Caring For Your New Kitten and Raw Feeding

KITTEN CARE
When you first bring your new kitten home, set him/er up in one room while they get used to their new surroundings. Don't chase your kitty! Some kittens are nervous in their new home at first. Let them hide under the bed for a while if they want to. Draw kitty out with a toy on a stick, and at mealtimes sit near the kitty and talk quietly to them. See if he/she will lick some tuna juice off your finger. Taking the food away between mealtimes lets your kitty know that you are the one who is feeding them, and then they will look forward to mealtimes with you.

SUPPLIES LIST
___ litter box - a sifting box is a good choice
___ litter - use pine clumping litter at first, your kitten has been using Tidy Cat Pure Nature
___ food & water dishes
___ kitty bed or blanket to sleep on
___ raw chicken to start feeding
___ toy on a stick - good for bonding with new people

FEEDING
feeding raw meat to cats The best food for cats is raw meat. You can start out feeding chicken thighs for a while, while you study up and get the rest of the things they need.

For a full grown cat cut up a large chicken leg quarter with bones into 4 pieces and feed each piece every other day. Put two of the pieces in the freezer till the day before you'll feed them. In between those days feed beef, pork, or eggs. Once a week half the day's meal is heart, one quarter of the day's meal is liver. Heart should be about 10% of the total diet, liver about 5%. Bone should be about 10% of the diet, and the rest can be any other animal protein. Heart is important, if you can't find it supplement with taurine. You can find more information at ibdkitties.net
You can also supplement with fish oil, vitamins B & E. You can find more information at http://www.rawfedcats.org
You can also add diatomaceous earth.
That is a perfect diet for a cat!

To feed a 9 lb grown cat for 1 week, feed 1 lb dark meat chicken with bone, 4 oz heart, 2 oz liver, 10 oz of any other animal protein.
Your 12 week old kitten can have 1 oz of meat (about 1" square) 3-4 times per day. Slowly increase the amount if they're finishing it all at every meal. Kittens can be fed 2-4 times per day, gradually reducing to 1 time per day for grown cats. If you need to be away from home and will be gone for one of your kitten's meals, whipped raw egg, yogurt, dehydrated meat or dry food can be left out in a bowl while you're gone.

A chicken leg is a full day's meal for a grown cat. Chop into the bone every half inch in a cross hatch pattern for easier chewing. Then dip in Kitty Bloom vitamin powder. Savemart has 10 lbs of chicken leg quarters in their frozen section for $10.

The best knife I've found for chopping chicken into pieces is a mezzaluna (crescent shaped) blade. It chops right through the bone and then you can rock it back and forth to get through the skin and remaining meat. Chop into the bone every half inch in a crosshatch pattern to make it easier for your kitty to get the marrow out. I put a chopping block on the floor and sit down there to chop up the meat. Put the board on a puppy potty pad to soak up any juice that goes over the edge. Then let your dog lick the board clean!

Kitties tend to carry the meat chunks off so you can put your kitty in a crate to eat if you don't want them eating off the floor. Feed them as much as they want as long as they're still eating it all. Usually about 4-5 oz per day for a full grown cat. If they're leaving bones, feed them less so they'll eat the bones too. For every pound of meat with bone your cat eats, they should have about 1/2 oz of liver & 1 oz of heart. If they don't want to eat very much at one time that's ok, put it back in the fridge as soon as they stop eating and they'll eat more at their next meal.

There's no need to grind your kitty's meat! That's for cats who grew up on commercial food and don't know how to chew. Big 1" chunks hold the vitamins in better, and clean your kitty's teeth as he eats. If your kitty is not eating the bone, you can chop it up a little so they can get to the inside better. You can read more at http://www.rawfedcats.org

Many times raw food is less expensive than commercial foods. Feeding raw meat costs us about $1.50 per lb, getting everything we need from our local grocery store.That's slightly more than the lowest priced large cans of cat food at your grocery store that are $1 a can, and way less than the smaller cans. It's about 40-50¢ per day for us to feed a cat. It costs way less than any premium canned and it's a far superior diet. Feeding a raw diet also produces a quarter as much stool (with way less smell!), so there's less clean up in the litter box. And your cat will be much healthier! Cats shed less and have much nicer coats when fed a raw diet. They don't get overweight, and they have strong muscle and clean teeth.

If you must feed a commercial food for your kitty, frozen raw meat mixtures are best. Your cat would still benefit from raw bones occasionally to clean it's teeth.

Commercial canned and dry pet food is not really food. It is so over cooked they have to add vitamins and flavoring after the food is made. You can read more about that here: http://www.rawfedcats.org
We don't recommend feeding dry or canned food. If you're going to feed them anyway, canned is better than dry. The better foods have at least two meat sources listed first, at least one of them being a named meat meal.The better foods don't have any grain. Grains are filler to make the food cheaper for them to make but that doesn't mean it's less expensive for you to buy. Don't feed any food that has corn, wheat, soy, gluten, beat pulp, or byproduct.

