For Kittens

If you’ve bought a kitten online or from a local breeder, they’ll need to stay with their mum until they’re around eight to nine weeks old. You should have had a chance to meet your kitten already and take a look at their surroundings, ensuring that they are sociable, alert and have no visible health issues. If possible, you could ask to see the kitten's mother.

Your kitten should have also been ‘socialised’ properly before they come home with you, gradually exposing them to a number of experiences. This happens between two and eight weeks old and helps kittens to adjust to life while their brains and sensory systems are still developing. They should have experienced:

• meeting different people
• handling (including being handled by a vet)
• different sounds
• playing with different types of toys