kitten questions

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Jude - 24 Mar 2006 23:44 GMT

I will be getting one of my friend's kittens when it gets older in
April. I recently had an elderly cat that died and I need the mouse
control (not to mention I love all animals... except mice when they are
inside my house). I have the following questions about introducing the
little guy to his new home:

My old cat (who died recently at 13) was an indoor cat (my parents made
that decision, not I) but will it be best to raise this one
indoor/oudoor?

Will an outdoor kitten get distracted by the game outside and not kill
mice inside the house (which are the only mice I'd like dead... or at
least scared so they won't come back)?

I have two large dogs that hunt small rodents. Are regularily cat
friendly dogs known to attack cats when they're outside? I have a fence
in my back yard. If I want the kitten away from the dogs can I release
it in the front yard?

Do cats know to stay away from the road (mine is fairly unbusy)?

Is it best to get the kitten at 6, 7, or 8 weeks? I've heard praise for
each.

Thank you so much to anyone who helps me out. I am going to try my
hardest to make this kitten feel right at home.

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~*Connie*~ - 25 Mar 2006 00:09 GMT

being outdoors is one of the greatest hazards a cat can face.
No, they don't instinctively know to stay away from the road. Growing up I
had a cat that went outside, and he used to lay in the middle of the road
cause it was so warm. Fortunately our street only had six houses on it, so
no one was going very fast, but we did live off a very busy road, and we
think he might have been clipped one day on it, as he all of a sudden became
very afraid of it.

Outdoor cats have an average life span of 3 years. You'll hear lots of
responses that their outdoor cat lived 10+ years, but for each one of those,
you know many more didn't make it to 3.

Not only do you have to contend with cars, but with wild life, with
neighbors who want to put pesticides on their lawns, with (man i hope not)
neighborhood kids with nothing better to do than to catnap a cat and have
'fun' with it. Not to mention other cats and all the communicable diseases
they have.

Yes, lots of people let their cats outside and don't have problems. Most do
it from ignorance thinking the cat is happiest outside. Well most cats are
kinda stressed when going outside. They are constantly on the look out for
dangers. If you are going to let yours out, talk to your neighbors and see
if there has ever been issues of cats disappearing from your area.

>I will be getting one of my friend's kittens when it gets older in
> April. I recently had an elderly cat that died and I need the mouse
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> Thank you so much to anyone who helps me out. I am going to try my
> hardest to make this kitten feel right at home.

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Ted Davis - 25 Mar 2006 02:47 GMT

>I will be getting one of my friend's kittens when it gets older in
>April. I recently had an elderly cat that died and I need the mouse
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>Thank you so much to anyone who helps me out. I am going to try my
>hardest to make this kitten feel right at home.

Your concerns indicate an indoor only cat. Since you want one that
has been trained by its mother to hunt, you want one in the 12-16 week
age range. Anything less than 12 weeks is not at all a good idea: the
kitten is just too immature to be without its mother.

Signature

T.E.D. (tdavis@gearbox.maem.umr.edu)

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CadillacWoman - 25 Mar 2006 15:15 GMT

Many experts claim that a kitten only learns the "killing bite" from
watching the momcat kill prey. If you want a good mouser, make sure
that the kitten stays with momcat for at least 10 weeks--12 is
better--so he learns what he's supposed to do. Also, female cats
generally make better mousers than males.

Yea, and keep him/her inside or you won't get much indoor mouse patrol.

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Ted Davis - 25 Mar 2006 17:05 GMT

>Many experts claim that a kitten only learns the "killing bite" from
>watching the momcat kill prey. If you want a good mouser, make sure
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
>Yea, and keep him/her inside or you won't get much indoor mouse patrol.

I once had, many years ago, a cat that I got as an 8 week old kitten.
After he was grown, my employer started calling in an exterminator to
deal with the mince at the rural location where I worked alone. I got
tired of three days of intense stink of dead mice every month and
asked if I could take Beast out there to clean them out instead. This
being much cheaper than the exterminator, they agreed.

I took him out there and discovered that he knew absolutely nothing
about hunting. I had to teach him myself.

Mice regularly got trapped in the trash can under the console (where
lunch scraps were put), so I began taking them out and putting them
down in front of Beast - he found them interesting to chase, and
eventually managed to catch them. Eventually, he accidentally bit
into one and he just sort of lit up. The immediately went in the back
room and came back a few minutes with another, which he ate, except
for the head. Then another, and another, until he had cleaned out an
entire family nest. After that, no more poisoned mouse stench - I
just had to clean up the left-over head and blood spot after each
kill, but he always brought them back to more or less the same spot
where he first bit into one.

I think it's far better to let the mother teach them these things.

Signature

T.E.D. (tdavis@gearbox.maem.umr.edu)

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David Stevenson - 25 Mar 2006 19:52 GMT

>I will be getting one of my friend's kittens when it gets older in
>April. I recently had an elderly cat that died and I need the mouse
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>Thank you so much to anyone who helps me out. I am going to try my
>hardest to make this kitten feel right at home.

It is always helpful when asking for help on Usenet to say where you
are. For example, one of the replies said that indoor/outdoor cats have
a life expectancy of 3 years. While that is certainly true in some
places, eg busy places in the USA with plenty of other animals that are
dangerous to cats, it is also completely untrue in other places, eg
rural parts of England.

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