Kitten First-Year Guide in Victoria

Bringing Your Kitten Home

Before They Arrive

• Set up one quiet room with a litter box, food and water at opposite ends, a bed, a scratching post and somewhere to hide. A whole house at once is too much for most kittens.
• Buy the food they are already eating and change it slowly later if you want to. Sudden changes cause stomach upsets.
• Put the carrier in the room now, door open, blanket inside, so it becomes furniture rather than an event.
• Cat-proof properly: tie up blind cords, secure window screens, check the dryer before every load and put away hair ties, dental floss, ribbon, elastics and string of any kind.
• Ask the breeder, shelter or rescue for the vaccination and worming record, and for the microchip number if there is one. Bring it all to the first visit.

The First Week

Let your kitten come out on their own schedule rather than being carried out. Keep the litter box in the same room as the bed at first, feed at the same times daily, and play in short bursts several times a day rather than one long session. Expect a few nights of activity at three in the morning, and resist rewarding it, or it becomes the routine.

Book a first wellness visit within 72 hours of bringing your kitten home, before any resident cat has had a chance to share anything. We weigh them, listen to the heart, check the eyes, ears and mouth, look for a hernia or an undescended testicle, run the FIV and FeLV test, check a stool sample and set the year’s schedule. Call (778) 265-4500 to arrange it, and complete the registration form ahead of the visit if you are new to us. 

At-a-Glance Vaccine Schedule

This is the standard schedule we work to in British Columbia for a healthy kitten. Your veterinarian may adjust it for your kitten’s history and household.

Test before the first FeLV dose. A kitten who is already positive needs a different plan rather than a vaccine. 

Important Note on Lifestyle Vaccines

For cats, the lifestyle question is mostly one question: does this cat go outside, or share a home with a cat who does?

• Feline leukemia virus. Spread through saliva in grooming, shared bowls, bites and fights. Kittens are considerably more susceptible than adults, which is why the first-year course is recommended for every kitten even if the plan is to keep them indoors. Plans change, doors get left open, and a kitten who slips out at seven months has no protection if the course was skipped.
• Any outdoor access at all counts. A catio, a harness walk along the Songhees pathway, a balcony a cat can leave, or a cat flap all count as outdoor access. So does living with a cat who goes out.
• Rabies. Recommended here and worth more thought than most cat owners give it. Bats are the only wildlife reservoir of rabies in British Columbia, and cats are efficient bat hunters, particularly in older Vic West and James Bay houses where bats roost in attics and soffits. If your cat brings home a bat, do not handle it barehanded, and call us.
• Indoor-only cats still need the core vaccines. Panleukopenia is hardy in the environment and travels indoors on shoes and hands.

We will go through your cat’s actual life rather than a standard list, and revisit it each year as the household changes.

Spay and Neuter

The standard timing for cats is five to six months, before the first heat in females and before spraying and roaming establish themselves in males. Some shelters and rescues perform early spay and neuter from around two months and two kilograms, which is a well-established practice and nothing to worry about if your kitten arrived already done.

Waiting has real costs in cats, unlike in large-breed dogs. An unspayed female can come into heat from four months, can conceive on that first heat, and will breed with an intact male sibling without hesitation. Later in life, unspayed females are at risk of pyometra, an infection of the uterus that fills it with pus and becomes life threatening quickly, and which is far more common than most owners expect. Spaying before the first heat also substantially lowers the risk of mammary cancer, which in cats is usually aggressive.

Vic West Pet Hospital performs spay and neuter surgery with anesthesia monitoring throughout and pain relief that continues at home. Surgical availability is confirmed by phone, so call (778) 265-4500 to book and we will talk through what to expect on the day. Nutrition for Your Kitten’s First Year

Cats are obligate carnivores, which is not a slogan. They cannot make enough taurine, arachidonic acid or vitamin A from plant sources, and a deficiency shows up as heart disease and blindness rather than as a bad coat. That is the single reason a cat must never be fed dog food or a home-made diet that has not been formulated by a veterinary nutritionist.

