Maintaining a healthy kitten
Seven tips to keep your kitten healthy
1. Learn to read your kitten's body language so you know when they might be feeling ill. If you sense something isn't right, speak to your vet.
2. Make sure your kitten gets the right nutrition from a complete and balanced kitten diet.
3. Kittens need a lot of sleep, so make sure they have a comfortable, quiet place to rest.
4. Make sure to never wake a kitten while they're sleeping.
5. Kittens also need to exercise and enjoy company, so make time to play with them.
6. Help build your kitten’s confidence by ensuring they’re regularly handled by a variety of people.
7. Always follow your vet’s recommended vaccination schedule.
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Your kitten's first visit to the vet
Vaccinating your kitten
Vaccinations are vital to reinforce your kitten’s natural defenses and protect them against a range of contagious, sometimes fatal, diseases.
The recommended kitten vaccinations protect against diseases including:
- Feline leukemia – weakens the immune system and dramatically increases vulnerability to infections.
- Feline calicivirus (FCV) – highly contagious and a major cause of respiratory infections. This condition is transmitted by direct contact with eyes or nose of infected cats or contact of contaminated objects, such as bowls or toys.
- Feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) – an often fatal viral disease that causes vomiting. A cat may also experience diarrhea, but this is not always present.
- Feline herpes virus (FHV-1) – a key cause of upper respiratory signs and eye disease.
- Rabies virus (RV) – transmitted by saliva of an infected animal and can be introduced beneath the skin from bite wounds. (The rabies vaccine is required by law in the US.)
There are also other vaccinations that your kitten may need. Your vet can advise what’s best for them.
It’s really important that your kitten has the right vaccinations at the right age to ensure their health and well-being as they grow. Your vet will be able to assess the risks your kitten faces and create a detailed kitten vaccination schedule to suit them and their needs.
The ideal age for your kitten’s first vaccination is when they’re between six and nine weeks. Check with your kitten’s previous caretaker, as they may already have had their first vaccination by the time you bring them home.
Your kitten’s vaccinations will be most effective if they have booster vaccinations at specific times. To maintain the cat’s immunity through adulthood, vaccines are repeated once every 1-3 years, depending on individual circumstances and vaccine type.
Your kitten may have some of these common symptoms after their vaccinations:
- Mild fever.
- Less interest in food or activity.
- Discomfort or swelling where they were vaccinated.
- Mild sneezing or coughing.
If these symptoms last for more than a day or two, it’s important to contact your vet.
You should also contact your vet immediately if your kitten has less common side effects. These can include:
- Vomiting or diarrhea.
- Itchy skin.
- Swelling around the face, neck, and mouth.
- Difficulty breathing or severe coughing.
Deworming and sterilization in kittens
Preventing worms in kittens
As your kitten’s immune system is still developing, they’re more prone to catching worms than adult cats. Worms are internal parasites and there are two types commonly found in kittens and cats:
- Roundworms lodge in a kitten’s small intestine and form balls that can cause obstructions.
- Tapeworms – fix onto the intestine walls and cause bloating, diarrhea, and sometimes damage to the kitten’s coat.
What are the symptoms of worms?
There are several symptoms that might indicate your kitten has worms, including: diarrhea, a bloated abdomen, weight loss, poor coat quality, weakness, loss of energy, a sore bottom, vomiting, and blood in the stool. If a kitten has lungworm, they may also experience coughing, wheezing, or shortness of breath.
Worm treatment for kittens
As part of your kitten’s initial vaccination program, they should receive regular deworming treatments. Your vet can also recommend ongoing deworming treatments based on your cat’s lifestyle – especially focusing on whether they go outdoors and if they come into contact with other cats.
Does my kitten need to be spayed or neutered?
Sterilization in female cats is called spaying and in male cats it's called neutering – both prevent your cat from reproducing. They involve your cat having a small operation, which must be done by a vet under complete anesthesia.
The wider benefits of kitten spaying and neutering
As well as preventing unwanted litters, spaying or neutering your kitten offers several other health and behavioral benefits, too. For example, a female cat will stop emitting sex hormones that attract males and the symptoms of being in heat are reduced or removed. Your cat will also be less likely to stray or fight.
Some health benefits of spaying and neutering
After spaying or neutering, there’s less risk of mammary gland tumors, ovarian and uterine infections, and worm infections in females. Sterilization will also reduce the risk of testicular cancer in males. Other benefits include prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, less-strong-smelling urine, and less spraying.
The best age for your kitten to be neutered or spayed
Normally, a kitten can be sterilized at around six to seven months, but some cats may be spayed or neutered sooner. Your vet will be able to provide guidance relating specifically to your kitten.
After a kitten’s been spayed or neutered, they usually gain weight more easily because their appetite increases but they become less active. To prevent your kitten from becoming overweight, and the health issues linked to that, it’s important to adjust their diet – something your vet can also advise on.
Spotting the signs of illness
The right nutrition can help your kitten to stay healthy
One of the most important influences on your kitten’s health is their diet. Kittens and cats have different nutritional needs at different ages. So feeding your kitten the right nutrients for their age and individual needs plays a huge part in ensuring their bone strength, skin and coat health, digestive comfort, and more.
Age-specific nutrition for kittens
Between around four and eight weeks, kittens are ready to move on from their mother's milk diet and can be weaned. Dry food can be mixed with water and/or formula at a ratio of 1:3 to get them used to the new textures. They still have an immature digestive system though, so they need easily digestible food that meets the specific nutritional needs for this stage of development.
Your kitten still won’t be able to digest some nutrients, so will need food tailored to their digestive stage. This will ensure they get the nutrients and energy they need to grow, develop, and stay healthy.
Your kitten's digestive and immune systems are strengthening, but still fragile. Although their growth rate and energy needs begin to slow, they still need food specially designed for developing kittens.
As your kitten gets close to its full adult weight at around 12 months, it will need to begin eating adult cat food in adult portions. Their specific nutritional needs will depend on their size and other factors such as their activity levels and whether they’ve been spayed or neutered. Talk to your vet to ensure you make the switch to adult food at the right time for your cat.
Feeding your kitten
Get a deeper understanding of your kitten's nutritional needs and how to make sure they gain healthy eating habits.
Tailored nutrition for kittens
Nutrition tailored to meet the specific needs of kittens of different ages, breeds, and lifestyles.