Hello everyone I am getting my first kitten next month, its a ragdoll cross and grey all over. Can anyone give me any advice on having a kitten as I've never had one before. How can I stop it scratching the furniture and where should it sleep? Should I feed it dry food or tinned food? Any advice would be appreciated!!

Best diet (without question) is a quality complete dry food.
the best are :
James Well beloved
Burns
Arden Grange

Cheap wet foods like whiskas, felix, etc contain sugars and other chemicals to make rubbish taste nice, most contain only 5% meat. They rot the teeth and promote gum disease.

where can I buy these food brands from? thanks for the info!

Pets at home do JWB
They also do a quality wet food.... Natures Menu which contains 75% meat, good as an occasional treat.

Pets at home do JWB
They also do a quality wet food.... Natures Menu which contains 75% meat, good as an occasional treat.

Our cats have the nature's menu- so does the dog - plus nature diet. I contacted Nature Diet to ask if they were ever going to produce a cat food like the dog food but they had some production problems - then we discovered Nature's Menu (available from Pets@Home and I think Jollyes)..
Arden Grange you can get from Waitrose. Burns you can buy direct from their website http://www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk I think from memory - or do a google search, or selected other stockists - including one of our forummers who'se just started being an agent for them.

Would def agree that wet/foil/tinned foods in general are not a good choice- they're OK if served alongside good quality dried foods with a ready supply of fresh water (not milk), but do nothing to help strong teeth to develop. They contain lower concentrations of meat. more water and preservatives and sweeteners. The Natures Menu is the exception - oh and applaws is great - real chicken/ fish shredded finely and mixed with other natural ingredients. Pricey, but top notch stuff- our new mum Ashia is eating that at hte moment - she'll hate us when she has to revert to normal cat food...

Royal Canin is another good quality dried food producer- they make dried foods to suit a range of breeds, ages and lifestyles - they have a kitten one (kitten34, I think) that you can feed your kitten for the first year of its life, after which you can switch to an adult food appropriate to your cat.

Generally, kittens need to be on a specific kitten higher- calorie/protein diet for their first year, according to their weight and the brand of food you use. If using a dried food, try not to switch brands as they have delicate constitutions and will develop tummy upsets if being fed different food all the time. A lot of the foil packs can be a bit rich for kittens too- even the ones that purport to be specifically for kittens.

To prevent your kitten becoming too faddy, you could try a range of different food types in small quantities, to see what he or she will tolerate. Ashia, our norwegian forest cat came from a very forward thinking breeder who made sure all her cats had a broad experience of foods- she will eat absolutely everything we put in front of her - fish, meat, dried/wet- whatever brand -and loves anything we've prepared for her - she even had day-old chicks and fresh fish before we got her but Im way too squeamish to carry that on. Our other cats came from breeders who were not as inventive - consequently, they turn their noses up at certain brands and one still struggles to eat cat biscuits but will (wierdly0 eat dog biscuits, which are not nutritionally good for her...

You will need to feed the quantities and frequencies according to the brand/type of food you choose - it's usually 3 times per day to begin with then twice per day after about 3-4 months of age. If you're lucky, your kitten will alreayd have been litter trained before you get her/him so just letting them know where their new litter tray/ food and sleeping areas are will be OK - try to position the litter tray away from food and sleeping areas, and preferably somewhere quiet- cats dont like an audience and can be very fussy about the type of litter you use- also, they hate dirty or smelly litter. Check what the breeder has been using to begin with- you can switch to something better once your cat is familiar with its new surroundings.

Even if the kitten you get looks OK, I would still recommend registering him or her at a vets practice as soon as possible after you bring it home- just to be on the safe side, so it can be checked over - plus, it's always helpful to have a chat with a vet if you are new to pet ownership and they usually give you a goodie bag with lots of info, a few samples and details of pet insurance schemes you might want to investigate. Insurance is a personal choice- you might decide instead to put money aside each month to pay for any mishaps. I would recommend microchipping too.

There are lots of threads on this forum about neutering/spaying and the various costs of cat ownership that you might want to look at too- if you do a search.

You can choose to purchase worming and flea treatments plus other vet supplies either from a vets or online- there are lots of online vet stores that are reliable, cheap and quick delivery.
Oh and if possible, ask the breeder to provide a soft blanket or something similar with the kitten's mum's scent on it- that first night away from mum and its litter-mates can be quite traumatic for a baby.

Good luck and welcome to the wonderful world of all things feline - try not to spend too much money on cat treats and toys- it can be quite addictive.

oh and applaws is great - real chicken/ fish shredded finely and mixed with other natural ingredients. Pricey, but top notch stuff- our new mum Ashia is eating that at hte moment - she'll hate us when she has to revert to normal cat food...



Anyone struggling to get Applaws, The Meers cattery @ Meersbrook is a local stockist.

It's not cheap (rrp 99p per tin), it's that good that at the cat shows they put a fork in it for the humans to try it.

Anyone struggling to get Applaws, The Meers cattery @ Meersbrook is a local stockist.

