Cats

*** EDIT *** Our 2 new kittens currently have a separate “kitten room” with their own food, water, litter, toys etc. Once they get bigger (around 8-9 months old), they will end up sharing this room with the big cats, but while they’re still little and eating different foods we’re giving each set of siblings their own room.

We turned a spare bedroom into a “cat room” for our 3 big cats to create a small environment with all their favorite/familiar things to help them acclimatize to our new house after our move and it was hugely helpful!

The first day or so after we moved here, I kept them only in this room to allow them to get familiar with the sounds and smells of this new house, then every day after that I’d let them out a couple hours with supervision, increasing the time each day to expand their familiarity with the new house while giving them the confidence of having a safe, familiar space to return to (which they often did) if they weren’t sure what to think of the new place. After a week they were fully acclimatized and adjusted to the new house.

Now, our cats have free run of the house during the day, but I still put them in the cat room at night and if we go out because they feel safe and happy here, and they won’t damage anything while I’m either sleeping or elsewhere. Every time I put them in this room, I also always give them their soft food at the same time so they love the routine of going to the room and it’s always a positive experience.

NOTE: I did not “decorate” this room — actually, the cats decorated it in a sense because they chose all the things inside it. So I didn’t try to make it look pretty, I just kept it full of all the things they love most.

LITTER BOXES.

I have the same style litter box everywhere in our house. This is the one I use: white version: Amazon | dark grey version: Amazon | pearl version: Amazon. We love this litter box style because it’s small, minimal and simple, domed to contain litter spray, and the top lifts off so they’re very easy to clean.

• We have one litter box on every floor of our house. It’s very important that litter boxes be easily accessible for the cats (the easier to access, the great chance of preventing accidents) so be sure it’s placed somewhere logical, consistent, and easy for them access. The general rule should be one box on each floor, unless you have a ranch home, then maybe do a few around the house.
• I clean all the boxes once a day (occasionally twice, but that’s rare). Cleaning all 4 litter boxes across 4 floors of our house takes less than 5 minutes and in combination with using a clumping litter that sticks to their business as soon as they do it, that eliminates any odor. Ultimately, the cleaner you keep the box, the less odor there is. I don’t use self-cleaning boxes though because it’s so easy to clean them in person and also the litter boxes I chose are visually prettier to my eye.
• I don’t try to hide them. I just tuck them into corners where they won’t be noticed too much. Again, it’s important that the cats are able to find them easily, so I keep them accessible and unhidden. I’m not sorry or ashamed of the fact that they’re there. The simple fact of life is that we have cats, and cats have to do their business and that’s just that. My way of minimizing it is by choosing such a visually minimal and simple style of litter box (Amazon) that is a similar color to our walls and small.

*** EDIT: right now the kittens have their own litter box in their kitten room as well as access to the big cats’ domed litter boxes on every floor of our house. The cats and kittens use each other’s boxes though so once they start using the same room at night (which is when the kittens are bigger), I’ll transition their kitten litter box out and have only one litter box on each floor as none of our cats are territorial about them.

FOOD AND WATER.

We keep fresh water and bowls of dry kibble always available for them both in this room, and also on every floor of our house. I free-feed them dry grain-free kibble because, since they’ve never known what it’s like to go hungry, none of them overeat.

They also have a continuous water fountain (Amazon | Walmart) in our mudroom – I keep it there because it has a tile floor so it’s easier to clean spills since Chai loves to play in the water with his little paws lol.

Finally, they get 1-2 packs/cans of wet food daily per sibling set. My rule is that every time I put them in their cat/kitten rooms, I give them one can of wet food to share between them. If I put them in their room mid-day for whatever reason, I give them another can then too so the amount they get depends on my need for them to be in their rooms but it averages 1-2 cans/day per sibling set. Right now, since each sibling set is in a different room, they each get a can to share between them. This works because none of our cats are territorial around food so they are happy to share. Eventually when they all share one room, I will give them 2 cans and put them on separate plates so they all have easy access to the snacks.

CARDBOARD BOXES.

The cardboard boxes and shipping paper items in this room rotate all the time depending on what we have on hand at any time. Whenever we get a delivery I put the boxes out for them to play with and if I notice a particular one they really love to play with, then I put it in their room until they get tired of it. This makes sure that they always have one thing in there that’s new and different and fun.

Be very careful that you always remove any tape, staples, twine, string, or small bits from anything you give cats to play with. Also, never give them normal paper. I only give them the soft crinkly paper used to stuff shipping boxes, and only if it’s in a large piece so that they don’t eat it.

CAT TREE.

Their “cat tree” was a DIY we built right after we adopted them out of lumber, plywood, and carpet. They love it and play/climb on it all the time and it’s a great place for them to scratch. If you’d rather buy one, here are some options: Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon.

SCRATCHERS.

I keep 2 cardboard scratch pads (this is the one that I like best because it’s so simple: Amazon) in here and have 2 on every floor in our house. They love them and usually opt to scratch these over other things in our house as long as they have access to them. You can also sprinkly cat nip on them for added fun!

CAT CARRIER.

The cat carrier (similar: Amazon | Petco) to the left of the cat tree has a little fuzzy blanket inside and I just leave it open all the time because it’s Mocha’s favorite sleeping spot.

TREE COLLAR.

The metal tree collar (Home Depot) is something we actually never used for Christmas and I was originally intending to return it but Chai fell in LOVE with it so I gave it to them and he loves to sleep inside it. I think he feels like it’s his little castle.

CLOSET.

The closet in this room is Matcha’s favorite sleeping spot. I keep one door permanently shut to create a little nook and the other door open. Inside I have a decorative bowl she loved to sleep in as a kitten and still loves but she kinda can’t fit into it anymore because she’s a big kitty now so I also have a plastic storage bin with a blanket in the closet nook that she inevitably actually sleeps in after realizing the bowl isn’t comfy enough. She picked the storage bin herself from the basement. She just started sleeping in it so I gave it to her. But I leave both the bowl and bin for her because I know she loves them.

