New Cat Questions

[Magelet]

We just adopted a 1.5 year old cat from the humane society, and brought him home today. I have a couple of questions about transitioning him (to our home, and to raw food).

He's in a small room for now, and we've been spending lots of time in there. He's already sniffing and exploring the door, and acting like he wants to sneak out. I know its usually recomended that you keep the cat in their small room while they adjust for about a week, but if he seems to want to explore is it likely to cause behavior problems or be overwhelming if we let him explore a bit if he wants in the next day or so? We have a studio apartment with a seperate kitchen, so its not that big, not too much space to get lost/overwhelmed in. He was in a cage at the humane society, though so the bathroom is a lot bigger to start.

Also, we have some of the not so good food that he was eating at the humane society, and are eager to transition him to raw food. Would it probably be too much stress to try to transition him straight to raw while he's adapting to our house, should we transition him to a grain free dry food first then when he's used to us and our home, transition to raw, or just give it a try and see how he takes to it, going slow if it seems too much, but if he likes it, going forward? I guess that's probably fine, right?

DP has a lot of experience with cats, however I'm pretty new to cats.

[outlier]

Hey, congrats on the new cat! We brought ours home from the humane society five days ago.

We've kept our new kitty mostly confined to a small bedroom, but let him out into the rest of the house for several hours a day. He's an adult cat too, and hasn't shown any signs of being overwhelmed or lost. He lived in a house before ending up at the humane society anyway, so I guess he was used to having the space. We would let him stay out full-time if our other cat wasn't giving him such a hard time.

I'm also switching him to raw food, and so far he seems to like it! I was ready to be patient and switch him more slowly (my other cat resisted the change), but he's eaten up almost everything I offer him and I may take away the kibble completely in a couple more days. If you're worried the new cat may not eat enough, try starting by offering kibble only twice per day. Before putting out the kibble, first offer a serving of raw food for 30-45 minutes. Hopefully he'll eat some, and gradually you can offer less and less kibble, finally taking it away completely when he seems to be eating enough raw food to sustain himself.

Hopefully the transition is as easy for you as it has been for us!

[Kirsten]

Originally Posted by Magelet

I know its usually recomended that you keep the cat in their small room while they adjust for about a week, but if he seems to want to explore is it likely to cause behavior problems or be overwhelming if we let him explore a bit if he wants in the next day or so?

I've only heard/done that for introducing a cat to a home with other animals. If you don't have any other pets, I don't know why you'd keep the cat in one room.

When we adopted cats (we always adopt in pairs), we just brought them home and let them out. I don't think a normal size house is overwhelming to an adult cat. Never had any issues.

I'd go let kitty out! And congratulations on your new family member!!!

[Magelet]

Thanks. Then I'll do a final sweep of pins and needles (I sew a lot lol) and other cat hazards and give him a chance to have at it.

RE: the raw food, I'm not worried. I decided to give him a sample, see if he took to it, and if he didn't wait til he was used to us before transitioning him. That's not going to be a problem. I started him on some chicken thighs (about a dime size though thicker of course) and some chicken liver, also about a dime size. three of chicken and one of liver. It took him about two minutes of exploring to figure out it was food, and then as soon as he could chew it (which definitely he needs practice to work up to bigger peices, that was pretty big for him), they were gone and he was staring at me for more.

I was psyching myself up "if he doesn't like raw at first, its not a rejection of you, its just like a kid not wanting real food if he's mostly eaten corn syrup, it's hard to learn its food and get over the sugar addiction", but I wasn't buying it. I'm too much of a foodie and feed people to love them. I'm like, oh I love this little cat, let me FEED him. same thing I do for people lol. so I'm thrilled.

(also, apparently, he wasn't totally content to stay in the bathroom either. he snuck out under DP feet and was exploring the entryway until I was making loud sounds in the kitchen. so I think we'll just let him take it as his own pace).

[buttercups.nest]

With our first two cats we lived in a tiny little trailer...we brought them home in a kennel, opened the door and let them leave when they wanted to. It didn't take very long for either....

With our third cat we confined him to the bathroom. It was supposed to be for a week...a day or two 24/7, then slowly letting him roam the house during the day, and keeping him in the bathroom at night. That lasted a whole day....he was so incredibly loud and annoying that he just pissed the other two cats off...lol There was still a lot of hissing when he first came out but it only lasted a couple of hours. All is good now