Preparing for your new
kitten
Article courtesy of International Cat Care
www.icatcare.org
You have decided on the cat or kitten you want. What do you need
to prepare?
How do you ensure you will be a
good owner?
The best way to attend to your cat’s
wellbeing is to understand the needs
of the species and use that knowledge
to create a suitable environment.
Some of the things that make a difference are very simple, but owners are
often unaware of their importance.
Sometimes it is easy to confuse what
cats might want with what we want.
But a cat is not a person. As you start
to think like a cat other things will
make more sense and you’ll start to
look at your cat and its reactions in a
very different way. Understanding its
needs will help you to prepare well for
your new cat or kitten.
One thing we need to realise as owners is that, to the majority of cats,
their environment is much more important to them than the humans that
inhabit it!
A good owner needs to understand
how a cat’s environment impacts on
it and makes it feel secure – this will
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Kittycat Issue 1 January/February 2014
always improve the cat human relationship.
pet cats could also survive in the wild
if they had to).
Safe territory
Think about the ‘den’ we call our
homes, where we aim to give our cats
safety. We think they’re safe inside
and they may feel that way too. However, we may be unaware that another cat is ‘visiting’ through the cat flap
or an open window, or causing anxiety
by looking through the glass windows
in the conservatory where the cat’s
litter tray is sited. Perhaps the nextdoor cat waits outside the cat flap to
pounce on your cat as it emerges. All
of these things can make your resident cat feel very threatened and insecure.
Though we may think of cats as ‘domesticated’, we’re merely fiddling
with millions of years of evolution of
a creature that was, in the not too
distant past, a solitary animal. Unless you’re a lion, or part of a related
group still under maternal care, then
as a cat – large or small – your natural instinct is to carve out a bit of the
landscape big enough to provide you
and (if you were female) your kittens
with enough wildlife to feed you. Having done this, you don’t want another
cat around to poach from your larder.
So naturally, you’re very territorial,
because it’s a matter of life or death.
A wild cat or a feral cat (a domestic
cat which lives a wild lifestyle without the direct help of man) will have
a large territory to roam in, a smaller
area that it will defend vigorously, and
a small den where it feels safe.
A female cat will use the den to have
her kittens. That instinct still influences our cats, be they neutered, pampered pets or cats living wild (most
If you’re aware of the importance of
these things you can take measures
to ensure your cat actually does feel
secure, such as by positioning the litter tray in a safe place and preventing
other cats from coming in.
If you provide a way in and out of the
house using a cat door or catflap, security can be ensured by giving the
cat a ‘key’ on its collar using a magnet
or a microchip or electronic device so
that it can open its own cat flap but
other cats can’t get in. Some people