KITTY FORT.

This is not not in any of the pictures because I don’t actually have it in their room, but I thought I’d mention it anyways. I discovered quickly that one of our cats’ favorite toys ever is this little step-stool (Amazon) simply covered with an old bedsheet. We have one of these stools on every floor of our house for convenience anyways, so all I have to do is cover one of them with a sheet to make the cats’ day! This literally keeps them entertained for hours so I’ll often set it up for them in a random part of the house for them to have fun with. It’s small enough to not cause much visual clutter (plus if you have a white stool and white sheet, it’s a pretty minimal look) and since there are only 2-parts to it, it’s easy to clean up.

Anyways, I hope that helps answer your questions on the kitty room!

More cat-related posts that might help:

• Cat-related Sources & Cleaning Tips: click here
• How to Stop Cats from Scratching Furniture: click here
• Cat Training Tips: click here
• How to Introduce New Kittens to Older Cats: click here
• How to Cope with Cat Allergies: click here
• Cats & Decor Tips: click here

If you’re following us on Instagram, you’ll know that we recently decided to adopt two more kittens (bonded siblings) from a shelter and this meant that we had to introduce them to our existing three cats (also bonded siblings, also rescued from a shelter over a year ago) that already had made our house into their personal kingdom. So we set out to integrate these two sibling into one big happy family.

While our big cats are well-socialized, well-mannered, and non-aggressive, they were also naturally incredibly wary at first of the new little fur balls we brought home. The kittens were young (12 weeks) and at the age where they were very accepting of the world around them and were super chill about the whole thing. But the older kitty crew took some convincing before they accepted the newbies without any hissing. It wasn’t love at first sight, but we took several measures to help them accept each other, bond and to help them get comfortable around each other in the most gentle way possible… and it worked! All our cats and kittens are now fully integrated into one big happy kitty family. So I’m going to share our strategy here in hopes that it might help you too in a similar situation.

First, we have a designated “cat room” for our older three cats (click here for a tour). When we got the kittens, we turned our guest bedroom into a secondary “kitten room” for our new tiny kitties. We gave them toys, food, water, litter, comfy beds, scratchers and everything they could need to be happy, comfortable, and feel safe there. Eventually we’ll merge the kittens into the cat room, but I’m waiting until the kittens are big enough to stand up for themselves if needed (not even in a bad way but literally our cats are so much bigger that even if they play nicely they could easily overpower the kittens without meaning to, so I’ll keep the guest bedroom set up as the kitten room until they’re about six months old.

Two very important points to note before starting:

• DO NOT RUSH THE PROCESS. This process might take a few hours, more likely it will take a few days, but it could even take a few weeks -especially depending on your cats’/kittens’ background and temperaments. Just like humans, cats have personalities. Some humans make friends easier and faster than other people so just think about you’d feel being relocated to a new place, stuck in a house with other people and be expected to bond to them right away. Always try and put yourself in your pet’s shoes, it helps to gain perspective on what they’re going through. Your cats and kittens will tell you when they’re ready to move from one Stage to the next. If you rush the process, you risk making them feel uncomfortable or threatened so let them pick the pace. If you’re observing their behavior carefully, you’ll know when they’re ready for the next Stage.
• SUPERVISE EVERYTHING until such time as you feel confident that the kittens and cats are properly integrated. Just in case something happens, it’s good for you to be there to intervene and help whoever needs it (maybe an older cat feeling overwhelmed by rambunctious kittens, or a young kitten overwhelmed by a stronger older cat). If you’re unable to supervise, then limit the initial interactions (when they’re still unsure of each other) to times where you can watch them.

I’ve broken our Integration Strategy down into Stages below. Timeline will vary. Like I said, you might go through one Stage per day, maybe one Stage every two days, maybe two Stages in one day. Ultimately your cats and kittens will tell you what they’re comfortable with and that is the only metric you should use.

STAGE ONE: we put the kittens in their kitten room and just let the cats sniff the kittens under the door. This allowed for them to get used to each others’ scents without actual encounters. I also gave the cats one of the kitten blankets to sniff, and gave the kittens one of the cat blankets and some of their toys to share the scents. (Side note: when you first bring your kittens home, pick them up and put them in the litter box a few times to show them where it is. And don’t move the box so they can learn its location.)

STAGE TWO: I opened the door but sat in the doorway and allowed any one of them to come up and sniff or watch each other “over” me if they wanted. This put me in a place from which I could fully and calmly control the encounters. Again, the kittens were very accepting, but the older cats were wary. All the cats would hiss if the kittens got within about a foot of them (but only hissing, no swiping or ear pinning, so more of a “that’s close enough, little grasshopper alien” instead of actual aggression). They were sometimes too wary to even come up to the doorway and would get like 3-4 feet close then walk away, and come back in a minute or two and get a few inches closer, walk away, come back. It was a process and I just verbally reassured them but didn’t try to rush anything. I noticed that the best thing that helped our older cats was watching the kittens. Just watching, not interacting. It’s like by watching, they learned what the kittens were and how they acted and got used to the idea of them. One of our older cats (male) was the most accepting and the quickest to relax around the kittens. I think that was 50% his super chill personality, and 50% because I let him sneak in a few bites of their tasty kitten food. (Note: I was very careful though that he never pushed them away from their food, more on this below.) Also use verbal reassurances to help your cats understand that everything about this situation is positive. Your gentle calm voice can give your cats the extra reassurance they need to feel comfortable.

