Kittenhood Matters – IAABC Pounce 2023 Conference

A two-day online conference all about cats!! Learn more here.

My talk at Pounce will be a bit more in-depth than my presentation at the NKCVC, and I will go into more of the research behind kittens’ early life experiences!

Although kittenhood may seem short, it has an oversized impact on later life outcomes for pet cats. This talk will review our current understanding of best practices related to the early life experiences of domestic cats. From the moment of conception, several environmental factors are already potentially operating on the future health and behavior of kittens. Most kittens are born outdoors, and many more orphaned kittens are being rescued and hand-raised. What are the possible implications?

Throughout the talk I will incorporate the results of existing research on kitten socialization and behavior in kittens’ first few months of life, with an emphasis on what happens from birth to weaning to adoption,
with an eye on how we can all best help kittens thrive beyond kittenhood.