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Women's Rights? posted:Cats can be VERY finnicky about their food when you try and change it. I had an old cat who refused to eat anything but Meow Mix. She would sit infront of a full bowl of much higher quality food and howl until we filled it up with the crap. They are stubborn bastards, and she may be a bit irritated that you tried to pull a fast one on her. Request granted:   She can be quite sweet, but I'm hoping the ridiculous amount of meowing and frantic running will be curbed once she becomes more and more adjusted to this house and our schedules. How long does it usually take for a kitty to adjust to a new home and calm down a little bit? She's adorable but the meowing can get really really loud and it's a bit annoying, so I'm hoping it's a "HOLY poo poo LOOK AT ALL THIS NEW STUFF!" thing. She's actually really good at not making any noise during the night, though. I got home from work today and she had finished off her whole bowl of food! No more worries. She was sneezing a little bit when we first brought her home but she seems to have stopped today. Thanks a bunch for the advice, it's much appreciated. This kitty's gonna live to be an old old lady if I have anything to say about it. This forum is a godsend. I love animals and work with them, but I've never had one of my very own (or at least not a normal one. I once lived with a cat that literally did nothing but sleep.), so all their little idiosyncrasies are new to me. Normal Dagny:  That is all! Edit: Oh goodness, when kitties are stalking something and they do the kitty-butt-wiggle before they launch 
No fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Oct 31, 2009 |
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Oct 31, 2009 00:55
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MY cat hasn't shut up for the last three years, Yours might not either 
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Oct 31, 2009 06:41
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I taught my cats to sit before I put the food dish down, but my calico still goes nutso while I'm putting the food in the dish. At least one of them waits patiently now.
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Oct 31, 2009 14:59
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Right now I feel like the worst cat owner in the world. One of our cats is currently recovering from urinary crystals and the resulting bladder infection. Today another of our cats has a very thin thread sticking out of his butt. I'm not sure what he ate, it looks like it might be the frayed thread off a jeans hem. We don't allow them to play with strings/yarn/anything similar, so I'm HOPING it's just a small fragment. He has been eating normally today and hasn't vomited. The problem is, he is normally a very high-anxiety cat and often hides and bites when he feels threatened. He also gets very anxious about eating and gorges/pukes. That concerns me because those are also the signs to look for with an obstruction. We had planned to take him for a check-up to address the anxiety, but then the other cat got crystals. I feel like I'm going to have to take him in on Monday just to be safe, which really sucks since you know, I just spent ~$500 last week on our other cat.  Obviously I am going to do what's best, but is there anything more specific I should look for before taking him in? Would it be a good idea to isolate him in a room with a litter box so I can check for strings, and I guess to make sure he even goes? He's a pretty awesome dude, so I'll post some pics too. Baby pic:  Click here for the full 604x402 image. Currently (the man loves a good chair):  Click here for the full 604x453 image.
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Nov 1, 2009 00:57
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Engineer Lenk posted:NILIF for cats? I guess it is . . . Do cats usually not respond to that sort of thing? I thought I'd give it a try at least.
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Nov 2, 2009 05:36
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HondaCivet posted:I guess it is . . . Do cats usually not respond to that sort of thing? I thought I'd give it a try at least. It's worked for a few PI'ers. One gal had to put the cats in another room before she could put the food down though because she could never get them to actually be quiet for 5 minutes before feeding, but it eventually worked. (I don't recall which poster that was)
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Nov 2, 2009 05:53
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HondaCivet posted:I guess it is . . . Do cats usually not respond to that sort of thing? I thought I'd give it a try at least. I think it's awesome, and my solution to the 'eat till you puke' scenario is more or less the same.
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Nov 2, 2009 06:26
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I read through the first couple pages of this post and didn't see anything about the financial responsibilities of owning a cat. I am planning on adopting a cat in the very near future and I want to know about how much money the cat will cost me a month. This is not including any of the initial investment, just litter, food, whatever else I may have to purchase on a regular basis. Also about how much is it for a vet visit?
