Three Essential Tips When Choosing a Cat Or Kitten

Buying a new cat or a kitten can often be an impulsive action. Once you see a new cat, more especially a kitten, it is hard to resist their charm; this makes it important you answer a few important questions before you finally make your choice.

Just before I continue on my merry way I would like to make it clear that I am not the owner of a pet store and I do not even work with cats. I personally work as a speech coach primarily helping people who have stammering/stuttering problems. I also work on a part time basis on projects to do with DVD replication and selling front doors.

Cat or Kitten?

First establish whether you want a fully grown cat or a kitten. Kittens are obviously cute, cuddly and playful but they can be stressful and make great demands on you as an owner, they will initially require a lot of your attention and time so if you are not able to give them this full attention from the start you should consider getting a more mature or adult cat.

A mature cat is more likely to want to just relax; they have done the majority of their “jumping around” and are now more interested in becoming more of a “lap cat”. Ideally you should try and discuss with the previous owner details about the eating habits, disposition, toilet behaviour and any other habits the new cat may have.

Male or Female?

There is a widespread belief that male cats are usually more independent and females are more friendly and loving towards their owners, however there is little difference in behaviour between the sexes once they have been neutered. Unless you intending to let your cat breed, neutering is advisable as this will result in a better pet with less “anti social” habits which are associated with cats used for breeding.

Pedigree or Non-Pedigree?

An important advantage of pedigree cats is that you can usually easier to predict the sort of cat you are going to end up with, especially how it will look and to some extent what temperament it may have.

If you intend showing or using your cat for breeding purposes then you should buy a cat that has a proven pedigree.

Their will obviously be more factors you will need to take into consideration and there is a wealth of useful information to help you, this can come from magazines and books, friends and other cat owners, the internet or your local vet.