19 Things to Expect When You Get a Maine Coon Kitten

[Music] [Music] hello everyone this has been a highly requested video we often get asked what it's like when you bring home a maine kitten and since my husband and i have been through this four different times because we have four main coons i figured that i could share some of our experiences with what it was like when we brought home our maine coons as kittens because we did get all of our cats when they were kittens if you're new to our channel this is our maine kitten moose and he is five months old right now

so he's still a kitten i hope you guys enjoyed our new intro so let's get into the video and i'm going to say these things in no particular order so the first thing you can expect when you bring home a maine kitten for the first time and this can also apply to other cat breeds not just maine coons the first thing you should expect is for them to be scared think about how you would feel if you just said goodbye to the only home you've ever known to your siblings to your mom to your dad

and then you just went to this new location and it's just hard for any pet to adjust at first and cats specifically don't like change so your new kitten will probably be scared the first few days that you have them they will be scared of you they will be scared of your other pets and they will need some time to adjust to their new home they may hide and they may not eat much the first day or two and just let them come to you but also don't forget to show them lots of love by

petting them hugging them kissing them and holding them and it may be a good idea to keep your kitten in a playpen or a separate room at first or close off part of your house for the first few days or the first week that you have your kitten because that way they won't feel overwhelmed at first and they can get used to your house like one step at a time instead of just showing them everything all at once they need to be able to find their way around and especially to the litter box so it's

a good idea to not overwhelm them by showing them your whole house at first when you bring them home and it's also a good idea to keep your house quiet and don't play like loud music or make loud sounds because your kitten is scared so just try to keep your house quiet and it'll help keep your kitten calm it might be hard for them at night when you go to bed because if you only have one cat then they might feel lonely if you don't let them sleep in your bedroom with you so if you

are a light sleeper like i am then you might want to get a second cat so that your cat doesn't feel alone so the next thing you can expect is you can expect them to be uneasy around your other cats or your other pets cats aren't like dogs so it can take them a little while to accept each other and get used to each other it took our cats a few days to accept moose when we brought him home there was a lot of hissing at first and some swatting with the paws but they kept

their distance from each other and we always supervised them when they were together at first the next thing you can expect is for your kitten to eat a lot because kittens eat a lot because they are growing maine coons love food if you don't know that already all of ours are super obsessed with food and they love to eat the next thing you can expect is for your kitten to follow you around the house everywhere you go even to the bathroom because maine coons are needy cats and they do not like being alone let me

repeat they do not like being alone ours act fine when we're in the same room as them but the second we leave they start freaking out they have like separation anxiety so i would say you can expect your maine kitten to meow at you constantly for food or if they just want attention because they are very needy and clingy cats and all of our mincoons are like this the next thing you can expect is what moose is doing right now you can expect them to sleep a lot our cats sleep all day long and kittens

especially sleep even more than cats and they are babies so their bodies need to heal and they grow in their sleep kittens sleep wherever they want but make sure that your new kitten has a cat bed or a cat tree to sleep on just so that they have a place to call their own the next thing you can expect is for them to be playful so kittens are very playful and they have a lot of energy so it's a good idea to have lots of different toys in your house for them to play with so

that they don't get bored and so that they don't take out their boredom on other things that you don't want them to i would say that the first year or two with your new maine kitten is going to be the hardest because that's when they seem to have the most energy and then usually around the one or two year mark they start to settle down i've noticed that with molly and albus and luna they definitely started slowing down when they were like one and a half or two years old they didn't have that crazy kitten

energy anymore but kittens need to play to stimulate their minds and help them get exercise and also i want to say that it's important to not use your hands when you play with your kitten because then that could get painful when they get older and they may accidentally hurt you so try to instead of playing with your hands play with toys so redirect their attention to a toy if they try to play with your hands and if you are absolutely exhausted playing with your kitten because they never seem to run out of energy then i

