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Keep using the DE, but don't put it directly on anything they sleep on or directly on them or anything. It's not meant for that. Just wash beds and stuff in the washing machine. Your vet can tell you if they're old enough for drops. Most flea treatment products that aren't drops/pills aren't worth the money because they usually just don't work. Anything Hartz brand is bad and flat out dangerous, avoid at all costs. Name brands that your vet issues/recommends are safe, so don't worry about that.
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Nov 26, 2011 02:08
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I had been reading up on how to take care of a cat. I've never had one before and really had little exposure to one. I decided to go to the Humane Society to look at the cats and see if I liked them. I don't make any decisions in my life hastily, anything of any consequence I take a long time to think about and consider. I swore I was just going to go look... I had not even bought anything or set up my place to be cat friendly! She is a month old. She would not let me go without her. I am afraid she may have psychic powers. Left, bought supplies, hastily cat proofed my home, went back for her. I am pretty sure she is broken. She has been crawling over me non stop the two last hour and is constantly purring. She seems like a very, very, very happy kitty. I don't think anything this small is allowed to be this happy... I had a lot of dogs growing up, later in life I had frogs, salamanders, fish and guinea pigs. I've never seen any animal adjust to it's new home so quickly, is this strange, or is it just a cat thing? Questions: 1. What are the odds I need to worry about fleas? They were in a shelter, but the place is pretty clean. My new kitty seems very, very happy, I don't want to traumatize her by giving her a bath right away, should I? 2. I set up her food and water and a liter box. She drank some, she ate some, she used the liter box right away and buried it. I removed anything I don't want to risk being soiled from the floor, but how likely is it I am going to have to deal with accidents? 3. I got two little beds for it. Where should I put them? Someplace covered? Someplace in a corner? Someplace open? 4. Should I prevent her from sleeping in my bed tonight? I don't mind, I think it would be neat, but I fear I could roll over and hurt her. She is all over me constantly, I don't know if I could stop her from trying to sleep in my bed. 5. How young a cat can I put something like soft-paws on? I bought a generic brand of them today, supposedly designed for kittens. Diogines fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Nov 26, 2011 |
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Nov 26, 2011 02:08
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Kerfuffle posted:Just wash beds and stuff in the washing machine. Your vet can tell you if they're old enough for drops. Phew. I was worried just washing and drying clothes and bedding wouldn't be enough. quote:Most flea treatment products that aren't drops/pills aren't worth the money because they usually just don't work. Anything Hartz brand is bad and flat out dangerous, avoid at all costs. Name brands that your vet issues/recommends are safe, so don't worry about that. My vet gives me Frontline which I've never had any problems with but when I googled for ways to get fleas off kittens I ran into a bunch of sites that claimed using this was tantamount to feeding my cats poison.
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Nov 26, 2011 02:43
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Diogines posted:I had been reading up on how to take care of a cat. I've never had one before and really had little exposure to one. I decided to go to the Humane Society to look at the cats and see if I liked them. Are you sure she's a month old? That is very, very young. Most shelters do not let kittens go until at least 2 months. 1. You shouldn't have to give her baths unless she rolls in something gross or toxic. Don't worry about fleas until you see a flea. Then, talk to your vet about appropriate flea treatments for a small kitten. 2. Cats will use litter instinctively. You don't have to train them like dogs. Sounds like she's dong fine. Cats usually will not pee in random places unless they are sick or stressed. 3. See where she likes them. On your desk might be a good place (if there's room), or near your couch, or another place she can be close to you. It sounds like she's friendly and outgoing, and doesn't sound like she needs a place to hide. 4. Depends on how sound a sleeper you are. If you rolled on her, she would wriggle and squeak.