It's not cheap (rrp 99p per tin), it's that good that at the cat shows they put a fork in it for the humans to try it.

The little pet shop on West Street stocks a range too- I think we paid about 71p per tin for it but I couldnt swear to that- I'm considering finding an online stockist as I'm sure I've seen someone who does mixed cases of 48. It is great looking stuff- once you've seen that, you wonder why we buy the nasty diced gunk from Whiskas and Felix. Applaws actually looks like it came from a chicken or a fish, not a processed cube covered in gooh. There's another brand we get when we go to the Supreme Cat Show at the NEC in Nov- a scandinavian company, does similar stuff to the applaws.

ragdoll prepare to do alot of hair brushing....lol

ragdoll prepare to do alot of hair brushing....lol

We werent daft, we went for semi long haired breeds- they only need brushing once a week!

I'd advise tinned food

I'd advise tinned food

full of sugars and additives, low in meat content

Thanks everyone for your help I think I'm going to feed it the dry food as a lot of the books I have got say thats the best. I have bought it a grooming brush that has two different bristles each side and one of the sides is like metal comb bristles wont this hurt the kitten? Their blunt at the edges but it still seems a bit harsh even if he does have long hair I dont want to hurt him. Also do you have to trim cats nails?

Here is a picture of Merlin.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/Mpage2396890/merlin.jpg

The little pet shop on West Street stocks a range too- I think we paid about 71p per tin for it but I couldnt swear to that- I'm considering finding an online stockist as I'm sure I've seen someone who does mixed cases of 48. It is great looking stuff- once you've seen that, you wonder why we buy the nasty diced gunk from Whiskas and Felix. Applaws actually looks like it came from a chicken or a fish, not a processed cube covered in gooh. There's another brand we get when we go to the Supreme Cat Show at the NEC in Nov- a scandinavian company, does similar stuff to the applaws.

the distributor is: http://www.mpmproducts.co.uk/

I only have a couple of things to add to katkin's very comprehensive post:

1) worm, worm and worm again. Kittens are little worm factories so need worming every 3 weeks or so until they're approaching 6 months when you can revert to doing it every 12 weeks. You also need to worm every time you think that they have had fleas- the life cycle of the worms and fleas is closely linked and if they have one they're likely to have the other too.

2) preventing fleas is much easier than treating them because when you treat you have to treat your home too to make sure that you break the life cycle. A drop on once a month is worth not having to take your home to bits to kill them round the place. Fleas can kill very small kittens too- don't think that they're just a hindrance.

3) you can't stop them scratching the furniture, but you can get them interesting and more sensible scratching pads, rub them with catnip to make them more interesting, site them in good places for cats (prominent corners of walls or next to doors for a wall mounted one, well weighted and strong enough that they can hang off them with lots of space around for a floor standing one) and praise them for using the appropriate place for scratching. That should ensure that your little one grows up knowing what you'd like them to do.

4) you can buy every expensive bed in the world, but you can't make cats sleep in them. More often than not a good clean cardboard box with a lovely blanket in it (against a radiator if you can) will make just as good a bed as one that costs money, and it's disposable so you can replace it regularly. Even so, your kitten may choose their own sleeping place- my current foster kitten chose on top of the dining table over a proper bed with a hot water bottle in it. It's fine- he's a sweetheart.

I think that will do for the moment.

Above everything else, enjoy your little one because they won't stay little for very long. Kittens are a lot of work and frustrating at times, but they're gorgeous wee beasties.

Oh dear- just thought of another one.

Make toys- lots of them. Buy cheap elastic, ribbon, beads and the like and tie lengths of them round door handles, bannisters and anywhere else that they can dangle at kitten height. Feathers are fab kitten toys.

A ping pong ball in an empty bath will keep most kittens happy for hours. A cardboard box turned upside down with a couple of little entry doors and some balls inside makes a lovely den. Most kittens love scrunched up balls of foil that you flick round the room for them.

Old socks with a couple of cotton wool pads in the toe with a pinch of dried catnip, then tied in a knot and cut off the rest of the sock makes a really good catnip toy with no sewing. You can tie them onto the elastic on the door handles too.

There's no need to buy expensive toys as long as you have some imagination. Spend your money on good food, preventative health care and getting them neutered or spayed instead.

I would just like to add that you need a quality metal comb to comb through your kitten regularly (the only way to remain matt free). A brush just wont do the job, you may aswell throw it in the bin. You will not hurt your kitten with a comb and you need to get kitty used to it from an early age.

I groom so may cats that are matted as "he hates being combed", there is nothing sadder or more distressing than a shaved down cat (which is inevitable if long haired cats are not combed through regularly).

Here here Gemima! If you make combing part of an allover body snuggle between human and kitten and do it often enough that it's not painful (I'm pretty sure I'd begin to associate grooming with unpleasant things if it always hurt) then your kitten can grow up being calm and comfortable with you combing their tummy, legs and tail.

Just wondering what sort of wormer you would recommend for a 4 month old:)

Drontal

You can buy them here

www.vet-medic.co.uk

www.bestpetpharmacy.co.uk

www.hyperdrug.com