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Eggplant Wizard posted:
Thank you for all your help! There will be cat pictures at the end of this as a reward. I don't think my yelping is very convincing so far. Perhaps youtube will help teach me. I didn't notice any bitter apple spray when I went to the pet store near me so I will keep giving him the toy I just bought when he tries cords for now. I bought a kong wubba without a string. Cat loves it! He spent a good 15 minutes trying to destroy it before deciding it was nap time.  Click here for the full 800x600 image.
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Sep 18, 2010 21:01
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Eggplant Wizard posted:
Pulling away from a bite is what a prey animal would do, and can trigger an instinct to bite harder. You want to push into the mouth, which confuses the cat and they let go. But yeah, make a kitten yelp, and withdraw from the cat (after release). And as tempting as it is to play 'mouse' with a hand under a blanket, don't teach your cat that fingers (or toes) are toys. If the yelping never works out for you, I guess you could keep a squirt bottle in a holster at all times. I keep a squirt bottle in the kitchen, and on the computer desk (and sometimes in the bedroom) for naughty kitties.
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Sep 19, 2010 02:40
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Just got my second cat. Or rather, he got me. I found this little tuxedo cat on my way home and he just looked so sad as he kept loving all over me. I did not think I could walk away from him, literally. I think he would have followed me home. So I figure I will give this a shot. So I take him home and let him get to know Maury, my two year old male yellow tabby cat-thing. First day-kitten-no name yet, proceeds to hiss at Maury and makes him keep his distance from him. He kept getting up on the high ground and doing this little head cock thing he does. He would look at me and go, "what is this thing?" No fighting broke out. Next day-Maury figures out that the newcomer is a cat and a smaller cat and proceeds to assert himself. Much hissing and growling later, mostly on the kitten's part, Maury seems to have put the kitten in his place. It is discovered the poor little kitten must have lost his mommy because he kept trying to nurse on me all night. Discovered kitten has fleas and needs many baths. Later-Kitten now has a name Skipper, after an old ugly cat of the same variety we had when I was a kid. Maury and skipper have a few small fights, nothing serious and can't keep out of each others' literboxes. Skipper gets one more bath and brushing to be sure fleas are gone. No more fleas are seen and no more serious scratching. Working in a grooming shop pays off. Much later-Maury keeps trying to rape Skipper. Skipper won't let him though and poor Maury (he's fixed but likes to hump), performs rape-porn on my stuffed Bageera toy from the jungle book. I caught Maury grooming Skipper though so it's all good. Now-Skipper and Maury can sleep in the bed together and won't fight over the good spots. I've seen them playing together and I haven't heard or seen any fighting since I got home. No kitten piles but they will sit on the same object together and chill in the same room together and I am sure they play together. Right now Maury is on the floor and Skipper was chillin on the couch, now he's walked off again. All is good in the hood after only a week. ::smiles:: Wish I could post pictures but my cam-phone is very very lovely. :  :
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Sep 19, 2010 04:43
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One of Po's toes looks pinker than it should be and a little swollen. It doesn't seem to hurt her, but I'm worried  Is this something I should contact a vet over or did she just bump herself on something?Picture:  Click here for the full 1200x1600 image.
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Sep 19, 2010 20:34
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Shebrew posted:One of Po's toes looks pinker than it should be and a little swollen. It doesn't seem to hurt her, but I'm worried Kinda hard to tell from the picture but it's possible she just landed on it wrong and bumped it. I'd just keep an eye on it and if it looks like it's getting worse maybe head to the vet. My dumb cats used to get little scrapes and stuff once in awhile and they usually healed on their own just fine or with some neosporin.
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Sep 19, 2010 22:15
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I'm not really sure what's up with my 8 month old kitten or if it's even serious, but here's the rundown. Over the course of the last day, I've noticed that when he breathes, his nose is making a slight wheezing sound - think of the noise your nose makes when it's stuffed or clogged, its very similar. I haven't noticed anything different in his behavior or eating habits, just this. Have any of your cats had this before?
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Sep 20, 2010 23:36
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WaffleStomp posted:I'm not really sure what's up with my 8 month old kitten or if it's even serious, but here's the rundown. Over the course of the last day, I've noticed that when he breathes, his nose is making a slight wheezing sound - think of the noise your nose makes when it's stuffed or clogged, its very similar. I haven't noticed anything different in his behavior or eating habits, just this. Have any of your cats had this before?
