The arrival of a kitten into the new cat-friendly home

The arrival of a four-legged family member into the new cat-friendly home always comes with great responsibility: ” You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” This is a classic quote from the book titled The Little Prince.

In the case of Maine Coons and other pure-bred, pedigree cats this responsible path begins with the choosing of the right breeder. Then it continues with making our home cat-friendly and choosing the appropriate vet.  You can read more about these by clicking on the links.

In this blog post, I mainly deal with the tasks before the kitten’s arrival as well as the tasks after the arrival to the cat-friendly home, i.e. the kitten’s cat paradise and new empire.

14 Tips for a cat-friendly home

As I have already mentioned, it is very important to make our home cat-friendly. This means the following without claiming to be complete:

• giving away poisonous plants
• putting cable spiral or cable channel on free-hanging wires
• putting away knives and other sharp objects
• it is worth installing magnetic locks or child locks on wardrobe doors and drawers
• in order to avoid later annoyances, it is worth painting the walls with washable wall paint
• creating a base place for the newcomer
• making the balcony cat-proof
• making casement windows cat-proof
• putting an induction plate protector on the top of the induction cooker
• folding down the toilet roof
• never leave objects afore, that cats can swallow
• it is forbidden to leave afore plastic bags and shopping bags
• putting away fragile things from shelves
• putting medicines and cleaning products in a safe place

Making a base place

It is usually a room that is used as a base place. Here, we can place the kitten’s

• cat tree
• bed
• cat scratching post
• cat carrier
• cat litter box
• cat bowls
• toys (that can be afore left)
• cat grass

It’s important to mention that you should buy the biggest cat litter bow and cat carrier because of the large size of adult Maine Coons. It is a good idea to buy larger bowls, too.

In the case of toys please, pay attention that a toy made for a normal cat may be easily swallowed by a Maine Coon due to its size. Also in the case of interactive feeders or intelligence toys, it may happen, that the large Maine Coon paw is too large for it so it doesn’t fit.

Tasks after the kitten’s arrival

• familiarization with the new environment
• getting to know the other pets, if there are some
• getting to know our baby or child, if we have any
• lots of joint games to deepen our relationship
• taking to the vet for a check-up, chip rewriting, and due vaccination and deworming
• to inform our breeder

Our story

Arrival home

The arrival of a kitten in the family is preceded by great expectations. The owner can’t wait for the kitten to reach the age of 12-13 weeks. It is the most optimal time to be separated from the mother cat and siblings. Don’t forget that this is a long-awaited moment for the future owner, but how much stress it means for the little kitten. There are many solutions to reduce this stress. Let’s see how it was in our case.

It’s a good idea to choose a day for bringing the kitten home, after which you can stay at home for a few days with the new family member. After a few days, I only gradually left Tirus alone.

After arrival at our cat-friendly home, I put the cat carrier in the bedroom, i.e. in the base place of Tirus. I waited until he came out of the carrier. At this point nothing should be forced, the little newcomer should be allowed to make friends in the new environment at his own pace.

After that, he discovered the cat litter box. It has been in the same place ever since, in a corner of the room, away from busy places, so he can always use it safely.

About cat trees

Cat trees are very important parts of a cat-friendly home. Tirus got a super homemade cat tree as a sleeping place. Since then, we have replaced it with a Drapaki cat tree.

I’m very satisfied with the Drapaki cat tree. We have kept the tree part and the cat scratching post part of our old cat tree. Drapaki took the place of the old furniture and the favorite scratching post moved to the kitchen at first. Then it was moved to the living room. I always changed the place of this taking into account the needs of Tirus.

I have read in many places that there should be at least one scratching post for the kitten. Well, I advise you to have scratching facilities in several places, so that your furniture doesn’t suffer the damage of scratching, as happened in our kitchen and living room.

I also think it important that these scratching posts were available upon arrival, because Tirus, for example, is so used to the beautiful green homemade scratching post that the later arrivals, including the super Drapaki, are not really intended for scratching purposes. However, he likes to relax on the Drapaky very much.

I can really recommend the durable Drapaki cat trees to future Maine Coon owners, as they don’t break even if a Maine Coon jumps on it with great vigor, jumping on it from afar. This is my own experience.

Don’t put the cat furniture in a hidden dark corner of your flat. It is also my own experience, but it can also be read in several places. It should be put near the window, from where your cat could watch the so-called cat television. He will choose the berth anyway. In our case, Tirus likes to sleep everywhere, including the top of the microwave oven and to my greatest delight, on my bed.

The first night

Returning to the sleeping place, even though the super little cat furniture was made to mini Tiri, he ran behind my bed, where he cried all night. If this also happens to you, don’t be surprised. It’s a normal phenomenon. Try to calm your kitten down and talk to him/her. This way the kitten knows, he/she is not alone. This new situation is unusual to him, as it was for Tirus.    

Feeding and drinking

As prescribed, place the feeding and drinking bowls further from the cat litter box. These two bowls shouldn’t be next to each other. Their location has changed a little from time to time according to Tirus’s needs. Besides the bedroom, there are feeding and drinking bowls in the living room, too.

Tirus didn’t eat anything the first night. He already ate something the next morning after I managed to lure him out from behind the bed with a feather cat pole. This is completely normal, don’t be alarmed if the kitten doesn’t eat or drink much in the first few days. However, pay attention to it so that the kitten has a sufficient fluid intake.

I fed Tirus with the wet and dry food he got from our breeder for a while. He still eats the same dry food. I update it sometimes with new flavors or different types of premium cat food. So basically I haven’t changed the dry food he got from our breeder.

However, we switched the wet food he ate earlier. You can read more about changing food and proper feeding later.

If you’d like to deviate from the feeding provided by your breeder, please consult the breeder first. Due to the cat’s sensitive stomachs, the transition can only be carried out gradually. Experts recommend that the owner should do this after the first two weeks.

After a few days have passed, your kitten has gotten to know you and feels safe in the base place, you can begin to introduce him/her to the whole flat. Visitors should only come to see the kitten after the first few days when your mini tiger has gotten used to his/her new cat-friendly home.

All in all, it can be said that a lot of patience is needed on the part of the owner (i.e. from now the happy servant) during and after the introduction of the new family member. However, His/Her Majesty’s love compensates for all the effort.