• Choose a complete kitten food carrying an AAFCO statement for growth. Feed it until around twelve months, or longer in the large slow-maturing breeds.
• Under 6 months: three to four small meals a day. From 6 to 12 months: two to three meals a day.
• Wet, dry or both is less of a debate than it is made out to be. Wet food carries a real advantage in water intake, which matters in a species that evolved in a desert and is prone to urinary problems. Many households feed wet twice daily with a measured amount of dry, and that works well.
• Measure portions. Free-feeding dry food all day is the most common route to an overweight two year old cat.
• Fresh water in a wide, shallow bowl away from the food. Some cats drink far more from a fountain, and that is a good thing rather than a fussy one.

Foods that are toxic or unsafe for cats: onions, garlic, chives and leeks in any form including powders, chocolate, grapes and raisins, alcohol, raw bread dough, xylitol, and cooked bones. Cow’s milk causes diarrhea in most cats past weaning. Raw fish fed regularly can cause a thiamine deficiency, and raw meat and fish carry parasite risk, so both are worth avoiding in a kitten. Tuna intended for people is a treat and not a diet.

Some kittens need a therapeutic diet for a specific reason such as a urinary or digestive condition. Those are chosen and monitored by your veterinarian rather than picked off a shelf, and we are glad to talk through what your individual kitten needs.

Parasites: What to Know

Most kittens arrive with something. Roundworms pass through the mother’s milk, and fleas are easy to pick up from a litter, a shelter or a sibling.

• Worming. Every two weeks from two to twelve weeks of age, then monthly until six months. Bring a stool sample to routine visits so we can check rather than assume. 
• Fleas. Year-round prevention on this coast, because our winters are too mild for a real die-off. Fleas also carry tapeworm, so a cat who grooms off a flea gets a second parasite for free.
• Ear mites. Very common in kittens. Dark, crumbly debris and relentless scratching or head shaking. They are contagious to other pets in the house, so everyone gets checked and treated together.
• Ticks. The western blacklegged tick is established across southern Vancouver Island. Cats with outdoor access need prevention chosen specifically for cats, because several products made for dogs are dangerous to cats.
• Giardia and coccidia. Common causes of persistent soft stool in kittens, particularly those from crowded environments. Both are diagnosed from a stool sample.
• FIV and FeLV testing. We test every kitten at the first visit, and retest later if there has been a bite wound, a fight or unknown outdoor contact. Both viruses can be present without a single visible sign for years.
• Heartworm. Rare in coastal British Columbia, where prevalence across Western Canada sits at 0 to under 1 percent and the only endemic pocket is the southern Okanagan. Tell us if you move here with a cat from a heartworm region.
• Family safety. Roundworms and toxoplasma both pass to people. Scoop the litter box daily, wash hands afterwards, and if you are pregnant, ask someone else to scoop rather than rehoming the cat, which is almost never the right answer.

Litter Box Success

Most litter box problems are created by the setup rather than by the cat.

• The number rule: one box per cat, plus one spare. Two cats need three boxes, and putting all three side by side counts as one box to a cat.
• Placement: quiet, easy to reach, never beside the washing machine or the food bowls, and never somewhere a dog or a child can corner them. In a multi-level home, one box per floor.
• The box: large enough that your cat fits with room to turn, with low sides for a kitten. Most cats prefer no lid and no liner, whatever the packaging says.
• The litter: most cats prefer a fine, unscented clumping litter. Scented litter is designed for the owner’s nose, not the cat’s.
• Maintenance: scoop at least once daily and wash the box with unscented soap weekly. A box that smells bad to you is unusable to a cat.

A cat who stops using the box is telling you something medical until proven otherwise. Straining, frequent small squats, blood, crying in the box, or urinating on cool smooth surfaces such as a bath or a tile floor all warrant a same-day call. In a male cat, a urinary blockage becomes life threatening within hours and it is not a wait-and-see situation. Phone us at (778) 265-4500. 

Socialization and Cooperative Care

The sensitive period for kittens runs from roughly two to nine weeks, which is earlier and shorter than in dogs and often over before a kitten comes home. That does not make the work pointless, it makes it urgent. Handling in the weeks after arrival still shapes how your cat feels about being touched for the rest of their life.

