A new home can be stressful for a cat and in order to ensure you and your new cat are completely happy with each other, follow these helpful tips.<\/p>\n
Prepare a room in your house for the new arrival \u2013 <\/strong>Your new kitten or cat is going to need some time to adjust to his new environment\u2014the new sights, sounds, and smells; the new ecosystem of germs; and the new people\u2014so set the room up for an extended stay. You\u2019ll need to provide all the basic kitty comforts\u2014water bowl, comfortable bed, and litter box. If you are using a spare bedroom or office for your kitty\u2019s temporary quarters, make sure you \u201ckitty-proof\u201d it. Just like with small children, put away anything valuable or breakable. Get down on the floor and look around from a \u201ccat\u2019s eye view.\u201d Cover any bed, sofa, or upholstered chair with a waterproof pad or sheet. Remember, cats are territorial and may, when feeling insecure, mark their territory with urine or feces. If another animal has been in the room and had a little \u201caccident\u201d that you never even noticed, the new kitten or cat will find it and \u201crefresh\u201d it!<\/p>\n Clean and prepare a pet carrier for transporting your new cat home \u2013 <\/strong>Wash a pet carrier with a solution of 1:32 bleach and water solution (1 ounce [30 ml] bleach to 1 gallon [4 l] of warm water) and rinse thoroughly. Outfit it with something you\u2019ve worn, such as a T-shirt, so the new kitty can start getting used to your scent on the way home. Once you get the kitty home, you might want to leave the carrier in the room for him as an extra haven of security.<\/p>\n When driving home, make sure the carrier is secured with a seat belt \u2013 <\/strong>Also, driving in a car is usually an intense experience for kittens and cats, so keep the music from your radio or CD player soft and soothing; light classical is a good choice, especially Mozart.<\/p>\n Give your new kitty an adequate adjustment \/ quarantine period \u2013 <\/strong>Quarantine your new kitten or cat for a minimum of 14 days and preferably 21. It will allow for mental, emotional, and immune system adaptation. It\u2019s important to be in this room frequently to love, feed, and bond with your new kitten or cat. He will become more comfortable and, of extreme importance, get used to his new litter box. You can start to introduce your new kitty slowly to the rest of your home. Expect the introduction period to take weeks, not days. If you get too excited and\/or impatient and rush this time, you risk social failure as well as litter box mistakes.<\/p>\n If you have other pets, make sure you give them plenty of affection so they don\u2019t feel neglected, and make the introduction gradually \u2013 <\/strong>All the animals that live with you will be aware of each other by smell first. Feed resident cats and the new cat on opposite sides of the (closed) door to the new cat\u2019s room; feed the dog separately due to dogs\u2019 natural guarding behaviors surrounding food. (It is never safe to feed dogs and cats together.) Paws may start to reach under the door. Moderate hissing or growling is normal. Gradually crack the door open so the pets can see each other without being able to fight. Occasionally bring some of your resident pets\u2019 bedding into the new cat\u2019s room, so that the newcomer can become acquainted with the scent. The new cat\u2019s bedding can also be introduced to the current residents. Do occasional \u201cterritory swaps\u201d by putting the new cat in another part of the house and the resident cats in the new cat\u2019s room. Sometimes they become fast friends; sometimes they will annoy but tolerate each other; sometimes the sounds of hissing and yowling will make you wonder if bringing home another cat was the right thing\u2014but don\u2019t worry, with cat introductions, some personalities blend and others don\u2019t, but in nearly all cases, they can be taught to tolerate each other.<\/p>\n Note: If you\u2019re introducing a cat to one or more dogs, keep all dogs leashed at all times to allow the new cat to choose how closely to interact. Never leave any dog and cat together unsupervised (no matter how well they know each other) unless the cat has a good escape route.<\/p>\n Limit new \u201d siblings\u2019 \u201d time together if it\u2019s not going well initially \u2013 <\/strong>They will decide among them who is going to be \u201ctop cat!\u201d Helping the cats to socialize through play therapy can also be helpful.<\/p>\n Keep it dark \u2013 <\/strong>Let your new cat sleep in a dark room with no light at all. This will help your cat give up any tendency toward nocturnal activities and adjust to your schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are you thinking of getting a new cat or kitten? There are important tips to keep in mind when looking into bringing a new cat home whether you already have dogs and\/or cats or are new to the pet world. A new home can be stressful for a cat and in order to ensure you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[56,17,113,174,54,214,69,19,70,55,353,354,24,25,38,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleartheair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleartheair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleartheair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleartheair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleartheair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleartheair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":727,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleartheair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleartheair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleartheair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleartheair.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}