Your First Cat

Some advice about your first cat

What should be ready before the cat moves in?

a litter tray - prices vary a lot
litter - the clumping kind: prices vary
a litter "shovel"
a cat carrier in durable plastic
cat food
a clawing board/tree - either the kind that stands alone or the floor-to-ceiling model
"cat grass"

When the kitten moves in

Let the kitten take in one room at a time. When it stops spending all its time investigating the room and starts feeling at home there, it is time to go on to the next room.
If you have other pet(s) at home, remember to spend extra time with the "old" pet(s). Especially cats become jealous quite easily and may become deeply depressed and/or aggressive, if they feel set aside. Therefore, spend at least as much time with the "old" pet(s) as with the new one.
Don’t be worried if the kitten doesn’t eat anything the first 24-48 hours. Just make sure to offer it food at regular intervals, so it knows the possibility to have something to eat is there. Often it doesn’t have time to eat because it is so busy getting to know the new surroundings and - not least - marking all of the new home as its territory as fast as possible. Another factor to lessen

the appetite is - of course - that the kitten misses its mother and siblings.
If it is your intention that the cat have access to the outdoors, you should keep it inside the first two weeks. Cats are equipped with cells that register the different patterns the earth magnetism shows different places on the globe (by the way, it is the same sense that migrating birds use to navigate by). This sense may lead the cat back to where the earth magnetism suits the pattern it has in its memory. It takes a cat 10-14 days to learn the pattern of the earth magnetism in the new home. The first times you let the cat go out you should accompany it. Keep an eye on whether the cat seems secure outdoors and gets the area marked: it does this by clawing (this leaves visual and smell marks) and by rubbing up against different things (you might experience that when you work in the garden soil the cat will think that you are marking territory and will therefore "help" you). A cat that feels at home in its own territory will have a set "patrol round" it will follow when outside. It will not be surprised by sudden but usual sounds, but will only be surprised by sounds in the environment that are not usual. Not until the cat has reached this stage should you let it have "outdoor freedom". I cannot recommend you to let your cat go outdoors if you live close to traffic roads: cats are not very traffic wise.

Feeding

Wet food is in general extremely expensive because up to 80% of it can be water.
Previous scares against dry food that were founded because the first dry food products produced were too bad can be forgotten.
If you use one of the following dry food products, your cat will be well-nourished:

Royal Canin
Hill’s Science Diet
Hill’s Prescription Diet

The price of these brands can seem overwhelming at first because they come in large bags. When you compute the price per cat per day they are actually cheaper in use than the "cheaper" brands.

The above mentioned brands come in at least 3 types: one for kittens, one for adults and one for adults with weight problems. Several of them even have versions for cats that have difficulty keeping their weight up (yes, they do exist!).
Your cat should be fed the kitten version till it is about 9 months old and may then progress to the adult version.
As long as the cat is growing (for Russian Blue this stage lasts for about a year to 18 months) it is seldom necessary to ration the food, but the adult cat should be control-weighed once in a while. Obesity often leads to many health problems and shortened cat lives. If one uses the above mentioned brands, one should notice that there is very little "filling" in the food, so the recommended daily rations should be followed carefully.

Sickness and Health

Have the cat vaccinated once a year at least against cat flu and panleukopenia. If the cat is to have outdoor access or it is to be mated, it should also be vaccinated against feline Chlamydia and feline leukemia.
It would be a good idea to de-worm the cat two weeks before the vaccination; if the cat’s immune system is fighting a bout of worms the vaccine might not have the same effect.
At the time of the annual vaccination the vet will also give the cat a health check, and cats with a tendency to build up tartar will have it removed on this occasion.
Shorthair cats take care of most of their grooming themselves, so a bath or intensive brushing is very seldom called for. However, many cats like to be brushed and since the hairs that are in the brush are not in the furniture it might be a good idea to brush your cat once in a while even though it is not necessary grooming-wise.
Keep an eye on the cat’s claws - they mustn’t be too long. If it gets caught everywhere and has difficulty getting loose again or it "clicks" when the cat walks, the claws are too long. Ask your vet to show you how to cut them.
Indoor cats don't need deworming unless you're sure they have worms. Outdoor cats will often need deworming more often; how often depends on the individual cat and the way it lives. Consult your veterinarian about this.
Fleas are easily prevented with Program Vet® for indoor cats and either Advantage® or Frontline® for outdoor cats.
Teething: The kitten changes teeth when it is about 4-7 months

