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Hello! Please see general info on care for your new EuroCoons kitten below.

Here you will find everything from what you need to bring with you to pick up your baby to information on his/her diet, toys we use at the cattery as well as some grooming tips and supplies.

We do provide a care package, so you will have some food for the first 3-5 days at least. Please make sure you bring a carrier and have food and water bowls (fountain), and 2 litter boxes with the same litter as suggested below on hand at home.

Your kitten's main diet consists of 3-4 feedings of Darwin's Raw Cat food a day (Chicken and/or Turkey; Lamb is too hard on their tummies). At the cattery they also get one home-made meal a day, such as cooked (in the crock-pot or boiled) variety of meats, chicken, turkey, rabbit, fish, and or roast, mixed with hearts, gizzards and livers. We do add a mix of vitamins made for home made raw or cooked meals (all links provided below) to make our home-cooked meals complete. Dry food is only out for snacks at all times and our kittens rarely choose it, but it is there due to the number of babies to make sure that no one goes hungry as it is important for the young kittens to feed to fill and not to miss a meal. We greatly encourage you to stick to the same kind of diet through the kitten’s lifetime, with 99% of his/her diet being raw/wet food not dry. But especially during the first few years of life. During the first 12 month kittens go through a lot of development, of their digestive system and getting their baby teeth and then adult teeth. Their tummies and their gums are sensitive, so they do not eat as much dry food as they need to support proper development, and canned food causes digestive issues 99% of the time as our experience shows, because of all the fillers and preservatives that they have to add even to the best of the best canned food brands. Freeze dried raw is another good option but it is quite a bit more expensive than professionally made raw.

Personally, we feed all our cats raw food and dry food is out only as a supplement – this is their diet for life!

On feeding schedule:

Kittens need meals more often, smaller portions of raw/wet 3-4 times a day or every 4-6 hours. And we feed our adult cats 2-3 times a day with raw/home-made meals and keep dry out. 

If you do choose to feed a variety diet as described above, it is important to keep it at different meal times (not to mix/give everything at once). For example, if you just fed your kitten raw, please wait at least 1.5-2 hours to give anything else.

Please go over the food section and let me know if you have any questions.

Food: 

We feed our kittens Raw Cat Food Diet from Darwins Natural Pet Products and here is the link to their site https://www.darwinspet.com/cat-food/

You can start with your first order being a "trial" and get 10 pounds of raw cat food for only $14.95. And here is the link to the trial.

With Darwins you have to place your order by Monday, they only ship once a week. Until you get a subscription and have your order amounts and frequency all figured out.

They also have lots of useful information meant to educate pet owners on the benefits of raw. So make sure to check that out!

We truly believe and our experience shows that this is the best nutrition we can provide for our babies and the best advise we can give you for the future of your new kitten! We do not receive any commissions on sales of this food. Well, I think they give us a free pound of raw in our next shipment if you mention my name, as referral credit 🙂

Of course, there are other brands of raw foods as well, like, Vital Essentials, Stella and Chewy, Primal, etc. However, we found that our cats dislike all those foods due to the high percentage of vegetables and fruits in them, which felines simply do not need in such high amounts, if any at all. 

How to serve raw:

Raw comes frozen to your door from Darwin's. You keep it frozen. It takes at least 24 hours to defrost in the fridge. And it will keep in the fridge for up to 72 hours after.

When it's time to feed, I simply take a package/ 1 square (for you it will be one as your kitten will eat no more than half .25 lbs to one whole package .5 lbs ) and drop it in hot water (boil water before to kill possible bacteria) In 10 minutes or so it's completely defrosted and even slightly warmed and ready to eat. If you open the package and the middle is still somewhat frozen - break it up, mix well and pop in in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds (depending on the power of your microwave)

Dry food:

When it comes to dry food, the purpose there as I have mentioned to have food for the times when you are not around or if you have to miss a meal on occasion.

Our goal was to feed the best starch free (filler free) dry food available on the market. After much research we found only 2 companies that do not stuff their dry kibble with tons of lentils, peas and potatoes, carrageenans, etc. etc. So we switched from FROMM and ORIJEN to Wysong and Forever Young. 

Snacks/treats and toppers:

We really do not use many treats if any at all, to be honest. I feel cooked chicken or salmon or even steak are best treats. But if I ever need to buy treats I always go with freeze dried raw like, Primal, Stella & Chewy's Chicken and Salmon freeze dried morsels and/or Pure Bites Treats :) You can search for them on Chewy's site.

Primal and Stella & Chewy's can also be used as a reconstituted raw meal if you are ever out of Darwins. Just add water!

I order most everything from chewy.com and some things if I can't find on Chewy I order from petflow.com, besides raw of course (https://www.darwinspet.com/)

Water:

We only use and recommend using purified drinking water from gallons you can get at a store or bottled water, filtered in other words. 

Cats are very fickle and have to have their water to be clean otherwise they won't drink much and they like their water fresh. I empty and wash my dishes at least twice a day. 

It is very important to properly introduce the new kitten into a new home. We recommend 2 litter boxes in a small room where the kitten will feel safe, such as the master bedroom or another bedroom if there are other animals in the master suite. Isolation to that “safe room" is very important for up to a week, sometimes two, so the kitten learns the smells and where his safe area and litter boxes are. Then the kitten can be GRADUALY introduced to other rooms of the house. The litter box travels with the kitten if the kitten is moved to another room. Basically, we cannot expect a little kitten to know where the litter box is if he doesn’t know the lay out of the house. And it takes a while to learn it for a young kitten. They are just like children. If they play too much they may forget where they are supposed to go and need potty breaks. So bring your kitten to their litter box often if you play or just enjoy being around the house together!

Toys:

 All kinds of scratching pads and cat toys/loungers. They love them!

All cats love a good laser, a water fountain, and of course, a cat tree.

Please make sure you have a cat tree set up prior to the arrival of your kitten. We recommend a medium size to start with, something for a kitten not too tall (up to 5 feet at most) Cat tree is a must not a luxury. We recommend a tree per cat in every major area of the house (where you spend most time in) like bedroom and living room for example. And a scratching post or lounger in every area where the furniture is that you do not want to be scratched.

Catastrophic Creations

I advise my clients against using any kind of collars around their kitten's neck (it will damage the coat) and be very gentle with brushing tails (hard brushing of the tail will turn Maine Coon's Tail into a regular cat's tail, at best, speaking from personal experience :( 

Pick up time and vet visit:

If you haven't scheduled your pick up time yet, please do so as soon as possible.

Please keep in mind that we schedule others to pick up their kittens on the same day and we ask that you are as close on time as possible.

We try to be flexible and accommodating, that is why we provide at least 3 days for pickup. If the kitten is not picked up on one of those days, please know that the deposit becomes forfeit and the kitten will be available to another family for adoption.

I will also email the contract/protection agreement for your review in the next few days.

It will again outline the process of bringing them home and at least 72-hour separation period, as well as the new patient appointment with your vet info. We ask that you set up a new patient appointment and take your new kitten for a vet check within 48 hours of pick up to verify their good health.

Please let me know if you have any questions. And of course, you can contact me any time you need after the pick-up. We ask our families to stay in touch and send us pictures and regular updates as much as they would like and is possible.

Thank you, 

Olga with EuroCoons

Genetic Test Results for all EuroCoons Beeding Cats

please select and download Genetic Test Results for your kitten(s)' parents