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Sep 21, 2010 00:50
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Great, thanks. When we got him, his right eye would tear up alot and we had taken him to the vet and he was put on meds. His eye cleared up (yay!) about 2 months ago and he's been fine since, minus this sniffling. He's been eating normally, and going back to the bowl of dry food that they pick on regularly, so right now he seems fine, but I will definitely keep an eye out for him. Thanks for the tips!
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Sep 21, 2010 01:11
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Anyone have a good rule of thumb on how long kittens need to be on kitten food? I include pictures to help with the answer!   The boys are about 4 months old. We got them about a month ago from a local shelter. Sam (grey tabby) and Moe (orange tabby) are not content to eat their expensive, nice Chicken Soup for the Kitten, the want the Eukanuba that the adult kitties eat. Currently, to make sure they at least get some kitten food, I put them in the guest room with kitten food for a few hours, but this is kind of a pain in the rear end. Google says anywhere from 6 months to a year ... but what's the soonest they can eat adult food?
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Sep 21, 2010 02:46
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threnody posted:Anyone have a good rule of thumb on how long kittens need to be on kitten food?
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Sep 21, 2010 03:20
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I would just put all the cats on a high quality all-stages food, like TotW or Wellness CORE or Innova EVO.
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Sep 21, 2010 04:36
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Seconding the "try out a few brands" opinion. Wellness's kitten formula supposedly tastes bad to a lot of kittens, but it's literally the only dry food my 11-week-old will eat after taking him off the Science Diet adult formula he was being fed by his mama's owner.
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Sep 21, 2010 04:48
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drunk asian neighbor posted:Seconding the "try out a few brands" opinion. Wellness's kitten formula supposedly tastes bad to a lot of kittens, but it's literally the only dry food my 11-week-old will eat after taking him off the Science Diet adult formula he was being fed by his mama's owner. Yeah, my cats are loving crazy about food and they didn't like Wellness dry. Fortunately the store I bought it at will take stuff back if your cat doesn't like it. My guys have loved both EVO and Orijen and my mom's picky-as-hell bitchcat loves EVO too. And yeah, I think the "kitten food" thing is mostly marketing, a good all-stages food should be fine.
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Sep 21, 2010 04:55
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This might seem like a really, really dumb question - but truth is, I've never had a cat before. Ever. I just moved out of my parent's place maybe a month ago and will be moving from a temporary stay at my friend's place to an actual house. It's rather small (no larger than an average sized apartment, I suppose), three bedrooms + one bath, plus a relatively large basement and a small adjacent room. Right now you could probably say I'm CAT RETARDED, but less so after reading this FAQ. Anyway, how much space do two cats need? Since the way it looks like it now, I'll be adopting two kittens. (For the record, they will be named Roosevelt and Taft.)
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Sep 21, 2010 06:11
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That is more than enough room. They have significantly less at a shelter. You can make the tiniest apartment work by giving them vertical space with lots of things to get up on like bookcases and cat trees if possible.
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Sep 21, 2010 06:16
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ChairmanMeow is right, cats value vertical space more than horizontal so get them a cat tree or some furniture they can chill out on well above the floor. Younger cats enjoy having some room for zoomies and playing with toys but other than that, cats just need somewhere to lay around and be lazy most of the day. Your place sounds pretty sweet actually, it'd be a mansion if you were cat-sized. 
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Sep 21, 2010 06:33
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No name as of yet: She's awesome.
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Sep 21, 2010 11:38
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Thanks for the advice, guys - I'll see what the local pet shop has that the boys won't turn their noses up at. Also: Did you know kittens have no bones? 
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Sep 21, 2010 12:06
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Crooked Booty posted:Sounds like he has an upper respiratory infection. The sniffling you're describing may be as bad as it gets for him (hopefully), but sometimes it's only the beginning of a severe URI. The biggest issue with cats having stopped up noses is that sometimes if they can't smell their food, they won't eat, so watch out for that. If he stops eating, gets snotty, starts squinting, or gets nasty eye boogers, he may need to go to the vet for some antibiotics or eyedrops. I would just keep an eye on him for now and be prepared to take him to the vet if it gets worse. So I noticed this morning that he starts wheezing after he goes in the litter box. Could the litter be the cause of this? This is the litter I'm currently using - http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754842 We've been using this for the past month, but he's been on steroids for a prior issue. Now that he's been off for the past week, his wheezing starts 2 days ago.
