What are some things I should know about having an indoor kitten?

Question

I will be getting a kitten soon for my 2 year old. We live in a condo so the cat will be inside all the time when we are at home. What are some things I should know about owning a indoor cat? Also, how do you keep from walking in the front door and knowing that a cat lives there? I have a friend who owns a cat and I can tell it everytime I enter her house by the smell. My sister-in-law also has 2 cats but you can't tell it when you walk in her house. So, for those of you who have indoor cats, do you use certain products to keep the smell away?

Answer 1

Use a good clumping litter. That is the big difference for sure. Regular clay litter stinks really bad after kitty uses it.

To keep kitty healthy, feed a premium food. Grocery store cat food is filled with cheap corn filler and by-products.

Take kitty for shots yearly, and get cat spayed or neutered.

Feed kitty canned and dry food. The canned food has extra water in it which helps prevent urinary problems.

Here is what to look out for, after doing lots of research on cat nutrition:

What to avoid
* Words such as "By-products," "meat and/or bone meal," "animal digest," most other descriptions including "digest" or "meal," and added sugars.
* Chemical preservatives, including BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, and propyl gallate
* Corn meal as a filler
* Excess of carbohydrate "fillers" (Dry food can contain as much as 50 percent grain)

Answer 2

There are several things you should keep in mind. First, if you are getting a cat for your 2 year old, that is great. But remember to always supervise the child around the cat, especially as a kitten because they are so fragile. 2 years old can accidentally pull the cat's tail or hurt it very easily, without ever knowing what they are doing. This can be very bad for the cat, and can turn out badly for the toddler as well. The best thing to do to avoid smells is make sure the cat is litter trained. You can tell this by keeping the cat in a small area (like a bathroom) for the first few days and making sure it always uses the litterbox. Use a good clumping litter and use baking soda mixed in with the litter to help kill odors. Keep a litter box on every floor of you house if possible and clean them out everyday, that way the kitten will be sure to use them since they are clean. Also, it will make sure the cat can get to a litter box in time even if it is too young to climb stairs. Another great thing is a cover litter box with a filter, that really helps kill smells. Just make sure you keep the cat going in the box and the boxes clean and you should be fine. Quick fixes for smells include matches (this burns up the noxious gas which smells) or air freshners like Febreze. If the cat does have an accident there are urine removers which take care of the smell very quickly and effectively. Also, make sure you vacuum often so that there is not a lot of hair everywhere. This can be even more annoying then smells. If you clean out the box everyday and change the litter out about once a week, you should be gold.
Other important points, make sure the cat always had access to water, that you leave it alone if it hides and don't try to pull it out, especially in the first few days as it will be adusting, don't try to force it to be held if it doesn't want to be (when you pick out a kitten, try to find one that likes to be held if that's what you want). You will also want to have TONS of toys as cats become bored very quickly, and as a kitten make sure it has a warm next which it can curl up in. If it cries, try turning on a radio very softly or a white noise machine and this can calm that kitten. You can train it later at six months using a spray bottle of water very effectively without being very cruel.

Answer 3

A kitten is a very bad choice for a two year old. Get a young adult cat who can get out of the two-year old's way when it needs to. A two year old will want to hold the cat and the kitten will just want to get away. So the kitten will learn to run and hide when the youngster is around and you will end up with an unsocialized cat. A young child has no concept of how hard a squeeze to give an animal and could do the kitten harm. The child is highly likely to scratch and bite to keep from being restrained.

A kitten is a drastic mistake for the kitten and for your family.

Answer 4

Yea! You are making a good choice regarding the health and safety of your kitten. Indoor cats don't require much special, but do remember that cats are perching animals. Provide something for the kitty to jump upto or climb on. Cat trees and kitty condos are great, but a bookcase or armoire are fine, too, provided you don't mind your cat being on the furniture. A scratching post is a must, as well. I like Felix Katnip post; Top Paw makes one much like it, also. Even our declawed cat uses the Felix post :o). Speaking of declawing, don't think it's okay to do just because the cat won't go outside (our cat was declawed when we adopted him). There's plenty of info online about declawing. A kitten should be fairly easily trained to a post, so there's no need to declaw.

Scooping the litter box daily and cleaning it weekly should do much to prevent odors. There are also products like candles and crystals that absorb or dissolve odors. Since your sis-in-law doesn't have an odor problem, I'd ask her what her tricks are.

