Kitten Growth Chart — One-Week-Old Kittens

June 13, 2015June 14, 2015spotthekitty123

Ben was already establishing herself as the most cuddly and protested at being taken away from her mummy for the photo.

Johnny was the first to open her eyes.

Sue was very alert already

Reed’s little mustache is starting to be more pronounced

In the first week, our kittens’ eyes started to open. Johnny was first; her left eye started to open when she was three days old. By one week they all had their eyes at least part way open.

But when kittens’ eyes first open, they are very sensitive to light. At this stage, it is important that you make sure there are no bright lights directed at the kittens’ faces. Also, the kittens still can’t see very well and rely on their sense of smell still to find their mummy and their favourite nipple at lunch time.

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The colour for all newborn eyes is gray or blue, because the melanin that gives them colour pigment hasn’t developed yet. You will find out what colour your kittens’ eyes are when they are six to eight weeks old.

During the first week, the kittens’ umbilical cords will begin to fall off. Remember not to pull them off as a kitten can easily get an umbilical hernia, which will require surgery to repair when she is older.

The mother is probably licking the babies a lot. She does this to keep them clean, of course, and to stimulate their digestive systems. The dedicated mother cat actually stimulates urination and defecation and eats what comes out. And your mom complained about changing your diaper! If you are hand-raising a kitten, you need to wipe him with a soft, absorbent towel every few hours to help him pee and poo.

The mother cat also cuddles the kittens and keeps them warm all day and all night. She probably only leaves the box to get food and water and to visit the litter. She will appreciate a lot of attention from you. If you are hand-rearing a kitten, you should keep her with you at all times, preferably holding her in your hands. There is no substitute for a mother’s love!

Be careful when handling your baby kittens, because their little claws are very sharp and they are not able to retract them yet. Also, make sure they are not getting their claws caught in their bedding. Some kinds of fabric are like velcro to kitten claws!

One-week-old kittens are double their birth weight. It’s incredible how fast they grow! By now they probably have fat little tummies, too.

Join us next week for an update on two-week-old kittens!

Libby is so happy when we come into her room, she rolls onto her back so we can scritch her tummy. Poor kittens get rolled all over the place!

Spot the Kitty is on the Move: Today’s Kitty Cats Spotted in Siem Reap, Cambodia!

March 6, 2015June 11, 2015spotthekitty123

We didn’t spot many kitties in Siem Reap. We were too busy exploring Angkor Wat, the Eighth Wonder of the World, which was strangely devoid of kitties. But we were lucky to spot this kitty at our hostel, the Amigo Villa Hostel.

This little kitty was very friendly and not hard to spot at all!

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Then this kitty introduced us to her family:

These adorable kittens couldn’t have been more than a couple of weeks old! The hostel proudly kept them where the little mama cat put them, in the cupboard under the reception desk.

She didn’t seem big enough to be a mother, but she took good care of her babies.

We are sad to be finishing our exciting trip, but what a great way to end it — meeting these sweet little kittens! Next time you travel to Cambodia, these little guys will be all grown up and ready to play Spot the Kitty with you!

by KI Borrowman

Spot the Kitty is on the Move: Today’s Kitty Cats Spotted in a Vietnamese Fishing Village

February 23, 2015June 11, 2015spotthekitty123

On our way to Can Gio Ecological Reserve, aka Monkey Island near Saigon, Vietnam, we stopped at a seafood market. We were supposed to buy and eat seafood, but instead we spotted kitties.

Can you spot the lucky little kitty who gets to live in cat paradise: a seafood market in Vietnam?

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She was a nervous little girl but she popped her head out from behind the sugar canes long enough for me to get a snap of her.

If you read the trip-advisor link attached, it seems that Monkey Island is not everyone’s idea of a good time. I don’t know if it is because it is currently low season, or if they also read the reviews on Trip Advisor, but we felt the place had cleaned up a bit. There was no crocodile fishing and someone had cleaned up the garbage, but the monkeys were still very naughty and cheeky! One tried to make off with my hat! Our tour guide told us to hold on to our hats, and he meant it!