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Nov 2, 2009 19:44
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Dangbe posted:I read through the first couple pages of this post and didn't see anything about the financial responsibilities of owning a cat. I am planning on adopting a cat in the very near future and I want to know about how much money the cat will cost me a month. This is not including any of the initial investment, just litter, food, whatever else I may have to purchase on a regular basis. Also about how much is it for a vet visit? Litter is about $8 for a big bag of it at Wal-Mart. It will last you a long, long time and is really a non-factor as long as you scoop regularly. It'll last you a few months with regular scooping. Cat food, it depends on what you buy. If you want to do your cat good and buy a premium food, it can be about $20 to $50 a 15lb bag which lasts 2-3 months depending on how hungry your cat gets. It might last more, I just know my two cats go through a bag in about 1.5 months. So that'd be $10 to $25 a month. Cheaper cat food can be anywhere from $5-25 a month, but may cause health problems later. Go to the pet nutrition thread and read it, for real. Call your local pet stores to see what they carry and the price. Vet visits for an annual checkup are about $30-$50 dollars. If your cat gets sick expect $50-$100 bucks. If it's an overnight thing, expect $200ish and if it's an emergency surgery/really bad/etc. expect $1000. Well, that's what my vet charges, but you can call around to vets and they'll be rather upfront about the prices. The emergency charges are a "probably will never happen, but could" kind of thing and you need to have the money available to get an exam if your cat starts getting sick, at the very least, at all times.
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Nov 2, 2009 20:29
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Dangbe posted:I read through the first couple pages of this post and didn't see anything about the financial responsibilities of owning a cat. I am planning on adopting a cat in the very near future and I want to know about how much money the cat will cost me a month. This is not including any of the initial investment, just litter, food, whatever else I may have to purchase on a regular basis. Also about how much is it for a vet visit? I spent about $50ish a month on my two adult cats. Vet care varys greatly upon the area you live, but here in Nor. Cal., it was $40ish for an office visit, and when you add routine yearly shots, it was about $100-$120 per cat, per year. Kittens cost less initially for food and litter, but more in vet costs. And then elderly cats get rather expensive in vet costs. An emergency visit where I thought my cat might have a broken leg, but didn't, was $200ish. That's $200 to just look at the drat cat when my regular vet was closed.
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Nov 2, 2009 20:52
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Dangbe posted:I read through the first couple pages of this post and didn't see anything about the financial responsibilities of owning a cat. I am planning on adopting a cat in the very near future and I want to know about how much money the cat will cost me a month. This is not including any of the initial investment, just litter, food, whatever else I may have to purchase on a regular basis. Also about how much is it for a vet visit? Vet visits are going to be dependent on your area. Checkups typically shouldn't run any more than $50-75, but again, YMMV. And if your cat gets sick, there's really no way for me to estimate what that will cost you. The most sensible thing to do is to have a savings account with money in it at all times, so in the sad event that your baby does get sick, you're not poo poo out of luck. As for food, litter, and toys, I would say I spend around $65 a month on food (4 cats, who go through one 15 lb bag of Taste of the Wild grain-free dry food and one case of Merrick 5.5 oz canned, grain-free wet food per month), and about $20 on litter. I buy toys on a semi-regular basis, but don't typically spend more than a few bucks on those. My cats' favorites are the kind on fishing poles (including the BEST TOY EVER MADE, Da Bird), so it's often just me replacing beat up toys that hang from the pole.
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Nov 2, 2009 20:53
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It's November, so I'm pleading for advice on one thing here: how the hell do you keep two very curious/psychotic kittens from attacking a christmas tree?Xerin posted:Litter is about $8 for a big bag of it at Wal-Mart. It will last you a long, long time and is really a non-factor as long as you scoop regularly. It'll last you a few months with regular scooping. If you have a Sam's Club membership, 40lbs of Fresh Step is $14, or their generic is $10. The generic does not control odor well though; one of my cats had an intestinal parasite, and dropped a load so godawful I had to use Vick's vaporub under my nose and a painter's respirator to keep from puking when I went and emptied it.
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Nov 3, 2009 04:30
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:It's November, so I'm pleading for advice on one thing here: how the hell do you keep two very curious/psychotic kittens from attacking a christmas tree?
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Nov 3, 2009 04:35
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:If you have a Sam's Club membership, 40lbs of Fresh Step is $14, or their generic is $10. The generic does not control odor well though; one of my cats had an intestinal parasite, and dropped a load so godawful I had to use Vick's vaporub under my nose and a painter's respirator to keep from puking when I went and emptied it. Costco has 30 lb tubs for $7-$8, with lemongrass and baking soda that do a decent job of odor control if your cats actually cover their poo poo.
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Nov 3, 2009 06:20
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:It's November, so I'm pleading for advice on one thing here: how the hell do you keep two very curious/psychotic kittens from attacking a christmas tree? You can't. You can only try to minimize the chaos. I've got fabric ornaments for the bottom branches, lots of unbreakable stuff, but it hasn't been an issue here for a few years. Pooky is gettig sedate in her old age. Skip the tinsel, it looks nasty in a litter box and even worse on an x-ray. Mind things like the hooks for hanging ornaments, foofy angel hair type stuff, and anything that a kitten might want to play with/chew on. A ceiling hook and some heavy duty fishing line will help prevent a crash if the kitties decide to scale it. Good luck.
