How to Take Care of a Brown Tabby Kitten

Take your kitten to the veterinarian for a general checkup and vaccinations. Starting at the approximate age of 7 weeks, your kitten needs vaccinations to help protect it from diseases. Which vaccines your kitten needs depends on where you life. In general, kittens get a combination vaccine for rhinotracheitis, feline distemper, calicivirus and sometimes chlamydophila. Vaccines are given at regular intervals up until the age of 19 weeks. After this, adult booster shots are required.

Have a litter box ready upon bringing your tabby kitten home. Fill the litter box with wood chips, clumping litter or regular clay litter. Place the kitten in the litter box so he immediately familiarizes itself with it. Kittens are often litter trained by their mother from the early age of 3 weeks.

Get your kitten spayed or neutered at approximately 8 weeks of age. Adjusting your kitten helps prevent overpopulation and your kitten grows up to be less aggressive. It also reduces the spraying of urine.

Provide kitten food for your kitten. Place the food in a feeding bowl at the same times each day. Kittens up to 6 months of age need to be fed approximately three times per day and kittens over 6 months of age can be fed two times per day. Follow feeding instructions on the kitten-food packaging. Observe your kitten to find out which food he likes best; both wet food and dry food, or a combination of both, is acceptable.

Fill a bowl with fresh water and give your kitten unlimited access to it. Fresh water is essential to kitten's digestive health, especially if your kitten mainly eats dry food.

Brush your brown tabby's coat with a slicker brush to prevent matting and to limit hairballs. Long, medium and short-haired tabbies all require brushing. Brush the direction of your kitten's hair growth. Work your way from the front to the back. Brushing your kitten is a good way to bond with it and by starting the grooming early, it'll get used to it by the time it's an adult.

Trim your kitten's nails regularly with kitten nail clippers. Hold one of your kittens paw in one hand and the clippers in the other. Push on the paw so your kitten's claws emerge. Cut the tips off the nails. Avoid cutting through the veins, the pink parts of the nails, because this is painful to your kitten. Have your veterinarian clip the nails if you don't feel comfortable doing it.

Clean your kitten's teeth at least once a week, after its permanent teeth have emerged, at the approximate age of 30 weeks. Place some kitten toothpaste on a gauze pad. Hold your kitten in one hand and squeeze its cheeks to expose its teeth. Wipe the gauze pad over your kitten's teeth. Have someone else hold your kitten if it's more convenient or have your veterinarian or groomer clean your kitten's teeth.

Purchase scratching posts for your brown tabby kitten so he can use them to sharpen its nails instead of your furniture.

Give your tabby kitten some cat toys to play with and spend some time each day playing with your kitten. Daily play time allows your kitten to bond with you and builds trust.