old and can become quite delinquent because the gums itch awfully. It is a good idea to give it something hard to chew on i.e. dry food or bones (but not bones from fish or poultry). In this house, old socks tied in a knot are usually accepted well for the purpose.
The adult cat will build up tartar individually like the rest of us; the vet will remove any build up at the annual visit. If your cat is one of those that build up a lot of tartar the vet might recommend visits more often and this advice should be followed. A cat with paradentosis is a sorry sight.
Eyes and ears should be checked once in a while. If the haw (the "third eyelid", a milky-white membrane that is closed over the eye at a horizontal angle) is visible when the cat is wide awake, it could be a sign of many illnesses - some serious, some not so serious - and not only eye problems. If it lasts more than a few hours, your vet should be contacted.
If the cat produces a lot of earwax, it could be a sign of disease, i.e. ear mites - in this case you should ask your vet for advice.
The litter tray is an important part of the cat’s hygiene. It can hardly be too deep, as the litter clumps best if there is a rather thick layer. Some cats prefer to urinate on the edge of the tray; in that case it can be useful to use a covered tray. At the same time the cat’s need for "privacy" is covered and the litter is not spread as far, even though some spreading cannot be avoided.
The litter should for practical reasons be of the clumping kind, so you only have to remove clumps and feces and fill up with clean litter. It makes for easier and more efficient litter tray care.
It is generally a good idea to examine the cat once a week, while you are stroking it anyway. You should check for anything different than usual: i.e. if the cat suddenly doesn’t like you to touch its stomach it could be sign of disease, but if it has never liked you to touch its stomach there is no reason for alarm.

Neutering

If you haven’t bought the cat for breeding you should have it neutered when it matures. There are several reasons for this:
For the cats' sake: it is almost impossible to find good homes for the 12-20 kittens a free roaming female can bring home annually. Not to talk about how the many litters wear down the cat. For the male, it can be life-extending to be neutered, as he might otherwise travel far and wide looking for ladies and will therefore be in great danger of being run over. Under normal circumstances cats are not very traffic wise, but when they are lovesick their traffic sense is downright disastrous.
Consideration for your neighbors: the male will mark his territory around the house with urine

spray and will often feel tempted to expand his territory to the neighboring gardens as well.
We would like to tell you: The smell is atrocious! The female will during her more and more frequentheats make a lot of noise to attract males. If she succeeds, there will be a large number of males engaged in very noisy battles for her favor.
Consideration for yourself: If you have an unneutered male, he will change your home into an "ammonia hell" where each breath you take will feel as though your throat is burning - that is if he is at home. Often they only come home once in a while to rest after ended toil and will be the cause of quite a few vet bills because he returns with "war wounds".
It is possible to use the pill for both sexes. However, this is not without side effects. Some cats become shy and/or aggressive, and the males will still be able to produce kittens, even though the worst nuisances, such as the spraying, can be avoided.

Training your cat

It is very individual which rules you as a cat-owner will demand to keep, but the rules should be kept strictly from the moment the cat comes to your home as a kitten. You make things unnecessarily difficult for yourself by tolerating things that look funny or sweet when the kitten does them but will turn into nuisances if done by an adult cat.
If your cat has been allowed to stay with its mother till it was 12 weeks old, the most dominating reason for inappropriate elimination (and other delinquent behavior) is ruled out beforehand. However, in any cat’s life it can happen that it develops periodical inappropriate litter box habits following a bout of jealousy or frustrations about other things that have changed in its life for example. Since the solution to the problem it is different from situation to situation, you should contact me if a problem arises.
One should not tolerate the cat clawing the furniture or carpets.

On the other hand the cat must have at least one place where it may claw. This is a natural need which amongst other things serves to mark territory.
Whether one will tolerate cats on the tables, in the beds, and other places is up to each and every cat owner to decide for himself.
What you need to know is that cats can be trained as long as you don’t ask unreasonable things from them. If it is a kitten or a young cat it can often be useful to use praise and distraction instead of scolding or what is worse. Praise the cat every time it does something right and distract its attention for example by encouraging it to play when it is about to do something wrong.
If this doesn’t help, reprisals might be necessary. In many cases a splash of water is efficient as long as it happens immediately after the unwanted action. In the case of very sensitive individuals a sudden sound i.e. a loud clap of the hands near the cat’s ear can have the same effect. A sharp "no" or whichever word you might choose (as long as it is the same word every time) can also do it.
One thing must be made quite clear: One must never hit a cat. That would just result in a loss of trust and then you have lost the whole ground for all cat-training. If the cat is mentally robust enough you even risk that it might attack you in self defense.