• Handle your kitten daily: paws, between the toes, ears, mouth, tail and belly, in short sessions that end while they are still happy.
• Practise the parts of a visit at home. Look in the ears, lift the lip, hold them still for ten seconds, then reward. Ten seconds done well beats two minutes of wrestling.
• Introduce nail trims early, one or two nails at a time rather than all eighteen in one sitting.
• Let visitors, noise and normal household chaos happen around them rather than shielding them from all of it.

Carrier training starts on day one. Leave the carrier out permanently with the door off or tied open, feed meals inside it, and put a familiar blanket in it. A cat who sleeps in the carrier by choice is a cat who arrives here calm, and that is the difference between a good examination and a difficult one. Never let the carrier appear only on the morning of an appointment, because cats connect those two things quickly.

Play, Enrichment, and Safety

Cats hunt in short, intense bursts and then sleep. Play that mimics that pattern, several sessions of five or ten minutes a day, does more for behaviour than any amount of equipment.

• Use wand toys so your hands never become the prey. A kitten taught to grab hands becomes a cat who ambushes ankles.
• Finish every session with a catch, then a meal. An interrupted hunt leaves a frustrated cat.
• Rotate toys weekly rather than leaving everything out. Novelty is most of the value.
• Vertical space matters more than floor space, which is useful in a small Vic West apartment. Shelves, a tall post and a window perch make a small home much larger to a cat.
• Unsafe toys: string, yarn, ribbon, tinsel, elastics, hair ties and anything with small glued-on parts. These are not scaled-down dog toys, they are the most common cause of the surgery described in the next section.
• Window and balcony safety. Screens push out easily. A cat can fall from a balcony while asleep, and cats do not reliably land well from mid-height. Secure screens properly and never leave a window open on a tilt, which can trap a cat by the abdomen.
• Catios and harness walks give outdoor time without the traffic, fights and disappearances that come with free roaming. Start harness training indoors and go at the cat’s pace.

Children and Other Pets

Children

Teach children that a cat chooses the interaction. Show them how to offer a hand and wait, to stroke along the back rather than the belly, and to leave a cat who walks away alone. No picking up until they are old enough to do it safely, and no following a cat into a hiding place. A cat who cannot escape learns to scratch.

Other Cats

Take longer than feels necessary. Keep the kitten in their own room for several days, swap bedding between the two so each learns the other’s scent, then feed on either side of a closed door. Progress to a cracked door or a baby gate, then short supervised meetings. Duplicate everything, so bowls, beds, boxes and high perches for each cat, and expect hissing, which is communication rather than failure.

Dogs

The cat needs height, an exit route and a dog-free room with the litter box in it. Keep the dog leashed for early meetings and reward calm rather than interest. Never allow chasing, even in play, because it becomes a habit within days. Feed the cat somewhere the dog cannot reach, and secure the litter box, because dogs raiding litter boxes is common and unpleasant for everyone.

Foreign-Body Ingestion Hazards

String is the emergency that owners underestimate. Thread, dental floss, ribbon, tinsel, elastics and wool cause a linear foreign body: one end anchors, usually under the tongue or at the stomach outlet, while the intestine keeps trying to move the rest along. The gut bunches up along the string and the string saws through the intestinal wall. This is a surgical situation and it deteriorates quickly.

• Never pull a string you can see hanging from the mouth or from under the tail. You may be pulling on something anchored inside. Cut what is visible if it is long enough to be a hazard, and phone us.
• Signs: repeated vomiting, refusing food, hiding, a hunched posture, a painful abdomen, straining, and sudden lethargy in a kitten who was fine that morning.
• Other common culprits: hair ties, needles with thread attached, tinsel, foam earplugs, and pieces chewed off soft toys.
• Do not try to make your cat vomit at home. Products used for this in dogs are unsafe in cats.

Call Vic West Pet Hospital at (778) 265-4500 if you suspect it. We can assess with radiography and in-house laboratory work during clinic hours. Holiday and Household Hazards

Lilies first, because nothing else on this list kills as reliably. True lilies and daylilies, which covers Easter, tiger, stargazer, Asiatic, Japanese show and day lilies, cause acute kidney failure in cats. Every part is toxic including the leaves, the stem, the pollen and the water in the vase. A cat who brushes past a bouquet and grooms pollen off their coat has taken a dose. There is no safe way to keep lilies in a house with a cat, so ask florists to leave them out of arrangements and check bouquets before they come indoors. If your cat has had any contact with a lily, phone us immediately, because the window in which this is manageable is measured in hours.

