Hello everyone! So I have had my sweet baby Lila for a week now and she fits right in! We are so happy to have her as part of the family. I have come up with a couple questions if you wouldn't mind...please bare with me.

Stacking vaccines
My breeder stated that I should not allow the vet to give Lila more than one shot/procedure at a time. IE Separate office visits for her rabies, distemper, etc. and they should be spaced about 1 month apart. I am fine with this (obviously) but was wondering why it needs to be done that way. I tried searching but could only find the generalized breeder statements about not stacking vaccines.

When to allow free roaming
As I have said Lila has been with us for a week now. At night she is kept in our downstairs bathroom with all her essentials (and some non-essentials ;) ) During the day I let her roam the house minus the bedrooms. She has not had one accident since she has been here. So the question is would she be okay at this point to be allowed free roam at night at this point or should I give her another week just to be sure? I have no other animals (besides a bird who stays in my MIL's room with no access to her).

Feeding
I received a chuck (is that right) of raw meat with vitamins from the breeder when I picked her up. I have tried to feed her this several times to no avail. She refuses to eat it. I have tried blue buffalo wilderness wet food and she loves it, currently eat 1.5 cans in three feedings a day. I am thinking I may up it as she still seems a bit hungry afterward. Is it normal for them to stick up their nose at raw food when they have been eating it since weaning? Also on the feeding topic, she keeps scooping her dry food out of her dish onto the feeding mat! I have yet to figure out why or to see her do it, any ideas? Maybe this is her saying she doesn't like it? But this also is food I got from the breeder that she had been eating....

"Weird" behavior
Lastly She has a kind of weird behavior. She likes to 'pawpaw' and lick/bite polyester blankets (see pictures) I am assuming this is a comfort thing so I don't want to deter her if it is but I also don't want to allow it if it could somehow harm her. She doesn't tear/pull at the blankets but I would think that there is still fuzz that she ingests in the process. Thoughts?

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Terry Pratchett

What a cutie! :)

One of mine still suckles and kneads a blanket similar to that one. As long as she isn't ingesting any chunks of blanket, I don't see a problem.

Regarding free roaming: make sure there is nothing she can get into and she will probably be fine, as long as there are litter boxes nearby. Give it a try.

Feed her whatever good quality cat food she likes, as often as she wants it. She is a baby and needs to eat small, frequent meals to grow.

So happy to hear Lila is doing well.

As for stacking vaccines, I'm sure most vets give them all at one time. Individual vet visits are costly. Go with your gut feeling.

When to allow Lila free roam of your home. I would wait another week, personally, but if you feel she's ready, you can give it a try. The problem is kittens are curious so you have to make sure everything is kitten-proof. You don't want her getting into anything while you're asleep, unless you want to put her in your bedroom to sleep with you -- and I love having a kitty sleep with me.

I'd feed her the food she loves -- after all, don't you eat the foods you love? As long as it's a nutritious food for kittens, don't worry about it. It's more important that she eats.

The weird behavior is what kittens to when nursing from their mamas and most continue it on long after they are weaned, at least paw/pawing. It is important if she's suckling that she does not ingest any part of the blanket. It is a comfort thing for her so don't discourage it.

She's such a cutie pie.

Lila is adorable! My 14 month old kitties still knead the blankets like that. Grace does this early in the morning with great enthusiasm. She looks like such a toughie so it is sweet to see that side of her. Enjoy the fun kitten months ahead.

She is absolutely adorable, I love marbles! The vaccine protocol was an issue for me because my vet advised getting them together and my breeder suggested getting them separately. I went ahead and got his vaccines together and I regret doing that. Mochi did not react well to having multiple injections and that wasn't even including his rabies. I had his rabies done when he went in for his neuter. He was very grumpy and VERY sore. He would wine and hiss even if I acted like I was going to pick him up. To let you know the difference and that he isn't just a big wuss he was perfectly fine a few hours after his neuter and was running around like a crazy cat. So my advice would be to separate them and don't overload her on vaccines.
Use your own judgement with letting her roam free. Both of mine were very confident kittens and wanted out and about from day one. Once they were out and about I let them roam freely throughout the day and night.

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