Kiki’s Growth – First 6 to 12 Months

The first year of your cat’s life is the most important as they go from a teeny tiny baby to a few month’s old little rascal, then turning into a teenager with attitude, and finally, into a cuddly, full grown, and lovable furry creature who follows you everywhere you go.

Being there to protect them and feed them, teaching them healthy habits, keeping an eye on their health, watching how their body develops and gets stronger, and seeing their personality take shape is a very special time.

It’s also what shapes your relationship with them for the years to come. Here’s how Kiki grew over the first twelve months.

How Kiki Grew Over the First Year

Me and my husband have been blessed with jobs that have us stay at home all the time, which allowed us to see how Kiki evolved with each passing day.

Oh, and also being able to love, cuddle, and play with her all day long!

While the first month when we found Kiki was filled with teaching her healthy habits, checking her for health issues, regular vet visits, and gauging what and how much she eats and drinks, the next 3 months were a bit different.

Months 1 to 3

As time passed, Kiki got healthier by the day. She was still sticking to the living room for the first two weeks, probably feeling too small to explore the great unknown – the rest of the apartment. Unless we picked her up, she was too small to climb the chairs or even the sofa so she mainly played on the floor and the cozy, fuzzy carpet where she regularly fell asleep.

She then started exploring and following us to the bedroom, but again, she was too small to climb the bed. And she also wasn’t brave enough to jump without being sure where she would land.

But, being the brave little rascal she is, this changed in a very short time. The first milestone was jumping from the sofa if we placed her there. Then she started using her teeny tiny claws to climb so she could be close to us while we were just hanging out, talking, or watching Netflix. She was still very, very tiny, even compared to our plushies, Meggie and Peggie.

Pretty soon, she was climbing and jumping from everywhere, feeling safe and secure to run around and explore every corner of the apartment.

Months 4 to 6

In the next 3 months, we saw a lot of progress in all areas, and especially with playtime activities.

Even though the comfort of mommy was something special for Kiki, daddy was the one that always knew how to play with her and keep her entertained. She couldn’t wait for him to come home, she meowed at the door and slept on top of his pajamas every time he was out.

The first time we left her alone overnight, she slept on his pillow feeling like he was close by.

He bought her all sorts of toys, a huge cat tree, plastic mouse that she can chase, an endless number of balls in all sizes and colours, and sticks with feathers that she can jump and catch.

However, the most interesting playtime for her involved us. We would chase her and then she would chase us, but always one at a time. For some reason, if we both joined the play she would back off. I guess she felt outnumbered.

She continued to grow, eat regularly and much to our surprise, drink lots and lots of water.

Months 7 to 9

By this time, she had her own spaces that she slept and played in. We had learned which food she wanted and didn’t want, and she had her favorite pastimes already figured out.

During the night, we made room between our pillows and she would sleep curled up between us. In the morning she would just eat and go back to sleep while we worked in our home office.

In the afternoon, she would feel bored already and she would start to meow and ask for attention. We took breaks from work to make sure she got the attention she wanted and played with her until she was no longer interested, which didn’t take long. We find our Kiki to be a bit lazy that way.

If she wasn’t getting the attention she wanted though, she would climb the shoe cabinet and turn on the lights. She figured out what the switch does and if we still didn’t get up, she would turn the lights off and on again until one of us finally was able to pause their work.

Months 10 to 12

When she started to get bigger, something had clearly changed in her behavior. We noticed that for the last few weeks she started getting aggressive and puffy.

She even looked like she had built muscles and she acted like she was looking for a fight. We would pass by her and she would grab us with her claws. And the play time didn’t end like it used to. It ended with her hurting us and us having scratches all over us.

We didn’t know what was going on and even though it wasn’t all the time, we knew we had to react and help her overgrow this phase, where she was literally a beast.

After doing research and consulting our local veterinarian, we found out this ratched behavior was due to her food. We were giving her wet food in the form of pouches that contained a very high level of taurine, which turned out to make her aggressive. Although taurine is healthy in small amounts and is found in almost all cat foods, it looked like those we gave her were not suitable at all.

Even though they were her favorite, we started giving her less and less, until finally switching to another brand, but also sticking mostly to dry food which suits her best.

Her aggressive behavior subsided within a week and she went back to being our sweet little baby girl. From then on, we have become extremely careful about the food we give her. Not just the brand, but the ingredients, the amount of taurine and fats in it.

Cat Food Directly Affecting a Cat’s Growth

What we have noticed during the first twelve months and how Kiki grew, was that the type of food we gave her directly impacted her growth, behavior, and energy levels.

We started with dry food, lots of water around, and regular wet food in the form of pouches. We never gave her human food or any other raw type of food.

From this, we came to the conclusion that for Kiki, dry food worked the best as she would eat enough to keep her satiated without overfeeding herself. We were also amazed at how much water she drank, so we constantly refilled her water bowl, introduced a secondary source of water, and also bought a water fountain, which she absolutely loved.

Next, as soon as we saw what the wet food did to her, in terms of aggressiveness, bulkiness, and greasy hair, we stopped giving her wet food, but not entirely, as we still give her wet food but very very rarely.

We stick to dry food only, with lots of water options around, and only give her wet food on occasions.

Kiki’s Story Continues

The first year of Kiki’s life was filled with lots of energized days, playtime sessions, and learning what she likes and dislikes in terms of food, water, and cat brands.

We enjoyed watching her grow with each day and we continue to do so to this very day, only this time, we’ve got another furry little baby to nurture as well!