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Nov 26, 2011 03:13
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McKracken posted:My vet gives me Frontline which I've never had any problems with but when I googled for ways to get fleas off kittens I ran into a bunch of sites that claimed using this was tantamount to feeding my cats poison. This is one of many examples of why the internet is useless for anything medical. Look up any kind of medication you're taking or ever have taken, and you'll undoubtedly find someone has claimed to have poo poo blood from it or something similar. It could be that infamous stories of Hartz treatments has given people the wrong idea about ALL flea medications though. :|
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Nov 26, 2011 03:37
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Diogines posted:5. How young a cat can I put something like soft-paws on? I bought a generic brand of them today, supposedly designed for kittens. On this point, I would personally not do the soft paws unless she exhibits a real scratching problem. In the meantime, get a decent nail clipper (I prefer scissor-style to the "guillotine" style) and get her used to regular clipping RIGHT AWAY while she's young. Hopefully she gets used to it, and you can keep it up regularly and won't have to worry about scratching damage. Also get a scratching post if you didn't already. Also, I've always given cats a bath on the first day after coming home from the shelter because they're usually smelly. But after that, you generally don't have to worry.
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Nov 26, 2011 03:55
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Drink and Fight posted:Are you sure she's a month old? That is very, very young. Most shelters do not let kittens go until at least 2 months. They said a month. The person who brought her down got into what looked like a small argument with the people at the desk over letting her go, but I didn't really understand it, she is a month old though. SupahCoolX posted:Sounds like you're doing everything right so far, and the previous answers given are good. There is literally almost nothing in my house she could ruin, besides clothes and my couch. My place is pretty bare. My couch is a semi expensive leather couch though, a gift, I am afraid she will tear it to pieces. If the couch is damaged, the family member who gave it to me will be upset. Besides giving her lots of other things to scratch and teaching her to use them, is there anything else I can do to protect that couch? I got a sort of S curved scratching post identical to the one she had at the shelter and she is using it, I also got a few sort of cardboard thingys which seemed like a good idea, I put them around my place.
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Nov 26, 2011 04:04
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Diogines posted:They said a month. The person who brought her down got into what looked like a small argument with the people at the desk over letting her go, but I didn't really understand it, she is a month old though. Can you post a picture? That would help us guess her age. I've never done anything for my cats' nails myself, so I have no advice on clipping or Softpaws. But, whenever mine are starting to claw something I don't want them on, I just say NO in a firm voice, and they stop. You have a young kitten who loves you, so this is the perfect time for that sort of reinforcement. If that's not working, you can also use double-sided tape, or there are citrus sprays and stuff that smell bad to cats, but I haven't personally used those either.
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Nov 26, 2011 04:27
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What do you guys think of this for my 2 kittens? If it's no good, I'll just get a giant Van Ness enclosed little box. http://www.amazon.com/Omega-Paw-Self-Cleaning-Litter-Pewter/dp/B005E2S77C/ 
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Nov 26, 2011 05:13
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I'm going to share a pretty rough story, guys, but I have to get it off my chest. My family is not going to come off very well in this story. So, my dad, step-mom, and little sister are always going through a lot of cats for various reasons. They are all indoor/outdoor (which I think is unwise) and this occasionally leads to early deaths, which leads to acquiring more cats of varying ages, which leads to dysfunction and discord amongst cat/cat relationships within the house. Several years ago they acquired a cat named Oweo (pronounced like Oreo) who was problematic from the beginning. She was never very friendly to humans or animals, was a bully to the other cats, would refuse to cuddle and if you tried to so much as pet her she'd just growl and scratch/bite you. They figured she would grow out of this; she didn't. So about a year and a half ago they got a pair of kittens, and Oweo was acting dangerously aggressive around them - she's a very big and overweight cat and unafraid of attacking anything or anyone, so it could have been a very bad situation. They found a friend of the family who wanted to take her in, and so they gave her up, and were extremely happy to be rid of her. Problem solved. Until about a month ago, when this friend finally got fed up with Oweo herself. She sent my dad a long e-mail explaining how difficult Oweo was, how awful it was to have a cat that you feed, care for, pay vet bills for... while getting no affection and companionship in return. That Oweo was never happy, that her friends had started avoiding coming to her apartment because Oweo would unrepentantly attack anyone she saw, fiercely. The gist of the e-mail was that she was surrendering her to a local no-kill shelter. That was about a month ago. Cut to a few days ago, and me and my father went to visit Oweo at the shelter. Even though she hadn't been our cat for a while, we still feel very responsible. And I have to say that it was easily one of the saddest, most heart-breaking and difficult pet-related experiences I've ever had. Oweo was all alone in her own cage there, and when she saw us she recognized us right away (despite not having seen us in almost two years) and began walking around frantically in her little enclosed space, purring loudly and trying rubbing up against our fingers that we pushed through the bars. She was so genuinely happy and ecstatic to see us, and clearly so miserable to be in her current situation. It was just so tough, the whole experience had me crying. She was never a great cat, like I said, and did get herself kicked out of two different homes for bad behavior, but I hardly feel she deserves that, not that any of those decisions were my own. I'm seriously considering just adopting her myself because it is SO goddamn hard to see a cat that was originally part of my family in that situation, but I don't think I can do it. My current cat, Jackie, used to live with Oweo and those two REALLY did not get along - Jackie is as sweet and gentle as they come, and Oweo was always incredibly awful to her. So I can't do it. But goddamn, it was so hard to walk out of that shelter. She was whining and frantically scratching at the cage as we left - she probably thought we had come to finally take her home  (sorry for writing that novel, guys. i just had to get that off my chest, i understand if you think me and my family are heartlessly cruel pet-owners.)
