These are the top 10 kitten supplies we recommend for bringing home your new kitten.
1. Soft Carrier
This soft carrier is comfortable and cozy for your kitten. It’s well ventilated and can expand to give your kitten more room when it’s set down. It is TSA approved if you ever want to fly with your cat and it comes with a scannable tag in case it’s ever lost.
We also liked this carrier as a home base for our new kittens. When we brought them home we placed the carrier in a hidden corner and left the door open so they could choose when they felt safe to come out and they could choose to go back in if they were overwhelmed.
2. Safety Collar
A safety collar will break away if your kitten or cat ever gets the collar caught on something. It’s a good idea to never open the carrier with a new kitten in transit unless you’re in a small space with a closed door. That way there isn’t any chance of your kitten getting lost before they know to come back to you, but a collar can be a reassuring backup.
3. Raw Food
A cat’s natural diet is raw meat, bones and organs. Most pet food doesn’t meet a cat’s needs and can cause harm to their body systems. This happens for many reasons, including that cooked meat lacks the natural enzymes a cat needs to properly digest their food, pet food almost always contains inexpensive fillers that offer no nutritional benefit and it contains preservatives that are toxins the body then must work to expel. Over time pet food causes significant damage to a cat’s body and can lead to conditions including digestive disorders, skin disorders, organ failure and cancer.
For a cat’s primary diet, we recommend cut up or ground meat, bones and organs. You can often get a very reasonable price at a local butcher. There are also companies that deliver bulk boxes of frozen raw pet food and they will be more expensive than a butcher but less expensive than the packages at retail pet stores. You can also buy organs and meat with the bones on sale from your grocery store and freeze them in a daily portion size, keeping in mind that smaller bones are better for cats.
This freeze dried raw food is pricey but a good shelf stable option for getting started if you’ve never done raw food for cats before. It’s also good to keep on hand for quick meals if you forget to defrost their regular raw food. We like to rehydrate the freeze dried food with fresh raw milk.
We also offer our cats fresh raw milk from our cows free choice. Most states allow the sale of raw milk for pets and you can find it in pet stores and natural grocery stores but it’s less expensive and best to get it straight from a homestead or farm. Don’t use pasteurized milk for cats, it causes digestive distress just like cooked food does. For more resources on raw milk see our page What is A2 milk and why does it matter?
4. Kelp or Seaweed
Because modern soil is lacking in minerals, the plants grown in the soil are also lacking and the animals that eat those plants are lacking. Minerals play a vital role in many body systems and functions and we highly recommend increasing mineral intake for all of your animals – and for yourself too! Most of our animals get Thorvin kelp but our cats prefer plain raw seaweed. They know the bag and will let us know when they need some. We just give them a piece of seaweed and they have fun holding it with their paws and tearing off what they need!
5. Natural Toys
When shopping for kitten toys check carefully to make sure they do not contain catnip. It seems to be getting harder and harder to find good toys without it! We’ve had the most success with these Natural Teaser Toys and Felted Wool Mouse Toys. Our cats and kittens also love cardboard boxes that we cut openings into and paper packing materials are always a hit. Once they start to get a bit worn out, we just recycle them and give them some fresh ones.
6. Scratching Posts
This Natural Scratching Post with Toys is the perfect size for kittens and they love bating at and chasing the balls that are built into it. Our kittens also love climbing this Heavy Duty Scratching Post and it’s tall enough for grown cats to scratch on too.
7. Stainless Steel Water Fountain
Cats aren’t huge water drinkers, especially if they are eating a raw diet they will get most their hydration needs through their food. They also prefer raw milk over water most of the time. Add on to that the fact that cats have trouble seeing exactly where the water level is on still water and they hate getting their nose wet if they misjudge the water level and you can see why a bowl of water rarely attracts a cat before it gets stale and then they definitely don’t want it.
This water fountain allows the cats to see the water level clearly since it’s moving and it also has both physical filters and a UV light to prevent bacteria from growing in the water. This has been the best option for cat water in our experience.
8. Silicone Feeding Mat
A durable and easily washable feeding mat to prevent spills from getting on your floor. Silicone is a low toxin alternative to plastics.
9. Litter box and litter
We love this generously sized and easy to clean stainless steel litter box. We use it with recycled paper litter that we set up an auto-ship order on so we never run out.
10. Pee Pads
These small pee pads are made largely from natural materials including bamboo and charcoal. They are great for putting inside of your carrier for long trips and also good for under the litter box if you want to add an extra layer of protection for your floor under the litter box.
