DS wants a kitten...

[MacFam4]

My DS10 has wanted a cat for several years now, and we've decided to get him a kitten. He'll be so excited However, I've never owned a cat before so I need some good advice on what kind of litter box to get. Where in the house do you keep your litter box? I was thinking about keeping it in our laundry room (the door typically stays open or cracked open anyway). Does your cat sleep in a bed, or just where ever it wants? Do you have trouble keeping it off of the counters/dining table?

Also, we have a little miniature Dachshund that stays in the house. He's been around my parents cat alot so they're not foreign to him, but this cat will be coming into HIS house. What's a good way to introduce our dog to his new housemate?

Any particular kind of kitty litter you use?

 

[Mickeypooh99]

I love kittens! We keep our litter box in the laundry room, but we also put a cat door in that door. So if the door gets closed they can still get in. You don't want to lock him away from the litter box!

Our cats sleep wherever they want. We have beds for them that they never use.

Our cats aren't too bad about getting on the counter or table. One of ours gets on the table once in awhile, but as soon as we tell her get down she does. We used a spray bottle of water to train them. When they do something bad we spray them. It works pretty good.

I can't get my one cat to stop eating the Christmas tree. It is so frustrating. She does it every year. Then she throws up pieces of tree that I have to clean up.

We use scoop away litter. Our cats never liked a covered litter box.

 

[okeydokey]

We use a big covered box (they tend to kick litter out of if if we don't) and we keep it in the laundry room. The best litter out there is Scoop Away.

Cats will sleep where they want and yes we do have a problem of them sometimes getting on tables and counters. It helps to start training right away when they are young. Get a spray bottle of water and squirt them when they are on the table. Ours stay off it now when we are around but I imagine they must get up there when we are not home.

 

[auralia]

a squirt bottle is your friend... when kitty does something naughty just squirt him with water ... in the face is most effective, he will quickly learn what is NOT accepted. a scratching post is a must unless he is getting declawed (i don't want to get into this debate people, my cat is declawed and fine..i paid for the lazer declaw it was 550$ by the time it was done but is much less recovery time and trama to the cat... i was TOTALLY against declawing until i had children and took in a stray... this cat would have been put down or i take him to take him due to having a very young child i had to have him declawed please don't judge!!!) anyway... be sure to get him tested for FLV and get the shots for it.. i had a cat die from it that i got as a kitten (pre children before dd i never declawed cats) i didn't know he had it he died at around 7 months old was very heartbreaking!

litter box.. asses the space you want to put it in first and buy what will fit i prefer a covered litter box i did the automatic for a while, but it really was just as much of a mess if not more than scooping it myself.

best toys are ones on strings so ds can play with the cat, food... what ever food he is eating when you take him home keep him on it if you want to switch do it gradually so 3/4 old food 1/4 new food... gradually every day increase new food tell it's all new food.

if you sew be aware where all your thread is and keep it far away from kitty thread, dental floss, etc like that can kill a cat or result in surgery.

flea treatment of course with a dog you know how important this is i use revoluation because it also does heart worm and a few other things as well.

GL thats all i can think of now!

 

[crisi]

Keep the litterbox where the dog can't get to it. Dogs like to eat cat poop.

We have a covered box, but that doesn't work for all cats. We use a scoopable litter. Generally the bulk stuff at Petco.

And we have a smart cat, it knows it shouldn't be on the counters and table - when we are looking. She knows that when we aren't home or aren't there, we can't squirt her. (Double sided tape and tin foil didn't do much to dissuade her either)

 

[MEM]

My DS10 has wanted a cat for several years now, and we've decided to get him a kitten. He'll be so excited However, I've never owned a cat before so I need some good advice on what kind of litter box to get. Where in the house do you keep your litter box? I was thinking about keeping it in our laundry room (the door typically stays open or cracked open anyway). Does your cat sleep in a bed, or just where ever it wants? Do you have trouble keeping it off of the counters/dining table?

