New Cat?!? Here's All The Shit you Now Need to Buy

So you got a cat! Or better yet, two cats! Amazing, congratulations, I'm so happy for you and your new Beans, and how enriched your life will be now with your new little love(s).

So what kind of shit do you need? After years of trial and error, here's where me and my kittybeans are at - hopefully our trials can save you some time, money, and effort:

Eating

We have QUITE a setup, and we LIKE IT!

Get an automatic feeder. Yes, it can be very sweet and bonding to feed them yourself / by hand - and you still can! Whenever you want! But get a feeder as your foundation so they are NEVER trained to wake you up at night or way-too-early in the morning for a snack. No chores for you, consistent schedule for kitty, and also makes it super easy for you to travel or be away for a short period of time / supplement a pet-sitter's schedule.

TL;DR: IT MAKES ALL YOUR LIVES EASIER.

I've only ever purchased one feeder, back in 2017 - and it has been AWESOME for us, still going strong:

It works on battery power, but I opted to also purchase the accompanying power adapter (didn't come with when we bought it, I don't know if that has or hasn't changed now). This way we aren't cycling through batteries (so bad for environment) but I am comforted that if the power does go out - I know the batteries will keep my Beans fed.

Food dishes: Make sure they are stainless steel to prevent chin acne! We are using these now, they are easy to toss in the wash and the right size to mash wetfood around in. The print is cute but fading a bit over the last couple years now, we don't mind.

Extra Food / Storage: Make sure you get an air-tight, ant-proof container to hold any extra kibble, this one above has been working for us since 2016!

BONUS JOURNEY: FOOD COMPETITION

Hoping to lessen food-competition between the cats, we messed around with getting a custom divider for the above automatic feeder, but it didn't make much difference, still using it though, shrug.

Now I just set it to dose out the smallest portions several times a day. I think this helps reduce any feels of scarcity / competition for the cats, and also provides multiple moments of stimulation and excitement for the cats - and keeps them from eating too much too quickly. I LOVE how customizable the automatic feeder's settings are!

BONUS JOURNEY: ANTS

We had a problem with ants, so I measured and purchased this wide and shallow tray, filled it with water, then also bought this 3-pack of trays and placed one upside down and put the automatic feeder on top of that upside-down tray. This effectively created a moat-barrier that the ants will not cross / cannot infiltrate the feeder. (This is a little intense, something easier like this might do the trick too, lol, but oh well). I use the remaining two trays (since still using the divider) to catch the food - the sides are high enough that not much food spills out, and because they are stainless steel they don't give the Beans chin acne.

The bowl the feeder comes with is stainless steel too though so... especially if you don't have ants and have only one Bean, you could just use that and nevermind all the above, hehe.

Litter

Ok, this one was more of a journey for us. This section is WIP, but here's what I'm about to recommend as our now-perfected setup:

GOT TO HAVE A LITTER CHAMP!! (above) IT IS THE GREATEST! lined with bags (linked below), it such low mess and low stink.

As for boxes, we actually started with this fancy sifted set pictured below (using a clay litter, that I do NOT recommend) that we got early off a very persuasive kickstarter campaign:

But... IT WAS A HUGE FUCKING MESS! I HATED cleaning it, doing the sifty sift was NOT as easy as advertised, and I had to hose down actual shit every couple months. Fuck that! SO, since I bought two of these sifty-sets - I had a total of six trays, which I combined into three pairs to make us three boxes total. Now, I line them with the plastic liners (linked below) and fill it with Feline Pine (linked below) and after a month or so - toss the whole bag and replace. It is SO much easier than that silly sifting business, but I already had these boxes and liked the 'spill guards' (the green toppers, I find they keep the plastic liners in place really well), so we made it work. The size and shape of these is good too. So find something similar (wide, deep but not too deep) and save yourself the hassle of falling for something smart-looking, go for simple with the plastic liners and pine litter.

Feline Pine is a wood chip litter that is honestly the best litter we've ever tried, and we will use it forever. It absorbs the smell like no other and it easy to deal with. That plus a couple catching mats (linked below) and we have no disgusting dirty tracked litter through the house.

And unfortunately, yes, the number of litter boxes you really do need is n + 1, where n is the number of cats you have. When we only had the two, one of the Beans would pee elsewhere in the house until we put up the third box in a different location from the first two.

NOTE: For your convenience, I linked out all the exact products we use to Amazon so you can get more information about them. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. But, I highly recommend you purchase these from your local shops instead if you are able to!