Hey, no worries You'd initially said "all food changes"... just a little misunderstanding on my part. No harm, no foul

And it's not clear from the original post... was the kitten on Whiskas at the breeder's? If not, one way to start might be to switch her back to the food she was weaned on before trying more new stuff if the kitten is that stressed out.

Hey tf!

I can't add much on to what has been said (great advice) as my kitten William didn't really have any problems with crying and whatnot. He was fairly inquisitive from the word go. However, he was nervous of his toys for the first couple of days (especially the bigger ones) and played with highlighter pens strangely enough. As I said, this only lasted a couple of days and now he loves the toys!

I only feed him wet food as at this moment in time he seems to have no interest in dry, this means I can't leave it down very long. He refuses to drink any water so I give in and keep the kitten milk stocked up!

As for the light etc; William sleeps in the living room at night with the door closed and although it is silent I do leave a small lamp on. I think this may be for my benefit as I can't seem to get it into my head that he can still see and function! I don't really think he'd be too fussed either way.

Best of luck and welcome to the forum. I'm sure things will be great with your kitten before you know it
Sparkles

I have a ceramic food bowl and a plastic water dispenser. So I shall start to give these both a bit of a clean every day or so while she is on dry, and every day once i start feeding her wet.

I came up with an idea to fence of the top of the cat tree: I wrapped some card in aluminium foil and then duct taped them around the upper section of the struts. We tried it out with her last night, and now she gets up halfway and then backs down. I am hoping this might help to train her to go down the posts as well as up, but not sure if it will work.

Do cats usually just jump off the top of ceiling height cat trees? Or do they eventually learn how to do down the posts?

Since she seems *alot* happier now I have started switching to applaws in a 1:4 mix. She will happily eat Applaws if I feed it to her or when it is mixed in, so hopefully I will be able to switch her over after a couple weeks?

I'm glad that we aren't the only ones caving in to kitten crying: I had read in so many places to ignore it because it will start bad habits, but does this not apply to times of obvious stress such as moving after from her mother/litter?

Either way she has stopped crying now as far as I can tell...

Yes she was on dry whiskers at the breeder, but now that she doesnt seem stressed any more I am starting the switch over...

We have been having a similar problem with toys too... there was no response to string/thread and she is still afraid of the feathers on a stick toy.
However, we have managed to get her to play with a bit of cardboard on a thread, and I am trying to get her to play with larger things such as a loo roll, but with mixed success.

Feel a bit mean not leaving her with some good toys in the day time, but she doesn't seem interested in anything that isnt actually moving around. However, if this seems to change I will splash out on some from zooplus.

I have ordered a laser pointer today, since that seems like it might be her kind of thing.


Thanks for all the advise all, I am happy to report that it has helped alot. Aside from some general sleepyness from the flu/enteritis jab the other day she is a great deal happier, although still a bit timid.

she'll come out of her shell eventually!

i had also read to not give in to her crying, but when they are that stressed anyway i think for a few days its understandable to give in to it. its certainly not caused any issues for us now. she only did it for a few days till she was slightly more settled, and we always left her a good 20mins to see if she would settle herself first, which ended up being the case.

toy wise, we got some from pets at home that are catnip...one in the shape of a fish and one a flower, they are flat, on a plastic string, have a little bell, and a stick to hold it. When pixie was first getting brave, she loved it...worth seeing if you can get one, it was only a couple of pounds

__________________
Dogs have owners, Cats have servants

My Furbabies! (kittens!)
Pixie - 11/05/2010 - Grey & Beige Tabby (with Bengal type spotty markings) - From Hissy monster to lap kitten
Poppy - 09/06/2010 - Black with chocolate stripes - Just pure Crazy Kitty

hmm yes perhaps some catnip wouldn't go amiss at livening her up a bit, although the recent discovery of putting a small tinfoil ball in a tissue box has been very effective at keeping her amused on her own for a bit...

At the moment there is a definite pattern: she is a lot more playful late at night but hopefully she will adapt over time to a timetable more in keeping with our own.

Hi Tf.
I wouldn't worry about the toys situation. She is finding other things to amuse her so it isn't really too much of a problem and she will almost definitely grow to like them in time.

Although William wasn't/isn't really a crier, for the first few days he really wasn't interested in playing with anything but pens or little bits and bobs lying about. We've now had him for 3 weeks and he is absolutely crazy However, their are a couple of toys he still seems a bit nervous of. He seems scared of things that rattle or with bells on them for the most part.

Glad you're finding the forum useful, it can really help when you're worrying yourself silly about something! I was going out my mind when I first got William till I came on here!
Sparkles