STAGE THREE: I kept the kitten bedroom door open but placed a barrier across the doorway that was too high for the kittens to realize they could jump over, but low enough that our cats could hop over IF they wanted. I also placed a stool on the outside of the barrier so our cats could climb up, sit on the stool, and “watch” the kittens comfortably to get used to them without having to physically interact with them until they were ready. This was a HUGE HELP! All three of our older cats took turns at this stool. Once they’d watched enough to get comfortable, each one would also briefly jump down into the kitten room for some VERY cautious sniffing (and still occasional hisses if the kittens got more than a foot away from them, but again more warning and not outward aggression). They never stayed long but that was progress. I’d also sit and work on the guest bed whenever possible with my laptop. Our cats usually like to sit near me during the day so this both encouraged the older cats to enter the room to be with me, but also gave the kittens good socialization time and snuggles. Again, a reassuring voice can be helpful here.

STAGE FOUR: the kittens figured out that if they took a running leap at the barrier between their room and the rest of the house they could scale it no problem but that was ok because by this point everyone was kind of used to each other’s presence (even if they weren’t best friends yet) so we kept the kitten room set up but opened the door and let the kittens explore one floor of our house. We blocked off the stairs but gave them full access to the floor they were on with the cats free as well. We found that since the cats were no longer surprised by the kittens, they were actually really nice to them while they explored around. They followed close behind them to keep an eye on them, but almost no more hissing. One important thing is that everyone wanted to try the other’s food. This is okay for a few nibbles but kittens and cats should not be eating the same food as a general rule (the formulas are different – kitten food is higher calorie, higher fat to promote growth so kittens need their own food for nutrients, and adults can gain weight on kitten food) so while it’s ok for them to have the occasional nibble, they should have distinctly separate food. It’s just important to not create any negativity around food so be very gentle in your corrections if someone goes to the wrong bowl. I would let them take a few bits then gently pick them up and walk them over to their own bowl and put them down with an encouraging voice. (Side note: I feed the cats and kittens the same brand of food, and the same flavor, just kitten vs cat formulas so even if they do sneak in a few mouthfuls of the other’s food it’s a very minimal difference.) All in all though, this stage worked well. I put the kittens back in their room for nap time to give the cats a bit of a break (kittens have a gazillion times more energy then cats so I didn’t want the cats to get annoyed with their antics). This allowed the kittens to have quiet nap/food/litter time on their own too, and it allowed the older cats to have their stair access back so they could patrol the rest of the house as they’re used to.

Litter box note during Stage Four: while kittens over 12 weeks should be litter trained (cats naturally want to do their business in sand where they can bury it so I use a sand-like self-clumping litter), because they’re exploring a whole new house, they might get confused about layout or so excited that they forget to go back to their litter box. So when they were first let out into the house, I’d pick them up and gently carry them over to their litter box every 15 minutes or so and I did this for the first day until they did their business, then I stopped bringing them back for an hour or so, and then started again after feeding them more wet foot. They got the hang of finding their way back to their room very quickly. The big cats were also very interested in the kitten’s litter box and I let them explore (and even use it) as long as the kittens were not around because I didn’t want the kittens to ever feel like they couldn’t have access to their box if they wanted it. I found the cats actually really liked to “use” the kittens’ box. I think somehow this helped with the bonding so I allowed that and just cleaned that particular box twice a day while all the exploring/litter sharing was going on. It’s important that you keep the litter boxes clean so that the cats are never put off by the box. Cats are incredibly clean creatures by nature so they’re not going to want to use a gross litter box any more than you’re going to want to use a filthy unkempt gas station bathroom. (Note: I clean the main litter boxes in our house every morning. Because we have one on every floor, their use is spread out so cleaning once a day for those litter boxes is enough.) It took the kittens several days before any of them even entered the big cats’ litterbox. I didn’t rush it or force them to use it. But I placed the litter boxes that were on the main floor of the house that the kittens were allowed to play in on opposites ends of the house so that if they were on the end of the house that had the cats’ box, that was really their best option to encourage them to use it, but I kept their kitten box accessible too. Again, don’t rush the litter box integration between cats and kittens. As long as they’re doing their business in “a” litter box, that’s enough to be happy with. The integration will just happen naturally over time.

• Big cat litter box: white version: Amazon | dark grey version: Amazon | pearl version: Amazon (I have one of these on each floor of our house, all our cats share the boxes)
• Kitten litter box: Amazon (I have one of these in the kitten room. I always start kittens out in this style of box because it’s very easy for them to enter. The style like the big cat’s box above has only one entry point which can be a little more confusing for a small kitten so I use the kitten box so they can easily identify it. I also always place it in a corner so that they don’t feel like they’re out in the open. If your kittens are particularly tiny, you can just put the pan out for the first week or two until they get bigger and then add the side rims when they’re bigger. The idea is that it is EASY for them to access. Do not expect them to use the big cats’ box at first, but give them access to both. We found that after about a week, when the kittens had really developed a comfort level with the big cats, they naturally started using the big cats’ litter box instead of going all the way back to theirs if the big cats’ box was closer. IMPORTANT NOTE: if you see a kitten using a cat’s litter box for the first time and your intent is for them to share it one day, quietly “guard” the kitten in the box so that the cat does not disturb them. Do this without making any sound or causing a fuss, just gently keep anyone away until they’re done their business to create A) a positive experience for the kitten, B) respect from the older cat.)

STAGE FIVE: we’d pretty much reached a normal happy state by this point. The kittens had free run of the main floor of our house (with the stairs still blocked off) but I didn’t put them ‘away’ for any periods of time during the day. I always put all the cats and kittens away in their rooms at night though (I always have dont this ever since we moved in — this makes sure that they don’t destroy anything in my sleep and gives them a comfortable safe haven during nighttime). But by this point, our older cats had gotten used to the kittens and were fully friendly! The cats mostly watched the kittens play but even occasionally (lazily) joined in. They tolerated their tails being pounced on, and even joined in some of the games swatting toys back and forth. I’d still take the kittens aside 4 times a day for wet food feedings (I give them half a can per feeding between the two of them, and they have free access to kibbles at all times), but other than that, they’d learned the layout of our house and could find their way back to their room for the litter box and everyone had finally fully adjusted and even bonded!

