Before Your Kitten Arrives

Getting the house ready beforehand makes the first week much easier on everybody, including the kitten.

Set one quiet room up with food, water, a bed and a litter tray before the kitten comes through the door.

Buy the food it is already eating. If you want to change the diet, do it slowly over a week or so once the kitten has settled.

Get the hazards out of the way: loose cables, and toxic houseplants. Lilies are the one that kills cats, so get them out of the house entirely.

Have a scratching post out from day one. Redirecting the habit early is much easier than fixing it later.

The First 48 Hours

Keep the kitten in the one room. Resist the urge to give it the run of the house straight away, and resist the urge to have everyone come and meet it. A kitten that has just travelled needs to work out where the litter tray is and where it can hide.

Expect it to go under the bed. Sit on the floor and let it come to you rather than pulling it out. Most settle within a day or two.

Some kittens will not eat much on the first evening. That is normal. If a kitten has eaten nothing at all after 24 hours, call your vet, and call us too.

The First Two Weeks

Open the rest of the house up gradually, a room at a time, once the kitten is confidently using its tray and eating normally.

Feed small meals several times a day. Kittens have small stomachs and burn through energy fast. Play in short bursts rather than long sessions, because they tire quickly and then get clumsy.

Expect a few quiet or clingy days while it works out where it lives now. That passes. If you have other pets, keep introductions short and supervised, and let them happen through a door first.

Feeding

Stay on kitten food until around twelve months. Several small meals a day suits them better than one or two large ones.

Fresh water, changed daily, away from the food. Some cats drink far more readily from a wide bowl than a narrow one.

Be careful with treats. This breed gains weight more easily than most, and the habits you set in the first year tend to be the habits you have for fifteen.

The Litter Tray

Keep it well away from where the kitten eats. Cats will not reliably use a tray next to their food.

The usual rule is one tray per cat plus one spare. Scoop daily. Most litter-training problems in a new kitten are either a dirty tray, a tray in a busy spot, or a sudden change of litter type.

If a previously clean kitten starts going elsewhere, that is a vet conversation rather than a discipline problem.

Grooming a Dense Coat

The coat is short but very dense, which means more brushing than people expect from a shorthaired cat. Once or twice a week is usually enough, more while they are shedding.

Start while the kitten is small, even when it does not need it. A cat that was brushed from twelve weeks will stand still for it at twelve years. A cat that first met a brush at three will not.

Add nail trims, a weekly look at ears and eyes, and dental care. Brushing a cat’s teeth sounds ridiculous until you price a dental under anaesthetic.

Vaccinations, Worming and Neutering

Your kitten comes with its vaccination and worming record up to date for its age. Keep to the schedule your vet sets from there.

Talk to your vet about timing for neutering. It is a conversation about your individual cat rather than a fixed date, and your vet is better placed than any website to advise.

Keeping the Weight Off

This is the thing most likely to shorten your cat’s life, and it is almost entirely in your hands.

British Shorthairs are low to moderate energy. They will not exercise themselves. Play every day, even ten minutes, and keep portions measured rather than topping the bowl up. Weigh the cat every few months, because the dense coat hides gain until it is significant.

When to Call Your Vet

Call rather than wait if you see any of these:

Not eating for 24 hours, or drinking noticeably more than usual.
Straining in the litter tray, or no urine passed in a day. In male cats this is an emergency.
Repeated vomiting or diarrhoea, particularly in a young kitten, who can dehydrate quickly.
Laboured breathing, or breathing with the mouth open.
Sudden hiding and unwillingness to be touched in a cat that was previously sociable.

Call us too. We keep records for every kitten we place and we are happy to send them to your vet.

British Shorthair Kitten Care Guide