In order to raise the healthiest kittens possible, you must make sure they don't come into contact with things that will harm them.
If you have newborn or very young kittens in the house and also have other cats in the house or outdoors, it is important to take a few extra precautions to make sure you don’t spread germs and disease to your special little bundles. You can track in all kinds of things on your shoes, and your children’s hands can spread bacteria easily to a tiny little immune system!
Here are some things you can do to help protect your kittens:
- Don’t allow kittens to be near other cats besides their mother until they have had their first set of shots. It is really best to not have them around other cats until they are 4 months old and have had their complete rounds of shots, and many breeders will hold their kittens until this age.
- Don’t allow anyone who has a cold or other contagious illness around your kittens. The risk of causing an upper respirator infection in your kitten is too great!
- Make sure that all other cats in your family have had all of their shots, including outdoor cats, even if they are never going to lay eyes on one of your kittens.
- Always wash your hands with a little bleach before going in to handle your kittens. Make sure that any visitors or children also wash their hands. Dawn dishwashing detergent with bleach alternative is an excellent choice.
- If you handle any non-domestic animals, make sure you wash your hands AND change your clothes before handling your kittens. You don’t know what kinds of parasites they might have.
- Make sure all other animals in the house have been wormed and treated for fleas. These things can harm your adult cats, but they can be detrimental to a small kitten. Don’t let your kitten rub up against cats that have been treated for fleas until they are 8 weeks of age.
- Clean off the bottoms of your shoes when you come inside, and spray with a little bit of Lysol. A feral cat can wander through your yard spreading all sorts of illness and disease!
- Change kittens bedding frequently. Kittens up to 5 weeks old might still be going to the potty on their bedding, and bacteria builds up quickly. Mom comes in and out of the litter box and back to bed, and little ones roam the floors and track back dirt to their bed. It’s a good idea to put a little bleach in the wash when you do their laundry, too! Changing the bedding frequently is also a great way to keep fleas away.
- Keep floors swept, vacuumed, and mopped, using disinfectant. (Be sure to let all surfaces dry before allowing kittens to walk on them.)
- Each day, clean off all surface areas anywhere your kittens play. Also spray them with Lysol.
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