Also, we have a little miniature Dachshund that stays in the house. He's been around my parents cat alot so they're not foreign to him, but this cat will be coming into HIS house. What's a good way to introduce our dog to his new housemate?

Any particular kind of kitty litter you use?

I had a dachshund for 17 wonderful years so I feel that I know the breed fairly well. Somehow, you have to make him think getting the cat is his idea - could you take him to "meet" kittens and perhaps allow him (and your son) to pick one together? Let your dachsie think the kitten is his and that you take of it for him. May sound silly to some, but the dachshund is a very special breed.

 

[Agri]

If you have a large house, you might want to get two litterboxes. Even with just one cat, they cannot always get to the box if it is far away from them - which I totally found out when I got my kitten.

I use tidy cats clumping litter and covered boxes. The second cat I got likes to dig to China, so we have to have covered boxes. (My vet thinks it is cruel to have covered boxes because the smell gets trapped in there, but my second cat will literally empty out at least half of the litter in an uncovered box.)

Loud noises and scat mats work best for my cats - I do not want them afraid of water because they are a pain to bathe already. (One of my cats likes to rattle the door with her paws and claw at the carpet - scat mat means I get to sleep and she can't tear up the house).

My cats both have distinct preferences for toys, much like dogs do. One cat loves the spongy balls (and will play fetch), the other likes the ruffled mylar balls. Chances are your kitten will be the same way. Mine also like interactive toys, but will play with the aforementioned toys all the time on their own.

 

[kinntj]

We have two cats, so we have 2 litter boxes in the laundry room. They each go in there own. It's weird because I've never had that before. Our first 2 cats shared the same one. Oh well.

We also have a cat door cut into the laundry door, because our dog would get in there and eat the litter box droppings.

Our cats sleep on the dog bed. Now our dog wants nothing to do with it since they rubbed their catness all over it.

Enjoy your kitten. Mine is going through her teen years and she's a handful, but she's also very cuddly.

 

[MacFam4]

I had a dachshund for 17 wonderful years so I feel that I know the breed fairly well. Somehow, you have to make him think getting the cat is his idea - could you take him to "meet" kittens and perhaps allow him (and your son) to pick one together? Let your dachsie think the kitten is his and that you take of it for him. May sound silly to some, but the dachshund is a very special breed.

My dachshund is 10 years old (I got him right before my son was born), and he's a bit "snobby", so I know exactly what you're talking about! We love him dearly, so I already told everyone that we may to give him extra special attention so he doesn't think he's been left out. He's very sensitive

 

[secretpantssam]

I keep the litterbox in the laundry room as well. I use arm and hammer litter, I think it gets rid of the smell the best and my cat seems to like it too. He'll pee in the sink if I use anything else.

My cat has a bed and he rarely sleeps in it. He usually sleeps at the foot of the bed, though on cold nights he tries to sleep with his head on my pillow.

My cat doesn't really go on the countertops. He has tried to get on the table once or twice, but I usually yell at him and he'll stop.

As for the dog, I think I would keep the cat in one part of the house for a little bit and gradually let him into the rest. When I had a dog growing up, she hated it when we brought a new dog in. So we put the new dog in just one room first and then slowly let him into other parts of the house. She eventually got used to him, but she needed some time to adjust to sharing her house.

 

[SC Minnie]

How big is the kitten? Some of the covered litter boxes are fairly deep and may be hard for a little kitten to get in and out of. When we got ours as a little one I bought a less deep box to start with then charged to a covered box when she got bigger. We have a covererd litter box upstairs and an uncovered one downstairs. They don't have a problem using either one.

We have always used scoopable litter. It is much easier. Some of the scoopable says it can be flushed but I wouldn't advise that. We did it for a while and keep getting clogs. Now I just scoop into plastic grocery bags.

We have a bed for the cats that they use sometimes but they mostly sleep where ever/ whenever they want. You can train them to stay off you counters and tables. You have to be very strict with it. Ours don't get on the tables/counters when we are home but I know they get on the dining room table-- there is hair on my table runner.

