# Open plan living area - new kitten



## joolie (Oct 24, 2010)

Hi all,

A newbie on here just after some advice!

I have my first kitten arriving next weekend. He is 12 weeks old and super cute! This is my first venture into cat keeping having been brought up with dogs.

Kitten will be coming home to live in an open plan kitchen/dining/lounge area which is quite a large space. Ideally we want to make things as stress free as possible for him. I've earmarked spaces for bed, feeding etc and a quiet area for litter tray. My main question is would he be best introduced into a smaller (upstairs) spare room then brought into the bigger space to roam as time passes? Ideally we don't want really him upstairs due to mess, space etc and would like him to be down with us in the main living area. I'm worried about starting him off him upstairs then him not adjusting to where everything will be once he is moved on - litter tray in particular - or am I not giving cats credit for just how smart they are?!

Would it be an idea to perhaps get a crate for his first couple of weeks to sleep in and restrict his roaming area when we are in bed or does this not really work with cats? Any hint or tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance


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## Tje (Jan 16, 2010)

I would play it by ear chances are he will be fine without being crated at nights. OK, he might wake up for a mad half hour at 5.30am, or have his mad half hour just as you guys want to nod off, so if you have hard-flooring downstairs he could wake you up. But generally speaking, he is a good age, I expect after maybe 2 or 3 nights that he will find his routine just fine. I wouldnt go out and buy a crate just on the off-chance. And if you did find he was wayyyy too active at night, you could always overnight him in the bathroom or somewhere less stimulating like that ( a utility room if you have one). Living rooms are such fun places for small kittens (mine is open plan too, even my stair is in the middle of my room). Most people who crate cats, tend to do it more because they have other pets in the home. The disadvantage of crating overnight is well, its a small space and he is an energetic kitten with a lot of steam to blow off, so the disadvantages can often outweigh the advantages if you let him out in the morning and he goes totally berserk after a night of cabin fever. And crating can stress them mentally. So my advice would be, no unless it turns out to be necessary, and even then Id find the bathroom/utility room/even the downstairs loo a better option.


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## Chez87 (Aug 11, 2010)

I was in the situation recently, my whole downstairs area is open plan. But due to having another cat we started kitty off in the upstairs spare room, bringing him down after a few days to explore while we were in (and my older cat was out) moving his food and litter tray each time.

After about a week we started having him downstairs all the time, and the transition was fine. He had no "accidents" (and he was much younger than your kitten) as we just made sure he knew where his tray was. 

Good luck with it all, it's so much fun! (If a little taxing at times) and be sure to post pics!:thumbup:


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## joolie (Oct 24, 2010)

Thanks for the advice  we will probably start him off in the spare room and gradually move him downstairs.

He is arriving on Saturday hopefully so I'll try and get pictures of him this weekend. Exciting!


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