There is a good book by Patricia Curtis called The Indoor Cat that you might want to get. It has info on health care, toys and activities, training, etc. for cats who live inside, as well as why it's such a good idea.

Good luck!

Answer 5

Kittens require much more work than a full grown cat. Training, training and more training are what's needed. You have to teach them how to use a litter box (depending on age), where the boxes are, what furniture you do and don't want them on, what rooms are off limits, etc. They are a lot of work - but very worth it as they grow. I have two, 2-year old cats that I got when they were 6 and 4 months and they are the best behaved cats ever! Miracle, my 5-month old, is getting there with lots of patience and lots of love.

Cat odors? DO NOT use masking things such as air freshners, candles, or other things. Make an investment in a quality air cleaning system and/or air purifier. My wife and I have one called "Air Source" that is sold through Shakley that is excellent at keeping all sorts of odors out of the home. We've had it for 2 years and still most people that come over don't know we have cats untl they see them or their cat furniture and toys. NO cat odors what so ever :)

Answer 6

As far as the smell goes. It's best to keep the litter cleaned at least once a day. Keep the litter box somewhere quiet. Kitten proof your house. It's just like child proofing a house for a baby. Don't have small things laying around for it to bite and choke on (rubber bands, buttons, paper clips) Buy a scratching post and teach it to scratch it... I had to pretend to scratch at my kittens so he'd get the idea. Your 2 year old might be excited about a kitten and want to cuddle but most likely the kitten wants to play which means biting and scratching. So if it scares or hurts your baby try to tell him the kitten is only playing and you have to be gental etc the kitten will grow out of that.

Answer 7

I adopted my gray tabby after my wedding and I had the same odor concern... It is very simple buy a kitty liter with fragrance and don't leave the box out in the open there are little tents and houses that you can buy in a pet store where you can stick the box in, cats like it better because it is more privacy also cleaning your air filtration is good, and buying plug ins air sanitizers work well.
Although getting a kitten for a toddler does not sound like a very good idea, if you never owned a cat then i must warn you, kids want to play with their pets... cats don't like to be forced the have a very short temper too, also they can cause allergies and when a kitten plays the nails are like sharp needles and might hurt your baby... to remove the nails would be terrible because that is a cats only defense mechanism and I'm sure it wont always be indoors... from experience (I have both dogs and cats) a small house dog would be better for your toddler cats are too moody almost never want to play and when they do play the scratch or bite... Dogs can be taught to be gentle and they will grow up to LOVE your child as your child will LOVE the doggy.

Answer 8

They are destructive and wreck curtains.Make sure you buy a cat scratcher which the cat climbs on. They need to be toilet trained and clean the tray out regularly because cats can be fussy. You cant do much about the smell apart from opening the windows and letting in fresh air and using air freshener.Make sure your cat is vaccinated and dewormed. Give the kitten plenty of toys suchas balls to play with otherwise it will get into everything.Enjoy your new kitten.Above all else give it time love and attention. Aim at a female because generally they are cleaner than males in the urine department.

Answer 9

First of all, a kitten is something you should seriously think about before getting. It is a life-long commitment to be responsible for a living being.
Second: There is expense to take into account: kitty litter, good nutritious food, veterinarian bills, spay and neuter costs, treats, catnip, toys, worm medicine.
Third: Ask yourself why you want a kitten. Is it as another toy for your child? Is she old enough to not mistreat the kitten? Will she and others in your household respect the kittens space? Will the kitten be well cared for during its lifetime? (Cats can live to be 25 years old) Will everyone be willing to learn about cats in general?
There is much more to owning a pet than just bringing it into your house.
If you can honestly answer yes to all these questions, maybe a kitten will be loved and respected by you and your family. If not, reconsider. Get a stuffed animal instead!

Answer 10

The single most important thing you need to do is everyday clean the litter box by scooping out the waste. I Add a little bit of litter in the box several times during the week. You should change the kitty litter every week. I use plastic liners inside the box so that it's easy to pull out the litter without making a mess. I put a box of baking soda in the kitty litter Everytime I change it. There is absolutely no smell in my house. You would never know I have two cats that live permanently in the house.

Answer 11

A 2 year old can't take care of a kitten. Small kids are often unintentionally cruel to animals and kittens are too active for a small child. Kittens use claws to climb and kitten claws are very sharp.

I would suggest adopting an adult cat that was used to kids.
Cats do not smell if the litter box is kept clean.