also i got a calico born from a stray so i know

You can buy generic capstar online. It gets rid of the fleas in 1/2 an hour. You can buy kitten vaccines at the feed store if it's legal in your state and you can get dewormer there too. You do need to get them spayed/neutered unless you want to take care of endless litters of kittens or deal with diseases acquired through copulation but you do NOT need a microchip. Microchips are a personal preference and no one should force their opinion on them on someone else.

You do need to see a veterinarian to screen for health problems, the rabies vaccine, and the spay/neuter surgery. A shelter usually takes care of all of that for you before you adopt so it's often cheaper than getting a kitten off the street and doing all that yourself. You only need to go to the vet yearly for the rabies vaccine or as needed for physical ailments after that.

It's not guaranteed that the kittens you get off the street are healthier or sicker than the ones that enter a shelter. It is almost impossible to sell kittens unless they've got a pedigree. The fact that they're free doesn't mean that they have health problems, it just means no one spayed their parents. On the flip side of the argument of health is that kittens born from feral stock could be healthier due to the fact that their ancestors have survived without humans for generations and therefore without veterinary care. The kittens at the shelter come from the same sources as the ones from the people down the street really. The difference is that someone gave them to the shelter instead of giving them to people they know or strangers.

Ultimately, you must weigh the pros and cons of all of the details of the situation. Your kitten would probably be happiest with a littermate because they already know each other but it might be far more expensive than adopting a kitten from the shelter that already comes with most of the medical cost covered. Usually, the fee to adopt is at least ten times lower than it would cost to get all the services that they provide their animals with on adoption. It cost me $60 at the discount animal welfare clinic just to get my cat spayed and $90 to get my dog spayed. If I had adopted, it would have cost me $25 to adopt a cat and $75 to adopt a puppy and they would have come dewormed, deflead, microchipped, spayed/neutered, and vaccinated. Plus, the city shelter here offers free classes for adopters to train their animals and veterinary checkups. :)

I think a capstar only works for 24 hours. So if there's any flea eggs then once those hatch then you could have fleas again.

Petco's the worst. _{I haven't had good experiences with them}

srsly? thats sad. my local petco is actually a good plc. :c feel bad 4 u

It just depends I have only one cat and I have had her since I was 3 and shes 17 now. She acts fine even though I come home every day from the vet's office smelling like other cats, She doesn't flip out. Although I do think that not having other cats around has made her a bit more mellow and not territorial towards us or the other animals in the house.

If you have any questions about anything I'm Glad to help as much as I can or I can ask someone who does know!

Also I fully agree with Barcodes answer. Doing a combo snap FIV/FELV is extremely important before you go on with further treatment. and talk to your veterinarian, depending on the age of the kitten you may be able to start it on Revolution, It covers Fleas and Ear Mites as well as a few other parasites But where I work Those two are what we see a lot.
A Lot of people are saying Capstar, but capstar only works for 24 hours and only kills adult fleas not eggs which is a big problem. I know vet bills are expensive and I don't know if you're old enough to apply, but there are credit programs that help with that Care Credit is one we use in our Office

Well my cat came from a home where they hoarded cats and all the cats were very inbred, we got here since she was the runt of the litter and her mother refused to feed her. She was actually too young to be seperated from her mother and the vet said she would die. Right now she is a happy 13 yr old cat and the vet marvels at how healthy and active she is. We were VERY lucky that she didn't have serious health defects from being inbred, the most she got was a barely felt ball at the end of her tail. The thing is with strays and even some shelter cats you don't know what they're health history will be. I have adopted strays before and they have had serious health defects. However you are willing to put in the time, care and money I'd recommend a stray/shelter cat over a store bought one. Of all the cats we have had the only ones that tended to be nasty ( as in attacking people and not responding well to other pets) were store bought ones, but once again it depends on where you get the cat. The best thing is to ask questions before buying or adopting and finding anything you can about lineage or possible problems in health or care requirements.

Why? Petco's really not that great. :/ Though PetSmart's worse.

yeah

i'd say if you do get another cat you should get them use to smaller pets first they might grow up and not like each other because one is bigger start with a fish i started with a kitten that my sisters cat ac-decadently bred her name is ninja she has no seruis health problems and the next cat you get should be OK and ninja gets along fine with our dog witch i had since i was 3 this guy found her and could not take care of her i guess he was putting a ad on Facebook and dad thought she was cute and talked mom into getting her for me