While we try and add as much as possible to our 'Taking your kitten home' sheets and pages, there are always more questions that people would like to ask, so we thought it might be worth a page on this site.  More questions and answers will be added as I think of them.

One question is 'how often should nails be clipped?'.  We do our adult's nails every two weeks, but younger cats can need doing a little more often.  We start doing our kittens' claws at the age of 3 weeks, or a little before, sometimes.  We suggest that as soon as kittens leave us, their claws are done about every 10 days, gradually going to two weeks apart.  We ue guillotine type clippers because we find these to be the easiest.  Another question is 'what should I clean their ears with?'.  We check our cats ears at the same time as doing their claws.  It's not necessary to buy a product for cleaning ears.   Many cats never need their ears cleaned at all, but if we do see any wax in their ears we just wipe it out with a clean tissue.  None of our cats have ever had ear mites, so there is no need to worry about products for ear mites.

Something else that is often asked: 'How much wet food should my kitten eat?'.  The answer to this is much more difficult that it would seem.  Some kittens eat a huge amount of dried food (which should be left down all the time, along with fresh water) so will eat very little wet food, whereas others will rely mainly on wet food, eating very little dried.  We generally suggest that you put down as much as your kitten will eat in about 30 minutes.  If they are licking the plate clean in two seconds flat, then offer a little more, until they are eating their fill at each meal.  Kittens don't usually get too fat - the food is needed for their rapid growth. 

Another question is 'At what age should they be neutered?'.  We recommend neutering at 5 - 6 months old UNLESS there is a boy and girl together.  In that case we suggest neutering should be done for one of them by 16 weeks of age.  The Foreign Breeds of cats, of which Abyssinians are one breed, tend to mature early and it has been known for 16 week old males to be old enough to get their sisters pregnant.  While we ourselves have never had a girl start calling at 16 weeks, we've had many start at 20 weeks, and have heard of others calling at even 14 weeks.  Many vets aren't familiar with Abyssinians and don't realise how early they mature.

We do get lots of questions about vaccination and frequency.  We use the Purevax vaccine, which we believe to be one of the safer ones.  The adjuvant in some vaccines can cause skin cancers (called sarcomas) but the Purevax is safer regarding that aspect.  We tend to vaccinate our cats every 15 months, rather than 12 months, because it's generally believed that the effects of vaccination last much longer than 12 months, and we want to avoid over-vaccinating as much as possible.  The latest research is suggesting that killed vaccines are more likely to produce a sarcoma than live vaccines, so we suggest to kitten owners that if their vet can't get Purevax (known to be one of the safest vaccines) then they should go for a LIVE vaccine rather than a KILLED vaccine for the cats.  Everyone should really read up on the latest vaccination protocols because these are changing as research is being done, so everyone needs to keep up to date with them, but here are one or two sites that might help: http://maxshouse.com/vaccine_protocols.htm  http://www.catvets.com/uploads/HTML/VaccineSummary.html and http://www.cfa.org/articles/health/vaccination-guidelines.html#protocol but as said, people need to check on the latest protocols themselves and then speak to their vets about it, taking printed off information along to the vets if necessary.  A question that is difficult to answer is 'we're putting out cat into a cattery soon, so should we vaccinate for Bordatella?'.  We suggest that people speak to their local vet about this because it would appear that Bordatella is more rife in some areas than others.  It's a simple intranasal vaccine (that means it goes up the cat's nose) and isn't expensive, but if they are unlikely to come into contact (or be near) cats with it, then it's not neccesary to do.  We did speak to our vet about vaccinating all kittens for this, but he felt that it was putting too much vaccine into their system at the same time if it was done along with the core vaccines.

Something else that comes up sometimes is 'What food should I change my cat onto after they grow out of the Royal Canin Babycat stage?'  Our suggestion with that is to gradually change over to the James Wellbeloved Kitten, and then on to the James Wellbeloved Adult.  This seems to work well.  Also, people ask 'My cat has gone off wet food, so what should I give them?'.  We're great believers in feeding wet and dried food, but sometimes some cats just refuse wet foods, despite trying every possible food available, and if this is the case then we recommend James Wellbeloved because it contains ingredients, such as cranberry, that help to keep the urinary tract healthy.

Another question is 'What litters are best?'.  We use wood chip litter here because it's economical, and with changing about 14 litter trays daily, it works out best for us.  The cats and kittens all seem fine with it as well.  We thought all wood chip litters were pretty much the same, but recently have found that they differ quite a lot.  The one we're currently using doesn't absorb as fast as the previous brand, so we've found we've got 'muddy foot prints' as they come out of the litter tray after doing a wee.  We won't be buying that brand again.  We don't use a clumping litter because we've heard of kittens eating it and it clumping in their tummies, killing them.  We don't like the clay type litter for that reason and also because it sticks to the litter tray and is more difficult to clean  We have heard that some other litters can produce a dangerous dust that gets into the cats lungs, so would avoid them as well.  This brings me to 'What should I use to clean out the litter tray etc.?'.    We buy large packs of Safe4 disinfectant, or Parvofresh, but these would be much too large for the average cat owner, so in that case we recommend going to the nearest pet store and buying a ready to use  spray of disinfectant that is suitable to use with cats.  Many 'normal' disinfectants aren't safe, because they contain phenols (which go white in water) and these are poisonous to cats.

We sometimes get asked if a particular plant is safe for cats.  There is a list on this site of plants not safe for cats, but it's possible there are others that we don't know about, so if in doubt, I'd suggest taking a leaf to a nursery and asking there, or sending a leaf to the Royal Horticultural Society to see if they can confirm it's safe or not.  If in doubt, assume it's not safe until you know.

Another tricky question to answer is 'am I best to have two boys, or two girls, or one of each sex?  What combination is likely to get on best together?'  We have both sexes here in our home, and while most of the girls get on fine together, they don't seem to bond with each other quite as closely as some of the boys do, or some of the boys do with a particular girl, BUT you do have to take into account different personalities, so it's very difficult to really answer this question.  In our household we find sometimes the boys sitting together in the same bed, but this rarely seems to happen with the girls.  It's as though they need a bit more space.  But they do play together happily.

On the same lines, we are also asked 'What sex is the most affectionate and companionable?'.  We really feel that both sexes are just as affectionate and make wonderful companions as each other.  There seems to be no difference between the girls and boys.  All our cats are very affectionate and loving.  Sometimes people make a judgement purely based on the experience of one or two cats that they've had, but we're making the judgement on far more cats than that:-))

We are often asked 'Why do we need to keep a cat indoors or only allow them out into a safe catproof run or take them out on a harness?'.  We love our cats and kittens very much and wouldn't want them to be at risk of road accidents, theft, diseases, cruelty, or many of the other hazards of modern day living.  The average lifespan of a cat who is let out is just 3 years, where the average lifespan of an indoor only cat is 15 years.  Cats can be perfectly happy as indoor only cats, providing they are given enough attention and toys, and played with.  If everyone is out at work all day, we do suggest having two cats so they are company for each other.  They don't even have to be two of the same breed.  Abyssinians get on very well with other breeds, as we can confirm with our cats here.  Many owners now, though, are taking their cats out on harnesses (look on our 'pictures from owners' pages to see how quickly Aby's take to being walked on harnesses), or some people build a secure cat proof run onto a room in their home, so the cats have access to sunshine and plants etc.  I consider our Aby's to be like two year old children, inasmuch as they are trusting with people, but have no road sense etc. and so beautiful that there are undoubtedly people about who wouldn't think twice about stealing them.