Make sure you have some sort of scratching post/mat or something. You can also trim your cats nails. Just be very, very careful not to get to the quick part of the nail and only clip the clear nail. I trimmed the white ones nails last night. Took less than 2 min.

 

[pixiewings71]

We currently have a kitten that DD14 found (along with his sister, unfortunately she wasn't healthy enough and she didn't make it) with no Momma Kat, so DD14 is now Tigger's Momma Kat. lol We also have 2 other cats (about 6 years old) and 1 mini doxie. The cats go in and out (one is mostly out, the other comes and goes as she pleases) so their litter boxes are outside, they each have their own. The kitten does not go out (he's only had 1 set of shots, his next set is next week) so his litter box is in the bathroom. Right now it does NOT have the top on it and he kicks out very little litter, just what it takes him to jump back out of the box. As he gets bigger we will put the lid on it. Previously when we had a cat that lived inside (DD22's cat) we had a cat door in DD's bedroom door and a cat door in the back door so the cat could go in and out to the litter as she needed to but we aren't sure how we will do it with Tig-Tig just yet. He's still small so we have time to decide. So right now his litter box is in the bathroom, not covered.
He really likes the lattice balls with the bell inside, he will chase those around for ours, he also really likes his puff ball on a spring toy, it's got a flat bottom with a spring (covered with plastic) with a fuzzy ball on the end, he jumps all over that thing, he also loves his little mouse that has a string attached and hangs from the back of one of our bar chairs, it makes a funny squeak noise when it moves and he loves batting it around. I also got him a toy that has a ball that he can chase and some carpet in the top for clawing but he doesn't use it much so I think I'll return it, I've only seen him play with it once, otherwise it just sits on the floor and gets ignored by all the cats and the dog. LOL Every cat likes a different toy so you may have to trial and error a few and yes, a scratching pad is a good idea, if I do return the toy Tig isn't using I'll exchange it for a scratching toy instead. If not he'll get a scratching toy from Santa this year. Beds, Tig "stole" Autumn's donut (it's a cat donut but since she's so small it works perfectly for her) that is in the living room so we got him his own. He has one in the bathroom (where we put him if we are gone for extended periods of time during the day) and one on his Momma's bed, sometimes he uses the one on the bed but most times he curls up next to DD and sleeps with her. For fleas we use Advantage, he was covered with fleas at first so the vet gave him a drop of Advantage and instructed me to do it again a week later, he's flea free now and will get regular doses with the other cats. Our vet lets us buy a large dog tube of Advantage and we are able to get several doses for the cats from just 1 tube. We have a syringe to dose correctly and a bottle to keep the extra Advantage in, not all vets do that but ours does and we love it.
As for the doxie, she honestly thinks that Tigger is hers. Since we have cats she's used to them and is fine with them, but she chases Tig all over the house, plays with him, bathes him (we only had to give him a few baths because Autumn was always making sure he was clean, which was nice because they were 4 weeks old when we found them), and protects him from the other cats. We didn't "introduce" them really, we just let them approach each other and do it themselves, we were very lucky because Autumn was not aggressive at all. I'm not sure I'd do it that way in your case, do you have a baby gate you could use to keep the kitten in 1 room and the dog in another, then you can introduce them that way.
Good luck, kittens are loads of fun but a lot of playful trouble, after time that passes tho and you have a furry friend to share your life with.

 

[Tinkerbelle9980]

We have four litter boxes and four cats, two upstairs and two downstairs. We keep our litter boxes in the bathrooms, but we don't use one of the bathrooms very often so it works. You may have to try different litters until you find one that works. Currently my cats are using Dr. Elsey's Precious Cat Scoopable Litter. We switched to it because it does not have any perfume and is almost dust free. It is better on my sinuses and the cats like it too. Plus one cat is allergic to the perfume and has "issues' otherwise.

All of my cats have a favorite type of toy, rings. They love the rings off of milk jugs and the ouchless hair band things. They also love bouncy balls and a laser pointer. One things about a kitten that you never hear is to watch the teething. They will chew on everything. Our youngest chewed on stairs, my phone screen, watches anything she could put her mouth on. Good luck kittens are so much fun!

