New Ragdoll Cat or Kitten? Here's Your Shopping List

Prior to adopting a new Ragdoll kitten, customers often ask Ragdoll Princess which products we recommend and what they need to buy to prepare for their new kitten. If you don't know where to start, we've done the work for you by compiling a list of some of our favorite Ragdoll kitten products that we use and love, along with a few that we've had our eye on. We are always scouting out and trying the newest and cutest cat supplies. We'll keep this post up-to-date as we find and love new products that we think your Ragdoll will love.

You can find the products on Amazon by clicking on the pink links and images below.

Cat Towers, Scratchers and Beds

Trixie Cat Castle is one of our favorite cat trees. We have them in the beige/lilac. There's also a gray and purple version. Check out our Instagram to see photos and videos of this beauty in action.

This Unicorn Cat Tree is close to the one that we have and love. Our Princesses love the three post options and the tunnel.

This Modern Cat Tower is very similar to two that we have and love. They do have sharp corners and less grip than carpet or faux fur cat trees and sometimes kittens are not the most careful, so we recommend adding corner protectors to the edges of this stylish tree. For another option, this is a beautiful higher-end Real Wood Modern Cat Tree that has no sharp surfaces. Here's a small Pink Cat Tower as well.

Cardboard Cat Scratchers are always a hit with our kittens, especially those that prefer to scratch horizontally. These also double as a bed since our kittens enjoy sleeping in their towers or on these.

This is one of the cutest cat beds that we've found. It also goes with our cattery theme. 😉

Kitten Food and Treats

We have tried many brands of kitten/cat foods and only feed our kittens and cats high protein and high fat grain free kitten and/or all life stages foods to ensure healthy development of our babies and healthy conditioning of their parents. Ask us which food your kitten is eating before making your purchases if we haven't already told you. Wellness Complete Health Kitten Food and Wellness Complete Health Kitten Pate is what we often feed our litters. We are feeding some of our breeding cats Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain all life stages grain free dry food and Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain Wet Food as well. Its nutritional analysis is higher protein and fat than most kitten food brands. We do rotate between other grain free kitten or all life stages food of equal quality to help prevent our cats from becoming picky eaters. Last, but certainly not least, one of our favorite foods is Dr. Elsey's CleanProtein. It's 77% protein and fat which is the highest we've ever found and our cats love it. Dr. Elsey's is perfect for kittens and adults to maintain optimal growth and excellent condition.

For treats, most of our cats love these Grain Free Salmon Treats, Instinct Raw Freeze Dried Toppers, and the irresistible Churu.

Food and Water Dispensers

An Automatic Food and Water Bowl set like this one is what we would suggest using. We free feed all of our kittens to ensure healthy eating habits and relationships with food and suggest you do the same at least through 6 months to a year old. We also free feed our adults, and they all maintain healthy weights. This, of course, isn't an option for every adult cat if yours is prone to overeating.

We also strongly recommend getting your cat or kitten a Drinking Fountain like this one in case they prefer moving water. We have an older model of this one and our Ragdolls approve. It's important that your baby is always hydrated to avoid potential health issues.

Grooming Supplies

The Butter Comb is a pricey, investment grooming tool, but smoothly glides through your Ragdoll's fur and keeps it looking shiny and healthy.

Self Cleaning Slicker Brush or a Regular Slicker Brush are lower cost grooming options that you should always have on hand and use on a daily basis. They keep potential tangles and matts at bay. A slicker-style brush also helps with fluffing your kitten/cat up while blow drying.

Nail Trimmers are essential to keep your kitten's nails trimmed. A surprising number of our customers don't know you should trim kitten and cat's nails, but you should continue this habit so that your kitten doesn't get overly long nails and caught on your furniture, clothing, or carpet (if you have it). We start trimming kitten's nails early on so that they are comfortable and familiar with the process which takes under a minute per kitten. Declawing our kittens is strictly prohibited.

Kitten Shampoo is another essential as you should continue to give your kitten occasional baths so that they remain comfortable with the process. You'll regret it if you don't and your adult cat gets into something they shouldn't. Pet Wipes can also be used to surface-clean your cat. Kitty Toothbrush and Paste to keep your cat's teeth and gums healthy.

Kitten Toys

Kitten Wands are a must have toy for your kitten or cat. I guarantee if you adopt one of our kittens, they will be very familiar with wand toys and love them as you can see on our social media.

Interactive ball toys keep your kitten entertained. We have many in a variety of different colors. All our kittens and cats love playing with them. They also enjoy this Super Roller toy and are often found laying in it.

Cats love Kicker Toys like this one and helps your kitten continue positive playing habits by biting and kicking a toy. We also love this unicorn and this llama as well. This cactus and llama set is also adorable.

This Toy Variety Pack and also this toy variety pack are fan favorites and give your Ragdoll kitten lots of options to choose from. They'll also be very familiar with these types of toys because they grew up with them.

Our cats love playing in tunnels (hours of entertainment) and this Rainbow Tunnel is super adorable. This very pretty gray and blue Tunnel Bed combo is well loved and doubles as a bed.

Cat Carriers, Backpacks, and Harnesses

A Rolling Cat Carrier is great for travel and vet visits, especially as your Ragdoll kitten becomes a large cat. We use rolling cat carriers very similar to this one. A simple large soft airline approved carrier like this one is great as well, and we have purchased it a few times before. Another option is the Sherpa Airline approved carrier. Make sure you're purchasing size large for your Ragdoll.