Post by KI Borrowman

Spot the Kitty is on the Move: Today’s Kitty Cats Spotted in Phnom Penh, Cambodia!

February 19, 2015June 11, 2015spotthekitty123

Phnom Penh seems to be a city of kitties. Some of the cats we met were skittish, but most came right up to us for cuddles and scritches. Can you spot the cat in each of the following Phnom Penh locations?

The first and second Phnom Penh kitties we spotted were a bit nervous. Can you spot them?

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She hid under the car, but not so far under that I couldn’t get a picture of this cute tabby mother-to-be!

Perhaps this is Papa? He is under the same car.

Can you spot the third Phnom Penh kitty?

This sweetheart wouldn’t come out, but I managed to get close enough to snap a photo of Phnom Penh kitty number three!

Can you spot the fourth Phnom Penh kitty?

The fourth Phnom Penh kitty came mewing right over for some scritches!

Can you spot the affectionate fifth Phnom Penh kitty?

Phnom Penh kitty number five sat under our table all through lunch, despite the restaurant owner shooing her out at first, and then accepted a cuddle before we left.

By K.I. Borrowman

The Spot the Kitty Cat Care Guide…

January 8, 2015February 4, 2016spotthekitty123 2 Comments

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Before you actually acquire your cat, think long and hard about the commitment that awaits you. The rewards offered by having a full-time companion are immeasurable, but so is the commitment required. Most cats live up to sixteen years and require daily care and attention. Also, they can cost a lot of money, especially when it comes to medical bills and moving expenses. If you are ready to make this commitment you will be fulfilled and appreciated by your new found fuzzy little cutie-pie fluff face. However, if you are unsure or not ready yet, there are a lot of smaller pets that you can own that require less care and commitment. For example, a hamster, mouse, or goldfish all make wonderful pets and may be the first step needed to learn about the responsibilities involved with pet ownership.

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Step 1 – Acquiring your cat…

You’re all excited; today is the day you’ve been waiting for all this time. Today is the day you finally become a fully-fledged cat owner. Put your big boy/girl pants on and hold on to your hat because you are in for one heck of a ride.

When it comes to selecting the right cat breed there are a few things to consider: for instance, allergies and cat hair length. Generally speaking, the shorter the hair that the cat has, the less irritating it is to be around for allergy sufferers. Some cat breeds are found to be less allergenic than others. For instance, Siamese cats often cause little to no irritation to allergy sufferers.

Longer haired cats need to be brushed fairly often or they get painful clumps of hair that annoy them and make them grumpy when you try to hold them. They can also be quite uncomfortable in hot climates. Some breeds are more prone to certain cat diseases. For example, Persians tend to have more respiratory problems; in fact, some airlines will not carry them for this reason.

As well as the above considerations, make sure you pick a cat with the kind of temperament you can enjoy every day. If you enjoy cuddling, choose a kitty that you can pick up and hold for a prolonged period of time without it trying to squirm away or bite you. If you’re looking for a playmate, pick the most active kitty in the litter. If you have other animals in the house, you should pick a cat who is already used to being around other animal friends. Also, make sure that your cat is aesthetically pleasing to YOU: whether it has one eye, three legs and a stunted tail or if it has bad breath doesn’t matter as long as you like it, because ultimately it is your cat and you are the one who is going to be living with the little cutesy-wootsie-pie.

Now, you can go to a pet store and buy a fancy cat there, and that is all well and good, but please don’t overlook all the sad and lonely stray or abandoned cats left in shelters and SPCA-sponsored facilities in your area. You may also look for a friend whose cat has a litter of kittens, or check your local pet classifieds for people with kittens to give away. No matter where you choose your kitty, make sure that he/she is at least eight weeks old before you take it away from its mommy, because kittens need to be with their mommies until they are properly weaned in order to grow into strong, healthy, happy cats, and mommy cats teach their little ones a lot of important cat knowledge that they can’t learn anywhere else.

