Adolescent cat care (6 months to 3 years)
At about 8 to 10 months, cats have completed most of their physical development. At this time, they also start to settle into their environment and become more calm and not as high energy as they were as kittens.
As your cat grows up, watch him or her closely to get to know his/her habits and patterns. Not only will this help you enhance your kitty’s quality of life, but it will help you more easily spot changes during your cat’s life that could signal illness. Cats are masters at hiding their conditions, often until they are very ill. So the more quickly you are able to spot changes in your cat, the more quickly you can spot potential health problems. See Early disease detection.
Get to know what is “normal” for your cat in terms of:
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Eating habits
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Sleeping habits
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Litter box habits
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Daily routine
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Play and exercise habits
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Interaction with other pets in the household
To help keep kitty healthy, and to recognize signs of disease early, be sure to maintain a regular scheduled of bi-annual preventive exams. When a cat is young, this will help you establish a “base line” of what is normal for your cat in terms of weight, blood screening, blood pressure, heart rate and other vital signs. This information will help you and your veterinarian spot changes more quickly. It will also alert you EARLY as to any signs of progressing illnesses or conditions that are highly treatable if caught early.
See how to get kitty off to a good start in life with:
Be on the lookout for sudden weight LOSS. Inexplicable weight loss in a kitty always signals a potential medical problem. Kitties that are losing weight should be seen immediately by a veterinarian.
Feed kitty an age- and lifestyle-appropriate high quality mostly or all-canned diet low in carbohydrates, such as Royal Canin or Wellness. See more information on nutrition/weight control.
Microchip at a young age
Microchipping is the best way to locate a lost pet. Shelters, humane societies, and veterinary hospitals regularly use scanners to identify found pets and contact their families.
A microchip is about the size of a grain of rice,
programmed with an ID number, and is injected under
your pet’s skin, usually in the scruff of the neck. The Home Again Microchip Identification System recovers a lost pet in the U.S. every 7 minutes and operates 24/7.
