Pet Care - Cat Health Issues - Kitten Guide

Kitten Guide

Cats are the most popular pet in the UK!

Taking on a kitten is an expensive investment, you must ensure that not only are you prepared for the responsibility of a kitten but you can also afford healthcare and maybe insurance. Initial vaccinations are now about £45, micro-chipping about £20 and neutering is around £30-£40 for a male and £40-£50 for a female, not forgetting the wormers and flea treatments. You may want to consider a slightly older kitten or cat from a charity such as the RSPCA or Cats Protection. They neuter and vaccinate their cats before they are ready for re-homing.

When choosing a kitten you have lots of factors to think about: male or female, pedigree or non-pedigree, will it be indoors or outdoors, how old will it be when you get it and will it get on with your other animals? Visit the kitten when it is still with its mother, check it for any signs of discharge from the eyes, ears and bottom. The coat should be in good condition and the eyes bright. The kitten should be active and alert and though the smallest one (runt) may look cute it may suffer from health problems. Very small kittens often suffer broken legs because they have a habit of getting underfoot due to their natural curiosity!

Socialisation

Kittens which leave their mothers at a very young age may later develop socialisation problems, ideally kittens should be at least 8 weeks old (preferably 12) before they leave their mother. Kittens learn from the mother about the social interactions between cats and humans. You should always see the kittens with their mother; this will also give you an indication of the mother’s temperament (which can be genetically passed on). Kittens from a pet shop or breeder which have had little human contact may also develop behaviour problems. Without this early contact between humans and cats they may grow to fear or distrust humans and thus become very independent. This can lead to a kitten with aggression problems.

The first few weeks (up to 12 weeks old) of your kitten’s life are very important and they should be allowed to meet as many different people, encounter different environments and situations as possible. This will decrease the likelihood of you having a cat with behaviour problems such as nervousness. If you have an enclosed garden, let your kitten explore it. Many people worry about this before the cat is fully vaccinated. However if you take precautions such as checking for other cat faeces and maybe even putting your kitten on a harness so you can control where it goes then there should not be a problem. It is a decision only the owner can make, but if the kitten is let out it must be supervised at all times.

CUSTOMER COMMENT

My kittens have grown tremendously. When they arrived here (they were rescues) they were not well at all, now they are the picture of health. I cannot stress enough just how healthy they are (now on Burns). Their coats are like silk, all their skin complaints have vanished, their eyes are bright and they are no longer a bag of bones. All the digestive problems they also came with have disappeared and instead of being lifeless like they once were they bounce around the house, destroying everything......just like kittens should.
March 10th 2004. Mrs. Jordan.

Kitten Development

A kitten is not totally independent until about 6 months old. In the wild it would remain with its mother until then, if not longer. A kitten can be fully weaned at about 8 weeks old. It should not leave its mother until then. Pedigree kittens suckle for two weeks longer than non-pedigrees and are not fully weaned until 12 weeks old.

Eyes

A kitten’s eyes will open from 8 days old onwards, although some take up to 3 weeks. All kittens are born with blue eyes, as they grow the eyes change colour. The final colour will be evident at 12 weeks old.

Teeth

At 8 weeks all the milk teeth are through, the adult teeth appear at 4 months old. However, unlike puppies they do not spend time teething; the adult teeth grow under the milk teeth.

Claws

A kitten is born with the claws extended. As they grow older they learn to retract them. Claws are used for climbing, grooming and protection. They often claw objects at the edge of territories e.g. a tree at the end of the garden. Therefore, it is advisable to move their scratching post to the back door, or near the door of the room they spend most time in. Declawing is illegal in the U.K. except for medical reasons. It still continues in the U.S. however it is cruel and involves removing all of the claw and the terminal bone in the toe. Cats are usually declawed to prevent them destroying objects and furniture with their claws.

Hunting

Kittens begin to practice pouncing and hunting with their mother and litter mates from 6 weeks old. Once your kitten begins to hunt properly, you must worm regularly as worms can be passed on from their prey. If your cat brings home mice and birds, it does not mean you are not feeding enough! Your cat may bring you presents, some people believe they do this because they have seen that their owner is incapable of hunting prey for themselves, your cat is ensuring you don’t starve!

Scent behaviour

Cats have scent glands on their cheeks, chin, lips, feet and at the base of their tail. When they scratch trees, posts and other objects in their territory they are using the glands on their feet to mark. They can taste scent by opening their mouth, to allow air over this organ. They may rub themselves around you or objects in your house. This is known as chinning when they use their head and allows them to mark you with their scent.

