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After weeks of begging and pleading from the little ones, you have finally agreed to adopt a kitten. While bringing home a new, cuddly addition to the family is an exciting prospect, it is important that you and your children are properly prepared for the new arrival.
Do your children know how to treat a kitten? Are your children responsible enough to trust with your new pet? Are you children old enough to know not to pull on kitty’s tail? When adding a new pet to the family, these are all important things to consider.
To help you prepare your home and children for a new kitten, we have put together some helpful tips and advice below:
- Teach your children how a kitten should be treated
Before you bring home your new pet, it is important that your kids know what to expect from a new kitten. As well as, how they should behave around it. It is important to reinforce to them that a kitten is not a toy and should not be treated as such.
Your furry friend could be with you for up to 20 years, so it is essential that everyone gets off on the right foot. A swipe of a paw or someone pulling on the kitten’s tail could create a bad relationship between your little ones and your new pet.
Tell your children that your new kitten will need to be treated gently. Explain that just like them a kitten is a living creature and can feel pain, and explain that that is why they need to be extra careful with their new friend.
- Talk about kitten care
Sit down with your little ones and discuss kitten care. Talk about things like feeding, playing, grooming, and veterinary care. To help your children understand the importance of things like veterinary care, discuss the damage pet fleas and other pests can do and how a vet can help.
Perhaps you could ask each child to research a part of caring for a new kitten, such as feeding a new kitten and playing with a new kitten. By allowing your children to teach themselves about caring for a kitten, you can help them to understand what caring for a kitten entails.
For very young children, you may find it helpful to pick up some children’s books about pets from your library or local bookshop.
Before your pick up your new pet, it is important to set some rules, both for the kids and the kitten.
For example, it is important to establish where in the house your kitty will be allowed to go – downstairs, upstairs or anywhere? It is also important to decide whether your new friend will be an indoor cat or whether he will be allowed to go outside and explore.
For the kids, the rules for them need to be clear. Set rules for who feeds the kitten and rules for how the kitten should be played with and picked up. Set punishments for anyone who does not follow the rules. For example, if you catch your child being too rough with your kitten, it may be time for a timeout.
When it is time to bring your new friend home, it is important that you explain to your children that the kitten will need time to adapt to its new environment. Make sure your children know not to be too loud and how important it is to take things slowly.
Of course, your children are going to be excited and are going to want to play with their new pet, but it is important to keep them calm.
- Keep an eye out
While your kitten may have adjusted well to your family, it is important that you continue to keep an eye out. Make sure that your children are treating the kitten correctly and are sticking to the rules that you set.
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