• Other plants worth knowing about here. Daffodil and tulip bulbs, which sit in Victoria gardens and in bags in garages every autumn. Yew and foxglove, both common in older gardens on this side of the harbour. Sago palm, sold as an indoor plant. Also poinsettia, holly, mistletoe and amaryllis at Christmas.
• Essential oils. Cats lack an enzyme pathway that other species use to clear phenols, so tea tree, eucalyptus, citrus, pine, wintergreen, peppermint and cinnamon oils are all toxic. Diffusers matter as well as direct contact, because oil settles on the coat and is then groomed off. Do not use them in a house with a cat.
• Human pain relief tablets. Acetaminophen is lethal to cats in a single tablet, and ibuprofen and aspirin are also dangerous. Nothing intended for a person goes into a cat, ever, and nothing intended for a dog does either.
• Cleaning products. Concentrated pine and phenol cleaners, bleach and undiluted disinfectants. Cats walk on floors and then groom their paws, so anything left wet is eaten. Rinse and let surfaces dry fully.
• Antifreeze. Sweet, lethal in tiny amounts and often found in garages and on driveways in winter. Cats seek out warm garages here in January.
• Seasonal. Tinsel, ribbon, string from a roast, glass ornaments, snow globes, and open flames near a curious tail.

If you think your cat has eaten something harmful, call us straight away during clinic hours and bring the packaging or a piece of the plant. Poison control lines are listed on our resources page for the hours we are closed. 

Grooming Basics

Cats groom themselves, which is why owners assume there is nothing to do. There is, and starting in kittenhood is the whole trick.

• Coat type sets the workload. Short-haired cats need a weekly brush, mostly to cut down on shed hair and hairballs. Long-haired cats need brushing daily, without exception, because mats form against the skin, pull painfully and hide sores underneath. A long-haired kitten who is not brushed daily becomes a two year old cat who needs a sedated de-matting.
• Nails every two to three weeks. Take the sharp tip only and stop well short of the pink quick. One or two nails at a time is fine. Provide a tall sturdy scratching post and a horizontal cardboard scratcher, since scratching is maintenance behaviour rather than misbehaviour and cannot be trained out, only redirected.
• Ears weekly, by eye. Healthy ears are clean and pale. Dark crumbly debris and scratching usually means ear mites in a kitten. Do not put anything into the ear canal unless we have shown you what to use.
• Toothbrushing. Start now, with a finger brush and a paste made for cats, one or two teeth at a time. Dental disease is the most common condition we find in adult cats, and the cats whose owners started in kittenhood are the ones who cope with it. 
• Damp coats. On this coast a cat with outdoor access comes in wet for months at a stretch. Towel the belly and legs so mats and skin problems do not build up under a permanently damp coat.

Grooming is not a service we offer at the hospital, so if your cat’s coat is beyond what you can manage at home, ask us and we will talk through the options with you.

Local Health Notes

A few things matter more for a cat in Victoria than they would elsewhere.