Cat Backpacks like this beautiful floral are perfect for adventures and Ragdoll socialization. It's also a nice size, airy, and holds up to a 20 pound cat. If you watch our social media, we've had, used and loved cat backpacks for years. If you want a more robust-looking and less girly backpack, here is an Expandable Cat Backpack.

If you plan to walk your cat outside, a Harness and Leash set should be used to train your kitten early on. In regard to collars, we think they are very cute accessories but don't actually use them on our Ragdolls. We have temporarily put some on that look more like jewelry for photoshoots and that's about it. We like to let our Ragdoll's beautiful coats sit naturally. Many, many of our customers use adorable collars, so here are a couple adorable break-away collars that we've found. Leather break-away collar, plaid bow break-away collar, pink bow break-away collar, and this blue bow tie break-away collar. We strongly suggest removing the bell from your cat's collar if it has one...bells are not nice for cats' ears.

Litter Boxes

Large Litter Box with High Sides because kittens often do well with simple litter boxes. We prefer large litter boxes with high sides for Ragdolls as your new kitten will become a bigger cat.

The Litter Robot is a product we recommend. While it took us a while to cave and try a Litter Robot, we ended up started with two and now have purchased four in the last year. Ragdoll Princess and our Princesses / Princes approve of the box. All of our Princesses use and enjoy them, and we appreciate the significant decrease in scooping. It is a very expensive litter box, but we found them to be worth the cost, especially as we are a multi-cat household. There is a minimum weight of 5 lbs required for the Litter Robot, so ensure your kitten or cat weighs enough to use this prior to setting it up for them. Most of our kittens will weigh over 5 lbs around 16-18 weeks old when they go home.

Litter

We've tried a lot of litter for new kittens and have been consistently using the following three litters over the years.

Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract, Dr. Elsey's Ultra or Dr. Elsey's Kitten Attract Litter (wasn't available on Amazon at the time of this post) are all soft and two of them contain an attractant to keep up with your kitten's good litter box habits. They are clay-based litter and clump very well for those who are looking for a low dust clumping cat litter. Our kittens will often be trained to use both paper litter (under 8-10 weeks) and this clumping clay litter (once they're older).

Fresh News Litter is what we initially use to litter train our kittens starting at 3-4 weeks old as clay litter or any kind of clumping litter is dangerous for kittens under 8 weeks old (and older kittens if they're prone to eating something they're not supposed to). Kittens will eat literally anything, so we have to be very careful. If you want your kitten to use a dust-free litter, we do recommend this litter as some of our adult princesses love it as well.

Dr. Elsey's Litter Attractant is great to add to the litter of your preference while your new kitten gets used to its new surroundings, although your kitten will already be litter box trained prior to going home.

Litter Disposal and Scoop

Litter Champs and Litter Champ Refills are what we use to make litter clean up easy. They come with their own scoop, hold a decent amount of litter and are a clean way to dispose of used litter.

Cat Calming

Pheromones are very recommended to ease and comfort your new kitten as he or she adjusts to your environment and/or if you have an existing cat that you'll be integrating your kitten with. You can also use them year-round if you have a more active home or changes to the home environment. We use and recommend Feliway plugs ins. These diffusers release pheromones to calm your cat or kitten down and makes them feel happy, comfortable, and relaxed which in turn should result in an eased transition and positive behaviors. You can also purchase Feliway refills. We have used Comfortzone as well which is a similar product and a great value.

Pet Monitoring

We like checking in our cats, even when away for a few hours. If you're like us and want to always to keep an eye on your kitten or cat, we recommend Arlo Cameras and Wireless Blink Cameras. Both Arlo cameras and Blink Cameras are great for monitoring wirelessly and without risk of your kitten chewing any cords. They both have two-way audio, so you can talk to your cat. We use the Arlo cameras to monitor our adult Ragdoll's and inside our nests to monitor neonatal kittens.

Robot Vacuums and Stick Vacuums for Fur Cleanup

If you don't already have good vacuums to clean up pet fur, litter, and food, we recommend this pretty, low-cost iLife Gold and White Robot Vacuum. We've used these for years and as you can see on our social media, our Ragdolls often like to play with them too. It does have a mopping pad, but it's very surface level, and we don't use it for that. We also have recently gotten the much more expensive and sophisticated Roomba which self empties, but it's very loud compared to the iLife and our kittens and cats don't really play with Roomba. The new Roomba has proven to do a good job keeping the floors clean though.

We use the Dyson Animal Vacuums and the Samsung Cordless vacuums to remove all pet dust, litter, and fur from our floors in-between the robot vacuum use. These also allow for a more thorough vacuuming.

Manual Ragdoll Fur Removal

We strongly recommend sticky lint/fur removers to keep your clothes and furniture Ragdoll-coat free. These Lint Removers are the best and stickiest ones that we've found and the set lasts a long time. This type of broom also picks up fur really well and also works to remove fur from corners and under couches. We use these two tools (in addition to vacuums) to remove fur, litter and dust from our cat trees: small rubber fur remover and metal fur remover. The are relatively inexpensive and work wonders.

We hope this post makes preparing and shopping for your new Ragdoll kitten or cat a breeze!

Please note, Ragdoll Princess is part of the Amazon Associates Program and will receive a small commission for purchases from the Amazon links above, but these are products we use and love or are wanting to purchase ourselves.