A new puppy or kitten arrives and for a fortnight everything is about the immediate: where it sleeps, what it chews, how much of the night anyone gets. Meanwhile the decisions that actually shape the animal's health are all being made, mostly by default.
Before it arrives
- Set up one quiet room rather than the run of the house, with a bed, water and, for a kitten, a litter tray away from the food
- Move wires, medicines, cleaning products and houseplants out of reach, and check the balcony: cats fall from flats far more often than people expect
- Ask the breeder or shelter what it is eating, and buy some of that food
- Get whatever paperwork exists, especially any vaccination or worming record
- Agree the house rules with everyone who lives there, including who feeds it and what it is not allowed to have
Week one
Book a veterinary check in the first two or three days. Nothing needs to be wrong for it to be worthwhile: it establishes a weight to measure growth against, catches heart murmurs, hernias and parasites early, and puts the vaccination and worming plan on a calendar instead of in your head.
Take a stool sample if you can. Worms are close to universal in young animals here, and knowing what is actually there beats guessing at a wormer.
Otherwise keep the first week small and dull. Let the animal come to you, keep visitors few, and if you already have pets, keep them apart for a week or two and introduce them slowly through a door before they meet properly.
In the first month you are not training a pet so much as teaching it what counts as normal. It will believe you.
Worming and parasites
- Worming roughly every two weeks from about two weeks old until twelve weeks, then monthly until six months
- Dosing by current weight, which in a growing animal means weighing again each time
- Flea treatment that is licensed for the species and the age, and never a dog product on a kitten
- A stool check if there is any diarrhoea, since not everything is treated by the same drug
Socialisation, and why the clock matters
A puppy's window for accepting new things runs to roughly fourteen weeks; for kittens it is earlier still, largely done by seven or eight. Whatever they meet calmly in that period they tend to accept for life, and what they never meet can become frightening later.
So introduce the world deliberately but safely: the sound of traffic and the doorbell, an umbrella, a wheelchair, children, being handled all over, having paws and ears touched, and the car. Keep every encounter short and pleasant. A frightened animal is not being socialised, it is being sensitised.
Signs that cannot wait
- Not eating for more than about twelve hours, or refusing to drink
- Repeated vomiting or diarrhoea, especially if there is blood or a strong smell
- Weakness, wobbliness or collapse, which in a toy-breed puppy can be low blood sugar and needs immediate help
- Laboured breathing, or a cough that comes with lethargy
- A swollen, painful abdomen, or straining with nothing produced
- A kitten that is cold to the touch and does not want to feed
Young animals dehydrate quickly and have very little in reserve, so the usual advice to watch it overnight does not apply to them in the way it does to an adult. If something seems wrong, an online consultation will tell you quickly whether this is a monitor-at-home or a go-now, and that call is worth making early rather than at two in the morning.
Common questions
How old should a puppy or kitten be before it leaves its mother?
Eight weeks at the very least, and for kittens closer to ten or twelve is better. Animals taken at five or six weeks miss the lessons their mother and littermates teach, and they are noticeably more likely to grow up fearful or unable to control their biting.
When do vaccinations start?
Usually between six and eight weeks, then repeated every three to four weeks until about sixteen weeks. The repeats are not upselling: protection handed down from the mother blocks the early doses, and nobody knows on which day it fades for your particular animal. See our dog and cat vaccination schedule guides for the detail.
Can I take my puppy outside before the course is finished?
Not to places where unknown dogs toilet, which is where parvovirus lives. But you should not keep the puppy in isolation either. Carry it out to see traffic and people, and let it meet healthy, fully vaccinated dogs in a clean home. Missing the socialisation window causes lifelong problems of its own.
What should I feed a new puppy or kitten?
For the first week, exactly what it was eating before, even if you plan to change. A new home is already a large upheaval. After it has settled, move gradually over five to seven days to a complete food made for growth.
When can it be neutered?
It depends on the species, the sex and, for dogs, how large they will grow. It is a conversation to have at one of the vaccination visits, so the timing is planned rather than decided in a hurry later.