Step 2 – Getting the right supplies…

Before you bring your new kitty cat home, you are going to have to get some basic supplies. The most important things are a safety (quick release) collar for an ID tag/rabies tag, in case your kitty ever gets out of your home, kitty-friendly food and water bowls, and a litter box with kitty litter. It is ideal to get these items before you get your cat and have everything ready and waiting.

Make sure that there is some wiggle room when you put on the collar: you should be able to stick one or two fingers underneath. If you have a kitten, pay attention to the collar and loosen it as the kitty grows.

For food, talk to your vet about what you need to feed your cat. Keep in mind that cats are carnivores; though they do like to munch on a little grass or house plants from time to time, the majority of their food should be meat-based. If you can afford the more expensive cat food from the vet, great; if not then you can always opt for the supermarket brand. If you bring home a kitten, make sure you buy food that is produced specifically for kittens.

As far as the litter goes, there are a wide-range of kitty litters out there designed for different things. Get the litter that you think is best suited for your kitty, your home, and your budgetary needs. If you have a big house, you might need two litter boxes, and multi-cat households should have at least one box per cat.

When you first bring Fluffy home, put him/her down and walk him/her to the litter box. If he is still a kitten, show him how to use the litter by dragging his little paw through it a few times. If she is already a grown-up kitty, she will already be an expert in the area of kitty litter.

Sometimes when kitties don’t use their litter box to go potty, they are not trying to be mean or act up but perhaps do not like their litter substrate; if your kitty pees on your furniture instead of in the litter box, try changing types of litter. The problem could also be the box style. If it’s too enclosed, your cat might not like it; it gets quite stinky inside, and besides, cats like an open space for going potty where they can keep an eye on their surroundings. Click here for more details on litter…

When it comes to water, nothing beats tap water if your tap water is drinkable. If it is not drinkable, then use filtered or bottled water for your kitty. Make sure that your kitty always has a clean bowl full of fresh water, or else she can get a urinary tract infection and other health problems may develop. Never put their food and water dish by their kitty litter, because cats hate when you do that! In the wild, they would never eat food close to where they use the bathroom and it is against their natural instincts to do so.

Oh I almost forgot… Kitty treats! Never forget kitty treats! Kitties love kitty treats and will form a tight bond with you and whoever else gives them kitty treats.

Step 3 – The first few days of cat ownership…

First things first: take your new kitty to the vet for a checkup and get the new kitty entered into the system so that you have a place to take it if any problems arise. Your vet will inform you of the correct schedule for your cat’s vaccinations and if there are any unnoticed problems that need to be addressed.

After the vet visit, take your kitty home and let him explore his new environment and get used to the new surroundings. Letting it explore and smell everything is vital for allowing the cat to settle in. If you live in a very big house, you might want to limit your new kitty to a small area at first until he feels comfortable.

Show the kitty its litter box and make sure it is filled with litter. Any time you move the litter box to a different location, make sure you show the kitty the litter box by walking the kitty to the litter box and by putting the kitty inside the litter box so it knows that is where it is to go to the bathroom. Litter-box relocations should be done gradually, a few feet a day, or your kitty might get confused.

Give your kitty lots of food and water and show your kitty where its food and water are. Make sure that it has fresh water every day from now on and fresh, clean food. Check that leftover food doesn’t have gunky bits in it, because kitties like to spill their water dish into their food bowl. Some cat owners prefer to give their kitty unlimited access to dry food; however, some dry foods give you a daily feeding amount based on the size of your kitty. If your kitty seems to be getting fat, it would be a good idea to limit food to the amount recommended by the cat-food manufacturer. A kitty with a flap of tummy hanging down underneath when it stands up is considered to be overweight by vets.

