Kitten Placement Age & Bonding with New Kittens

Kitten Placement Age

Q. I was curious as to what age you believe is the best to place kittens? I know this has been debated a lot before- I have heard 12 weeks and then I talked with a TICA judge who will not place before 16 weeks due to the potential of 'crashing' kittens (kittens that have a hard time after being placed or whatnot).

A1. A lot of people do want young kittens, 8 weeks old and up. I let them know that I never let them go at that age (8 weeks old). The mom is still nursing the kittens, sometimes up to 3 months of age, and beyond.

If the kitten is socialized correctly, and it pretty much has finished nursing, and it has at least 2 sets of shots (in Canada), I have let two kittens go at 10 weeks old. I also like to have the kitten spayed/neutered before it goes to it's new home, if it is a pet, so I have to keep the kittens until they are at least 3 months old (12 weeks old).

If they have to be air shipped, then I don't let them go until they are 4 months old. By that time, they are fully immunized, and they have their rabies vaccination, which is a neccessity if they go into the states, and the U.K. The kittens also have to be able to handle the air flight, so I feel that 4 months old is old enough to be flown.

Also, you should be holding onto the kittens until they are 4 months old, if they are going to another cattery or a place where there is other cats. Kittens immune systems don't kick in fully until they are 4 months old, better safe than sorry.

I did let 3 kittens go, our first litter, at 3 months old, two sets of innoculations. They were not isolated from the rest of the cattery where they went to the other Breeder, and they did die from Panleukopenia (distemper).

A2. As we have stated before, We do not believe in letting kittens go before 12 weeks. We feel that pet kittens can go between 12-14 weeks. Any that we are evaluating for Breeder/Show we will keep for 14-16 weeks or longer. It is a good idea to keep kittens through their second series of shots if it is going to a home where there are other pets. But of course no one age is the magic age, you have to consider each kitten individually.

A3. I switched to early s/n several years ago and have never regretted it. I never had a problem while using the s/n contract approach, but this gives me much more peace of mind that my pet kittens will not be used for breeding. Most people will follow through; there will always be some who won't and will want to breed their pet, even though they are required to s/n. I got a phone call last year (as did a couple of other breeders in my area) from a man who had bought a pet female from a local breeder, had a s/n contract, and now was looking for stud service. He didn't care that the kittens would not be registerable. He had decided he wanted to breed his pet, after all, he owned it and should be able to do what he wanted (his rationale).

Early s/n is the *only* guarantee your pet kittens will never be bred.

A4. Boy am I going to get flamed on this one, but here goes.

I really think that the best thing is to hold the papers and insist that the kitten be spayed at 6 or 7 months.

We sold two kittens to a Dr. from Texas A&M who had a whole lot to say about very young spaying or neutering. I'm not sure that I have all the terms correct, but he said that most of the growth occurs at the termination of bones, and he used the term "Growth Plates". He also said that during puberty the hormone Testosterone started being produced by the body, and that shut down the growth at the growth plates, and allowed the bones to get thicker and stronger.

He said that there is a "Eunicoid" body type in which you have the "Mr. Clean" effect, of a heavy body but spindly, long limbs, that are more prone to skeletal disorders, bad hips, breakage and other bad effects. This is what happens if you interrupt the growth cycle by neutering too young. He said that it is much healthier for a kitten to get the major part of it's growth and be spayed or neutered just prior to the onset of maturity.

I'm not using this Dr's name, but he was the main teaching professor at A&M until just a couple of years ago when he retired. I believe this is very valid data.

A5. I would agree with this since I have heard this also. I have talked with more than several dog breeders who don't s/n until after a year old because of this.

A6. There are long term statistics available on early speuter. It has been done in humane societies for the last 20 years or so. If you go to the CFA site, there is something there called the WINN report that gives the information on these studies. There is a lot of info out there, just do a web search on "early spay neuter". None of the vets in my town did it. I printed all the info off and took it to my regular vets and when they had read it, they agreed to do early speuter for me. I although it can be sort of expensive and certainly eats into any profit that you might be making, I maintain that it is the only way to go. It is foolproof. Once it is done, no one can ever breed the cat. I can give the people the papers as soon as they get the cat.

One note: my vets give me a discount if I do four or more cats at the same time, so I can do a whole litter at once and save. The most I have ever done at one time was 7.

Bonding with new Kittens

Q. I've just become a new pet owner of two beautiful Bengals, one marble four month old and one spotted three month old. My problem is this. I've had them now for two weeks, and they are still pretty scared of me.

The breeder suggested putting them in separate rooms to see if that helped, so we did. Both of them still run when we come into the room and will not come to us unless we have food to offer or a teaser in our hands. Any suggestions? Thanks for any help.

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A3. Well you have some wonderful suggestions already from the List and I agree with ALL of them - even the ones that conflict with each other, because all cats are different.

I'd just like to add a few things :

Two cats (especially litter mates) can be much harder to bond with initially than a single kitten because they don't "need" you, they have each other to play and cuddle with.

"Bribes" teach them that getting close to you has some nice surprises. I smear butter on my feet (just enough so they can smell it if they walk by - then I reduce it to almost nothing) when that works (a couple of days depending on how often you are around them), I move the location of the "smear of butter" to your knee, hand, elbow, neck, ear - whatever you are comfortable with. Don't do this forever though as it can cause tummy upsets in some cats.

And ignore them when they lick it (if you can <GGG> it sure tickles!).

Try to shut down your emotions and desires and your whole energy field and just be another object in the room - but one that is worth investigating. Sit down and play by yourself, throwing a little mouse in the air, pouring water from one glass to another, or play hand-ball with a toilet roll or cellophane ball - whatever attracts their attention - but don't look at them - and keep your energy "shut down". Do you understand what I mean? "Act" like a shy wallflower person at a party who no one notices is there - as if you are a piece of furniture to be climbed on and galloped over.

Deliberately exclude them from your games by turning your back on them while doing interesting things. Force them to come to you if they want to watch you play. Also try doing this with one kitten at a time (if the other one doesn't cry and fret).

I also liked someone's idea of only starting out with one cat - IF you have the time to become companion, playmate, mother, wet nurse, chef, etc and to fill in for the other kitten. Bonding with one will be much quicker - often almost instantaneous after the other one leaves.

Finally, did you actually witness how sociable and affectionate the kittens were with the breeder? If not, I would suggest you take them back if things don't improve in a couple of weeks.

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