out and I can't really do that yet as my apartment is not kitten friendly, cords she can chew through and get electrocuted on, crevices she can get stuck in like where the fridge is, just stuff I never had to worry about with my 14 year old 14 pound lazy cat that could be fatal to a kitten.
So I guess my real question is, can I do this? Should I be looking to surrender her, or would they be just as limited and she not be any better off? I feel I'm doing a terrible job here and don't know if this is something I can work through given a little time to reorganize the apartment.
I'm also totally at a loss as to how much to feed her. If I do Blue Buffalo their cans say to feed her what she can eat, and considering I watch her scarf down a full can twice a day I'm sure she can do a third, but if I look at the Purina's Fancy Feast Kitten can it says 1 can to every 3 pounds of weight when this girls just a pound! The caloric content's not too far off, is over eating an issue or not with a kitten?
My vet's not bad but they were clearly focused on her actual health and were pretty limited on real world practical advice for me when it comes to taking care of this girl when whether I could keep her alive or not wasn't really my concern, more could I properly raise her into a social cat that either I or some other family could adopt and feel safe with in the future and that's the part I'm unsure of.
As far as the good goes, she's litter trained and doesn't mind being pet or picked up.
Truth be told, if things can work out between her and my existing cat I'd like to keep her, we lost our other cat and since then I can tell this one's been different, she's lazier and more lethargic and I think having a friend here while I'm at work would be great. On the flip side she's already 14 and doesn't seem to like stress and I don't want her last years to be stressful years trying to adjust to a new cat. But I'd like to try, they're both already here so seems silly not to.