This is the most important page you will need for any cat, not just a ragdoll kitten.
I encourage new kitten owners of kittens to stay in touch with the breeder. It helps both the breeders and the new owners. The breeder needs to know how his breeding program is doing, and sometimes the breeder can help the owner solve a problem, and avoid costly visits to the vet.
When you place your deposit for your ragdoll kitten:
- First of all, you have to make a house cat-friendly; cat-friendly houses are similar to houses with small children.
- Avoid all toxic plants because cats are attracted to them. Find a list of toxic plants for cats here.
- Store all medicines and house cleaning products in a safety box.
- Paperclips, plastic bags, small toys, anything that can choke your cat so they should be stored safely.
- Make your balcony, yard, or garden a safe place for the cat, and protect the balcony with plastic partitions. Every year over 600.000 cats find tragic death or remain disabled, from falling from the balcony, and over 900.000 cats escape from gardens and yards and never find their way back. 🙁
Loneliness
Please put your ego aside for a while and think super carefully. This is a mistake most cat owners make.
Try to adopt two kittens at the same time, for millions of reasons.
- Cats are pack animals. They are born in small or medium packs with other kittens, their mom and other cats. It is impossible for them to survive in an apartment for 8 hours waiting for people to return from their work and their activities.
- If you decide to take a second cat after a while, this might disturb your existing cat. Imagine your cat made all the possible effort to survive being alone in an apartment without anyone from her species, she did her very best to adapt to this abnormal behavior and she settled to be lonely and the Queen or the King of everything (since everything in this life comes with a price she adapted to the loneliness by cultivating the syndrome of the Unique Queen, then after 1,5 year you realize that is not such a big deal to have a second cat and you decide to take this second cat at the kingdom of your unique Queen falsely you believe that your Queen or King will jump all over their place from happiness when on the contrary your cat is receiving the second cat coming as a threat.
Then you have two cats, one very miserable and the second seeking for a real cat to have company and not the Queen of Lionheart.
So please consider adopting a stray or having a ragdoll too, don’t let your ragdoll alone under any circumstances. Even if you are working from home your cat needs a furry friend too.
Food
After years of searching and changing food labels, raw food and recipes we are changing food labels from time to time and trying to find the best for our cats. My advice is to observe how the cat responds to her cat food if she eats it happily or if she doesn’t like to touch it. Is her coat shiny and rich or is it shaded with combs? Does her breath smell bad, does she have energy or barely move? Each cat responds differently to each food, please keep that in mind.
For me, the best is wet food as basic food and kibbles in a bowl for free serving whenever the cat feels hungry cause cats in nature eat and can hunt 5-6 times per day. They don’t eat one lunch.
Cat BARF food is also highly recommended.
It is important to have healthy feline friends full of energy.
Scratching Post
Every cat needs a scratching post…. or you can let them scratch your couch. Either way is fine with them, but if you’re like us and care about your furniture, get them a tree. As long as there is a tall perch and a sisal post they are quite happy. Try to have a tree at least 130cm tall, ragdolls are a big breed.
Kittens love toys. Laser pointers are an interesting way to find out exactly how high your cat can jump (you’d be surprised). Small balls with bells or glitter are fun, too. If you have only one cat you will need about 12-14 different toys that will renew every 2 months.
Vet Checks
The annual health check at your vet is very important. Also, don’t skip vaccinations and don’t forget to deworm and keep fleas free of your cat seasonally. See how you can deworm your cat here and how you apply spot on (video) here.
Last but not least, please avoid wearing your cat a collar with a bell, cats are able to hear 50 times louder than humans and the bell will drive them crazy!
Have more questions? Contact me!