suggest getting another kitten because then they will take their energy out on each other instead of constantly needing your attention kittens are just crazy i've never met a kitten who didn't have tons of energy but they do sleep a lot so keep that in mind the next thing you can expect is for their nails to grow fast so kittens nails grow faster than older cats nails because they are growing and so their nails will get sharp fast it's a good idea to trim their nails like once a week when they're kittens and then when they

get older trim them like once every two weeks that's what we do with our cats and that way they won't accidentally hurt you when you play with them or pick them up because i can tell if a cat's nails are too long the second i pick them up and feel their nails and all of our cats have short nails because we trim their nails every two weeks so they never scratch us unless it's an accident and we forgot to trim their nails for some reason the next thing you can expect is for your kitten to

be clumsy so kittens are still learning and growing so they will fall off things and bump into things often so be careful to not let them up on things that are really high in your house because you don't want any accidents to happen he is so cute okay so the next thing you can expect is for your kitten to need to see a vet so kittens need to go to the vet the first few weeks and months of their life especially for checkups and shots because they are more vulnerable and your maine breeder if you

got your kitten from a breeder should have already taken your kitten to the vet several times before you pick up your kitten and bring them home but you will also need to bring your kitten to the vet for getting fixed if you don't plan on breeding them we haven't gotten moose neutered yet but we will be getting him neutered soon and all of our other cats are already fixed the next thing you can expect is for them to grow really fast because maine coons are very large cats they do take several years to grow but

the first year that you have them i think they grow the fastest so that's why i always say to take lots of pictures and videos of your kitten growing up because they grow so fast male mencoons especially grow much faster than females because they are bigger it seems like they just get bigger every single week and you think you'll remember them small but you won't so that's why i say to take lots of pictures and videos while they're young and i have thousands of kitten photos and hundreds of videos of our cats on my computer

and i'm so grateful that i have those because you can never have too many pictures or videos of your cat in my opinion so just capture and cherish the time that they're young because it's going to happen so fast and they're going to grow up so fast and then you're going to miss those kitten days the next thing you can expect is for your kitten to be curious about everything cats are curious about anything that moves or anything new that changes in your house so expect them to be curious and to get into trouble this

is why i think it's a good idea to discipline your kitten and to teach them the word no so that they will understand the boundaries in your house and they won't just get into everything you guys hear him purring he purrs anytime you touch him and i just touched him to readjust his body and he started purring almost don't go back there now we can't see you that well he's burying so hard right now okay so the next thing you can expect is for your new kitten to chew and scratch things in your house because

kittens go through a teething phase they will need to chew on things and so it's a good idea to provide lots of toys that they can chew on or they might chew on things that they're not supposed to for example moose here chewed on our litter robot cord and he destroyed it and we had to buy a replacement but we did have lots of other things in our house for him to chew on so accidents can still happen even if you are doing everything right so just keep that in mind because they are cats they

will need to scratch on things so that's why i suggest having a cat tree or a scratching post or even just a cardboard toy or something for them to scratch because if you don't have something for your maine kitten to scratch on then they will scratch your furniture i just love his sweet face okay so the next thing you can expect when you bring home your maine kitten is you can expect them to be messy in the litter box now remember that all cats are different our kitten moose here has only had one accident in

the litter box since we've had him and our other maine coons when they were kittens had way more accidents especially luna and molly so they're all different and you honestly never know what you're gonna get when you bring home your kitten but moose is very clean compared to our other maine coons and we got really lucky with him because molly and luna were absolutely horrible about stepping in their poo and getting it everywhere in our house for like the first few months we had them they were the worst they did get better over time but

they're still learning it took molly over a year to learn to not step in her poo and make a huge mess in the litter box and get it all over her house so just remember that some kittens are messy and it's good to be ready and prepared just in case that happens with you so have some cleaning wipes ready and also if they get really messy then they may need a bath so it's a good idea to get them used to baths that brings me to the next thing to expect so expect them to need

