As the owner and friend of your new puppy and/or kitten it is important to have some guidelines. Oakland Animal Hospital's veterinarians and technicians are always available to answer your questions, but here our some of our recommendations.

Most puppies and kittens should be examined and start their vaccine series between 6 and 8 weeks of age. The number and frequency of vaccines will depend on the age of your pet at their first visit and your veterinarian's recommendations. As part of your pet's complete physical; a stool sample, heartworm prevention, flea prevention, routine bathing and nutrition may be discussed.  Kittens most often will be FeLV/FIV tested.

Basic Feeding Tips: 

Puppies should be fed three times daily until the age of 12 weeks; a good, high quality puppy food is recommended. Only feed your puppy as much as they can eat in 20 minutes. Most puppies will then need to go outside.

Kittens should also be fed three times daily until 12 weeks of age. A combination of good quality dry kitten food and a small amount of canned food will ensure a healthy mixture of ingredients. Once your kitten is 10-12 weeks of age you can start to wean them off the canned food and begin to feed them twice daily.

Basic Socialization Tips:

All puppies and kittens need some degree of socialization. Interacting with other pets, children and non-family members is very important. Puppies especially need to have their ears, feet and bellies rubbed and touched often to help acclimate them to handling and restraint. It is also recommended that puppies attend puppy training classes. Kittens should be exposed to as many stimuli (i.e. sounds, odors, and location) as possible to become well adjusted adult pets. Information about classes and behavior/socialization techniques are available at Oakland Animal Hospital.

All of our puppy and kitten visits are schedule for forty minutes. This extra time allows our veterinarians to cover all the basic information you will need for your new best friend. We have wonderful free handouts and information available in our puppy and kitten kits to get you started in the right direction.