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hello,

thank you for answering my question.

I just recently got a kitten about a month ago at the age of 9 weeks. He is fun, hyper and loves attention. my questions as follows..
1.I'm thinking of getting a second kitten as a companion for my first one...since he is home alone for about 10hrs of the day i dont want him to feel alone when nobody is home...what age should i get the second one, so they will be able to get along without issues...?
2.sometimes when we play he will attack my hand and foot...i dont stop it and sometimes i instigate it, is this a good way of playing with him??
3.when my wife and i go to bed he sometimes stays in the room with us, but sometimes he can be to hyper at night so we let him out then he starts to meow like a cry....should i continue to ignore it so we can sleep or let him in so he doesnt get all depressed and start to affect him negatively..?
4.my kitten like soft food better, but i've been reading and majority of info says hard is better..so what i've been doing is putting him a mix a some soft in the mornings and hard for the rest of the day...whats your opinion regarding food??

thank you for the help

Answer
Hi Salah,

Glad to help you. At his age you should have no problem introducing him to another kitten about his own age. There may be a little spitting and posturing but they will get over it. You can use a cat intro protocol to get them together.
http://www.sdhumane.org/site/DocServer/BT_Cat-Cat_Intros.pdf?docID=621

Don't allow him to play attack your hand or foot. As he gets older his nails get longer and sharper. And he gets quicker.  These attacks will hurt you. He won't understand enough to stop. Get a laser pointer. Or tie a toy mouse to the end of a fishing pole. Play kitty fishing with him. Interact play time with him like that.

If you let him back in when he cries he is training you to respond to his cries. Either ignore them or ignore the hyper active play. He will grow out of the play and settle down as he gets older. He won't grow out of his cries if he trains you. Another cat will also help with this.

Soft food is fine for your kit. It makes sure he is getting water. Cats don't drink too much water on their own. Wet food is great for this. Here is a great link about feeding your cat.
http://catinfo.org/

Hope this helped. Good luck and take care.

Ciao, Karen