Just because you have adopted an Oriental or Siamese kitten from a reputable breeder, that does not necessarily mean that when your kitten comes home everything will run smoothly. What you need to remember is that it can be quite stressful for a young kitten who has just moved home, to say nothing of the fact that sometimes, new kitten families can do sometimes put an awful lot of pressure on themselves thinking that they might not be doing what is right for their new family member. Taking on any new furry family member can be quite stressful for all involved, believe me, we have bought in kittens at times from other breeders and we have had "teething" problems and wondered what on earth we were doing wrong. One of our kitten families, (and mate), Jill, made a wonderful suggestion of adding this type of page to our web site, and I can't understand why I never thought of this earlier actually. So, in order to try and alleviate some of the stress for new kitten families, and to try and look at solving some of the problems that new family experience, we've put some questions and answers below for some of the more common worries that families encounter with their new baby's. Please note that we may possibly add to this page over time if we hear of a new problem or issue.

It's been 24 hours and my kitten still hasn't used the litter tray?
Firstly................I would ask, are you sure he/she hasn't perhaps done a wee somewhere inappropriate? :) Secondly, it's not always uncommon for a new baby to hold off going to the toilet for the first 24 hours, but they will go, believe me. Don't be surprised if the following morning you witness your baby doing what is possibly the longest wee in the history of mankind! Not all babies are the same, you will get some babies who will use a litter tray within 10 minutes of being in their new home, others will certainly wait until the first 12-24 hours is over. If you still haven't seen your baby use the try by the 48 hour stage, then a phone call to the vets, or your breeder would be in order. But honestly, don't panic if you don't see them wee or if there is no evidence of wet litter in the tray.

My baby just went to the toilet on my settee?
Whilst all babies are well and truly litter trained by the time they leave their breeders' homes, they sometimes do have a little accident in their new home. Again, not all, but certainly some. There are a number of factors to look at here. Now are you using similar trays to the ones that the breeder used? Is the cat litter exactly the same as the one the breeder used? Is the litter tray clean of any soiled litter? Do you have enough trays in the home? If you answered No to any of those questions, then that is your first mistake and one which I'd be inclined to remedy fairly quickly. If you answered yes to these questions, then your next step is to "remind" baby where his/her tray is.Next time you see baby about to toilet somewhere inappropriately, then very quickly pick baby up and put him/her in their litter tray. Now alright, you might get unlucky and then end up with a baby dripping wee, all the way from the settee to where the tray is, but that's just the way it goes :) Sometimes, due to excitement, or stress of being in a new home, the baby will become confused and totally forget where the tray is. A few reminders are always a very good idea.

My baby cried all night long?
This is quite natural because what you need to remember is that your baby has just left a family environment that not only had humans there all day and night (in our case certainly), but they have also left an extended furry family member in the way of litter brothers/sisters, aunts, cousins, uncles etc. etc. so when your baby is with you, he/she is going to be feeling extremely lonely. Night time is when kittens can be extremely active whilst young, so while you want to sleep, your baby is looking for his/her playmates that have just been left behind and your baby is crying for them and can not understand where everyone has gone. You have two options here. Try to settle your baby in bed with you so that baby can snuggle up with someone warm, hear another beings' heartbeat, and feel comforted by the fact that someone else is around. Gentle soothing and stroking may help baby relax and drift off to sleep. I will stress here that this is NOT the time play with your baby at some ridiculous hour of the morning because if you start this habit, I can tell you now that baby will want to wake you up to play throughout the night and morning and you don't want to go down that road. Now your other option is to make sure baby is in a room (hopefully with another feline playmate as Siamese/Orientals should never be without feline company!), ensure that there are enough toys to keep stimulate baby's mind and to keep him/her happy, obviously ensure that baby has food, fresh water, and a clean litter tray, and provided that is all taken care of, close your bedroom door, wear ear muffs if necessary and let baby cry for a little while. I know you feel incredibly guilty, but if you aren't going to have baby sleep in the room with you, then you will have to try and ignore the cries, because as I mentioned, so long as baby has another kitten/cat to play with and toys, he she will very soon settle down, stop crying, and either play, or go to sleep.

My baby hasn't eaten anything?
Again, my first question is, are you totally sure? i.e. has baby been sneaking kitten biscuits from a bowl (which should be left out 24/7) while you haven't been looking? Okay, first thing is are you offering the exact same food that baby was eating at his/her breeders' home? If not, then you should be for 2 reasons. 1 reason is that it is food baby is used to and therefore familiar to baby. The other reason is that rapidly changing baby's diet will cause upset tummies, resulting in diarrhoea. Something that your breeder would already have warned you about. What we do here, is we do not feed our babies within at least 4 hours of them going to their new homes. I tell all of our new families that within 20 minutes of having their baby home, give them a small bowl of wet commercial food. Baby generally always eats straight away. This also helps to start the bonding process straight away because the baby who is starving (in their mind anyway!) suddenly looks upon their new family as a wonderful friend as they are feeding them, so perhaps all is not really that bad :) Okay, it is very important that baby eats and this is where you really do have to persevere. If you can't get baby to eat any commercial foods, why not try something like a bit of freshly cooked chicken, or perhaps some tuna? Kittens/cats are attracted to food smells and the stronger a food smells, the more likely the baby is to eat it, even when in a strange environment. You may have to try a few different things before finally enticing baby to eat, but it will be worth it as baby will normally like at least one of the food varieties you are offering. If you find that after 24 hours baby still hasn't eaten, then please do telephone your breeder.

