Cattery Visitor Rules: 3 Steps, 14 Days, 6 Weeks

Three things happen at the door, 1 declaration is signed before it, and kittens under 6 weeks are not shown at all. That is the whole visitor policy, and it exists because the two viruses that end catteries do not need direct contact: feline panleukopenia virus rides in on shoes, and feline calicivirus rides in on hands. A single lapse costs 6 to 12 months of restricted movement and a litter of 4 to 6 kittens.

The 3 steps at the door

Step 1 is shoes. Outdoor shoes stay outside, in a tray, and the visitor puts on either dedicated indoor shoes or disposable covers that go in the bin on the way out. Step 2 is hands: soap and water for 20 to 30 seconds, or a 60 to 70% alcohol gel for 30 seconds where there is no sink. Step 3 is the outer layer: a clean jacket or a coverall over the visitor's clothes, changed between visits, because a sleeve that brushed a shelter cat 20 minutes ago is a fomite.

Add 1 optional 4th step if the cattery has had panleukopenia in the last 12 months: a footbath of 1:32 household bleach, 10 minutes of wet contact, not a 2 second dip. Alcohol gel is not a substitute here. It does nothing to a non-enveloped virus, which is exactly what parvovirus and calicivirus are.

The 14-day declaration

Before entry, every visitor signs a statement that they have not been in contact with another cat in the previous 14 days: no shelters, no rescue foster homes, no veterinary waiting rooms, no cat shows, no pet shops with a resident cat, and no friend's new kitten. Handling a neighbour's cat over the fence on day 1 resets the clock to day 14.

Fourteen days is not arbitrary. It covers the usual incubation of panleukopenia at 2 to 7 days, the 3 to 10 day window for the common enteric parasites, and most of the 21 days that ringworm can take to show. It is a screening question, not a guarantee: a person can carry virus on a coat without being infected, which is why the 3 door steps still apply to someone who answered yes to all 5 points.

Kittens under 6 weeks are not shown

Before 6 weeks a kitten has no vaccine, only maternal antibody, and the amount of that antibody varies from 1 kitten in a litter to the next. A visitor who looks at a 4-week-old litter is a visitor who may leave virus on the bedding. Most catteries hold the line at 6 weeks for a look through glass, and at 8 weeks for handling, which is also when the first FVRCP dose is due.

For visits after 6 weeks, cap it at 1 group per day, 30 minutes, and no handling of kittens that have not had dose 1 plus 7 days. Ask visitors to sit on a hard chair rather than a soft one, and wash hands again before they leave the kitten room, not after they reach the car.

FPV: the virus that survives a year

Feline panleukopenia virus is the reason biosecurity exists. It is stable in the environment, resistant to drying and to many common disinfectants, and commonly cited as surviving 6 to 12 months indoors on porous surfaces such as carpet, wood and cardboard. It is not killed by alcohol, quaternary ammonium compounds or most household sprays. Effective options are 1:32 household bleach with 10 minutes of wet contact, accelerated hydrogen peroxide, or heat.

Indirect routes matter more than direct ones here: shoes, trouser cuffs, carrier feet, grooming clippers, car mats, and hands that petted a recovered cat. A recovered cat sheds for 2 to 6 weeks. That is why a 14-day rule plus dedicated shoes does more than any amount of mopping.

FeLV: saliva, bowls and the limits of indirect spread

Feline leukemia virus is fragile outside the host: minutes to a few hours in dried saliva, longer in fresh blood or wet food. It spreads efficiently through mutual grooming, shared bowls, bite wounds and, in a cattery, reused needles and dental instruments. Indirect spread on clothing is possible but far less efficient than for FPV, which is why FeLV policy is about objects and cats, not about shoes.

Practical steps: no shared food bowls between quarantine cats and residents, no shared grooming tools without disinfection, test every new adult before entry (antigen test, with a repeat at 3 months if the first was positive in a kitten under 12 weeks), and keep a 21-day separation for any cat that has been to a show or a clinic.

Survival times decide the cleaning plan

Pathogen	Survives off the host	Main indirect route	What actually works
Panleukopenia (FPV)	6–12 months on porous surfaces	Shoes, cuffs, carriers, clippers	1:32 bleach, 10 min wet contact; heat
Calicivirus (FCV)	7–14 days, up to 30 in some strains	Hands, bowls, bedding	Bleach 1:32; alcohol alone fails
Feline leukemia (FeLV)	Minutes to 2 hours	Shared bowls, grooming tools, needles	Hot wash at 60 °C, bowl per cat
Ringworm (M. canis)	12–18 months as spores	Clothing, brushes, soft furniture	1:10 bleach, 10 min; vacuum, discard porous items
Tritrichomonas	1–3 days in moist feces	Litter trays, shared scoops	Dedicated scoop, change every 24 h

The pattern is simple: the longer the survival time, the more the answer is physical separation rather than a spray bottle.

The visitor log, and the show-weekend rule

One line per visit: date, name, phone, the 14-day declaration answers, and which cats were touched. If a kitten develops ringworm 9 days later, that log separates a controlled problem from a rumour. Keep it for 12 months.

For the breeder, the same rule applies in reverse. After a cat show, a veterinary conference or a shelter visit, change clothes and shoes before entering the kitten room, and stay away from kittens under 8 weeks for 48 to 72 hours. It is inconvenient for 3 days a year. A panleukopenia outbreak in a litter of 5 is a different order of inconvenient, with a survival rate that most breeders would rather not test.

Before the next visit: 5 checks

• Door: 2 pairs of indoor shoes or 20 covers, a bin, a soap dispenser, and a footbath tray mixed at 1:32.
• Paper: the 14-day declaration printed, 1 copy per visitor, signed and dated, filed for 12 months.
• Calendar: no handling before 8 weeks and 7 days past dose 1; 1 group per day, 30 minutes.
• Wardrobe: 2 clean jackets or coveralls per week, washed at 60 degrees or hotter.
• Quarantine: 21 days for any new adult, 48 to 72 hours of kitten-room exclusion after a show or clinic visit.

Weigh the litter every 3 days throughout (kitten weight tool). A biosecurity lapse usually shows up as a flat weight curve 3 to 5 days before any other sign, and the vaccine protocol that goes with it is in the cattery vaccination protocol, and the cleanup standard after a positive case is in cleaning a cattery after parvovirus.

Frequently asked