One last note I’ll just add: please make sure you give your older cats adequate attention, snuggles, or whatever type of affection they like during this transitional time. I mean, you should do that anyways but it’s easy to focus on the new kittens, but it’s important not to forget that during this time, the older cats need your love and reassurance that they’re not being replaced or overlooked more than ever. So take time to give them that and it’ll make them a lot more accepting of this change you brought to their lives.

Regarding stairs and interior balconies: (What you’re about to read was written 2 months after I initially made this post. I’m editing it to tell you what we ended up doing to teach our cats to be safe around stairs and also the second floor interior balcony that overlooks our living room.) The first week we brought our kittens home, we let them play on the second floor and I quickly realized that they were so small and new to our home that they didn’t even understand what the balcony and stairs were and they’d try to weave in and out of the balusters, and simply didn’t have any fear around them because they didn’t understand that they ‘could’ fall. Since they had so much else to deal with with being introduced to a new family, new home, new big cats, we ended up keeping them completely blocked off from the stairs and second floor for over a month. I waited until they grew to be big enough that they wouldn’t accidentally slip through our second floor stair balusters and fall. When they first came home, they were tiny enough that their whiskers barely brushed the balusters and they were clumsy so I wanted to keep them safe and grounded until they grew bigger. When they got to be big enough to allow up, and after over a month of using my Cat Training Methods on our main floor to teach them the house rules, I did supervised upstairs visits with them where I’d open up the stairs, and let them explore and I’d follow close behind, ready to verbally correct them and teach them proper safety around the railings. We did this a couple times a week for a couple weeks. After about 5-6 times they learned the rules, and I’d graduate to ‘remotely supervised’ visits where I’d let them upstairs alone while keeping watch from downstairs ready to catch them or verbally correct them if needed. After a couple more times of this, they learned and now they have full access to the first and second floors and are have the training to be as safe as is reasonably possible.

Oh, and to block off the stairs, we literally just used a piece of 4×8 drywall I cut in half. One half blocks the stairs up, the other half blocks the stairs down. 4 feet is high enough that the kittens didn’t even think to jump it. The drywall is white so it’s not too ugly to look at and kinda blends into our all-white house anyway so it’s not a point of interest to them.

For feeding, I free-feed all our cats and kittens dry kibble. None of them overeat because they’ve never felt threatened around food — they know it’s always there and it always will be there if they want it so they’re pretty chill about it, and also non-territorial. I feed them a meat mixture with no grains for high protein (I’ve heard this also helps them cause less allergies because their skin stays moisturized). The big cats get one can of wet food daily (shared between them all) at night, it’s part of our going to bed routine. The kittens get about 2 cans of wet food daily – I take them aside to feed them this so the cats don’t get jealous and I feed them 1/2 can in the morning, 1/2 at noon, 1/2 at dinner, and 1/2 at night.

Anyways, I hope that helps explain how we made the transition from a house of three kitties to a house of five! Also, PLEASE if you’re planning to get cats or kittens, always adopt, and spay & neuter!! And if you’re adopting kittens, always consider keeping sibling groups of 2-3 together (unless there’s a true singleton available for adoption). Having other kittens around is huge for helping them stay entertained and happy so wherever possible, please keep kitten siblings together!

#adoptdontshop

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BONUS TIP #1: HOW TO ACCUSTOM KITTENS TO TV NOISE. We’re a family that doesn’t leave our TV on during the day at all – we only turn it on at night if we’re specifically sitting down to watch a movie or a show, but otherwise it’s off. Our TV also happens to be in the guest room (temporarily while we build our theater room downstairs), which happens to be the kitten room. So when we got the kittens, we tried the first night to watch a movie even super quietly but it scared them so we turned it off for several days and just let them get used to our house and the older cats without the extra noise and confusion. If you separate all the new introductions into stages for the kittens, it’ll make them acclimatize to each one better instead of getting overwhelmed. Once the kittens were fully integrated with our older cats and felt at home in our house, I decided to teach them that a big TV screen and its weird/loud noises were safe and ok and I was actually surprised by how quickly my method worked (it literally got them used to it in one night) so I thought I’d share my method.

Note: the reason I didn’t do this earlier was that since the TV was in “their” room, I didn’t want to create any negativity or associate anything scary with their room for them, especially since their room is where their litter box is so I wanted their room to be a completely safe space for them.

So I started by just sitting on the guest room bed with the TV off but with the TV remote beside me and just played with the kittens on the floor with a game I knew they loved (chasing tissue paper around the room). Once they were really into the game, I turned the TV screen on but with no sound. They both stopped and stared, ran away for a minute. But I verbally reassured them and continued shaking the toy and encouraging them to chase it, which they did. Once they were happily playing again, I turned on the volume on to the lowest level. Again, they stopped playing, stared, tried to hide. But I verbally reassured them again, and enticed them out with their toy they loved to chase, and just kept playing with them until they were totally happy and fine with the TV + noise. I also stopped playing every now and again so they’d focus on the TV, realize it was ok, I’d verbally reassure them, give them a pet, then continue the game. Each time they got comfortable, I’d raise the volume by just one tick. I was surprised that I was able to get about 20-30 ticks high with this method. Still about half the volume that we’d normally have it set to on movie nights, but that was a huge start. They actually got tired from all the playing and fell asleep nearby so I just kept the movie playing and kept ticking the sound up every few minutes and checking on them. If they woke up, I’d verbally reassure them and they’d fall asleep again.

Side note: the movie I picked for to use for this was Mary Poppins Returns because it was a movie without much violence or scary stuff. I tried Planet Earth first but they didn’t really like the animal sounds so I stopped that and switched to Mary Poppins and that worked. And after that I put on The Incredibles 2 because it had action in it but no gunfire or sharp scary sounds. It’s about slow escalation of sound.

So this took a bit of my time one evening but it was worth it because now the kittens are no longer scared of the TV and its sounds!