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Sep 21, 2010 14:47
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My wife and I recently started caring for three orphaned kittens until they are ready to be adopted out. They were probably 2-3 weeks old when we found them and we've been caring for them for about 2.5 weeks. Two of them have been successfully weaned off of formula milk from a bottle and are progressing nicely. They eat solid food and are even beginning to clean themselves. The third one though is having problems eating wet kitten food mixed with water. The only way we can get it to eat is to spoon feed it and even then we have to practically shove the spoon in it's mouth. Sometimes I can slowly lower the spoon while it's eating out of the spoon to the dish and it will start to eat out of the dish, but will lose concentration after like 5 seconds and try to wander away. Today we are trying mixing the wet food with formula milk and isolating it from the other two kittens in a smaller enclosure, but I don't really know if this is the correct strategy. The other two kittens devour food right away when we give it to them, so we were thinking maybe the other kitten was intimidated and needed access to food without the other two kittens threatening to eat it. The vet has told us it will eventually learn, but I'm starting to worry it's not going to develop properly without eating more. I've heard anorexia can be a problem with kittens, but does anyone have any advice? Kittens are about 4-5 weeks old, not sure about sex but we think the problem kitten is male. We have three others cats but they aren't allowed access without supervision and even then they pretty much stay away.
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Sep 21, 2010 15:00
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So after the shelter gave me a cat that apparently was sick enough that he needed put down after 3 days in my home followed by a week in the hospital, I had a free cat coming my way. I took my time selecting one that wouldn't clash with my now probably 9 month old female, Betty. This guy is 2 months, 3 weeks old, and very, very social. Finding out he was raised with his siblings right up until adoption in a house that knew what they were doing put our fears at rest.  I know the conventional wisodom is to isolate a new kitten for at least a week for introductions, but drat it, I have no patience. Well, that and the new kitten was meowing constantly from behind her safe door and driving me crazy. Him having been checked by a vet also helped along with the fact that the first day Betty hissed at his constant meowing (thankfully shutting him up for a while), and then at his paws from under the door, she spent most of her time interested in him. In between scent and room swapping, each cat got plenty of treats and play near the door. I let them met at the door and it was fine. Initially I met to put him in his carrier but the door hadn't shut (kind of a bad latch), so my girl came in. She postured a little hissed, and did a little swat, but then ran immediately away to my room and hid under the bed. Little guy just looked at me like WTF, and I couldn't explain it, so he took off to see what that was all about. She growled, so I felt it was best to let things relax a little. Way to be alpha, Betty... After about two hours I caged him and let her come in. No hissing. Treats for all. An hour and a half later I let the ball of energy out of the room again. She hissed, he hissed back, then from then on it was pretty much just curiousity. He ran around sniffing everything even though I've done several room swaps for scent swapping, but she loved her new role as owner of everything, so she followed him around after he'd check something out and be all like, "Yep, that's mine! That's mine, too!" Pretty funny. She'd throw a paw at him to him in his place if she felt he was out of line, but nothing major or noteworthy happened between the pair. He is typical in his kittenhood, so he kept running, and occasionally she'd chase and swat, he'd check something out then chase her down. They really seemed to respect each others' boundries pretty well there. I actually fed them downstairs instead of upstairs near the safe room, three meals now, and that went well. Problem is kitty finishes first and pushes the "dominate" cat away to finish her food and she just kind of lets it happen. Good job, Betty! I have a feeling she isn't going to be quite the Queen Bee I thought she might be after given the house all just to her for a month or so. It was definitely encouraging to see them engage in some play, but each is still learning their place. New guy is still afraid of her since she's way bigger, but she's still quite unsure of herself overall (not really socialized well with either humans or cats at a young age I think). So hopefully we keep getting progress. Right now my kitten is still in the OMG CLIMB ON YOU EVER SECOND PHASE and is still suckling on our clothes. It's cute and annoying, so about when does this stop?
