Beginner guide to raising a cat / kitten as pet

Raising a cat / kitten as your pet is very easy. In fact, it's easier than raising a dog (based on my experience of having both dog and cats). Here's a step by step guide on how to raise a cat / kitten as pet.

Preparation

1. Cat litter box (toilet). 

You need to prepare this before owning a cat, or at least immediately get one on the day you own a cat. Otherwise, you will find your cat pee / shit on your furniture.

There's 2 types of litter box. You can buy a standard litter box in pet shop or just a tray. As long as you load them up with sand, and visible to the kitten, 90% the cat will automatically go there to do her business. You don't even need to train them. If your cat is among the 10% ones, then you are the unlucky ones and need more patience on teaching them how to use the toilet. 

You can check more information on cat litter box in my previous post here - cat litter box.

2. Cat food

For temporary measures, you can serve any food to the cat. Just go to local hypermarket such as Tesco, Giant, 99 Speedmart, 7/11 and buy the cat food on offer. On these locations, they usually sell Whiskas, Purina, ProDiet. You can also serve them human food, though it's not recommended.

For long term, you need to buy kibbles (dry food) or wet food (if you are rich enough) that caters for cat. Please note, there's some brand that specialized nutrition needs for kitten and adult. There's also some brand that can be eaten by both kitten and adult. 

Among the standard brands I have used are Taste of the Wild, Equilibrio (currently using), Iams, Ciao, Royal Canin. These are the brands that I have given to more than 10 cats so far and all are healthy so far. Now the oldest at 2 years old.

For more information on cat foods, check out my previous post here - cat food

** Warning, if your kitty is just under 1 month, they need mother milk. They can't eat human/cat food, they will die. Google for information on how to feed them artificial mother milk and hope for the best.

That's it. Easy right. Just 2 simple steps of preparation.

From Day 1 age onwards

1. Food

This is the main criteria for raising a cat. Give them good food, and they will grow healthy. There's plenty of information in the internet on what to feed them. Don't give them human food as it will destroy their kidney later stage in life. Human food are salty. 

Also, don't be cheapskate and feed them cheap kibbles (dry food). I heard from forum, that one of the owner cat suddenly die due to liver failure, after living just 1 year with him. And he has been feeding them cheap kibbles.

2. Vaccinate and vet services

It's time to visit the vet. Visiting the vet is the most costly expense in raising a pet. When the kitty is 90 days of age, you can start vaccinate them. Just tell clinic you want vaccinate, and they will know what to do. Average cost of vaccinate + deworm is RM 40 - RM 60 (depending on clinic). Usually, we do vaccination and deworm together.

It's extremely important to vaccinate your cat, if you don't want your cat suddenly die from a disease. For more information on why it's important, check my previous post here - should vaccinate cat?

If they are sick, you need to bring them to vet, instead of hoping for the best. For example, if they cough, they won't recover from the cough naturally until they eat medicine. I had tried let them recover naturally but the cough just won't go away even after 2 weeks.

3. Spend time with them

If your cat starts purring you, then it's a validation that they are happy to be with you. Good job. If they don't purr you, then you need to do better. And what is purring? 

Play with them. You can buy toys to play with them, but honestly, they will get bored within 1-2 days with the new toy. They need interaction with you. Playing the fishing rod toy is one the way to spend time with them and making sure they have some exercise.

4. Cage free lifestyle

To be honest, if you intend to keep your pet in a cage, then you better don't raise them as pet. They are not your toy or furniture. Imagine a whole life living in a cage. Living on street with freedom and dying due to car crashing on them is more meaningful then living in a cage for their whole life.

Most owners will worry about furniture getting scratch. Well that's a sacrifice you need to make, if you want to raise a pet. If they can't roam around the house freely, at least provide a section for them to roam, like inside a room.

5. Grooming

Brush their hair often to prevent hair dropping. At least once a week as per recommendation on the internet. Yeah, at least once a week, but I actually did less than that because I am lazy. Bad owner.

Bath them. But if they don't like to bath, let them be. Check out my previous post for a more detail explanation whether we should bath our cats or not - Bath?

In fact I never bought them to shop for grooming and if you visit my youtube channel, you can see my cats are all pretty nice. This is personal preference though. I didn't bring to shop cause I don't know how they treat my cat after I leave. I tried bathing one of my cats, and he is so scared until he shit himself. If I bring to a groomer, they might just force my cat to bath regardless how scared he is.