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Nov 3, 2009 07:57
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Quick question for everyone. I recently moved into a new house and would like to adopt a cat. The major problem I have with it is I have a weird work schedule that consists of working 12 hour shifts with intermittent days off . I'm afraid that a single cat would be bored out of it's mind for duration of when I'm gone. So is the answer two cats?
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Nov 3, 2009 16:36
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Two's always better than one, especially if you can do a big favor to a shelter and adopt a pair of bonded adult cats (meaning, a pair that either already lived together at their previous home or a pair that has for whatever reason really hit it off at the shelter). Most shelters have a hard enough time adopting out adult cats singly, let alone as a pair.
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Nov 3, 2009 16:42
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constant gulping posted:Quick question for everyone. I recently moved into a new house and would like to adopt a cat. The major problem I have with it is I have a weird work schedule that consists of working 12 hour shifts with intermittent days off . I'm afraid that a single cat would be bored out of it's mind for duration of when I'm gone. So is the answer two cats? There are some cats who don't require that much interaction and prefer to be alone, but it's hard to predict that in the shelter. A laid-back middle age or senior cat (7+) could work, because they will sleep most of that time away. The easiest thing to do would be getting a bonded pair of adults (1+ years).
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Nov 3, 2009 16:48
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Thanks, I figured that two bonded cats would be the best. I read most all of the thread and that seemed to be the general thought, I guess I was just looking for confirmation. I wish I had shorter work hours, but I can't get around it. I'll look around the local rescue agencies and see what I can find.
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Nov 3, 2009 18:36
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Don't stress out over your work hours; yeah it sucks not to be able to spend time with them, but a pair of cats will get plenty of interaction from each other. As long as you provide them with comfy places to sleep, places to climb like cat trees, and good food, they'll be happy. And of course, love on them like nobody's business when you are home!
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Nov 3, 2009 18:39
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I've never posted in Pet Island before, but we've just been donated a cat that is a little over one year old. She was my girlfriend's sister/her husband's cat, and the reason they donated her is because they have 1 year old twin babies who take up a lot of their time these days as you would expect. Also there are some issues with them not getting on well. The cat has scratched the babies sometimes after they've been terrorising her I'm looking for reassurance really. She seems like a friendly cat, and likes to cuddle up with us. She did this lots on her first night in the house and also when we visited my sister and her husband when the cat was still living there. We introduced her to the our house it slowly. We let her out of the cat carrier, didn't play with her at all. We just let her snoop around and see what she thought of her new digs She's already litter trained (we bought a tray for her and she didn't need any help at all in using it, she went straight there first time).The problem is that she woke us up in the middle of the night meowing lots, and so we played with her for a little bit and went to sleep. She started again in the morning, and I've just gotten a text from my girlfriend saying that she's on the window sill looking outside as if she's looking for a way out, and just looking a little weirded out by it all. She also didn't seem to eat a lot of the food we gave her. Can I assume that it will take some time for her to "settle" down? Will she missing her old owners at all? We're thinking that it will take her a few days to get used to things (new routine and what not). Is the not eating food related to this?
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Nov 4, 2009 10:25
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Are you giving her the same type of food she had before? Sometimes they want the same thing, to switch types you have to mix the new food in. It's not odd for them to eat very little in a new environment. My cat meows most when she is bored, I can normally distract her with jingle balls and wand toys. Your new addition may just be a little disoriented though and I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Check for clean water, food , clean litter, then offer some distractions. Congrats! 1 year is around when I got my angels, it's the perfect age in my opinion. They are old enough to not be a pain in the rear end but they really are just starting life. And yes I think she is just settling in.
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Nov 4, 2009 11:16
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She has the same food, they gave us what she had been eating beforehand (what they had left) and when that runs out we'll continue getting it I guess. She doesn't seem to show much interest in the toys at the moment. We have jingle balls and a wand toy. When she hopped up on our bed in the middle of the night she started to scratch away at the duvet. Maybe she needs a post to keep her company
thehustler fucked around with this message at 12:01 on Nov 4, 2009 |
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Nov 4, 2009 11:58
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thehustler posted:She has the same food, they gave us what she had been eating beforehand (what they had left) and when that runs out we'll continue getting it I guess. What is the food? If it's a crappy one (or if you don't know), I'd suggest going over to the Pet Nutrition Megathread and learning about good foods, so you can switch her over. But in the meantime, yeah, it will most likely take her a few days to adjust to the new house. If she starts to exhibit warning signs, like not eating at all, you'll want to take her into the vet. In fact, it may not be a bad idea to take her in soon anyway. Not to say your girlfriend's sister neglected her or anything, but it's not a bad idea whenever you bring a pet into the house to have them checked out by a vet.