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Nov 26, 2011 07:04
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Josh Lyman posted:What do you guys think of this for my 2 kittens? If it's no good, I'll just get a giant Van Ness enclosed little box.
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Nov 26, 2011 11:55
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I've wanted a cat for a while now, and for Black Friday the Humane Society waived adoption fees so I picked up a kitty. Her name is (was) Sugar, which I changed to Sylvia -- because Sugar is a filthy stripper name -- and she's a 4-yo shorthair mix. When I got her home, she explored for about 2 minutes and then lodged herself in the back of my closet, where she stayed for several hours. When she heard me pouring food she came out and then became a bit more accustomed with my place. She's still hesitant of the living room and kitchen, and hasn't gone into the office, but she's doing well in the bathroom and bedroom. Anyway, my real question is that last night when I was sleeping she decided to get adventurous or something and she was active all night long. She got brave enough to come on the bed with me, which is great, but then she just meowed and made noise and jumped all over everything all night. From being in bed for 8 hours, I think I got 5 hours of sleep. Should I be concerned about this, or is this natural behavior of her getting more comfortable and exploring? I run on a sleep deficit because of med school already, and it would really suck to have another sleep interference 
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Nov 26, 2011 16:17
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Laminator posted:I've wanted a cat for a while now, and for Black Friday the Humane Society waived adoption fees so I picked up a kitty. Her name is (was) Sugar, which I changed to Sylvia -- because Sugar is a filthy stripper name -- and she's a 4-yo shorthair mix. When I got her home, she explored for about 2 minutes and then lodged herself in the back of my closet, where she stayed for several hours. When she heard me pouring food she came out and then became a bit more accustomed with my place. She's still hesitant of the living room and kitchen, and hasn't gone into the office, but she's doing well in the bathroom and bedroom. 
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Nov 26, 2011 16:31
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madpanda posted:Adopted my cat last night! I was getting worried, as of last night she hadn't come out or used the litter box, but ate a half can of wet food. At around 3am she decided to come out and start meowing, she followed me around the apartment and I dropped her in the litter box again, showed her the kitchen food. She then spent the next hour meowing, coming up onto the bed for pets when I called her, jumping off and repeating. This morning the wet food I put down is gone and she used the litter box  When I woke up she came out again for another round of petting, then promptly went back under the bed.
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Nov 26, 2011 21:15
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Perhaps she just wants to sleep in? Edit: Apparently garlic is toxic to cats. I am a garlic fiend, I love garlic. I cook with garlic in almost everything and I mean everything. If my kitten licks a little powder off of the counter, will it cause injury? Double edit: My kitten seems obsessed with my eyes, any thoughts? When I am laying down and trying to sleep, she likes to poke at my closed eyes with her nose and then with her paw. It is sort of cute, but I worry if I don't stop her she'll cause injury when she gets bigger... Diogines fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Nov 26, 2011 |
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Nov 26, 2011 21:45
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I posted a little while ago about helping my girlfriend adopt a kitty. That's not going to happen now, because her housemate ended up adopting a little guy from the litter she was looking at. This is Griffin, on my shoulder where he seems to really like to sit.  He seems pretty cheerful. He's eating, drinking and pooping just fine. He wasn't burying poos but I showed him how and now he seems to be doing it fine. Coco, the other cat is somewhat unimpressed, she tolerate's Griffin's presence but sometimes hisses over in his direction and leaves the room if he gets too close. That's pretty normal, right? She's improving, but seems a bit stressed. Any advice on calming their introductions a bit? They'll never be in the same room unsupervised until he's full sized.
