Other things your kitten needs

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Kittens have needs other than food. In this page I will introduce you some kitten supplies I found useful from my own experiences.
 

1. Bowls

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Kitten has daily water intake needs. We recommend supplying your kitten with unlimited fresh & clean water 24/7. I prefer using ceramic bowls to feed my kitten since they're usually heavy and hard to be tipped over. There are various types of water fountains on the market. I personally am not against them, I have bought a few. It was just that they need to be washed and have their filters changed frequently while with one bowl it is way easier to wash and refill to always give your kitten fresh water. Never put the food and water bowl too close to each other since sometimes cats tend to eat their food outside of the bowl and may cause the clean water to go dirty.

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2. Cat Litter

For cat litter, CreamTofu kittens are currently using PURINA yesterday's news. You may use any kind of cat litter upon your personal preferences. But make sure you either transit slowly or use supplements to help them transit, such as Dr. Elsey's ULTRA Litter Attractant. This way accidents will less likely to happen when kittens are introduced with a brand new cat litter. All above mentions items can be found either in-store or from online retailers.

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3. Treats

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We recommend giving kittens treats such as: Inaba Churu, Stella&Chewy Freeze Dried Chicken Heart, Beech-Nut meat baby food, or any other kind of meat based grain-free treats. Note that do make sure you get the one that only has meat and broth for the baby food type of treat. And as always, any type of unused portion of wet treats(Inaba Churu, Baby Food, etc) should be stored in refrigerator. 

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3. Cat Toys

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Cats may sleep a lot, but they are also very active when awake. They will love any toy you buy them. The one in the picture is called Cat Dancer. It is very cheap and enjoyed by all of my cats. Cat toys can be used to interact with your cats, deepen your bonds, also sometimes for educational purposes. When they're not in good behavior (for example: biting on things they weren't supposed to) you can simply use cat toy to distract them from the bad behavior. Make sure you don't leave cat teaser wands out for them to reach because they shouldn't play with that kind of toy without supervision, and also they will lose interest to the wand if you do so.

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Please do not let your cat play with hair ties, shoe laces or similar things that would possibly go though their tiny throats. IT IS ULTIMATELY DANGEROUS that cats may accidentally swallow those and ends up with serious internal injury that requires emergency medical attention. This is real, please be aware. There's no point risking your cat's life and paying tons of money to the vet that could have been avoidable.

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4. Cat Tree

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Various types cat trees can be found in-store or from online retailers. This is essential for a cat's life since cats just like to climb high. Buying them a cat tree will make them more comfortable living with you. With a cat tree, it is less likely that your cat would want to climb onto other tall furniture that you don't wish them to. 

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5. Cat scratch post/board

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Cats love to scratch their nails so that they can sharpen them and keeping them short(but would still need nail cut, will explain later) This is another essential for your cat's happy life. For you too. With cat scratch post/board, they will less likely to scratch on things you don't want them to (such as sofa, chair, etc)

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6. Eye Cleaning

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Dust, allergies, viruses, infections, or physical conformation issues can cause watery eyes. Brachechypalic “flat faced”(or short-nosed)  breeds such as Persians, Scottish Folds, and British Shorthairs are prone to excessive tearing. Brown tearing is normal since proteins in their eye fluid caused the color. Wiping their faces should be done at least twice daily to avoid skin irritation. Here at CreamTofu we use PinkPawPal to clean our cats' faces. Works best when combined with the Wink Eye Powder.

Be concerned when:

• White/yellow/green discharge​

• eyes are swollen/irritated

Bring your cat to the vet ASAP!

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7. Nail Trimming

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The illustration shows how and where you should make the cut when it comes to nail trimming for cats. There are various types of nail clipper for cats, you may also use nail clipper for human to trim your kitten's nails. We recommend checking your kitten's paws at least every 1-2 weeks and cut nails short when necessary. Please always start early so your cat won't be super against getting nails trimmed, also give them treats after so eventually they will get used to this short, unharmful experience.

Even though cats scratch to shorten their nails, it would not be enough because they could miss 1 or 2 of the toes and thus those will grow longer and longer and finally, they are too long and will poke into your cat's toe beans. That really hurts them. 

My have experienced 2 cats of my friends that I helped taking care of when their owners were away. Both of their owners didn't care to trim their nails and as a result one of them had 2 nails poked into toe beans and the other one had 1 nail poked into her toe bean. They get grumpy when I tried to help them trimming their nails and relieving the pain because they are not used to trimming nails and their toes hurt. But still I helped them, and they look a lot relieved afterwards.

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8. Tooth brushing

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Here at CreamTofu we use Mind Up Toothbrush for Cats and Virbac CET Enzymatic Toothpaste. We recommend brushing their teeth daily and start early. Without consistent tooth brushing they will develop dental problems, which costs hundreds to thousands of dollars to be treated.

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9. Brushing 

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Cats' fur can be tangled if not groomed properly, especially for longhaired cats.

I recommend brushing longhaired cat at least once daily, shorthaired cat at least once weekly. Don't forget to brush behind ears, under armpits, and around their butts.

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10. Bathing

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We suggest that longhaired cat to be washed minimally once a month while shorthaired cat to be washed minimally twice a year. 

At CreamTofu, we bathe our kittens once a week. The product we use for bathing is PinkPawPal Whitening & Silky Shampoo, together with the Nourishing Conditioner of the same brand. For cats that has oily furs, we use GOOP to degrease before bathing. I really like the result PinkPawPal brings and the scent is very nice. After bathing, I will first use a towel to dry the kitten's fur, then blow dry them till fully dried with low on heat. Always test the temperature of the wind with your hands while blowing dry your kitten, you don't want to accidentally burn them. 

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