We have been feeding your kitten raw food as described above. We'll send your kitten home with you with a few days worth of raw food to get you started. You should feed these foods exclusively for the first month and change gradually if you want to feed something else. Limit your kitten's canned food to one tablespoon 3 times per day to keep them from getting tummy upsets.

Dehydrated food is only meant to be left out for your kitty if you need to be gone for one of it's meals. Or you can leave out a dish of whipped raw egg while you're gone and your kitty will probably put off eating it till later if he's just been fed. Dry food can be fed if you need to leave for a longer time period. We feed Royal Canin Baby Cat dry food to get kittens to eat dry food early.

Cats who are eating raw meat will not drink much water, but leave it available, it is always good for them to drink more. If you drink filtered water or mountain spring water you can give that to your kitty also.

LITTER BOX
Use pine scented clumping or pellet litter at first because that is what your kitty is used to.

This photo is showing a Catit Smartsift box with clumping litter,
and an
All Pine(sifting type) box with gravel, and wood pellets underneath for urine absorbtion.

Clumping litter - has better odor control for feces, but it tracks out of the box more. So needs high sides or a covered box. You can face it towards a wall or corner to reduce tracking, and to keep dogs out. For clumping litters we like the Omega Paw RollAway litter box, or Catit Smartsift litter box. If litter sticks to the bottom we scrape it with a litter scoop, but otherwise there is no scooping with these boxes. A sifting litter box works well with this litter, the sifter part needs to be in between the two solid boxes. Here's a covered version. If you use a regular litter box with this type of litter you would scoop out the urine and feces daily with a litter scoop.

Pellet and crystal litters - have less tracking, better odor control for urine, and less scooping, since you don't scoop the urine. You do need to scoop the feces daily. They are not as good for the feces right after they've gone, because they can't cover it up as well. But it does dry out quickly. So it needs to be in a covered box or other room, unless they only urinate in it. Pelleted litters work well with a sifting type litter box, if you put the sifter layer on top of the solid tray. Different types of pelleted litters are crystal/silica, pine pellets, and pea gravel. They go on top of a screened surface, and a pad or wood pellets go underneath for urine absorption and odor reduction. You can make your own sifting box by getting 2 regular litter boxes, and drilling holes in the top one. Or get a sifting litter box and put a potty pad or wood pellets in the solid bottom tray. Then put in the sifting tray with crystal/silica, pine pellets or pea gravel on top. If you use wood pellets on top of the sifter, stir the litter so the dust falls underneath and won't get tracked around. Here's a covered version. Pine pellets work like a more natural potty pad at the bottom of the box. If you use this type of litter without a potty pad or wood pellets, the urine will pool up in the bottom.

So we have two boxes, with the pellet box outside the door of the covered box with clumping litter. It works like a matt to keep the litter off the floor. Most cats will use the pellet box for urinating and the covered box with clumping litter for feces, which uses less of the more expensive litter. And usually the kitty catches on to use each box for the best use. Then if you have more than one cat, you can put another of just the pellet box somewhere else. And they can each have their own, and then share the covered clumping box. You can try each of the different litters in a regular litter box, and see which type you like dealing with, and which type your cat likes before getting a specialty box.

TRAINING
I make a "pst" noise whenever my cats are doing something I don't like, like scratching furniture or they are on the counter. If they don't listen to that a spray bottle with water in it which sounds similar when you spray it teaches them quickly. You can trim your cats nails and there are also nail caps that can be glued over their nails that keeps them from scratching anything. Double sided tape can be put on the corners of couches and chairs.

We want to make sure you're not planning to de claw your kitty. Cats love to stretch and scratch their scratching post and it would deprive them of that pleasure. British Shorthair are one of the mellowest breeds and don't scratch nearly as much as others. They are easily taught to use a scratching post or throw rug. They like posts wrapped in rope best. You can trim your cats nails and there are also nail caps that can be glued over their nails that keeps them from scratching anything. Double sided tape can be put on corners of couches and chairs. A squirt bottle is a good tool for teaching them to stop doing anything you don't want them to do. First I warn them with a "pst" sound I make, then if they're not listening I get out the squirt bottle. It usually only takes one or two uses. The best thing I have found to keep them off counters is to feed them raw meat for their meals. They'll never find anything that good up on the counters so they don't even look anymore. They just wait for mealtime. They love having bar stools to sit on and watch you cook though!

GROOMING
A wire comb is best for combing your cat and its good to get your kitten used to it at a young age and give treats at the same time to associate grooming with something your kitty likes.

Also trimming their nails while giving treats is a good way to get them to enjoy the process.

In the spring your cat will shed, so giving a warm bath will make their fur come out faster. A bath is another thing that's good to get them used to as kittens. Fill the tub/sink first before bringing them in the room because they don't like the noise of the running faucet. Then bring your kitty in and get her/im wet all over, except for her/is nose, they don't like to breathe in water. If they have long fur then get the tangles out first or else their fur will shrink and matt when wet.

Caring for your new kitten