My kitten nips/bites me when he/she is playing?
This is a very bad habit that you MUST break now, while your baby is still a baby. Having been bitten by 2 fully grown adult male cats, let me tell you the pain is immense and you do not want your baby to turn into a cat who bites. One thing I want to make clear that your baby is not being vicious, he/she is simply being playful, but if you let baby get away with this, he/she will start biting or nipping whenever he/she wants your attention. There's a number of thoughts on this one although I must admit I have a method which works extremely well and is very effective. It is quite simply, if one of our slightly older kittens nips me while I am playing or stroking him/her, I bite them back. Yes this sounds odd, however, I watch how our babies and cats all interact with each other and I can tell you now that if a young kitten bites his/her own mother, then mum will first turn and growl, if baby persists, mum will then bite baby. I can guarantee that baby doesn't ever repeat it. I've found this method works when they nip humans as well. If baby nips you, then make a low growling noise aimed at baby, if baby does it again, then bite baby back. Another method which can require a lot of patience is if baby nips you, pick baby up and say No very firmly (that is firmly, do not shout), and place baby on the ground and ignore baby. After a few minutes, baby will climb back on your lap, games begin again, and if baby nips, then repeat the process. You may have to do this quite a number of times before your baby realises that you will not tolerate this sort of behaviour. But do persevere because this is totally unacceptable behaviour.

Even though our new baby is a family member, we wanted our baby to have a special relationship with our child and he/she won't go near our child?
Okay, depending on your child's age, and I am presuming your child is old enough to go to school during the day, then you really do have to go back to basics here. What you need to realise is that while your child is ultimately supposed to be your baby's "owner", it is you, as a parent, who is feeding baby, cleaning baby's tray, and also it's you who is home during the day so you're the one baby is with. So your baby is looking to you as being the person she/he should bond with. You need to change the routine for your child. When your child gets up of a morning, they should be the one feeding baby, then as soon as they get home from school, once the normal greetings "Hi, how was your day", "Fine" are out of the way, get your child to feed baby again. Baby needs to realise that your child will primarily be his/her carer. Once feeding is out of the way, I would suggest that every afternoon after school, get your child to take baby into his/her bedroom. Then your child can play with wand toys, or any type of game that involves interaction between baby and your child. This will make such a difference to the bonding process. It's merely a case of establishing a routine and making sure you child is doing not only the feeding, but also spending quality time each day with baby.

We brought our new kitten home today and invited all our family and friends around to meet him and he ran away and hid for hours?
Quite frankly, I would have run away as well! Look, I can appreciate that when you get a new kitten that you want to show him/her off to all your mates etc but please, put yourself in the kitten's position. You have just taken home a baby who has been raised with love, surrounded by extended family members in the form of siblings, aunts, uncles, mum's, dads, etc. This same kitten has just left the security of everything he/she knows and is suddenly in a new home, with strangers, and with no familiar surroundings. Can you imagine what that kitten must be thinking? It is bad enough to have to cope with that, let alone being mobbed by your family members and mates all wanting to hold him/her. By doing this, what are you ultimately doing is contributing to your new kitten's stress levels, in a very big way. This is unfair to the kitten. What you should be doing is spending the first couple of days with your new baby, settling him/her in, bonding with him/her, making sure he/she is very comfortable and secure in the new surroundings and then, and ONLY then, should you invite one or two people around. Any kitten who has just gone to a new home is feeling extremely insecure and will feel even more so when they are bombarded with strangers when they haven't even had a chance to familiarise themselves with their new home.

I already have an Oriental/Siamese kitten or cat and I have just brought home a new kitten and now my other cat/kitten keeps hissing?
Well of course your established cat or kitten will hiss for the first couple of days, sometimes even a week. This is perfectly natural behaviour. What you have to realise is that if you have an established cat or older kitten in your home, then when you bring in a brand new fur child, your own cat/kitten suddenly feels that their territory is being invaded and that their place in the home is about to be usurped. You can not honestly expect that within the first 24-48 hours your established cat/kitten will be playing and sleeping with the new family member. Get real, it just doesn't happen that way. You need to allow them time to realise that the new kid on the block is actually another playmate and sleeping companion and this is not something that will happen overnight. There are ways you can try and make the bonding process smoother. Prior to collecting your new family member, speak to the breeder about getting some bedding that the new kitten has been sleeping on so that you can put that bedding in your own home prior to bringing your baby home. The reason behind this is that this way, your own cat/kitten can get used to the strange scents of the new baby and when new baby does arrive, it won't be as much of a shock because your own cat/kitten has already familiarised him/herself with the scent. Then when new baby is in your home, it is imperative that you give your current cat/kitten lots and lots of attention so that they do not feel they are being replaced by the new family member. When current cat/kitten hisses or growls at the new kitten, then let them. Do NOT interfere. Cats and kittens have to be allowed to establish their own roles on the home and if you interfere to try and protect your new family member, then you are sending an awful lot of negative feelings to your current cat/kitten. At the end of the day, provided no blood is being drawn, then leave them to it. Make sure you use the feather/wand type toys to encourage interaction between new and established fur baby. Very few Siamese or Orientals can resist the temptation of dangly toys, and if you start to play with the new family member with this type of toy, there is an extremely good chance your current cat/kitten will want to join in, so include them both in the game and they will soon get carried away and be having so much fun that they will forget to hiss at each other. Most importantly though, do not panic, do not expect miracles, in most situations a firm friendship WILL be formed, you just have to be patient. If ever you are in this situation and you do want reassurance, always, always, telephone the breeder of your established cat/kitten, and the breeder of your new family member.