New foster here!

[u/JessicaDamnDay13]

I’m a brand new foster and am preparing to take 4–8 week old kittens through a local rescue. The plan would be fostering them until they’re old/big enough for spay/neuter and adoption.

I’d love to see photos of your foster setups, especially for this age range!

What are your “must haves,” favorite supplies, setup tips, or things you wish you knew before your first foster assignment? Any surprisingly useful items or things you bought and never used?

Thank you! Excited, slightly nervous, and trying to be prepared 😊

[u/Other-Floor-4575]

Depends how large the room is and how small the kittens are when you get them but for 4 weeks - some kind of home base nest setup (playpen, soft sided crate, something like that) if the room is complex/big enough they could even possibly get into trouble at night, you can keep them in the smaller setup when they’re unsupervised until they’re more comfortable and bigger.

A soft cheap playpen is also good to have if you have resident pets especially for post quarantine period so they can check out the bigger areas /see the other family members with a barrier once they’re let out of their foster room without getting overwhelmed or immediately lost

Other things to buy -

- so many puppy pads for especially at first while they learn litterbox
-I like having a waterproof “dog blanket” that you can spread on the hard floor of the room when they’re bigger so it’s not as cold on their feet and easy to pick up any spills/messes and wash it, but that’s optional - scrubs also work well for this purpose when they’re small as a bottom layer of softness that’s also semi waterproof and can be thrown in the wash with bleach easily if you need to
-keep all your cardboard boxes to use as disposable litter boxes, play areas, etc - and toilet paper cardboard centers make great toys (you can look up videos of how to cut them into even more interesting disposable kitten toys haha)

• keep shopping bags/plastic bags, buy extra trash bags for litter box lining (to prevent liquid leaking) and bc you go through so much more trash than you think
  

-more tiny bowls than you think you need, kittens have trouble with large/high sided bowls at first

• if not provided by foster office soft blankets / bed that can be washed and bleached
  
• kitten specific litter
  
• keep old soft larger socks which can be used as little swaddles post bath or to calm little ones while they warm up
  
• buy rescue wipes, gloves, bleach
  

-kitchen scale for weighing (although this is most important for the youngest ones)

• miracle nipples and syringes even though they may be eating fine on their own in case and also if you need to supplement fluids - unflavored pedialyte , KMR
  
• kitten churu is crack to them
  
• soft, washable stuffed animals - more than one so they can have one while one is in the wash - they love to cuddle on these (bonus if they are not too expensive so if a kitten is very attached to it you can send it with them when they’re adopted)
  
• if not provided, heat source like a snuggle safe heat disc
  

-cheap scratchers and toys that you won’t mind having to throw out and re-buy if you have the budget for it :)
-tiny nail clippers! Cotton swabs, dawn soap, Qtips, and baby/kitten safe wipes (unscented, nontoxic type for cleanup)

• always good to keep fortiflora and some pumpkin kitten food toppers on hand in case you desperately want them later
  

-cheap toothbrush for brushing their little hair
-flea comb :)

-if you will have them post surgery or will need to keep them from chewing on any injuries etc. it may be good to invest in a tiny doughnut shaped cone and/or some little surgical recovery suits but FYI they are often wayyyy too big on little kittens

If the foster room has carpet, you’ll want to keep them physically barred from the carpet at least at first with a playpen or something, and avoid any soft furniture that you won’t be able to put in the wash (couch, mattress, yk) - in case they have fleas or diarrhea or any illness, carpet is not easy to disinfect fully. Mopping + bleaching tile floors is so much easier, wiping down hard surfaces with rescue is so much faster than worrying about any porous surface.

Anyways I’m sure I missed something but there’s my off the top of my head advice