BellaPalazzo Ragdolls
Kitten Care and Feeding Instructions

Feeding:

Currently we are feeding Royal Canin Kitten. We have found over the years with many litters of kittens that this food is the best food for the cats we are currently working with. We insure there is dry food available at all times for our breeding cats and kittens.

We do not feed canned food at all once the kittens have been weaned.

When our kittens turn a year old we switch them to an adult formula cat food. We have found our best choice to be Royal Canin Maine Coon. The cats LOVE this food, and have been very healthy and problem free with this diet. On occasion we have limited the amount of food available for altered adult cats to keep them from getting fat. We do not use "light" formula cat foods as they do not provide proper nutrition for the cat.

Royal Canin cat food is available at your local Petco, or online from several companies who will deliver directly to your doorstep. One I have used frequently to purchase from and can recommend with confidence is Amazon.com

We use ceramic crock type bowls to avoid flipping, slipping and spilling of the contents. Stainless steel bowls are also acceptable, we like the ones from Durapet as they are heavier than most and have a rubber type rim around the bottom to stop them from sliding. Do not use plastic bowls for cats, as they can develop chin acne from the plastic.

All the cats and kittens at BellaPalazzo drink Poland Springs bottled water. We do this for several reasons. Cats can be very sensitive to change, and this insures that the water you give them smells and tastes the same as what they are used to. Also, every water system is susceptible to different chemical contaminants and organisms like chlorine or giardia, etc. You do not want to introduce things into your kitties system at the same time you are stressing them by moving to a new home. We all drink bottled water here... and encourage you to continue to provide this for your kitten.

We use a water fountain for our altered pets to encourage drinking. The cats love these. Currently they are drinking from a Drinkwell 360 Stainless Steel.

Litter Box and Litter

We use Booda Loo rectangular covered litter boxes for cats and kittens. We find these the easiest to clean. The cover and door flap keep odor and scatter to a minimum. There are also are no annoying snaps to unhook every time you open the box. It seems this box has been discontinued :-(

Any large, rectangular covered box should do.

We also use a Perfect Privy http://www.pfprivy.com/main.html for any kitties that Taylor wants to have sleep in her bedroom with her. This litter system stops all tracking and looks like a piece of furniture.

We use and recommend wood pellets for litter. We have tried all kinds of litter and even switched from wood pellets to try each new litter that comes out... we always end up back with the wood pellets. Beside the fact that they are a natural product which is very important to us; they do not track, they do not smell, they are light weight, dust free, easier to clean up and the most inexpensive litter you can buy. We use wood pellets for a wood burning stove that come in 40 pound bags, but there are also pellet products packaged for cats that you can buy in the pet stores. Feline Pine is one name brand of pellet cat litter, but it is much more expensive than the wood stove pellets.

For the people (and some cats) who just can not get used to the pellets and/or prefer a clumping type litter, we use and recommend Worlds Best Cat Litter. This is a corn based product, again, all natural. We have found the original formula to be lighter in color and more attractive to our senses... WBCL is now being sold in many grocery stores, but can always be found online.

Grooming

We use small scissor type nail clippers to trim our cats claws. I have found these to be the easiest for me to handle. To trim claws, I sit the cat on my lap facing away from me and clip one paw at a time until all four feet are done. I make it a habit to always start with the same paw and go around the same way every time I clip. The cats learn to tolerate this and do not struggle much when they know what to expect.

We use greyhound type combs to groom our cats. The long metal teeth reach all the way through the thick Ragdoll coat and leave no tangles behind. Brushing a longhair cat only smoothes out the surface and leaves tangles and loose hair underneath.

Scratching

We provide our cats several different types of scratching surfaces for them to scratch and sleep on. This insures there is something for everyone, and no one has any excuse to use the human furniture.
	This is called a Turbo Scratcher and the cats LOVE it. The center is a corrugated cardboard disk that can be replaced when it gets torn up. The ball is in a channel that makes it the one cat toy that never disappears under the furniture.

	These are our "side-by-side" nest and cradle cat trees. I bought the first one about 10 years ago. When I thought it was getting a bit worn, I bought a second one to replace it. When I brought it into the living room, one of the cats jumped on the new one and another ran for the old one... as if to say "Thank You!! Now we BOTH have our own..." I did not have the heart to take one away. The cats love this style with the round bed on top.