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Sep 21, 2010 15:30
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Congrats!I'm sure they went over this with you, I'm copying this just on the remote chance you haven't seen it "The environment of a cat with feline parvo should be considered infected. Food dishes, toys, cages, floors, and other items must be disinfected with bleach and water. Use half a cup of bleach to one gallon of water. Bedding and soft items should be washed in hot water." Parvo sucks so hard. What is his name?
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Sep 21, 2010 15:48
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ChairmanMeow posted:Congrats!I'm sure they went over this with you, I'm copying this just on the remote chance you haven't seen it At the end of the day and seeing four of the five Docs at the Animal Hospital, the all couldn't agree that it was actually parvo in the end. We just bleached everything and through the rest away. So far, so good! No name yet. Trying to decide if naming him Sully is disrespectful or not.
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Sep 21, 2010 16:22
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invalid posted:
If that's what you want to call him, go for it. It's honoring Sully 1. He's adorable. As for how long he's going to be climbing on you and sucking on your clothes, it's been a loooong time since I had a kitten around, so some one else might have a better answer for that.
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Sep 21, 2010 16:27
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WaffleStomp posted:So I noticed this morning that he starts wheezing after he goes in the litter box. Could the litter be the cause of this? This is the litter I'm currently using - http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754842 I'm no cat expert, I've only had my kittens for 3 months, but I was trying different kinds of cat litter and I did notice that the cheapo supermarket own brand one was quite dusty when I was putting it into their litter tray and Leon had a sniffly nose. My vet friend said to switch cat litter and see if that helped and it did, I'd say if you're worried to just pop him along to the vets anyway.
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Sep 21, 2010 21:52
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I have to bother you guys with another question, but my second cat Saturday and put him in safe room. Yesterday I noticed that behind the cardboard animal carrier I set up as a temporary hiding spot, and since I had got better arrangements I took the box and noticed there were two paper towels soaked in urine. The spraying must have gone on a while due to the amount. So I moved the littterbox there and ran to the store to get urine cleaner. When I came back to clean it he had already peed in the box. I cleaned the spot and added a new box where the old one was. Potential problem or just stressed kitten? He's less than 3 months but I don't want to let him out unsupervised if he pees on everything. I have friends for that.
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Sep 22, 2010 12:20
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Finally got the little bugger to stay still during the day light hours for a picture. This is Skipper.  Lol, he looks like he got no eyes- they're just shut. Aw just saw mutual kitten kisses! So sweet! ladymikochan fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Sep 23, 2010 |
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Sep 22, 2010 12:20
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invalid posted:I have to bother you guys with another question, but my second cat Saturday and put him in safe room. Yesterday I noticed that behind the cardboard animal carrier I set up as a temporary hiding spot, and since I had got better arrangements I took the box and noticed there were two paper towels soaked in urine. The spraying must have gone on a while due to the amount. He was probably pretty freaked out so I'd just keep an eye on him. If he keeps using the box properly without straining or anything I'd say he's cool.
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Sep 22, 2010 15:09
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I'm hoping you're right. The funny thing it was about a foot from the Feliway plug in. The paper towels definitely been used multiple times but they weren't fresh soaked and am hoping that all came from his first couple of days. Since then he's been out and playing with the other cat, and both seem to be loving it. Still, I must look like a freak checking everything for urine after he stands near them
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Sep 22, 2010 15:49
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invalid posted:I'm hoping you're right. The funny thing it was about a foot from the Feliway plug in. Where did he come from? If he was outside a lot or something it might've taken him a bit of time to recognize the litter box as the potty zone. My parents made a little shelter for their farm cats and one of them insisted on using a rug instead of the litter box just because she hadn't used litter before and the rug was probably comfier to her. 
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Sep 22, 2010 18:02
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I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask, but someone or something has cut my cat's whiskers on the right side of her face so there's only a quarter inch or so remaining. Will this affect her in any way such as balance or thinking she can get through holes she can't? Also is it better that she still has her left whiskers than if she had none at all?