baths kittens can be messy because they're young and they're still learning so it's a good idea to give your kitten a bath when they're young so that they can get used to baths and it won't be as hard to give them a bath when they get older maine coons are long-haired cats and that means that stuff will get stuck to their long fur when they get older they can get messy and i don't understand how some people never bathe their cats i honestly think all of our cats would be really stinky and messy if we

never gave them a bath but that's just my opinion the next thing you can expect is for them to become your responsibility every single day so if you only want a kitten because you think it's cute and you think mancoons are really cool looking then you should just buy yourself a stuffed animal because cats are living beings and they have needs that need to be fulfilled every single day you don't just pay for a kitten and then never buy anything again for your kitten kittens need food and water every single day they need their litter

box cleaned every single day they need toys to play with cat trees to climb on and sleep on and scratch and they need other cat supplies and they need to go to the vet and they just become your responsibility when you bring them home so when you bring home your maine kitten just know that you become the person responsible for your cat's overall health and well-being and it's your job every day to make sure your cat's needs are met don't feel like you have to know every single thing when you first bring home your main

kitten because i sure didn't and you will just learn a lot as you grow every day with them so my best advice is to just do it one step at a time one day at a time and do your best and everything will work out the next thing you can expect is for your kitten to groom themselves a lot so i read somewhere that cats groom themselves like 10 times a day and i would say that's true because it feels like our cats are constantly grooming themselves so just expect your maine kitten to groom themselves

often throughout the day because they are cats the next thing you can expect is for your kitten to not bond with you right away kittens change a lot as they grow their personality comes out more as they get older and then they get more attached to you the longer that you both know each other almost every single week we will get messages from people telling us that their new kitten doesn't cuddle with them or it doesn't like being pet by them and i say well how long have you had this kitten and then they say

like two weeks and i'm like well of course your kitten isn't going to instantly be in love with you if you've only had them for two weeks they need time to bond with you and when we first got molly for example when she was a kitten she did not cuddle with us until she was several months old and i honestly gave up with trying to get her to cuddle with us i just basically accepted the fact that molly was never going to be a cuddly cat and then one day she surprised me and she came

onto my lap and she started purring and then ever since then she cuddles like every single day with us so just know that it does take time to bond with your new kitten and the most important thing that you can do is show your kitten lots of love and play with them and that will strengthen your bond more than anything in my opinion one of the many things i've learned from having mencoons is how loyal they are especially when they get older because they really attach themselves to their owners and i just feel like such

an incredible bond with each of our cats maine coons are just such loving cats i mean they're the most loving cats i've ever known and our other cat annie she's a ragdoll mix she's also incredibly loving but with maine coons you show them your love and affection and they'll show it back to you five times more ten times more they're just so incredibly loving and that's one of my favorite things about them the next thing you can expect from your maine kitten is for them to need to be groomed because mine coons are long haired

cats so when they get older their fur will be much harder to deal with than when they're kittens they can get knots and their fur can get matted so it's a good idea to get them used to brushing while they're young so that when they get older it's not as difficult not all maine coons love being brushed so it's a good idea to get them used to brushing while they're young so that it can be easier when they get older and also remember to use lots of positive reinforcement when you brush them and make it

a positive experience for them so use treats and praise them and the more that you do that the easier it will become because you don't want to start brushing your maine kitten when they get older for the first time because then they won't be used to it and it will be harder the last thing you can expect when you bring home your mankind kitten is expect to fall in love with them their personality their looks everything about main coons there's just so much about them that you can fall in love with it's honestly just so

hard not to fall in love with them they will drive you crazy some days they will annoy you some days but they are incredible cats and as you can see we have four main coons so we are addicted to them what can we say they're amazing and we love them and we couldn't imagine life without them they are our family and that's all i'm going to say for this video i hope this video was helpful and i hope you guys enjoyed watching it and we will see you guys in our next video