Bringing A New Cat Or Kitten Home
Cat’s are hugely territorial and do not like change. Bringing a cat to a new home can be a stressful experience especially for a kitten who is not only getting a new home but also leaving behind his mum and litter mates.
There are things you can do to minimise the stress caused during this transition. If you have other pets please see our other articles How To Introduce A Cat Or Kitten To My Dog or How To Introduce Another Cat Or Kitten To My Cat.
Setup Base Camp
Before you bring your cat home get a quiet, safe room ready for your cat. A spare room works well if you have it, if not, any smaller room is okay as long as it’s quiet. Ensure that there are places your cat can hide so it feels safe. Put everything in there that your new cat will need:
- Kitty litter tray
- Food and water bowl. Place their food and water bowl away from each other as cats don’t like their food and drink close to one another. Also make sure their food and water is away from their litter tray.
- Their bed/blankets
- Scratchy post.
- Toys
Settling Your Cat Or Kitten
Place your cat carrier, with the cat inside, in this room. Ensure that any items that came with your new cat or kitten (ie blanket, soft toy etc) are still in the carrier as this will have a familiar scent and will help in alleviating stress and assisting you with a pleasant transition. Open the door to the carrier but do not force the cat or kitten to come out. Let him come out on his own. He will likely come out and explore a little and then race back in. This is normal behaviour.
Get to Know the Humans
Calmly and quietly have different members of the family come into this room, allow the cat to come up to them and head back to their box when it needs. Don’t force or chase your cat, let them approach you. Having treats on hand or playing with your cat using a toy (never use your hands as a toy) is really good as it reinforces positive things with you and your family. Wand toys are a good choice of toy as it keeps hands well away while playing.
Introducing the Rest of the House
Once your new cat is comfortable in the basecamp room, you’ll find they will naturally want to start exploring the rest of the house. Take some of the cat’s toys and blankets and place them in various parts of the house such as over the couch or on the floor (if you don’t want him on the couch don’t put it on the couch). Open the door and allow the cat to come out and explore on their own. Keep the door open so they can return at any time. Like on previous steps do not force any of this exploring, allow the cat to come out and return to the basecamp when feeling scared or overwhelmed. Keep doing this until they feel comfortable. Depending on the cat this may take hours, days, weeks or even months. Signs that they are comfortable are: approaching you happily, willing to play and eating normally as opposed to being skittish and hiding. They will let you know when they’re ready to move out of base camp.
Once they are ready to move out of “base camp” follow the steps in How To Prevent Toilet Accidents