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Sep 23, 2010 03:22
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CJ posted:I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask, but someone or something has cut my cat's whiskers on the right side of her face so there's only a quarter inch or so remaining. Will this affect her in any way such as balance or thinking she can get through holes she can't? Also is it better that she still has her left whiskers than if she had none at all? She isn't going outside is she? If so maybe something/someone outside got her, I'd be kinda worried. Anyway, whiskers mainly help cats make their way through dark and narrow places without bumping into stuff. They also help express mood. So no, she probably won't be wobbling around but she might bump into stuff sometimes. It might be kinda weird for her but she'll be fine I'm sure.
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Sep 23, 2010 05:48
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HondaCivet posted:Where did he come from? If he was outside a lot or something it might've taken him a bit of time to recognize the litter box as the potty zone. My parents made a little shelter for their farm cats and one of them insisted on using a rug instead of the litter box just because she hadn't used litter before and the rug was probably comfier to her. He came from a foster right before going to the shelter. He should know better for sure judging from all the other non accidents with the litterbox. I am starting to suspect the other cat because when I went for some supervised interaction she smelled the old corner and immediately laid down a huge girl pee in his litterbox. Kind of funny since she doesn't really even fit there, but I could see it being her doing the few interactions that had taken place before that I didn't notice. And I know this one is a strange one, but has anyone trained their cats to bury their waste? With the new cat's arrival my old one did not bury one of her deposits, which is out of character and I suspect a dominance based issue, but I got her in there and said something stupid like "Bury!" and got her to bury it. She got a treat and it hasn't been a problem since. Normally this is such a small issue (other than smell) but because this particular box is a ScoopFree, the stuff can get stuck in the blades. Now the kitten has had about 5 episodes of this. This first one happened in his safe room and I awkwardly put him back in saying the same thing, then manually took his paw and burried it with him. He got his treat and thought I was crazy. But now that he's a worldly man by apartment standards, he's tried the ScoopFree downstairs. My other cat didn't attack him while using it, but she did make him uncomfortable using it, so he's just kind as bolted ASAP like he's doing something wrong. Same thing as the first where I put him back in and 'helped' him bury it then gave him a treat. The next time he just failed and scratched the side of the box and got some help. The next few times he was just put back in and got it. This has been a bit of the exception but I'm worried that he's learning to get treats if he doesn't bury his deposits when I'm around. Oh, and I wanted to thank everyone here for all the help. I really would have been just happy with two cats who would just tolerate each other given my rehomed psycho cat's experience with my current girl, but now I have two cats that play together like awesome kittens (despite an age difference of almost 7 months... not to mention size), and their wrestling matches have been epic and entertaining. This cat stuff is the good business!
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Sep 23, 2010 13:48
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Ok cat ladies. Help. I brought home a second cat on Friday to try and remedy Oliver's HORRIBLE biting habit. Ollie has been doing a lot better recently, but he is still nowhere where he should be. Also I suspect he'll never be a pettin' cat. My boss has been trying to pawn off her 5 year old tuxedo girl for about a month, and so when we decided to get the second cat, we went to her. So here she is! I set her up in the master bath with a litterbox, food and water, a baby blanket to lay on and a soft chaser toy to bat about. She hates me. She hates everyone and everything. She straight up attacks you when you open the door- I can't take a poo poo, let alone shower. I've been using the other bathroom. If she can hear you on the other side of the door, she starts growling. Oliver is extremely interested to find out what is in there but little does he know SHE IS DANGEROUS. She's been hanging out in the tub for a long while, but then she pooped and peed in there so I guess now she's moved on to laying on the bath mat. I don't think she's eaten anything yet and she's been here for 24 hours. Now I have two problems. Help 
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Sep 25, 2010 23:55
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Our cat has been licking its butt a lot lately, pretty much compulsively. He doesn't seem to be having any problems going to the toilet, and he has been wormed regularly. Should we be taking him to see the vet? Could it be diet-related? He gets good quality bikkies in the morning and a bit of steak with bikkies at night. He is 3-4 years old, male neutered domestic short-hair. He's doing it heaps more than he used to, and it's pretty weird.
