Creature Comforts Pet Services, LLC

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kitten kindergarten

Fun Things to do with Your Kitten

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Kitten season is upon us! Here are some ideas to help your kitten get started right.

Great Kitten Treats

Chicken baby food, Squeeze cheese, or kitten food (you can feed these off of a popsicle stick or out of a needleless syringe)

Churu

Small pieces of chicken or cheese ( tiny really, the idea is to give them the smallest piece they still perceive as a treat)

Kitten treats, although a lot of time these are pretty big for a quick treat while handling.

Experiment and see what your kitten likes best.

Pair these activities with some yummy treats to create a happy association and you and your cat will benefit from the reduced stress involved in necessary care.

Timing is important!  You want to treat WHILE handling because that is the place where you want them to associate a good experience.

Short frequent sessions of practice handling are best.

Basic Handling

Have fun with this one (while still being very gentle!):  

Hold your kitten like you don’t know what you are doing.   The idea is to get them used to being held just about any way, so if they do encounter someone who doesn’t know, it is still comfortable.  The trick here is to hold them in various ways and give treats, but don’t hold them so long they begin to struggle.  Just get them used to the idea that they can relax and be handled.  

Some ideas:

Have them lie on your lap on their back. (Good for nail clipping later on.)

Hold them up and try to examine different parts, just as a veterinarian might have to some day.

Handle legs, paws, tail, ears, belly, etc.

Lift their lips and look at their teeth.

Teach them to allow you to look in their mouth. You can encourage this with treats.

Extend claws and look between the toes.

Crate Training and Cars

Keep your carrier open and available as a fun hiding spot.

Use treats or toys to make it a great place to hangout and relax.

You can also feed meals inside the carrier and briefly close the door while eating.

Once kitty is comfortable in the carrier, you can do short walking trips around the house to get him used to the movement.
Then add in going out to the car, sitting in the car…

The idea is small steps and pairing everything with treats, creating that happy association with travel.

Pill popper or syringe

Make a pill out of a treat and use a pill popper to deliver it.  Do the same with a liquid treat in a syringe and later they will look forward to getting medicine!

Nail trimming

Start with gently handling paws and extending claws.  It can help if they learn to be comfortable lying on their back on your lap. (See above)

Gently touch each nail with the clippers working up to clipping one nail at a time while pairing each clip with a treat.  If the sound of the clip seems scary to your cat, try sitting quietly with your kitten and giving lots of treats while clipping a dried piece of spaghetti with the clippers.  

Veterinary skills

Ask your veterinarian if you can do some friendly visits where you just stop on a few times for yummy treats.  This can help them to get used to the smells, sounds, and sights of the vet’s office so it is not a scary experience later on.  This is why we have a kitten kindergarten class in the veterinary setting.

Use a needless syringe to do mock vaccinations.  Gently hold up a portion of the skin and press the syringe there, again while pairing with treats.

Get them standing on a small scale enjoying treats.

Stand on a table comfortably. Remember here to use a towel or blanket so the table is comfortable and not slippery.

Practice with a stethoscope, otoscope, etc.  All while enjoying those great treats.

Other people and animals

Have friends over and encourage them to feed treats and play with your kitten.

If you have access to a calm and friendly dog, introduce them to your kitten.  Starting on opposite sides of a door, to get used to the smell of each other, then through a baby gate. If there are no big reactions on the part of either animal, be cautious and keep the dog on a leash while they are allowed to interact.

This can be done with other animals too.  If you like to keep small animals, introducing your kitten to a rabbit, rat, or bird will help keep everyone safe later on.  ALthough it is never a good idea to leave cats unattended with “prey” animals, they can act on instinct and cause injury even when carefully introduced.

Harness Training

This is a great idea to extend the world safely for indoor kittens.

You can use treats as a lure to get your kitten to put her own head through the harness and accept the harness being clipped.  

Have some short play sessions with just the harness on and let her get comfortable with the feel of it.  

Later attach a ribbon or string so she can get used to a lighter “leash” dragging behind.  Add the leash as she gets more relaxed and then short trips outdoors.  Keep it to small short trips to quiet places. 

Lastly, always carry your indoor kitty over the door threshold, so she does not learn to walk out on her own.  This can help prevent darting out the door.

Positive Play Techniques

Keep your hands out of the mix!  It may be cute and fun to wrestle with your hand with a kitten, but that can turn to not so fun when they grow up.  It is a good idea to avoid play that involves any part of your body.  (Think: Adult cat launching onto your head!)

Use a wand toy, move the toy in an erratic manner across the floor and over cat trees. Lots of fast movements will catch their eye while periods of slow movement will give your cat a chance to stalk and get ready for the pounce.  Moving the toy around the room away from them can help.  In reality a prey item will rarely move towards a cat.

Experiment with different types of wand toys.  Some cats prefer feathers, some strips of  material that wiggle like snakes, some like little stuffed toys to grab onto.  Some prefer the wands where the toy is at the tip with a bell, some prefer a wand with a string then the toy.  There are lots of things out there to tempt your kitty into play.

