Kittens & Cats

Helpful resources for welcoming your new cat

There are a plethora of resources available online with tips for introducing a pet into your home — some reliable, and some not-so-reliable. In addition to those listed on our nutrition and training pages, we highly recommended these sites below for diet, dental, vaccine and general cat information.

CAT DIET & Nutrition

We recommend the guidelines of The World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s Global Nutrition Committee for selecting a pet food, though ultimately the decision is yours.

Questions to ask of the pet food company include:

• Do you have a full-time veterinary nutritionist on staff?

• Who formulates your food and what are their credentials?

• Do you perform feeding trials based on AAFCO guidelines or formulated to meet AAFCO guidelines? (feeding trials are preferred)

• Where are your foods manufactured and processed?

• What specific quality control measures do you use to ensure the consistency of the product with each batch?

• Can you provide a complete nutritional analysis for each food? (not just the guaranteed analysis, which is a minimum/maximum)

• What kind of product research has been conducted? Is this published in a peer-reviewed journal?

Additional diet resources:

• WSAVA Guide to deciphering pet food labels

• WSAVA Nutrition FAQs and Myths

• Cats Body Condition Scoring

• The Savvy Cat Owner’s Guide to Nutrition

Foods to Avoid:

No matter the age cats can get into a lot of things around the home! Here are some things to watch out for: 

• 101 Things You Didn’t Know Could Harm Your Pet

• Unsafe Foods for Cats

Dental Health

• Veterinary Oral Health Council – A list of approved products by the VOHC for maintaining your pets dental health

General cat information

• The Ohio State University - Indoor Pet Initiative: Cat information! - Quick Summary

• The 9 Lies of Cats

• Cornell Feline Health Center

• Companion Animal Parasite Council – Parasite (internal and external) information and guidelines for pets

• Healthy Pets/Healthy People – CDCs info page on pets and people

• TickEncounter.org - Send them photos of ticks you've found and they'll help identify them and then you can use TickReport.com to the tick you've found to see if it harbors potentially infectious diseases such as Lyme

• Veterinary Partner - A wealth of knowledge and resources for pet owners on numerous disease topics and conditions

• ASPCA Animal Poison Control – A fantastic resource for information on toxic items to pets (plants, foods, medications). They also have a 24/7 hotline that is an amazing resource for clients and veterinarians. There is a $65 consultation fee – but it may save you a trip to the vet; or when veterinary care is needed, they will serve as an invaluable resource to the treating veterinarian giving advice on how to treat, etc. This service is FREE to pets with current Home Again microchips.

Kitten Vaccine Guideline