• Cats are not licensed here, so a microchip is the only permanent identification. The City of Victoria’s licensing program applies to dogs, not cats. That means a lost cat has nothing on them to connect them to you unless you have chipped them and kept the registration details current. Microchipping takes seconds and can be done at a routine visit or during spay or neuter surgery. Update the registry when you move, because an out-of-date chip is only slightly better than no chip. 
• Bats and rabies. Bats are the only wildlife reservoir of rabies in British Columbia, and cats hunt them. Older houses across Vic West, Esquimalt and James Bay have roosts in attics and soffits. Rabies vaccination is recommended here rather than legally required, and a hunting cat is exactly the animal it exists for. Never handle a bat with bare hands, alive or dead, and call us if your cat brings one in.
• Outdoor life on Esquimalt Road is not a quiet one. This is a busy arterial route with constant traffic, and the blocks around it are dense. Cats who roam here meet vehicles, other cats and raccoons. Bite wounds from fights turn into abscesses within days, and they are also how FIV and FeLV move between cats. Catios, secure yards and harness walks along the Songhees pathway give a cat outdoor time without the traffic.
• Raccoons. Common throughout the neighbourhood and quite capable of injuring a cat, particularly around bins and cat flaps at night. Feed cats indoors and bring bowls in overnight so you are not running a raccoon buffet.
• Fleas and ticks all year. Mild coastal winters mean fleas never really stop, and the western blacklegged tick is established across southern Vancouver Island. Use products chosen specifically for cats, because several dog products contain permethrin, which is severely toxic to cats. Never apply a dog product to a cat, and keep treated dogs from grooming the cat.
• Rodent bait and hunting cats. British Columbia banned the sale and use of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides by the public and most businesses in 2023, which helps, but first generation products remain available. A cat can be poisoned by eating bait directly or by eating a poisoned rodent. If your cat hunts and you see bruising, pale gums, weakness or blood anywhere, call us the same day.
• Death cap mushrooms. Amanita phalloides is established throughout Greater Victoria and fruits in the autumn, growing under imported beech, hornbeam, chestnut and English oak as well as native Garry oak. Cats eat them far less often than dogs do, but a kitten with outdoor access and a taste for chewing is worth watching in October and November.
• Heartworm is not a coastal problem. Prevalence across Western Canada runs at 0 to under 1 percent, and the only endemic area in British Columbia is the southern Okanagan. Tell us if you have moved here with a cat from a heartworm region so we can check rather than assume.
• Beaches and the harbour. If you harness walk along Dallas Road or the Westsong walkway, watch for fish hooks, discarded line and dead fish. Cats are less likely than dogs to scavenge, but line and hooks are a real hazard for any animal on this shoreline.

Low-Stress Veterinary Visits

Carrier Training

This is the part that changes everything else. Leave the carrier out permanently as furniture, feed meals in it, and put a blanket that smells of home inside. Choose a hard carrier that unclips so the top lifts off, because a frightened cat can then be examined in the bottom half rather than being tipped out. Spray the blanket with a feline pheromone product half an hour before you leave if your cat finds travel difficult.

Before the Visit

Withhold breakfast where we have said it is safe to do so, so treats work and travel sickness is less likely. Cover the carrier with a towel in the car, secure it with a seatbelt, and drive gently. Bring the vaccination record and a stool sample if we have asked for one, and note the daily lunch closure from 1:00 pm to 1:30 pm when you plan your arrival.

In the Clinic

Keep the carrier off the floor and covered in reception. Cats have their own exam room here and a heated exam table, so the room your cat waits in and is examined in is not the room a dog just left. Our team will let your cat come out in their own time wherever the visit allows it.

Happy Visits

Call Vic West Pet Hospital and ask about bringing your kitten in for a short visit with no examination and no vaccine: a weigh-in, a look around, a few treats and back into the carrier. Cats generalize from bad experiences quickly, so building a few neutral ones early pays off for the next fifteen years. Call (778) 265-4500 to find a quiet slot.

When to Contact Us

Call Vic West Pet Hospital at (778) 265-4500. We are open Monday 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, Tuesday to Friday 8:00 am to 6:00 pm and Saturday 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, with a daily lunch closure from 1:00 pm to 1:30 pm. We are closed Sundays and statutory holidays. Cats hide illness well, so with a kitten it is better to phone about something small than to wait and watch.

Contact Us Same Day For

• Straining in the litter box, frequent small squats, crying while urinating or blood in the urine, which in a male cat is a same-hour call rather than a same-day one
• Any contact at all with a lily, including pollen on the coat
• Suspected swallowing of string, thread, ribbon, elastic or a hair tie
• Not eating for a day, which in a kitten is never trivial
• Repeated vomiting, diarrhea, or a kitten who has become quiet and hidden
• Difficulty breathing, open-mouth breathing, collapse or a seizure
• A bite wound, an abscess, a limp or any injury after a fight
• Contact with a bat, alive or dead
• Sudden weakness, pale gums or bruising in a cat who hunts

Schedule a Routine Appointment For

• Vaccine boosters and the routine kitten series
• FIV and FeLV testing, and retesting after unknown outdoor contact
• Worming, flea, tick and ear mite prevention
• Spay or neuter planning
• Microchipping
• Diet questions and weight checks
• Litter box setup questions that are not accompanied by straining or blood
• Nail trims and getting your kitten used to handling

Pet Insurance

If you are considering pet insurance, buy it before your first appointment rather than after. Insurers exclude pre-existing conditions, and anything written into a record at a visit counts as pre-existing from that day forward. A new kitten is the ideal moment because there is no history yet.

