hello everyone. i need some advice about rehoming a kitten. she is six weeks old and i think we will be getting her pretty soon. she is a burmese cross and very pretty. I have one cat who is just over 2 but we adopted him when he was 9 months so we havnt done the little kitten stage. Charlie roams as he pleases and is very laid back and chilled.

Can someone advise me on what i need to do re neutering, injections, indroducing to the older cat, when to let out etc?

alistically I think it's about 8 weeks you should be offered the kitten as they still tend to be too attached to Mum before that.

First injections are approx 10 weeks from what i remember and neutering depends on male/female but was around 4-6 months if I remember rightly.

Introducing the cats can be tricky. Haven't had to do it for over 10 years now and it can be a hit and miss process. I would suggest that you let the kitten come into the house and get settled into one room - possibly for 24 or 48 hours (let your current cat keep the roam of the rest of the house), then once the kitten has settled, allow your first cat to come in and see the kitten. Some suggest food is a good way to go, but it can cause issues if the older cat gets jelous and tries to keep kitten away - probably best to use your instinct at this point.
Best advice with the introduction is really to let them set the pace if possible. I think I just opened the door and waited for our current cat to come in and see the new cat rather than forcing him into the meeting. I also left the door open so he could retreat if he wanted, but I did shut the cat flap and some rooms so he couldn't just run away outside or hole up in too many places.

If your current cat does have a 'favourite' bowl or whatever, you may want to get the kitten different ones so your cat doesn't feel the kitten is taking over his things as well as having to share his territory.

Last thing I'll say is that be warned that there is a small chance your cat may have a personality change with the kitten. One of our cats had 3 new introductions to kittens or cats and he was fine with the first two (a real gentle giant of a ginger tom) but the third wasn't so good (was an older cat who was a little spitfire but as she was uncle's cat Mum felt she had to have her when Uncle died) and he and one of the other cats he'd previous been introduced to didn't take to her too well as she was such a terror and they found it far more difficult to settle and more often defend themselves once she was around.

cool thanks for the info kristin. the current owner is due twins any time now so i think that is why its six weeks not 8. she said it is fully weaned and litter trained.

Should be fine then to take at 6 weeks - might just want to fit in an extra check with the vets to make sure it develops OK.

Sounds like you'll be OK but might be worth a trip to the vets to ensure you get any advice needed as it'll probably be wise to give specific kitten food rather than cat food - you may even get recommended to the hills science for the best start with food.

6 weeks is far too soon to take a kitten away from the mother. my sister's cat had 4 kittens and she has kept one. the rest went at 9 weeks. the other is still feeding from mum at 13 weeks! a friend got her kittens at 7 weeks and i told her at the time that was soon. it helped that she got 2 from one litter, so they really are a pair! but one sucks the other for comfort, which the vet has said is to do with being taken from the mum too early. the kitten will need lots of attention and will be very needy at that stage. they are funny as kittens though. i was off work for 2 weeks when i got my first and she was funny to watch. she used to play like mad, fall asleep - sometimes where ever she was playing, play, eat, sleep. usually she slept on me. all 3 cried and cried at night when we tried to keep them seperate from us, as they had come from litters and wouldnt have been alone. eventually, after trying to get them to sleep on their own we just leave the doors open and they come in with us. now only one spends the night on the bed, the other 2 just come in early morning! i have 3 of different ages, well one is technically a cat now! good luck. kittens are wonderful!