What do I need before bringing a kitten home?

Kittens settle by establishing a small territory and expanding it, which is why a whole house on day one usually produces a kitten under the sofa for a week. Beyond that, the first months are mostly a timetable — vaccinations, microchipping, neutering, worming — and a short window where a kitten learns whether people, handling, carriers, dogs and noise are normal.

Safety

What you'll need

• Litter tray and litter the breeder used
• Food the breeder is using
• Carrier, bowls, scratching post, bed
• Vet registration and insurance in place
• Wand toys (optional)
• Cat tree or shelves (optional)

Step by step

1. Sort the vet, insurance and microchip arrangements first.Register with a practice, have insurance live from the day of collection, and confirm whether the kitten is already chipped and that the record is transferred to you. Microchipping is compulsory in England for cats over twenty weeks, and it is the thing that gets a lost cat home.
2. Set up one room and start there.A quiet room with the litter tray in one corner, food and water well away from it, a bed, a scratching post and somewhere to hide. Let the kitten have that for the first few days and expand its access gradually as its confidence grows. This settles kittens far faster than the run of the house.
3. Match the litter and the food to what it already knows.Ask the breeder or rescue which litter and which food the kitten is used to, and buy those. Changing either in the first fortnight is a common cause of toileting outside the tray and of diarrhoea. Change them later, gradually.
4. Kitten-proof properly, including the things that only apply to kittens.No lilies anywhere in the house. Restrict upstairs windows and net any balcony. Keep washing machine and tumble dryer doors shut and check the drum before every use. Tie up blind cords. Check reclining chairs before sitting down. Cover or fence any pond.
5. Ask the vet for the timetable at the first appointment.The primary vaccination course and when it completes, worming and flea treatment schedules, microchipping if not done, and neutering — commonly recommended from around four months, which is before most people expect and before a kitten can get pregnant.
6. Handle the kitten daily and make it ordinary.Feet, ears, mouth, being picked up, being brushed, being in the carrier. A kitten that has been handled routinely becomes a cat that can be given medication and taken to a vet without a fight, and that pays back for fifteen years.
7. Leave the carrier out from day one.Door open, blanket inside, in the room the kitten uses. Feed the occasional meal in it. A carrier that is furniture rather than an event removes most of the difficulty of vet visits for the rest of the cat's life.
8. Play with toys, never with hands.A kitten taught to chase fingers becomes an adult cat that ambushes ankles, and it is genuinely hard to undo. Redirect onto a wand toy every single time, and use several short play sessions a day.
9. Provide scratching and climbing immediately.A post tall enough to stretch up fully, sturdy enough not to wobble, plus a horizontal cardboard scratcher. Put them where the kitten already is. Establishing the habit on the right object from the start is much easier than moving it later.
10. Keep the kitten in until it is neutered, vaccinated and settled.The usual advice is at least several weeks after arrival, and after neutering and full vaccination. Let it out first before a meal, hungry, in daylight, with you outside and the door open, for a few minutes at a time. Never let a cat out into an unfamiliar area unsupervised.

Tips

• Ask for a blanket that smells of the mother and the litter. It makes the first nights much easier, exactly as it does for puppies.
• Two kittens from the same litter often settle better than one and entertain each other — but that only works if you can afford double the veterinary and food costs for fifteen years.
• Kittens sleep an enormous amount and need to. A kitten that is left to sleep undisturbed is far less likely to be wild in the evening.

Common mistakes

• Giving a new kitten the whole house immediately — It usually results in a kitten hiding somewhere inaccessible for days. Expanding out from one secure room is quicker and less stressful for everyone.
• Changing the litter type on arrival — Kittens learn a substrate. A new litter in a new home is a common reason a kitten toilets somewhere else, and it is easily avoided.
• Playing with hands and feet — It teaches the kitten that human skin is a toy. The adult cat that results ambushes ankles, and by then the behaviour is well established.
• Letting the kitten outside too early — Before neutering, full vaccination and settling in, a kitten outdoors is at risk of disease, traffic, getting lost and unplanned pregnancy. There is no hurry.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask