Posted by Chi | Posted in Kittenhood-Week 5 to 8 | Posted on 01-10-2010
Few weeks after we adopted the little rascal, Jay’s mom decided to adopt a kitten. She found him through Craigslist. He was a Bengal and stray mix. In order to protect his privacy, lets call him Mr. K.
2 months old Mr. K
MR. K is only 3 or 4 days older than Timely.Timely and Mr. K. first met around Thanksgiving, and ever since they met, Mr. K has played an influential role in Timely’s life….
To be continued….
Posted by Chi | Posted in Kittenhood-Week 5 to 8 | Posted on 28-09-2010
I have a 3-steps plan for weaning my kitten.
1. Before Timely’s weaning period started, I had to switch Timely’s feeding type from bottle feeding to dish feeding. I started out by pouring a small amount of KMR in a spoon, then I let Timely drink from it. Once he was used to drinking from a spoon, we moved on to use a saucer. Some milk went up Timely’s nose when he tried to drink from a saucer at first, but he got the hang of it after a few tries. He was 4 weeks old when he learned to eat from a bowl.
2. I started to wean Timley when he was about 5 weeks old. I mixed 1 part of KMR with 1 part of KMR 2nd Step. KMR 2nd Step was formulated for weaning kittens. Instead of switching to KMR 2nd Step immediately, mixing both formulas can let the kitten get used to the new food without causing an upset stomach. I fed Timely KMR mix for a week.
3. When Timely was 6 weeks old (he weighed 1.75 pounds), I removed KMR from his diet. I mixed 1 part of 2nd Step to 2 part of water. I started to add 2 teaspoons of wet food with the formulated food. I also substituted dry food with wet food sometimes, but I would wait til it was a little bit mushy before I gave it to Timely. Timely’s weaning period was over when he reached 8 weeks old.
8 weeks old Timely
Because Timely was an orphan feral kitten (and we didn’t have a cat in our place to show him how to use litter box), training him to use the litter was a difficult task for us.
After consulting with Timely’s vet, I picked up a bag of cat attract. I sprinkled some Cat Attract litter on the top of the Timely’s regular litter, but Timely still didn’t use his litter box. It was a stressful time for me because my apartment has carpets and I was sick of constantly checking each corner of the place. I didn’t want my place to smell bad and the little guy’s urine was highly concentrated. It’s almost impossible to get the smell out of the carpet and once he found a spot to urinate on, he tended to pee on it again because the residual smell leads him to consider that spot as his bathroom.
Even though he was having trouble peeing in the litter box, he would run to it and used it when he had to poo. At least he knew where to go for number 2, he was very smart. My situation could be worse. I tried to add one more litter box in the apartment, but it didn’t work either. The little rascal was 6 weeks old and had no clue about how to use his bathroom. I also placed a tissue (with his urine on it) in his litter box, but he still refused to use it.
Jay and I came up with an original litter box training method called “reward litter box training technique” that wasn’t suggested by other cat websites, books, and videos. We knew that Timely likes treats and we tried to place him on the litter box every so often and every time he used that box we would give him a treat. We also gave him treats if he used the litter box himself.
In order to encourage his positive behavior, we executed this method for two weeks and Timely learned to use the litter box within 2 days. It was really amazing that a tiny kitten can learn things so quickly.
Litter box comparison: kittens’ VS adult cats’ litter boxes
Posted by Chi | Posted in Kittenhood-Week 5 to 8 | Posted on 11-09-2010
10/9/2009
5 week old Timely
Took Timely to see the same vet and got his six week physical exam done. Timely had a second dosage of de-wormer and he also had his first Feline Distemper shot. The vet told us that Timely will need to get another vaccine every 6 to 8 weeks until he is 2 months old. We were having some troubles training Timely to use his litter box and the vet suggested us to get a litter brand called “Cat Attract”. He said Cat Attract litter has secret ingredients that will draw your cat to use the litter box.
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