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Nov 4, 2009 14:22
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thehustler posted:
This all sounds perfectly normal. Watch her food consumption, and everything else Fire already said. Otherwise though, I wouldn't worry about stuff like meowing in the middle of the night or sitting on windowsills, those are perfectly normal cat things to do.
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Nov 4, 2009 15:22
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Fire In The Disco posted:What is the food? If it's a crappy one (or if you don't know), I'd suggest going over to the Pet Nutrition Megathread and learning about good foods, so you can switch her over. Did they ever sleep under the blankets with the old owners? My cat scratches at the blanket when she wants me to lift the corner so she can get under with me for bed tie, it took me like 6 months to figure it out. It's a random thing so she might just want a scratcher.
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Nov 4, 2009 15:26
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Cool, thanks for the reassurance. I'll report back with the food status. Apparently she did settle down after I left for work this morning, my girlfriend reports that she was happily snuggling down in the drawers under our bed (pull out things on wheels, they're full of linen and duvets etc )
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Nov 4, 2009 15:26
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Sounds like the perfect hidey-hole for a kitty!
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Nov 4, 2009 15:59
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Yeah, it'll definitely take her awhile to settle down. Did they give you any of her old stuff, like old beds or toys? If not, try to get them. It can help for them to have something old to sleep in/play with, something that has an old smell on it that's familiar to them. Other than that, it sounds like she is doing OK.
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Nov 5, 2009 07:40
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HondaCivet posted:Yeah, it'll definitely take her awhile to settle down. Did they give you any of her old stuff, like old beds or toys? If not, try to get them. It can help for them to have something old to sleep in/play with, something that has an old smell on it that's familiar to them. Other than that, it sounds like she is doing OK. She was much better last night. We had to kick her out of our bedroom because she was bugging us jumping up on the bed. But then she settled down by herself all night with no problems. We have her old toys, and we bought her a scratching post today which she seems to be loving
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Nov 5, 2009 13:29
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Here's another goofy cat question, this time about laser pointers. My cat is obsessed with them, to the point of waking me up at 3am demanding to play. I seem to remember seeing one online that controlled itself by a motor, or something. Has anyone seen this before? I can't find it.
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Nov 6, 2009 02:58
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BLOG KING posted:Here's another goofy cat question, this time about laser pointers. This one? Also available at petco.
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Nov 6, 2009 03:16
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oh my god why is this stupid animal attempting to suckle my nipple every time I lay down with my shirt off
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Nov 6, 2009 03:32
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:oh my god why is this stupid animal attempting to suckle my nipple every time I lay down with my shirt off Shirt off? Kinda asking for it, aren't you? 
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Nov 6, 2009 05:16
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BLOG KING posted:Here's another goofy cat question, this time about laser pointers. Eggplant Wizard posted:This one? Also available at petco. I have it. It works well, but I have to prop it up on stuff on the table or else it directs the laser beam onto the wall, at either angle that you can open the lid to. That makes it sort of annoying, but the cats dig it.
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Nov 6, 2009 05:16
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Eggplant Wizard posted:This one? Also available at petco. Ordered. My sleep cycle thanks you.
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Nov 6, 2009 14:27
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The RSPCA approved my family's application, so tomorrow at 10:30 a new kitty moves in  There's just one problem- we can't decide what to name her. We already have one black cat called Coco and the new kitten is just going to end up being called New Cat forever by the looks of things. My mum wants to call her Liquorice but I think that's a stupid name (although it is better than my anime freak brother's suggestion of Yoruichi). I need name suggestions. She's very cute and so small in my fat goony arms.
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Nov 7, 2009 00:26
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madlilnerd posted:The RSPCA approved my family's application, so tomorrow at 10:30 a new kitty moves in Guessing your brother wants to name the cat after this character. (No I don't watch the show, that's just what came up on Google) This is why you should disown your brother. She looks like a Bebe to me for some reason.
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Nov 7, 2009 01:15
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Fire In The Disco posted:My cats' favorites are the kind on fishing poles (including the BEST TOY EVER MADE, Da Bird), so it's often just me replacing beat up toys that hang from the pole. I went and picked one of these up in petsmart today and my kitten goes nuts over this thing. It's the first toy so far that's made him do flips and twirls in the air as he was playing. I had to put it down because he got too excited, it's that good. The old, fat, lazy cat that's not even mine even started jumping for this thing and he'll barely move to anything else. That is awesome.
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Nov 7, 2009 01:19
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madlilnerd posted:The RSPCA approved my family's application, so tomorrow at 10:30 a new kitty moves in Your cat is just crying out to be named "Beans"
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Nov 7, 2009 02:28
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