BONUS TIP #2: HOW TO ACCUSTOM KITTENS TO LOUD HOUSE NOISES. Around our house, we have a few things that naturally make louder noises: two examples are the vacuum and our coffee bean grinder. Both noises happen every morning so we needed these to be sounds our kittens accepted as normal, and not scary.

To put yourselves in their shoes for a minute, imaging you’re happily sitting on your couch minding your own business and then you suddenly hear this LOUD grinding outside your house, or a LOUD fan sound. Tell me you wouldn’t be worried? But as a human, you’d immediately make a lot of rational explanations. Maybe someone’s using a new gardening tool, maybe there’s a helicopter/plane flying low, maybe someone’s having car trouble, etc. You have base of explanations based on the fact that you understand the human world. Cats DON’T have this. They have no idea why someone would need to cut grass with a machine or hurtle through the sky in a noisy metal tube. They don’t understand our world, so when they hear a loud sound with no explanation it can be genuinely scary to them so what they need is reassurance that this noise is not connected to something that will affect/harm them in any way. Once they understand this, they won’t be bothered by it because it’ll no longer be a possible threat.

So, the first couple times you make that sound, you might notice them run away a little, or hide under something. Even if they’re not terrified, they’ll likely be wary. Turn it off after a few seconds and verbally reassure them. Do that a few times. If the situation allows, maybe give them a pet or some physical reassurance. DO NOT bring them closer to the sound. Let them feel safe. Ours got used to these sounds after about two days because we reassured them. (Also side note: with the vacuum cleaner, I’m extremely cautious to never ever run it too close to them, and never follow them with it so that they basically accept it as a noisy weird thing that doesn’t affect them at all.)

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More cat-related posts that might help:

• Cat Room Tour: click here
• Cat-related Sources & Cleaning Tips: click here
• How to Stop Cats from Scratching Furniture: click here
• Cat Training Tips: click here
• How to Introduce New Kittens to Older Cats: click here
• How to Cope with Cat Allergies: click here
• Cats & Decor Tips: click here

Follow us on Instagram to keep up with our cats and kittens and home!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave me a comment and I’ll try my best to help!

Ever since we got new kittens, we’ve had to teach them things our big cats already knew like not to go on food counters and food tables, not to chew on furniture, not to use decor as a toy etc. so I thought I’d share my tips:

REPETITION IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING. Calm, firm, consistent repetition. Cats are not like dogs (I’ve had and trained both cats and dogs successfully so I’m speaking from experience), their response time is a little slower, but the goal is to create good habits in them. And habits are formed by repetition.

My house rules for the cats are pretty simple: 1. No paws on food counters or tables (kitchen, pantry, and dining). 2. No playing with my decor. That’s really it. So my rules are clear and consistent. There are no exceptions to this rule. They’re not “sometimes” allowed to do these things (no matter how cute they are being) so there’s no confusion for them over what is and isn’t allowed. So here’s how to train them:

• STEP 1: Verbal discipline. I believe the best way to discipline a cat/kitten is verbally. Do not yell at your cat! The goal is to teach them, not scare them. I personally use a particular “No!” that I say in a loud, firm, non-emotional, warning tone of voice. I use the SAME tone each time I say it. Cats don’t speak our languages so if you say “No” twenty different ways it’s not clear to them that it’s the same word and teaching them one word is much easier than teaching them many different commands — so stick to one consistent word for all activities you want them not to do. So I make the way I say “No” sounds the same each time so they can easily recognize it. Also a one-word “No!” is a lot easier for them to understand than actually speaking to them like “Omg don’t do that that’s my favorite vase!” because that’ll just go over their heads (understandably). I also sometimes accompany the “No!” with a sharp clap of my hands. This “No!+Clap” is what I use to discourage an action I don’t want my cat to take. For an example: let’s say they’re chewing on a basket and you do the No+Clap thing, they stop for a minute, then resume the chew. You have to do it again. Repetition is key. Chew, no+clap, pause, chew, no+clap, pause, chew, no+clap, etc. This might repeat 6-7 times. But eventually they’ll likely move on to something else. If they don’t, then rattle a toy to encourage them to leave the site of the issue and then that’s enough for that lesson. Remember: you’re not going to teach them something in one sitting, so be patient and kind.
• STEP 2: Physical intervention. What this means is simply you stepping in, and gently stopping them from doing whatever it is they shouldn’t be doing, or possibly even gently picking them up and walking them to a different part of the room/house away from the trouble area and giving them something they CAN play with. “Step 2” should only happen if “Step 1” has been tried and didn’t work EACH TIME you do the correction. Verbal correction should always be tried first. Not just one time, but every time you correct them both during training and forever after. NEVER HIT OR CHASE your cat. This will only teach them to fear humans and will not resolve the issue or teach them better behavior. You’ll get a lot further with calm, gentle, kind corrections. The reason why I generally don’t believe physical intervention works as well for training specifically is that it introduces another “action/element” into the situation — simply the act of physically stopping them literally changes the dynamics of situation you’re trying to train them not to do and it confuses the entire situation making it hard to learn from. However, it is usually pretty successful though so it’s a “quick fix” rather than a teaching moment. But if they’re really not listening to my voice/claps, I will gently and calmly pick them up (no snuggling or rewarding, just picking them up) and move them to another part of the house with a toy they *are* allowed to play with. You MUST do this kindly because you don’t want your cat to associate anything but good things with physical contact so don’t stomp over and don’t show any anger or aggression, just be quiet, calm, and firm. They will learn.
• FOLLOW UP: Don’t give up and don’t stop and be consistent. At first, it might not feel like your corrections are making any impact on the cat/kitten. But give it a few days or weeks, stay absolutely consistent with your corrections, and you’ll likely start to notice that they begin to understand. It will probably take a few days of constant corrections but they WILL learn if you’re consistent. Now, it’s important to understand that just like people, they’re going to make mistakes over time. They’re not perfect creatures – none of us are. So I will occasionally (like once a month or something) have to correct one of our older cats even from jumping on the table, but for the most part they understand and know the rules. Be forgiving – you make mistakes in life too – but be consistent so that they understand. Remember, if you’re constantly varying your correction or only correcting them sometimes, that will just confuse them. They have no understanding of why you’re asking them to do whatever you’re asking them to do and you have no way of explaining to them the logic of it so if you think about it it’s actually a pretty big ask of us to tell them that they arbitrarily can’t do something. So be patient, be gentle, repeat repeat repeat, and they will learn.