 

[pixiewings71]

I forgot about litter, we use whatever is on sale honestly but it's usually a scoopable type, we never use clay but we have used World's Best (which is corn based), we've tried Yesterdays News & Swheat Scoop but the cats don't like it.
Our cats are only allowed on the table if they are getting soft food, otherwise Autumn eats it! They can't jump up when we are eating there and they know that so they just don't, and yes, I clean the table well before we eat at it.
I also trim Tig's claws, it's quite easy, I just use small nail clippers and clip them. As pp said just be careful not to cut to the quick, they will bleed and it will hurt.

 

[coastiewifern]

We've had kitties for years. I swear by Fresh step scoopable litter. My neighbor got a kitten last year and came over to ask me what litter I used. She said she scoops everyday and her house smelled. She said mine never smells and we have mulitiple cats (plus I don't scoop everyday, sorry kitties). She switched to fresh step and loves it.
My cats love bouncy balls like you get out of the $0.25 machine. Also those pom pom balls in the craft section of Michaels, oh and golf balls. Scratching toys are really important. I find good deals on the scratching posts on ebay. Even with shipping they are way cheaper. My cats love scratching and perching on those cat trees.

 

[PatriciaH]

We use Swheat and Feline Pine scoop combined. Never smells bad (smells like sawdust) and never kicks up any dust. It is OK for them to lick off their paws as well-no clay that gets trapped in their system. Ours never go on the counters-they got trained when they were little and have always had a cat tree to climb on. They sleep on the cat tree, on the bed and on a hassock near the window.

Catster.com is a good place to research cat behavior, foods, litter, etc. Read the forums.

 

[Them!]

Get a covered litter pan and use scoopable litter! Your kitty sounds like it will be young enough to train to use a covered box. If he/she is really small put some old big books in front of the pan to use as "steps". Make sure you show the new kitty where the litter is and scratch their paw around so they know.
Have fun.

 

[AllesonWonderland]

Congrats in advance on the new kitty! Our 16 year old Himalayan passed away this summer, so we have 2 baby kitties at our house as well. The kids weren't around when our other cat was a kitten, so they are really loving these 2. Ours were really small when we got them, so we just used a disposable foil pan for a litterbox at first. And we were told to start with the plain ol' litter you sprinkle on the oil stains in your garage at first. Evidently kittens can be curious and might eat some litter--so the scoopable kind would be bad for them. We used one big bag til they were a few months old then switched to scoopable. (Although we used the pearls/crystals with our other cat and I really liked that.)

We, too, have our litterbox(es) in the laundry room. In our old house we had one upstairs in the laundry room and one down in the basement, but now we're all on one level so we cut back to just the laundry room.

Ditto on using a squirt bottle. Or a soda can with pennies startles pets too.

We got a bed and they slept in it at first, but now they just lay where ever. I'll bet your DS will hope yours will come sleep with him.

There are lots of books about kitten care at the library, my kids loved reading through all of them when we first brought our new additions home.

Enjoy!

 

[MacFam4]

Thank you all so much for the great advice. The litter box will def go in the laundry room. I think I'll start with just a regular litter box and we'll take it from there when kitty gets older.

DS10 would love for the cat to sleep with him, so we may start with the cat bed in his room. I know the cat will end up in HIS bed, but that's OK. We had a Basset Hound that slept with us for years, but she's gone now

The kitten will be a Christmas present, but we will be out of state visiting family, so he already knows he'll have to wait until we get back to start looking. We don't want any specific kind...just a regular cat. Hopefully a free cat I'm going to buy the litter box with some cat toys and wrap them up as a present, along with a little stuffed animal cat. I'll write a note that says "coming soon", or something similar. I know that sounds weird but I want DS to know that's part of his Christmas. I think it will be cute

 

[MacFam4]

Oh, one more question....what do you do to prevent hair balls?