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Baby on the way

KittyCatBabe19 Dec 26, 2003 06:04 PM

I'll be having a baby in the end of April and i'm getting a mother cat...about 1 1/2 years old who may be pregnant again and her kitten who's about 2 months old. How would i go about introducing the baby with the 2 felines????

Replies (2)

PHWildCat Dec 27, 2003 02:37 PM

You are a busy person right now. Lots of changes in the next few months for you and your prospective furbabies. I have never had to do this, as my children are grown but from what others have said and what I have read, it seems to be fairly easy. First make sure that kitty can go in the baby's room and look around. Cats are curious and banning them will just make them want to see. If you have a friend with a baby, get a tape of it crying so the kitties can get used to that sound. Get them used to the scent of the baby things like powder and stuff like that. When you have the baby have someone bring something of the baby's home so the kits can smell it and get used to the new scent. When baby comes home, let the kitties see and sniff the baby. Last of all, you will be very busy with a new baby, make sure that you still make time for the kitties, cause they are your babies too and they want your attention some as well.

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PHWildCat
Cat Board Monitor and Chat Host
Pet Hobbyist
A house without cats is like a garden without flowers

3coolcats Dec 29, 2003 05:25 AM

Congrats on the baby-to-be! I'm the mommy of an active 2 yr. old and 3 cats. So I guess you can call me the resident "expert" on the boards in this matter. I can tell you what we did and that it worked fine for us and I can tell you how each of our cats reacted.
Before our daughter arrived....we let cats see us in the baby's room. They got to sleep in the crib once it was set up (after all I can always wash sheets later), they got to sniff new clothes, they got to sniff powder and things they wanted to sniff. Basically they got to see that changes were being made but they were still part of it.
When baby was born....hubby took a blanket home with baby's scent. Cats smelled it, looked bored by it. On the day we brought her home, we sat her in the living room in her car seat and walked away. Then we watched:
Al, our head cat, who thinks he's the most macho of the 3, came over sniffed and then took off like a speeding bullet. Then he shook in the corner. Oh yeah, he was scared! LOL! But later he was the first to let her touch him and during the day he'd often be found sleeping with her.
Sheridan, my first "baby" wouldn't go near her. After 2 years he still prefers not to go near her but will let her pet him occasionally. He ignored me for quite some time after bringing her home. He's finally forgiven me. He wasn't mad at hubby though....go figure. LOL!
Cali......she won't even let us near her. But she would meow her loudest and follow me around if baby was crying. She got really brave and was sniffing her nose-to-nose that first day home. She has been caught unawares by toddler and hasn't clawed her yet. But at first opportunity she runs under the beds.
Now during the day, we let the cats in our daughter's room. We had monitors to hear every sound. Our cats like to lay on us sometimes at night, so we were a little worried about that. While they never did this during the day, we didn't want to risk it at night so the door was kept closed and cats not allowed in her room at night.
I know it's too soon to start this but keep in mind as the baby grows no matter how young you teach him or her how to be nice (we started from the time she could roll across the room and grab an unsuspecting kitty) that there will be times that baby/toddler will pull or hit the cats. Most times our cats just run away but sometimes she is just unrelenting and I can't always be right there. Keep your cats up-to-date on shots always. One of our cats bit our daughter recently (I was in the bathroom and heard hissing, ran to rescue kitty and daughter was screaming.....finger swollen 3 times its normal size). Because both toddler and kitty were up-to-date on shots, she didn't need any shots. Did need antibiotics though. She learned her lesson though, she hasn't pulled kitties tail since then.
Anyhow, I hope this has helped. If you have anymore questions, post away and I'll try to remember to get back here and check once in awhile.

Kathryn

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