Timeline: It took about one week for our new kittens to really show understanding for our house rules. That was one week of consistent, gentle, firm repetition from me. After about a week, they started to show clear signs of understanding what I meant when I said “No!” in my warning tone and would back away from actually whatever activity they were doing. And it took about a solid month before they got to a point where I’d rarely even need to give verbal corrections. Every cat/kitten will be different though and it also depends on how vigilant you are. Honestly, in most cases, you are actually the determining factor for how successful the training is, not your cat. They have a saying with horse riding that goes something like “there’s no such thing as a bad horse, there are just bad riders” and that kinda applies to cat training too. Ultimately it’s on us as the trainers who are trying to instill our house rules on these other creatures (who don’t naturally understand them) to be responsible for taking the time to train them properly and kindly.

A few more notes and tips on this subject:

• Avoid problems. Sometimes if I see one of our cats going towards something they shouldn’t do (like if I see one of them eyeing our kitchen counter but they haven’t actually tried to jump up yet), I’ll intervene and distract them entirely. I might scoop one of them up and give them a little snuggle to distract them, then walk to a different place in the house and place them down there. Or if I see them thinking about swatting my decor, I’ll just rattle a toy. If you watch them closely, you can anticipate a lot of their actions and over time you’ll just learn their mannerisms and “know” what’s coming. Sometimes avoidance is just the easiest answer.
• React in levels. Once you’ve completed the basics Step 1 and Step 2 and your cat understands what it is you don’t want them to do, you can have levels to how you react to things in the future. What I personally do is this: as soon as the cat goes to do something they’re not allowed, I’ll verbally say “No!” in the same warning tone of voice I always do when correcting them. I’ll do this once or twice. Usually, the “No!” makes them pause each time. But sometimes they’ll continue. Then I’ll escalate and ADD in a loud clap (without physically moving towards them). So “No!” + clap. Again, I’ll give them 2 chances to listen. If they really don’t listen, I’ll calmly walk over (without scaring them, because learning is the goal, not fear), pick them up (again, gently but firmly), and taken them to another room and put a toy in front of them. This removes them from the situation and offers them a “yes” toy. Also interestingly, no matter how many cats are around me, if only one of them is doing something they shouldn’t and I say the “No!” they always know who it is and that tells me that the cat who is doing the action they’re now allowed understands deep down that their action is not allowed and the other cats who are not doing anything wrong know they’re not doing anything wrong and they (rightly) ignore my “No!”.
• Train your humans if there are many people in your household around your cats, take the time to train them in this method so that the cats are getting the SAME FEEDBACK from everyone. Make sure you’re all saying the “No!” in a similar manner, make sure you all understand the steps for training, and make sure you’re all on the same page. This is important because if your cat is not allowed on counters (for example) and you’re correcting them but your spouse lets them get away with it, then the training simply isn’t going to work effectively. So teamwork is key if you’ve got many humans in your house.
• Never use your hands as toys. I know it’s tempting to want to use your hand to tap the floor/bed/whatever to get a cat’s attention, never do this. Hands should never be viewed as toys – this will help your cat never learn to scratch. Also, if they try to bite or scratch at your (often this is done accidentally in play), just make a sharp, high-pitched “ow” or “yip” sound that makes they know they caused pain. Do this even if they didn’t actually hurt you. Anytime their claws or teeth make contact with skin, make this high-pitched sound and they will learn never to bit or claw at people. This is how they learn with each other when they’re babies (cats and dogs both) so it’s a method they naturally understand and respond to.
• Never let your kitten play with “found objects” from your house. They should only play with things that you give them as toys. This helps them learn the difference between their stuff and your stuff. Once the cats are older they’ll generally know what to do if you teach them this from when they’re small. Like at this point, all our older cats can go into our basement without supervision and literally rifle through our construction materials and they won’t mess with anything they shouldn’t. They’re really very good about it. But it’s because we were consistent when they were kittens and formed this as a habit in all of them. Of course sometimes they might play with something they find but you’ll have to judge that case by case. Don’t allow something just because it’s cute. Like in the basement, if they play with a piece of wood that’s on the floor, that’s fine. If they go into one of our open storage boxes and rifle through it, that’s something I’d say “No” to.
• You can only correct what you SEE happen. If for example, you come into the bathroom and find your toilet paper roll in shreds but this was clearly done a while ago and your cat has moved on and is playing or sleeping elsewhere and you didn’t see it happen, you cannot go to the cat and communicate to them that this was not okay. They don’t understand our language and they don’t share our human logic. If you go and get mad at them for it, they’re not going to associate your reaction with their action and they’ll just see it as you being upset at them for no reason. So in order not to create confusion, only correct what you see happen BUT create scenarios where you are able to see most of what happens or simply avoid the problem. In this example: maybe keep your bathroom doors shut to prevent the cat from entering without your supervision.
• Put them in their cat room at night or whenever you leave the house. This will ensure that while you’re sleeping or away, they won’t do all the things you’re trying to teach them not to do and get away with it. It is VERY IMPORTANT that your cat/kitten rooms be properly set up with food, water, litter box, cozy beds, and be cat-proofed so that they can’t do anything dangerous while you’re not looking. We still put our big cats in their cat room both at night and if we go out even though they’re responsible adult kitties who know all the rules. It never hurts to be cautious and this avoids problems you can’t see! You can click here for a tour of our cat room (right now the cats have their own room, and we temporarily turned our guest bedroom into a kitten room until they’re old enough to be integrated into the cat room, more on that in my post on How to Introduce Kittens to Cats). — I should note that you don’t need to have an entire dedicated room just for your cats, but if you can pick one room that you can fully cat-proof and make cat-friendly, this will give you a place to put them at night or when you’re out that is fully safe and where they can’t un-learn the rules you’re teaching them when they’re around you.
• How to Stop Cats from Scratching Furniture: This is such a big topic that I’ve written an entire separate blog post on it with full details so you can click here to read the full post.
• Our cats are NOT declawed. Declawing is a horrific, barbaric, inhumane practice that is banned or illegal in many places. Please NEVER declaw a cat, don’t even consider it! If you trim your cat’s nails weekly (I use this tool), offer them proper scratchers/scratch pads (I use these ones that are super mobile), and train them to be kind and gentle, that’s all you need. I’m putting this all in bold to emphasize how important this point is.

