Settling a kitten into a new home

One room first, for two or three days

Give the kitten a quiet room with the litter box, food, water, a bed and a hiding place for the first two or three days. Let it come to you.

A kitten reads a new home by smell, one room at a time. A whole flat on day one is a hundred unknown smells and nowhere to feel safe, so the kitten disappears under the bed and you spend the evening worrying. A bedroom or a study with the door closed is the whole world for now; sit on the floor with a book and let the kitten decide when to climb onto your lap. Most do within an hour, the shy ones by the second evening.

Open the door on day three or four, when the kitten eats in front of you and sleeps on the bed rather than under it.

Litter box: the same litter and one box per cat

Same litter type as the breeder (we tell you which), one box per cat plus one, away from the food. Our kittens arrive using the litter box; a new place just needs showing once.

Put the kitten in the box after the first meal and after the first nap, and that is the whole lesson. An open box in a quiet corner is better than a covered one for the first weeks, because a kitten likes to see the room while it is vulnerable. Scoop daily; a kitten that finds the box dirty two days in a row will choose the bath mat instead.

Food and water for a kitten under four months

Keep the breeder's food for two weeks, four small meals for a kitten under four months. Change gradually afterwards.

The pet page lists the exact food, and the nanny brings enough for the first days. Kittens drink little from a bowl beside the food; put a second water bowl in another room or use a small fountain, and you will see the kitten drink three times as much. Wet food once a day is the easiest way to add water for breeds prone to kidney problems in later life, such as the Persian.

• Under 4 months: four meals a day
• 4 to 6 months: three meals a day
• From 6 months: two meals, or free access to dry food if the kitten stays slim
• No cow's milk, no onion or garlic, no lilies in the house at all

Introducing the kitten to other pets

Swap scents first (bedding, a cloth), then meet through a door, then short supervised visits. Most cats accept a kitten in one to two weeks.

The order matters more than the speed. Rub a cloth on the kitten and leave it in the adult cat's bed, and do the same the other way; after two days feed both on either side of the closed door; after four days open the door a crack with a stopper. The first face to face meeting lasts five minutes and ends before either cat decides anything. With a dog, keep the dog on a lead for the first three meetings and reward it for looking at you instead of at the kitten.

A hiss from the adult cat is normal and will stop; a chase is the sign to go back one step for two days.

The first vet visit with the passport

Visit in the first week with the passport. The vet checks the chip and plans the booster and, if not done, the neutering date.

Our kittens travel at 14 weeks after two FVRCP vaccinations and the rabies vaccination, so the first visit is a check, not a treatment. Ask the vet to register the microchip to your name in the national database while you are there. What exactly is in the passport, from the deworming dates to the chip number, is set out on our health and documents page.

Play, scratching and the window

Two ten minute play sessions a day with a wand toy do more for a kitten's behaviour than any amount of telling off. A kitten that hunts a feather at seven in the evening sleeps at eleven instead of running across your head at three.

Put one tall scratching post where the kitten sleeps and one by the door it uses most, and the sofa survives. A shelf or a cat tree by the window is the cheapest entertainment there is; for an active breed such as the Bengal it is not optional. Check that every window the kitten can reach has a net or a limiter: a tilted window is the one household danger that catches cats of every age.

The first night and the first week alone

Kittens sleep sixteen to twenty hours and usually sleep through the first night on the bed or in the hiding place. If the kitten cries, it is the door, not the dark: a kitten used to its mother and litter wants to be in the room with you.

A kitten under six months should not be alone for a full working day in the first two weeks. If you work away from home, a neighbour at lunchtime, or better a second kitten from the same litter, solves it; two kittens settle faster than one and are no more work.

When the kitten is home

By the end of the second week the kitten eats in the kitchen, uses the box in the bathroom, sleeps on the bed and has a favourite shelf. From then on the only dates to watch are the booster at the time the vet set and, if the breeder has not done it already, neutering at five to six months.

If you are still deciding between a kitten and an older cat, or between two breeds, our guide to choosing a breed and the current list of available kittens are the two pages to read next.

Frequently asked questions