Make sure you play with your kitty and give your kitty a little treat when she cuddles with you; this will train her to be as cuddly as possible and will help you to develop a friendship with the cat. If your cat wants to leave your embrace, let her leave, as the world is an exciting and new place to explore. Keep your cat indoors and do not let it outside until you know that it is safe — fully vaccinated and a safe outside environment to play in.

Kitty-proof your house: Make sure that your house is pet safe and there aren’t any exposed electrical outlets or wires that the cat can hurt themselves with. Also, make sure that all gift-wrap ribbon is securely put away, as cats love to eat this stuff, but it’s very harmful for them; if your cat does eat ribbon or string, take him to the vet.

Kitties love sleeping with their human. Put a soft blanket on your bed and have the kitty sleep there with you and try not to roll over and crush your kitty during the night.

Step 4 – Doctor, doctor give me the news, I’ve got a bad case of loving you!…

From here on in, it’s safe to say that you have a fairly good grasp of how to properly look after your new addition to the family. Now here comes the fun part: vet visits. I know that there is a lot of controversy out there regarding vaccinations and whether or not people are vaccinating their children and I do not want to get into that, but it is safe to say that vaccinations for kitty cats do not cause autism or any other developmental issues for the cat throughout the cat’s lifetime. So, regardless of your personal feelings towards vaccinations for your children, please do your kitty a solid and take them to your vet to get them vaccinated and dewormed as soon as they reach six weeks of age. You will have to take your cat back intermittently throughout its lifetime for booster shots. If you follow all the advice for keeping your kitty healthy and safe, you should have a pretty easy time of things regarding health and vet visits. However, if you do think your kitty is ill, for example, sneezing/runny nose, lethargic, not eating, or not pooping/peeing normally, then take him to the vet immediately. Cat diseases or problems can be lethal!

Step 5 – Enjoying the little fuzz fuzz head…

Now that you have done all of the above steps it is time to sit back, relax, and let the good times begin. Make sure you take lots of photos of your kitty doing silly things and share them on Spot the Kitty’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc… There are also a lot of fun community events that you can partake in now that you are a cat owner, but most importantly, don’t forget about Caturday, the day when you post your favourite photos of your cat to the internet.

Well, I have to hand it to you, choosing to own a kitty cat and have a living breathing cuddly sentient being as part of your life that you will enjoy and treat nicely means a lot to all of the people at Spot the Kitty HQ. We will be updating this guide periodically as new information and time becomes available. Thank you for reading and as always, if you have any questions or feedback for us, please contact us using our feedback form.

– By K.I Borrowman

Training Your Cat…

January 8, 2015February 4, 2016spotthekitty123 1 Comment

Train my kitty, you say? That’s a laugh! Of course you don’t believe that your kitty could be trained. But if you think about it, your kitty is already trained. When you get home from work, who is sitting at the door waiting for you? Your kitty is trained to know that at a certain time of day, or perhaps a certain sound like the car pulling up or the elevator door opening, her favorite human is about to walk in the door. Every time you open the fridge, or lift up the tab on a tin of food, who comes running with an excited “meow?” It’s your kitty, already trained to associate those sounds with a delicious treat!

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By using the same principals, you can even train your kitty to do things you want him to do. Cats are not as easy to train as dogs are, because dogs are pack animals and by instinct want to please their master, while cats are instinctually lone hunters and don’t have the instinct to please anyone other than themselves. However, using the principals of behavioral psychology, we can train our cats to perform simple commands by forming associations.

As you already know, your kitty is trained to come to the sound of a tin opening — she doesn’t know that the sound is a tin and the tin contains tuna; she merely has an association in her tiny pea brain between the sound and the tuna. You can also train your kitty to do things you might want a kitty to do on command, like come when you call, sit down (instead of run out the door when you get home), or get down off the counter. All you need is a noise-maker such as a clicker, a lot of treats, and a little bit of time and patience every day. First, you will train your cat to associate the sound of the clicker with getting a treat, and then you will be able to teach your cat to understand specific command words.

