General Cat Care Information
FOOD: We have raised our cats on a ground raw meat diet that is usually chicken. We grind our own meat and use Platinum Performance, Totalbiotics and fish oil to supplement. The ground meat includes ground bone and organ meat. We also use various canned foods and some dry to supplement them. We avoid any supplements with high sugar content such as Missing Link.
Each one of our cats changed their preferences of food as they grew up. We give them what they will eat and thrive on. Some ate ravenously raw until they reached a year old and never would touch it again. So, we go with the flow and don't worry when they change their tastes.
LITTER: We use large storage tubs without lids for litter boxes as well as the nicely built Privy Systems for the smaller cats. Dry Horse Den bedding (Pine pellets) is the type of litter we use exclusively. It has virtually no smell and works extremely well for our cats. We've tried many litters over the years and this is the one we prefer. We purchase it in bulk from a manufacturing plant near us but it can also be purchased at any feed store.
CLAW CARE/CLIMBERS: We supply many things throughout the house and catteries for the cats to sharpen claws on and climb. Rope posts are the favorite of every cat here and we find them much less clean up. The carpet climbers shed. This has saved the furniture and gives the animals elements they need for enrichment and encourages good house manners. We recommend trimming claws with a animal nail cutter rather than declawing an animal. We didn't cut the finger and toe nails off our 7 children and we would not do that to our animals either.
HOUSING: When you first bring a young kitten home we recommend you isolate the animal in a small room for the first few weeks with all the supplies they need: climber, toys, food, water and litter box and, of course, a cozy nest. Visit the baby often and bring interactive toys, treats and anything to help the kitten bond to you. It will soon realize that it can trust you and will look forward to your visits. This isolation also helps keep the baby near it's litter box to continue it's education and good litter habits. Gradually expand it's space until you feel it's ready to see the big world of your home. If ANY accidents happen outside the litter box, you small the kitten's world once again. You will need one extra litter box more than the number of cats in your household. If you have two cats including this kitten you will need three litter boxes. If you have a multilevel home, you will for sure need litter boxes on each floor.
Just as you would child proof your home in anticipation of a new baby, your home will need to be thoughtfully checked for safety for a young kitten. Rubber-bands, paper clips, small objects that could be swallowed should all be safely put away. Breakables should be put away or museum puttied down. I've used museum putty and gel for years and even my husband's antique oil lamp collection is still intact.
VACCINES: We use the Modified Live (ML) vaccines for our cats for their kitten shots but only boost the first year. We feel the animals we've been more conservative with for vaccines have been much healthier and have not developed allergies.
LEASH AND HARNESS TRAINING: The best way we've found to introduce a kitten to a harness is to gather a couple new toys and put the harness on and immediately offer the new toys. After a couple attempts to scoot backwards and scratching, the kitten forgets all about the annoying thing around them and becomes much more interested in the toy. I usually leave the harness on all day the first day or two, taking it off at night so it gets used to the process of putting it on and taking it off. We've never had a problem with a cat fighting the harness more than a few minutes.
OUTDOOR AND WATER PLAY: All our cats have access to shallow pools of water outside to play in as well as safe outdoor enclosures with tops. There are tunnels, tree stumps, high cat walks, grass hay to eat and play in and toys. We have comfortable lawn chairs in their enclosures so it's relaxing to spend time with them there. We've also added nice plantings of various plants and we've found for the early generation Savannahs that some of them love to pee outside like a dog so we have put wire cages around the plants so the urine doesn't kill the plants. One of the outdoor enclosures we finished up late fall one year and although the cats liked the area and went out often, they didn't spend a lot of time there until the next spring when I planted tall grasses and lush green plants and flowers. After that they almost lived outside! The green plants MADE the cattery for them.
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