Regarding stairs and interior balconies: If you follow us on Instagram, you know that we have an interior balcony overlooking out living room that’s quite high. The first week we brought our kittens home, we let them play on the second floor and I quickly realized that they were so small and new to our home that they didn’t even understand what the balcony and stairs were and they’d try to weave in and out of the balusters, and simply didn’t have any fear around them because they didn’t understand that they ‘could’ fall. Since they had so much else to deal with with being introduced to a new family, new home, new big cats, we ended up keeping them completely blocked off from the stairs and second floor for over a month. I waited until they grew to be big enough that they wouldn’t accidentally slip through our second floor stair balusters and fall. When they first came home, they were tiny enough that their whiskers barely brushed the balusters and they were clumsy so I wanted to keep them safe and grounded until they grew bigger. When they got to be big enough to allow up, and after over a month of using my Cat Training Methods on our main floor to teach them the house rules, I did supervised upstairs visits with them where I’d open up the stairs, and let them explore and I’d follow close behind, ready to verbally correct them and teach them proper safety around the railings. We did this a couple times a week for a couple weeks. After about 5-6 times they learned the rules, and I’d graduate to ‘remotely supervised’ visits where I’d let them upstairs alone while keeping watch from downstairs ready to catch them or verbally correct them if needed. After a couple more times of this, they learned and now they have full access to the first and second floors and are have the training to be as safe as is reasonably possible.

Anyways, these are just my methods and they’ve worked for me so I hope they help you!

More cat-related posts that might help:

• Cat Room Tour: click here
• Cat-related Sources & Cleaning Tips: click here
• How to Stop Cats from Scratching Furniture: click here
• How to Introduce New Kittens to Older Cats: click here
• How to Cope with Cat Allergies: click here
• Cats & Decor Tips: click here

My husband is allergic to cats and yet we have five cats and are quite successfully able to manage his allergies so I thought I’d do a post explaining the measures we take to make him as un-allergic as possible and of course comfortable in his own house.

I should note that it is pure lucky coincidence that the design choices we personally love (minimal decor, clean lines, no clutter) perfectly align with the most allergen-free type of household so we do not sacrifice these things for the allergy situation, but rather we don’t feel we’re missing them because even without allergies, we’d choose these same choices anyways.

Note: I’m no scientist or medical professional so everything here is just sharing our opinions and personal experience, nothing more. Also it’s worth noting what type of allergic reaction my husband has to cats: he basically starts sneezing around cats and gets the symptoms of a cold. He does not have asthma or trouble breathing, his allergy is not life threatening, and he doesn’t have a physical reaction either (no red eyes or hives etc). So we were already starting with something manageable, it was just about going the extra mile to make his day-to-day “normal” even though we have a house full of cats.

