First Pets:
Hello, Kitty
Written By Naomi Shulman
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Fun Facts
- A cat's whiskers help it judge whether a space is too small to pass through.
- Being nocturnal, cats prefer to sleep all day and race around like crazed fur balls all night. (Can you Ferberize a kitten?)
- A cat's instinct to "knead" laps stems from kittens kneading moms' nipples to stimulate feeding. Take it as the compliment it is.
Tiny, Tinier, Tiniest
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Fostering kittens can take anywhere from a few days to a few months. The work involved depends a lot on how young and tame the kittens are:
- Newborns often come with a mother cat, in which case mama does most of the work. You provide food, water, and a litter box.
- Older kittens (sans mama) need food, water, litter upkeep, and hang time with you and your family — at least 10 minutes per kitten, twice a day.
- Orphaned newborns require the most care: bottle-feeding at two-hour intervals, medicine to keep their eyes from being infected, stimulation to go to the bathroom, and grooming. At around 4 weeks, kittens are ready to use a litter box; simply place them in the box after each meal until they get the idea.
- Feral kittens need a special socialization regimen; a truly feral cat instinctively sees a human as a predator, so it takes time and patience to show her that people are on her side. It's ideal for kittens to get used to young children (with supervision); the more relaxed they are with kids, the more adoptable they will be.
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