Purring

Kittens are able to purr at 1 week old. It is used as a form of communication between them and their mother. They usually purr when contented, for example just before they settle down to sleep. However, they also purr when frightened or in pain as this is less likely to attract the attention of a predator than other noises such as crying.

Neutering

When a female cat is neutered it is called spaying when a male is neutered it is called castration. A responsible pet owner should get their cat neutered to prevent unwanted kittens. Cats can be neutered from about 6 months old, they can also become pregnant from this age and female cats can come into season as often as every 4-5 weeks in the spring and summer, that’s a lot of kittens!

FACT: Most cats killed on the roads are uncastrated tom cats, neutering will prevent your cat from wandering, fighting as much and spraying urine in your house! (The Kitten Guide, Autumn/Winter 2001, Guidefigure Marketing).

Toilet training

If you are lucky, your kitten will already be toilet trained. Their mother can teach them this, although kittens taken away too early from their mother may miss out on learning social and hygiene skills. You should choose a shallow litter tray so small kittens do not have difficulty using it. Ask the breeder what type of cat litter they used as there is a wide variety available and your kitten may already be accustomed to a certain type. However, if your kitten is not trained then it is quite easy to do so. After the kitten has eaten gently place it in the tray, hold its paws and scratch them in the litter. The kitten should eventually learn to do this itself. However, if there is an accident do not shout (this encourages them to go to the toilet secretly when you are not there!). If it is faeces pick them up and put them in the litter tray and show your kitten. If your kitten persistently urinates in the same place try moving the litter tray to that area for a few days and scrub the floor with a cleaner that does not contain ammonia (ammonia smells like urine to a cat and they may keep marking that place).

Some cats prefer to urinate and defecate in separate litter trays, so two may be necessary (especially when they are young and may get confused where the tray is). Keep the tray away from their food. Always keep the tray as clean as possible. If it is dirty cats tend to ‘hold on’ and this can lead to urinary problems such as cystitis.

Vaccinations

The diseases which your kitten may be vaccinated against are: feline enteritis, cat flu (cat influenza), feline calicivirus (FCV), feline rhinotracheitis virus (FVRV) and the feline leukaemia virus (FeLV). Which vaccines your kitten gets may depend on the area you live and other factors. Usually your kitten will be vaccinated from 9 weeks old and have a second injection 3-4 weeks later. After which your cat will be covered a week later and can go outside.

Worms

Worms can be passed from the mother or can be passed onto your cat by the mice and birds it hunts. There are two types of worms a cat can suffer from, they can be passed from the mother to kittens and if left untreated can eventually result in the severe deterioration of the cats'/kittens' health and even cause death. Tape worms come away in segments and resemble grains of rice, round worms look like thin pieces of string. There are many remedies on the market but it is always best to get your vet to recommend one because the amount given depends on the age and weight of the cat. Wormers from pet shops are not always totally reliable and efficient. Regular worming is recommended until your kitten is 6 months old.

Nutrition

Range of diets: choosing a diet for your cat can be confusing. There are many different diets available for kittens, adult cats, indoor cats, outdoor cats, senior cats and then a whole range of prescription diets for cats with health problems.

Many new diets are being used to TREAT disease, however if you feed a good diet to begin with you will help PREVENT disease and future visits to your vet! Vegetarian diets: these are not suitable for kittens or cats. Cats must get their protein from an animal source to survive successfully. On a vegetarian diet, they are at risk from deficiencies of taurine, arginine, tryptophan, lysine and Vitamin A deficiency. A cat’s liver has a limited capacity to produce the amino acid, taurine. It is found in animal tissues but is not in plant material therefore vegetarian diets fail to provide sufficient amounts of this nutrient. A deficiency causes visual impairment which may cause the cat to bump into things, failure to reproduce successfully and heart disease.

Hairball diets: There are many new cat foods on the market which claim to help with this problem. We think they work by dissolving the hair balls. Burns Real Food for Cats works by helping the body as a whole. It reduces the amount of moulting and thus prevents over-grooming. By reducing the amount of hair that they shed, you are also minimising the risk of hair balls. Cows Milk: ‘Cats along with most other mammals lose, to a variable extent, their ability to digest lactose (milk sugar) with age, because the activity of the enzyme lactase declines with age ’Source‘. Manual of Companion Animal Nutrition and Feeding’ by BSAVA (British Small Animal Veterinary Association). Lactose cannot be broken down without the enzyme lactase. Cats and kittens which are lactose intolerant may suffer from diarrhoea and/or flatulence when fed milk.

Burns Real Food for Kittens is made with high quality duck meal and rice. It can be fed from weaning at 3 weeks old to cats up to 6 months old. Small frequent meals are recommended as a kitten’s stomach is very small. In the wild cats may have up to 20 small meals per day.