1. HEPA FILTER. This is the biggest thing we did. We have a whole-house HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter installed as part of our furnace set-up that filters all the air in our house and one of the things it traps is pet dander which is the cause of most allergies.
2. HEPA FILTER VACUUMS. This cordless vacuum (Amazon | Walmart) is what I use every day in our home. It also has a HEPA filter in it which again, helps weed out allergens from our home.
3. REGULAR GROOMING. This is the most important step. Without this, the whole allergy-controlling system falls apart. I groom all our cats every other day, with no exceptions. I use this tool (Amazon) and it takes very little time, probably about 3-5 minutes for all 3 cats total (our kittens don’t shed yet but when they start it might take 6-7 mins total which is still not much) and the way I remember to groom them is that it’s the last thing I do before bed. I also groom them in their Cat Room so that I’m not releasing a bunch of fur fluff into the house air. Grooming makes a HUGE impact — like seriously, if I miss a day, my husband will start sneezing the next day. But if I stay on top of my every-other-day grooming routing, no sneezing. Very important: do not hold your cat down to groom them and do not force grooming on them. Since grooming is such a regular part of their lives, it MUST be a pleasant and positive experience. So just make sure they’re in a calm state (after a play) and in a non-stressful, quiet, but smaller environment they’re comfortable in. Let them move around you and just follow them. I usually just sit in their cat room and they alternately come up to me and I groom whoever is in front of me. Sometimes, one cat gets groomed a bit more than others in one session but over time it evens out so I don’t worry about it. I focus on their backs from their neck to the base of their tail and the top of the sides of their back. This is where the most shedding comes from so don’t worry about grooming every square inch of their bodies. This regular grooming basically gets the loose hairs off them in a controlled setting and environment and keeps them from falling off on your floors and furniture and also keeps it out of your air.
4. REGULAR VACUUMING. I have vacuuming routines in place that cover our whole house and help keep it free from hair and dander. I do our stairs every other day, I do a quick vacuum around our main floor every day (they spend most time here) and I also vacuum their cat room daily. Then I vacuum the rest of the house (we have 4 floors) on rotation. Note: we do not have a cleaning service, but I don’t spend more than about 10-15 mins daily cleaning so as long as you’re efficient with routines, it doesn’t have to be a big deal. And this is the vacuum I use: Amazon | Walmart.
5. HARD SURFACES. We have almost no fabric material in our home. Luckily we love a minimal aesthetic so this styling falls directly in line with what we would choose even if hubby wasn’t allergic, but basically we have leather furniture, no curtains, no rugs, no carpeting, etc. Fabric, rugs, and carpets trap and hold allergens and eliminating these from the home make a space where allergens can’t just sink in and hang out. We do have fabric barstool seats and decorative pillows etc so it’s not like we’re insanely strict about this but the no rugs, no carpeting, and no curtains is a really big help. For our Living Room Sources, click here.
6. MINIMALISM. We’re naturally very minimal by nature. We intensely dislike clutter and this luckily is perfect for keeping a house allergen free because it makes it very easy to clean the house. It’s so much easier to vacuum or dust if you’re not moving around a bajillion items. I naturally do decorate our home seasonally but I’m very intentional about the items I pick and I rotate them so that I never have too much “out” at once. The more minimal you keep your house, the easier it is to clean.
7. HAND WASHING. My husband rarely touches our cats and never holds them. While he doesn’t have a physical allergic reaction to them, still if he touches them with his hand then touches his face, it’ll trigger sneezing so he’s careful to wash his hands anytime after he touches them and, because that can get annoying, he just doesn’t touch them much. This doesn’t stop him from interacting with them. He’ll play with them with toys and they can lie down beside him for side-by-side no-touching snuggles which honestly makes most cats pretty happy. One of our cats literally spends most of her day sitting under his desk and they’re both cool with that.
8. BOUNDARIES. The one place in our house our cats are not allowed is sleeping bedrooms. It’s really important to keep where an allergic person sleeps as a safe haven. Plus in all honestly, I just don’t have the energy to keep on top of the level of cleaning I’d need to do if the cats were allowed in there. So we keep them out of these spaces and they really don’t mind at all. The guest bedroom is the exception to this rule in our house and see the next step for how I deal with that:
9. BED COVERS. I use these light-weight quilts (Overstock) as bed covers that go over all the bedding. They’re pretty, minimal, and act as a protective shield keeping the cats and their dander away from the duvet etc. I do this because it’s so much easier to just toss this quiltlet in the wash than it is to do all the bedding every time a cat naps on the bed. I use these in all our bedrooms as well just as an extra protection. I mean, it can’t hurt, and they’re beautiful too. Win win!
10. LAUNDRY. I never wear any clothing I’ve touched the cats with to bed. I have a separate drawer for sleeping clothes and this prevents any transfer of allergens from clothing to sleeping area.
11. NETI POT. Sorry if this might seem gross but it’s real life so I’m sharing. My husband does a nasal rinse twice a day. He finds it helps him a LOT and he just uses salt water. I think this is the neti pot he has: Amazon, but as you can see there are a ton of different options: Amazon.
12. MEDICATION. My husband has allergy meds which he does NOT take regularly but he has on hand so if he does start sneezing, he can take one and it’ll clear up his symptoms for 24 hours. It’s a last resort but he probably takes about 1 or 2 per month. They’re good to have on hand just in case, however, the measures we take listed above usually eliminate the need for any medication.
13. DIET. Your cat’s diet can affect their skin which in turn can affect how allergic you are to them. Consult your vet but there are often food-related steps you can take to help your cat be less of an allergy trigger. I’ve also heard that a fully raw diet (for the cat) can do wonders for reducing allergies. We’ve never done this with our cats, but we used to feed our dog fully raw and it was amazing how much of a difference that made. I won’t give any specific recommendation regarding this because I’m not as informed with regards to cats but it’s definitely something worth discussing with your vet.
14. BATHS DON’T HELP. Again, this is just our experience but we do not bathe our cats. Cats are naturally very clean. They spend more time cleaning themselves a day than humans do so they don’t usually need our help to stay clean. And even if you bath them to remove the allergens, it just returns a few days later. Plus as a general rule cats dislike getting wet and bathing them is a stressful process (for you and the cat). And then you just have to repeat the whole awful process not to mention that washing them regularly can dry out their skin so I don’t think it’s worth it. So in my opinion, if you groom them regularly, and you do the other tips I mentioned above, then bathing the isn’t necessary. If you reeeeally want, just take a lightly damp cloth or paper towel every now and again and wipe it gently down their back. I do this occasionally with the only one of our cats who doesn’t like wet food so she lives on kibbles and has dryer skin, so this helps.

So these are basically how we deal with having a house full of cats and someone who is allergic to cats living in the same space. It’s taken a lot of trial and error but I’m happy to say that we’re finally at a place where we’ve created a home in which an allergic person can live with cats without issues!

NOTE: this is only what has worked for us. This is not a guarantee that these measures will work for a different person in a different situation. No two allergies are the same so no two solutions will be directly transferable. But these are definitely tips to consider or try!

If you’re unsure whether you’re allergic to cats, consider visiting your local shelter and ask to spend some time in one of the adult cat rooms. This is a win-win because it gives some shelter kitties a bit of love while allowing you to see if you’re allergic to them without bringing a cat home without knowing. Be sure you interact with adult cats over a year old, not kittens. Sometimes kittens don’t trigger allergies the same way cats do. This is not always true, but it’s best to ‘allergy test’ yourself with adult cats to be sure.

Given everything you’ve read above, if you’re curious about the types of furniture we chose to use due, check out the following links:

• Whole house sources: click here
• Living room sources: click here
• Kitchen sources: click here
• Master bedroom sources: click here
• Guest bedroom sources: click here

More cat-related posts that might help:

• Cat Room Tour: click here
• Cat-related Sources & Cleaning Tips: click here
• How to Stop Cats from Scratching Furniture: click here
• Cat Training Tips: click here
• How to Introduce New Kittens to Older Cats: click here
• Cats & Decor Tips: click here