Look for a kitten that is socialized, one that comes out to greet you at the front of the kennel. They might not know how to play very gently, so don't worry if they try to nip and bite.

Consider your schedule, your time, your travel frequency. Think about where you're going to put the litter box and where you're going to feed them. If you have another cat, they'll probably need to be fed separately with kitten food versus the adult cat food. Also, consider your surroundings for safety, like if you have toxic plants or furniture that you don't want to get messed up.

The most important thing to know about raising a kitten is that they have a lot of energy, and it is important to leave time in your day to help them expend that energy. Cats with built-up energy often turn towards biting, scratching and playing because they need to have the hunt-predator behavior to expend their energy. Make sure to consider this before getting a new kitten.

That's really good, and I'm not even sure I could give a ready-pet answer for that. If you notice a change, and you know your kitty better than anybody else does, that's the important thing. If you notice a change that has you concerned, you asking the question is concerning enough. I would recommend you seek out your veterinarian to get further advice and investigation.

Behaviors are always judged within context. For instance, we do many self-care behaviors, but most of those behaviors would be very inappropriate to do in a public setting. So, same thing with cats. Cats need to scratch on surfaces to take care of their claws and they need to eliminate, and the areas of where they choose to do those behaviors, really what would be defining if that's abnormal or normal.

A change is probably the most important thing to me. That is when I would be first investigating the situation. The rest of it may be simply a conversation that you have with your veterinarian to really determine if this is a behavior that is occurring out of context, considered abnormal, or is it just a normal feline typical behavior?

When we're evaluating the behavior, we want to know what frequency of that behavior is occurring, what situation or context that behavior is occurring in, the time of day that it may occur, because your schedule and all may influence those things, and many other factors. So it's really important for us when we see the problem behavior to really investigate things such as where they're expressing this behavior, how often they're expressing the behavior, what the situation that is occurring during that time, and also if you have tried to change the behavior, what kind of responses have you seen? Those will all be very helpful in evaluating your cat's behavior.

A sudden change, any change, whether behavior or some physical attribute, are the things that are really important to us as doctors in knowing when there's a problem and how we should approach it. So the first moment you notice a change in their behavior, that would be the time really to start asking the question and maybe seek out your veterinarian to help you with that.

Generally, we recommend having puppies spayed or neutered at around six months of age. However, recent research suggests that it might be better for certain breeds, especially male dogs, to delay neutering until they're about a year to a year and a half old. This delay could potentially prevent certain cancers in the future and contribute to healthier bone growth. Regardless, the standard recommendation is to have them spayed or neutered at around six months.

We strongly recommend having your puppy vaccinated every three to four weeks when they're still young. These vaccinations include distemper, parvo, hepatitis combination, and kennel cough. When the puppy is old enough, they'll receive a rabies vaccine. Typically, we continue these vaccines until the puppy is about 18 to 20 weeks old, at which point they'll get the rabies vaccine and then they're covered for a year.