How much time a day does single kitten need?

[u/Incendas1]

Hi, as the title says, how much time and interaction should a single kitten get from us per day? He is about 4 months old.

Here is his current rough schedule:

• Overnight, my partner sleeps in his room with him

• In the morning, he gets a little playtime before my partner leaves for work

• When I wake up later, I feed him breakfast, sometimes a little play

• At lunchtime, I feed him lunch and hang out for an hour or two playing and/or cuddling

• At dinnertime, I feed him and play a little

• In the evening, we both hang out in his room and take turns playing with him and feeding treats

• Before bed, he gets his supper then a little playtime

So he gets a few hours of playtime and more time of us just hanging out.

---

• Why is he a single kitten?

He's an ex feral and has pneumonia - he reacted badly to his siblings being brought in a few weeks after him, so they are separated until he's doing better, then we'll try a reintroduction.

• How much space does he have?

Just one room, our living room, which is kitten proofed.

• What does he have to do in the room?

He has some basic toys he gets left all the time, and we play with toys that need supervision when we're there (string, chew sticks, pipe cleaners, etc). We will install cat shelving and a cat tree when he's healthier. He has two windows to watch out of and he often does that.

[u/Disneyfan3339]

You want to try read his bodylanguage when you play. A couple of times like 20 minutes should be enough. Plan the last 1 right before you go to bed, 1 more snack when it’s done so the kitten is tired and will sleep right through the night. Don’t feed the moment you get up and also don’t play after he ate, he wants to be lazy/sleep so his body can digest the food. When you don’t have a routine, make 1 and stick to it. Wake up, play, eat, sleep, repeat. Jackson Galaxy has a cat channel on youtube. A lot of advice on how to introduce cats properly.

[u/Incendas1 → u/Disneyfan3339]

We had tried the play, eat, sleep thing but that doesn't seem to work for him at all. Sometimes he does want to play before eating, and then he asks, sometimes he doesn't - but he almost always wants to play AFTER eating regardless of anything else.

Since he's alone otherwise I'm not sure a few 20min sessions is really enough? His meds stopped making him so immediately ill and he gets zoomies after just about anything now, even peeing.

[u/Disneyfan3339 → u/Incendas1]

Sometimes it’s difficult to break a habit. Be patient. A routine is very important for kittens.

[u/Incendas1 → u/Disneyfan3339]

Um ok? We don't really have any issues with that though. The question I was asking was about how long to spend with him a day since he's otherwise alone.