How We Raise Our Kittens

How a kitten spends its first twelve weeks has a lasting effect on its temperament, confidence, and comfort with people for the rest of its life. At Solette, every litter is raised inside our home, not in a separate cattery building, which lets us provide the kind of continuous, hands-on care and socialization that shapes genuinely well-adjusted adult cats.

The First Two Weeks: Mother-Led Care

Newborn kittens spend their earliest days almost entirely with their mother, nursing and sleeping, with minimal but regular gentle handling from us to begin building tolerance for human touch without disrupting the mother-kitten bond. We monitor weight gain daily during this stage, since steady weight gain is one of the clearest early indicators of a healthy litter.

Weeks 3–4: Eyes Open, World Expands

As kittens' eyes and ears fully open and mobility improves, we begin more active handling sessions and introduce the nesting area to gentle household sounds. This is also when we start the weaning process, offering a soft, moistened food alongside continued nursing as the kittens show interest.

Recommended image: young kittens beginning to explore their nesting area. Alt text: "Young British Shorthair kittens exploring at Solette cattery"

Weeks 5–8: Socialization Accelerates

This is the critical socialization window, and we treat it accordingly — daily handling by different family members, gentle exposure to household activity, and the beginning of litter training and solid food transition. We cover this stage in much more depth in Early Socialization, since it's genuinely the most important period for shaping a kitten's future temperament.

First Veterinary Visits

Kittens receive their first veterinary examination and initial FVRCP vaccination around six to eight weeks, along with the start of our structured deworming protocol. We document every visit, test, and treatment, providing complete records to each new family when their kitten eventually goes home.

Weeks 9–12: Confidence and Independence

By this stage, kittens are confidently eating solid food, using the litter box reliably, and playing actively with littermates and household members. We continue socialization work while also beginning to introduce more of the specific routines — grooming handling, occasional car rides for very short local trips — that help ease the eventual transition to a new home.

Why We Never Send Kittens Home Before Twelve Weeks

The critical socialization window extends through roughly sixteen weeks, and kittens that leave too early — the common eight-week standard for many breeds — can miss important learning that happens through continued interaction with their mother and littermates. We explain the full reasoning in When Can a Kitten Leave the Breeder?, but the short version is that the extra month makes a measurable difference in adult temperament.

A Typical Day in Our Home With a Young Litter

Kittens are woven into the rhythm of daily household life — present during meals, family conversations, television noise, and the general comings and goings of a lived-in home — rather than isolated in a quiet nursery space. This exposure to ordinary domestic life is part of what makes our kittens so comfortable settling into new homes with similarly ordinary routines.

Preparing Kittens for Specific Life Situations

Where possible, we introduce kittens to experiences relevant to where they're likely headed — gentle exposure to other pets for families with existing animals, or extra handling practice for kittens likely to go to homes with young children. This individualized attention is only possible because of our modest litter sizes and home-based approach.

Documentation Throughout the Process

From birth weight through every vaccination, deworming round, and health check, we maintain detailed records for each kitten individually. This full history goes home with every family, giving their veterinarian a complete, accurate picture from day one rather than a vague verbal summary.

The Emotional Side of Raising a Litter

After thirteen-plus years, saying goodbye to each litter doesn't get dramatically easier, but it is genuinely rewarding to see kittens we've raised so carefully go on to thrive in loving homes around the world. We stay in touch with many families long after a kitten goes home, which is one of the most meaningful parts of doing this work.

Adapting Our Routine to Each Litter's Needs

No two litters develop at exactly the same pace, and we adjust our handling, weaning timeline, and socialization intensity based on each individual litter's temperament and progress rather than following a rigid, identical schedule every time. A litter that seems a little more cautious might get extra gentle handling sessions, while a particularly bold, confident litter might be ready for new experiences slightly ahead of the typical timeline.

The Role of the Mother Cat Throughout the Process

We give our queens significant say in the pace of the process, respecting their instincts around when kittens are ready for more independence rather than rushing weaning or separation on a fixed timetable. A calm, confident mother cat also models important behavior for her kittens, and her own temperament and comfort with our household routines directly shapes how her litter experiences those same early weeks.

Preparing a Litter for the Journey Ahead

In the final weeks before kittens go to new homes, we introduce short car rides, brief carrier practice, and other small experiences designed to make travel day itself feel less overwhelming. For kittens traveling internationally, we also begin acclimating them gradually to the kind of handling and separation from littermates that a longer journey will eventually involve.

Keeping Littermates Together as Long as Possible

Whenever a litter has more than one kitten, we let siblings remain together, playing and sleeping as a group, right up until each individual kitten leaves for its new home. This full-litter cohabitation supports valuable social learning that simply isn't available to a kitten raised in isolation, even one that receives excellent individual attention.

Communicating With Families Throughout the Wait

Families who've reserved a kitten often wait several weeks before pickup, and we keep this waiting period engaging with regular photo and video updates showing exactly how their future companion is developing. This ongoing communication helps a family feel connected to their kitten's early life even before they've physically met, and it gives us a chance to answer preparation questions well ahead of the actual homecoming day.

Why This Process Takes the Time It Takes

Every stage described here — from mother-led early days through the extended twelve-week socialization period — exists because it produces a measurably better outcome for the kitten's lifelong temperament and health, not because it's the fastest or most convenient path to a sale. We'd rather take the time this process genuinely requires than shortcut any part of it.