Lots of kitties love lasers.  If you have a cat that goes crazy for these, be sure to toss a treat or a favorite toy into the beam now and then so they have a chance to “catch it”, otherwise these can become frustrating to some.

Try the interactive cat  toys that move on their own.  Some cats love these, but be cautious with your introduction, some are afraid of the noises or movements.  It is also important to not let these take over play altogether and miss the bonding experience with you.

Some cat’s will play fetch or hide and seek under a blanket.  One for mine likes when I pull her around the wood floor on a blanket while she attacks the wrinkles.  You may even come with others all your own.

And lastly, remember:

Cats can be trained!

Working things like sit and other doggy tricks can add to your kitten’s stimulation.

I highly recommend clicker training with cats because it is positive reinforcement based and will serve to strengthen your bond with your kitten while also giving your cat a means of communication with you.

Kitten Acclimation

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The best time to get a kitten used to new and different experiences and places is between 2 and 10 weeks of age.  Never fear if you have an older kitten!  It is still possible, but 2-10 weeks is just the easiest time because they have not created associations with new experiences and are more curious and accepting of novel stimuli.  This early exposure to a variety of situations, people, places and other pets, paired with positive reinforcement, will help to create a cat who is less stressed and more resilient in novel situations.  It can also help to prevent behavior problems later on which are commonly related to stress.

Here are some potential new ideas for your kitten:

Walking on a harness outdoors

This can greatly expand your kitten’s perceived home range, as well as give her mastery over their territory.  It can help to prevent common behavior problems by using up extra energy and increasing mental stimulation. 

Handle your kitten in a variety of ways

Pair lifting and handling your kitten with treats or favorite toys can create a positive experience with being handled.  Handle all parts of their body such as toes, tail, belly, and even lifting up lips to look at teeth.  While you don’t want to stress your kitten, gently handling in a variety of ways can help reduce stress around future grooming and veterinary handling as well as prevent fear if your cat is picked up in an awkward way by another person.

Brushing and grooming

Introducing your kitten to brushing, brushing teeth, and nail clipping early can help make these go much more smoothly later in life.  Brushing can also be a good bonding experience for you and your cat.  You can also help with giving medication in future by giving liquid treats in a syringe and using a pill popper to give a soft treat.

Carrier or crate

You know how much cats love paper bags to play in? Well your carrier can be the same fun cave-like experience. Set your carrier with a blanket and toys as a fun place to hang out and rest or play. Toss treats into the carrier and create a positive connection to entering the carrier young. This can alleviate a whole lot of the common stress around travel and veterinary visits.

Take trips to visit the veterinary office and/ or groomer

Just a short drop in to the vet’s office to get used to the sights and smells paired with threats can go a long ways toward reducing everyone’s stress around visiting the vet.  Many cats do not get adequate veterinary care because getting a cat to the vet and the stress involved in being at the vet can be so high.

Introductions to a variety of people and (cat friendly!) pets

The more variety the better!  Adults, children, beards, and hats, dogs and cats!  Cats benefit from socialization in the same ways as dogs making them more adaptable to change later on.  Introducing your kitten to other cats or kittens can help in adding another cat to the family later on.

Kitten Kindergarten is a thing!

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Did you know that many common behavior problems in cats can be prevented with early training and socialization? 

There are things you can do with your kitten to help them learn important skills to help make life more enjoyable and less stressful for everyone involved (humans too!)  Creature Comforts is proud to announce a new class held at Chimacum Valley Veterinary Hospital called Kitten Kindergarten!  Imagine a room full of playful kittens learning to be social with other cats and humans, as well as learning the skills they need to manage in our human world without stress or fear.

The most effective time to train and socialize a cat is in her early months.  This is when she is more adaptable to new situations and experiences.  Early socialization normalizes a wider variety of situations, people, and animals.  Kittens who are socialized become less fearful and more confident as adults and have a higher tolerance for new situations. This higher confidence directly relates to reduced behavior problems in adults.  

Many cat owners dread taking their pet to the vet because of all the difficulty and stress with carriers, cars, and fear at the vet office. Our “classroom” is an exam room in the veterinary office to get kittens comfortable and familiar with the veterinary setting.  Topics covered in class include regular handling for grooming or veterinary care, positive carrier training, and car rides.  

Many cats are only exposed to the humans that they live with and often run and hide while new people are over.  This can cause a lot of stress to the cat every time you have company.  With early exposure to other people cats can become just as outgoing as dogs who love to greet new people at the door.

One important skill kittens will gain from kindergarten is how to interact and play with other kittens.  Many adult cats have a difficult time interacting with other felines.  Early socialization can improve a kitten’s ability to get along with other cats.  Adding another cat to the household later will be much easier if a kitten has early exposure to other cats.

For kittens and their people starting at 8-10 weeks.  Class is 45 minutes once a week for 6 weeks plus an on demand video introduction.  For only $180. Kittens must have a clean bill of health.

For more information contact Theresa at (360)643-1323