Your Pet Guide

Everything your cat knows, good or bad, she learned in the first weeks of her life. Further, even though she is trainable as she leaves kitten-hood and grows into an adult, it becomes more difficult for her to change the way she does things as she grows older.

Is that the reason older cats seem to be crotchety ole' grouches? And why they won't move off of your favorite chair without a lot of grumbling? Maybe. But, it's well documented that the first weeks of a kitten's life is where they develop all the critical elements of their physiology and personality.

Physical Development and Growth:
The first weeks of a kitten's life is the most dramatic, growth-wise. At birth a kitten will weigh around 100 grams (3.5 oz). Normal weight gain is about 7-10 grams a day and their weight should double in 14 days. A healthy kitten is plump, firm and vigorous and they will nurse every 1-2 hours. They prefer one teat to nurse and find it by smell. When they're well fed their stomachs are round and they sleep quietly.

If they are crying and moving around, they are not getting enough to eat and may be taking in air when they nurse. Before, during, and after nursing, the queen will lick the stomach and perineal area (the area just above the tail) to stimulate urination and defecation. She'll do this for the first 2-3 weeks of her kitten's life.

At 3-4 weeks the kittens will begin to imitate their mom's eating and drinking habits. Keep a shallow dish for water available for them and you can also allow them to taste a kitten mush mixture of high quality kitten food, kitten milk replacement and hot water blended to the texture of infant cereal. Start off with 3-4 meals a day of this mixture.

At first the kittens will explore it, walk in it, and eat some. After that mom may finish the meal herself. Each week decrease the amount of milk replacement, water and time of blending. Weaning will be complete by 7-8 weeks when the kittens should be eating dry food and drinking water on their own.

This growth schedule matches what wild kittens will experience. Mom will nurse them for a while after birth. Then, she will hunt her territory for prey, bring it home and teach her kittens how to eat it. Later she will catch the prey and bring it home alive so that she can teach them how to kill.

Kittens need to learn fast because, being easy prey themselves, they are susceptible to predators . They also need to learn fast because mom's territory is not going to be sustainable for providing food indefinitely. As they grow they'll eat greater amounts and more often. So, they need to grow up, get out on their own, find their own territory and fend for themselves.

Personality and Socialization

Though cats are solitary creatures, they are not completely loners. Young kittens do not have a developed sense for personal space or territoriality. They'll snuggle in a ball with themselves or with mom in order to maintain normal body temperature. Conversely, they'll spread out a little if they're too hot. As they grow and their bodies develop the ability to maintain itself, they'll begin to find their own private spaces for resting or sleeping, but still play with each other. In the wild mom will stop providing food for them eventually.

She'll resume protecting her territory, causing her brood to leave or chasing the now adult kittens off. Now they'll need to establish their own territories and begin the cycle all over again. Domestic kittens may seek their own private space, but since food is readily available, they'll display less protective territoriality instincts with each other. They'll include your house as part of their territory, but exclude neighbor cats or other animals from the property.

While they're still kittens, they'll stalk and play to develop their balance and coordination. This is the training ground for learning predation and the basic survival techniques that has perpetuated the presence of cats for thousands of years. As cute as the play seems, this play is critical to the survival of the species.

Kittens will learn many things while they are young. For example:

• The food they learn to eat as a kitten, either in the wild or as domestic progeny, will be the food they prefer as an adult. If you feed a variety of foods (quality kitten food, but from different sources such as chicken, beef, seafood, lamb, etc.) they'll tend to be less picky as an adult. Wild kittens fed only mice will hunt mice as their main source of food as an adult.
• They will learn how to set boundaries in order to identify territory and private space. Kittens raised in closed places such as a cage will not be able to do this as an adult and will appear fearful; unable to establish or identify where the lines of boundary are. Either theirs or anyone else's. Their personal space will be very small, again making her very fearful, easily threatened and she'll hide or go into defensive postures easily.
• As already mentioned, play activities of stalking, wrestling, biting and chasing are all directly related to the development of predation techniques. In the wild, the success of an individual cat depends upon how well she learned these tactics, especially the aggressiveness in the application of these methods, when she was a kitten. The Queen plays an important role when she brings home live prey to teach the kittens how to kill and eat prey. The kittens may at first play with the prey, but soon they'll learn what they're supposed to do and associate the prey with food for sustenance. Domestic kittens, other than barn cats or other kittens who may receive this 'on the job training' come to expect their food to magically appear in a dish from you. Although they'll retain the instinct to apply the predation methods of 'stalk, chase, kill and eat', they may not refine them. Consequently, they may stalk and not catch, catch and not kill, and/or kill and not eat any prey that catches their attention. And since domestic cats develop a kitten/Queen identification with their human counterpart, you might find yourself the recipient of a special gift from them in the form of a field mouse, lizard or squirrel.
• Handling kittens born into your home will socialize them with people and other pets in your house. Most Queens will let you pick up her kittens right away. Just don't worry her by walking away with them. Any young children should not handle kittens without adult supervision to prevent injury to the kitten or the child. Stroking, petting, grooming and medicating kittens will acclimate them so that they're tolerant of these things as adults. The presence of dogs, birds, gerbils, fish or other pets in a kittens youth experience will teach them to be un-fearful of other animals (and not think of them as food) when they become adults. Of course, as with all things of this world, the theory is not fool-proof, but, generally true. Careful observation and intervention in a kitten's activities is always useful, with the emphasis on 'careful'.
• Punishment is not an option for training a kitten. Cats don't understand punishment and only associate it with the punisher, not the 'bad' act. They'll learn to fear you, and continue any 'bad' behavior. Training is best accomplished when the cat or kitten has an unpleasant experience associated with any particular behavior. For example, placing sticky tape over the end of a couch where the kitten is scratching will be an unpleasant experience and the instinct is easily transferred to a scratch post placed nearby. She'll remember this the rest of her life. If you punish or yell at her, she'll remember this too, and continue to scratch where she's not supposed to. Then hide from you when you come into the room.

Simply put, whatever your cat learns when she is a kitten, you will have to live with for the rest of her life. And there's no real expectation of changing those learned habits or behaviors. It is realistic to expect juvenile and adult cats can be trained. That's your only realistic alternative to change unwanted behavior after kitten-hood is passed. Still, 99% of who and what she is as an adult can be traced directly to her kitten experiences. And if she's a kitten in your home, a lot can be traced right back to you.