Kitten Care

1. The best way to acclimate a new kitten to your home is to choose a bathroom or a small area to keep them for the first few days.

Choose a place where there is nowhere for them to hide & put their food & water and litter in there. We strongly recommend getting a Feliway diffuser to put in the room. It will help make the transition a lot less stressful for your new baby. Take your kitten out as often as you wish but keep them on your lap & pet them. Once you are sure they are eating, drinking, using the litter box correctly, & allowing you to give them affection, then you can slowly open them up to the rest of the house. It can take up to a week for kittens to get over the stress of the moving and start settling in .

2. Gradually let your kitty explore the rest of their new home. 

Slowly open more doors & give the kitten access to more rooms. We keep a variety of litter boxes scattered throughout our home so that they are never that far away from one, thus lowering the chance of any accidents while they settle in.

3. Introduce the other pets in the household gradually. Ragdolls are typically fearless & love everyone, so this is as much for the current household pet as it is for your new Ragdoll. Only do supervised visits until you are sure they are comfortable with each other. Again, your Ragdoll kitten is an individual & may just take over upon arrival. It happens often.

4. Toys

They love toys. I get many of their toys off of either Amazon.com or just a local petstore. They love anything with feathers & ordinary cat toy balls with a bell in them. They love fake mice too, or battery operated toys that move on their own. You can never have too many toys because, trust me, they will all end up under your couch.

There are many other ways to play with your cat, like toys that dangle from small poles. Just be sure to not leave things that your cat can get tangled in them while you are away.

You could even use a birdfeeder as cat entertainment. Just put one up outside a window your new kitty can see out of. They are easy to fill & provide great entertainment for both your cats & you.

5. Scratching posts & Cat trees

Buy nice ones- there are many different types out there, but it will be more expensive in the long run if you just have to keep replacing it. Or you can even make your own if you like by wrapping sisal rope around a pole, or carpet scraps over plywood. Your kitten is very active. They need the opportunity to scramble and climb & be a happy, busy kitten. We highly recommend some kind of cat tree. Amazon has tons to choose from. We have several options on our supplies page

7. Litter
Your kitten will have grown up using Tidy Cat with glade Litter from Walmart. However, we have learned that they can very easily transition to any litter of your choice. If your kitten does have trouble or accidents, try putting some catnip in the litter box- it works like a charm.

8. Litter boxes

We use a typical flat pan litter box. It is easiest if you start with one. When you are sure the kitten is using the litter pan properly you can start to introduce litter boxes with cubby hole entries or automatic ones. The most frightening for a kitten is the flap style litter box so I do not recommend this type until the kitten is older, otherwise the kitten may be too scared to go through the flap and start using the floor for a litter box or some other obscure location, like your bed. Cats generally do not like flap litter boxes at all.

9. Cat food

We feed our kittens 4Health All Life Stages, bought at Tractor Supply Co. Our kittens are fully weaned & eating dry food by the time they go home. We recommend free feeding, as your new baby is still growing & very active. They will know how much they need. We also recommend including wet food in their diet for variety. Feeding both has health benefits as well.

You can find good quality wet food at Petco, Petsmart, Tractor Supply, & surprisingly some of these brands are even at Walmart. Or you can order it off Chewy.com. Any well balanced food that is formulated for kittens will work. If you will not be using our food then you will need to gradually transition your kitten for a week or two by mixing the brand you choose with the baggie of 4Health we send with them. We recognize there are many different belief systems when it comes to what & how to feed your Ragdoll, including the argument of only feeding "raw". We suggest working with your veterinarian and following their advice.

9. Nail trimming

While this isn't necessary, it keeps the kitten from getting their nails caught in fabric which can be painful to both the fabric & the kitten. When the kitten is quiet, gently massage her feet (usually just the front) to get her used to being handled. Then gently push the claw forward & use ordinary people nail clippers to nip off the end being careful not to get too close to the quick.

10. Vaccinations-
We only recommend the core vaccines, which is FVRCP.

We DO NOT recommend-

• FIP
• FELV
• FIV
• Bordetella
• ​Chlamydia

Vaccinations are a medical procedure & as with all medical procedures, there are risks involved. Vaccines are mostly live vaccines, which means the cat is receiving the live viruses or live bacteria but in a weakened form. Therefore the symptoms associated with the diseases of the virus or bacteria the cat is being vaccinated against can occur with an addition of an allergic reaction & even tumors at the injection sites. The viruses/bacteria are then shed in the cats stool & saliva for up to 12 weeks so any unvaccinated cats that are around a vaccinated cat can be infected with the virus/bacteria & although rare, they could get the full fledged disease. Pregnant cats & kittens too young to be vaccinated especially can get the diseases from recently vaccinated cats. For this reason recently vaccinated cats should always be quarantined away from the other cats.

11. Enjoy your new baby!
Play with them, love on them, let them sleep in your bed, etc. Keep them showered with pets & praise! They'll love you unconditionally, so do the same for them.