Providers operating in Canada include Trupanion, Pets Plus Us, Petsecure, Furkin and Desjardins. This list is educational rather than an endorsement, and we receive nothing for naming any of them. Compare annual limits, deductibles, waiting periods, and how each handles dental care and chronic conditions such as urinary disease, which is where most cat claims eventually land.

If you have questions about paying for a visit or submitting a claim, ask our team and we will walk you through it.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does my kitten need their vaccinations in Victoria?

Kittens start the FVRCP series between six and eight weeks and continue with boosters every three to four weeks until sixteen weeks of age. The feline leukemia course starts at around eight to nine weeks after a negative test, and rabies is usually given between twelve and sixteen weeks. Call us at (778) 265-4500 and we will build the schedule around whatever record your kitten arrived with. Bring that paperwork to the first visit.

What age should my kitten be spayed or neutered?

Five to six months is the standard timing, before a female’s first heat and before a male starts spraying or roaming. Some shelters do it earlier, from around two months and two kilograms, which is well established and nothing to be concerned about. Spaying before the first heat lowers the risk of mammary cancer and removes the risk of pyometra later in life. Call (778) 265-4500 to book and we will explain what the day involves.

Does my indoor kitten really need the FIV and FeLV test?

Yes, and we test every kitten at the first visit. Both viruses can be passed from the mother or picked up before you ever met your kitten, and both can sit silently for years before anything shows. Testing also protects any cat already living in your home. If you take in a stray or your cat has a fight, we will retest, because a single negative result early in life does not hold good for the rest of it.

My kitten has stopped using the litter box. Is this behavioural?

Treat it as medical until proven otherwise. Straining, frequent small squats, blood, crying in the box or urinating on cool smooth surfaces can all point to a urinary problem, and in a male cat a blockage becomes life threatening within hours. Once we have ruled that out, the usual culprits are box number, placement, litter type or cleanliness, and the rule is one box per cat plus one spare. Call us at (778) 265-4500 rather than waiting it out.

Should I let my cat outside in Vic West?

We would rather you did not, and this neighbourhood is a good example of why. Esquimalt Road is a busy arterial route, the blocks around it are dense, and roaming cats here meet traffic, other cats and raccoons. Bite wounds become abscesses and are also how FIV and FeLV spread. A catio, a secure yard or harness walks along the Songhees pathway give a cat fresh air without the risks, and any cat with outdoor access needs the feline leukemia vaccine kept current.

What should I feed my kitten, and can they eat dog food?

Never feed a cat dog food. Cats are obligate carnivores and need taurine from animal tissue, which dog food is not formulated to supply, and a deficiency causes heart and eye disease. Choose a complete kitten food carrying an AAFCO statement for growth, feed measured meals rather than leaving dry food down all day, and include wet food if you can, because water intake protects the urinary tract. Ask us at the next visit if you want a recommendation for your individual kitten.

How do I stop my cat from getting pregnant before she is spayed?

Keep her indoors completely from four months of age, and separate any intact male siblings by five months. Cats can conceive on their very first heat, littermates will breed with one another, and a female calling at a window will draw every intact tom in the area to your door. Book the spay for five to six months and keep her in until it is done. Call (778) 265-4500 and we will get it in the diary.

Contact Block

Vic West Pet Hospital
526 Esquimalt Road, Victoria, BC V9A 3L4
(778) 265-4500
reception.vwph@gmail.com
Hours: Monday 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Tuesday to Friday 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. Saturday 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Sunday and statutory holidays: closed.

We also close for lunch from 1:00 pm to 1:30 pm.

Disclaimer

This guide is intended for general educational purposes only and does not constitute veterinary medical advice. Always consult a licensed veterinarian for your pet’s individual health needs.