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Training steps

1. Schedule your training session for ten to fifteen minutes a day, before kitty dinner time.

2. Sit with your kitty, the clicker, and the treats. Feed your kitty a treat while clicking the clicker, or click the clicker and then give him a treat.

3. Continue with clicker training every day for about a week. Your kitty should soon learn to associate the click with the treat.

4. Test time! Test your cat by clicking the clicker outside of your regularly scheduled training time, and see if he comes running.

5. Once your cat comes running automatically to the sound of the clicker, you are ready to start teaching commands!

Teaching your Cat to Come

This takes a little longer than the clicker training. You should continue to do your daily training sessions, and do them just before dinner time. A hungry kitty is a trainable kitty!

Your cat should already know his name. Use his name and the command “come” along with the clicker and treat to get your kitty to come on command. Always use the same word and the kitty’s name, or he might get confused. Here’s a scenario involving Baker of Spot the Kitty fame:

Baker’s human clicks the clicker and says, “Baker, come!” Baker knows the clicker is a sure road to a treat, so he comes running. Baker’s human gives him a delicious piece of salmon (Baker’s favourite!)

Baker follows his human around for a while, but soon gets sleepy and forgets about the salmon. Baker’s human then clicks the clicker from another part of the house, saying, “Baker, come!” Yay, more food! Baker scampers to where the click sound came from and gets another glorious piece of salmon!

After doing this a few times a day for several days, Baker’s human tries calling “Baker, come!” without clicking. By this time, Baker associates the sound of the command with the salmon, so he comes running. Baker’s human gives him a chunk of salmon and voila, a trained kitty!

Note: you must always give a kitty a treat for performing a command. As mentioned before, unlike dogs who will do what you want just to make you happy, a kitty will always and forever do what you want if he knows he will get a treat.

Training your Cat to Sit

A cat who will sit on command is a great parlour trick and a fantastic ice-breaker at parties, but it could also save your cat’s life. If your cats are like Baker, Lance, and Marigold of Spot the Kitty fame, they are always lurking around the door when you come in or go out, and if your kitty is as bold as Lance, he has already snuck out a few times and had to be chased down (or called back, if you have already taught him the command “Come!”)

However, if you get in the door and tell your trained cats to sit, they will dutifully sit on their fuzzy little butts until you release them with a nommy chunk of tuna.

Here is a scenario involving Lance of Spot the Kitty fame learning to sit on command:

Lance’s human brings Lance to the sofa or sits beside Lance on the floor, holding a tin of delicious tuna. Lance is a big fan of tuna, so he sticks around in the hopes of getting a morsel or two (or three, or, heck, maybe the whole tin).

First, Lance’s human holds a piece of tuna over Lance’s head, saying the strange words, “Sit, Lance.” As Lance moves his head up towards the tuna, his butt should, by proxy, move down, until he is sitting.
As soon as Lance is sitting, Lance’s human repeats, “Sit, Lance,” while clicking the clicker, and then immediately gives Lance the food.

Lance’s human does this several times until Lance is full from tuna. If Lance’s butt does not meet the ground, Lance’s human corrects this by gently petting him and at the same time pressing his rump down, while still holding the food over his head. Then a click, the words “Sit, Lance,” and the treat.

After several training sessions, Lance’s human tries saying “Sit, Lance,” without holding the tuna over Lance’s head or clicking the clicker. If Lance’s brain has made the association between the command, the action, and the reward, he will sit down. Now we know that Lance has completed his training to sit. However, if he just stands there swishing his tail and saying “Mew?” we must continue with the training for a few more sessions.

Other Commands

Using the same principals — the clicker, the treats, and the cat — with variations on the above procedures, you should be able to train your cat to get down, stay, speak, and possibly do other tricks, depending on how much time and patience you have and how much your cat loves treats.

– By K.I Borrowman