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Sep 26, 2010 00:25
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riichiee posted:Our cat has been licking its butt a lot lately, pretty much compulsively. He doesn't seem to be having any problems going to the toilet, and he has been wormed regularly. Should we be taking him to see the vet? Could it be diet-related? He gets good quality bikkies in the morning and a bit of steak with bikkies at night. He is 3-4 years old, male neutered domestic short-hair. He's doing it heaps more than he used to, and it's pretty weird. Yeah I'd go to the vet. Any sudden changes like that are usually bad. I'm not sure what it could be, maybe impacted anal gland? Either way something's clearly bugging him so I'd get him to the vet. CompactFanny, do you have any Feliway you could give her? Other than that it might just take some time for her to calm down. Also, how do you think she's going to get along with Oliver? Was she an only cat? What do you know about her?
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Sep 26, 2010 02:24
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CompactFanny posted:Ok cat ladies. Help. I don't have any helpful advice, but I guess it makes sense that she's been trying to give them drat cat away. I wish people were more upfront about their animals' behavioral problems instead of just dumping them on other people and letting them have a nasty surprise.
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Sep 26, 2010 02:57
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Well I'm definitely going to chat with her about this, but really I think it will come as a surprise to her. She's been wanting to get rid of it because it pisses off her husband (by loving him, the cat hater) and the kids never play with it and blah, blah, blah. I think she's just tired of buying litter to be honest. She was an only cat, adopted from the humane society- but she's not spayed? They didn't tell me that until I picked her up, which is strange. So I'll have to eat that cost. All I know about her is that she got along well with their 2 small dogs (the dogs were old, and have since passed on). I'm planning on picking up a Feliway plugin tomorrow, and have been periodically going into the bathroom about my business. It's 5:30am here, and after I woke up I noticed her mewing quietly in there.  Oliver was sitting outside the door listening.At any rate my boss agreed that if Ollie and New Cat (her name's Bella, but I don't like that) don't get along, she'll take Bella back. I'm going to give her time to adjust before she meets Ollie anyway.
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Sep 26, 2010 10:32
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Augh, you should make your boss pay for the spay, that's ridiculous. That's good that she's calmed down a little bit at least. I'm sure it's a pretty crazy situation for her, no wonder she's so unhinged. Cats and change don't mix so well.
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Sep 26, 2010 17:50
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Wow, sounds like a very stressed out kitty. I hope it's just nerves and she calms down soon, but it sounds like she could've had some behavioral issues go unnoticed by the former owner. Sorry to switch gears here, but we're thinking of adopting an older cat!  Recently we petsat for a friends cat, a neutered adult tuxedo, and our cats got along fine and were playing with him by the end of the week. I even saw some tentative grooming and sleeping close to each other, so I'm relatively convinced we can easily integrate another adult without much problem. I don't want a kitten because gently caress that energy level, really. This cat will make three, the other two are Tom (2 1/2 yr old) and Tillie (2 yr old). We plan to adopt from the local high-kill shelter, since they actually do a fair amount of temperament testing and it's free to adopt 5+ year old kitties; they even toss in bonus discounted vet care. Conveniently enough, we've also been getting a bunch of new kitty stuff before this idea even occurred, as if subconsciously we were planning this, so we've got a new Amarkat mansion in addition to our old crappy Petco one, a new running water fountain, a new self-cleaning box and a bigger storage bin for their food. I'm also ordering a Feliway plug-in as I write this. These are my 'things I need to address before just running out and getting kitty': 1.) Health. Most of the cats we're looking at are over 5 years old and some have dental issues. The shelter will give us 2 years of discounted vet care, so money isn't a worry, nor is time invested in care, but how do I acclimate an adult cat to brushing its teeth without using treats and getting the teeth more dirty? Are there good dental health treats out there? 2.) Food. My guys are on Halo Indoor (Spot's Stew, Salmon flavor) and are free fed because they've been good about it, but is this good for possible dental issues? Should we stop free feeding? and lastly, 3.) Behavior. I wanna adopt an older kitty that's likely gonna be put down, so I anticipate some behavior issues and have been reading the thread for ideas on how to counteract them, but any additional tips or personal anecdotes would be fantastic. One of the cats I've been looking at has a tendency to swipe when she's overstimulated, and my first instinct to modify that would be to go slow and give her attention in short amounts, setting her up for success and rewarding her for not swiping, then slowly increasing the time spent giving her attention, using treats and praise. Is that a good strategy or am I thinking too 'dog'?  And yes, I will post a veritable Pakistan-sized flood of pictures.
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Sep 26, 2010 18:07
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