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Nov 27, 2011 03:53
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Yeah that's pretty typical. Read over the cat introduction section in the OP of this thread. Getting a feliway plug can help the older cat out stress-wise. Just don't rush it.
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Nov 27, 2011 07:16
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Took in a stray this year, first and only cat. She loves being outside and sleeps all day then goes bonkers until I let her out, and letting her out for a little while doesn't placate her. This will be her first winter and we're almost to freezing now at night. Are cats OK in the cold? If not will she automatically choose to stay in once she realizes it's dangerous? Thanks because we can't sleep at night unless she's out because shell just roam around getting more and more frustrated and scratching/jumping. She's usually out several hours a day too. We live on a few private acres so her outdoorsyness isn't a problem I don't think, we really love her so I'm stressed about it.
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Nov 27, 2011 07:50
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I have a pair of 6 month-old kittens who seem determined to be at their most maniacal between 1 and 3am. I've been trying to interrupt their daytime sleeping with playtime, and trying to wear them out as much as possible between 11 and midnight, because this 1-3 thing is driving me nuts. Anyone had success with any particular strategies for getting cats who sleep at night? Or advice? Or anything? As pre-payment, here are my kittens: 
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Nov 27, 2011 10:50
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Aelia posted:Anyone had success with any particular strategies for getting cats who sleep at night? Or advice? Or anything? Cats, yes. Kittens, no. Have fun with your rear end in a top hat kittens (but I reapeat myself). Just wait till they grow up, they should calm down.
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Nov 27, 2011 15:39
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AlphaDog posted:This is Griffin, on my shoulder where he seems to really like to sit. You know, I was just scrolling quickly through this thread and for a split second I though either you or the kitty had grown some sort of ridiculous cat/human shaped tumor.
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Nov 27, 2011 17:17
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What happens if a cat licks off their Frontline?
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Nov 27, 2011 20:01
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After watching a seriously grumpy and aggressive cat get her claws clipped yesterday I figured my docile and generally happy cats will live through it. Figaro licked me as he rolled around on his cat tree, didn't seem to care that his claws were touched at all. But he's kinda dumb and lacks body awareness (I have legs?! Whose tail is that?!) Watson was okay for the first three nails then realized what was up and got a bit unhappy with me but he stayed on my lap and let me finish. Don't think he is talking to me for a few hours though.
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Nov 27, 2011 20:11
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tools and equipment posted:What happens if a cat licks off their Frontline? A lot of people put Frontline on cats in the same spot as dogs (between the shoulder blades), which is really easy for a cat to lick off. It's better to put it up really high on the neck so they can't turn around and get to it.
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Nov 27, 2011 20:25
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wraithgar posted:Cats, yes. Kittens, no. Have fun with your rear end in a top hat kittens (but I repeat myself). That's pretty much what I expected to hear. I knew what I was getting into with kittens, which is why I'd initially looked at older cats. However, these two apparently kept getting passed over for adoption, and one of them had even been "returned*" and I just couldn't say no. I guess what happened is that somebody dumped three unfixed cats in the East Bay Area suburbs somewhere. The locals figured out something was up when they found nine kittens wandering around. Some un-named couple began playing with and feeding them, but didn't take them in or anything, but when two kittens had their eyes fall out (literally) because of eye infection or injury, they called a local rescue. Those two kittens lost their eyes (big surprise) and the whole lot of them (and their parents) were placed in fosters with said rescue. They were all super sweet cats, and I wanted one (or both) of the one-eyed ones, but the boyfriend was too creeped out by the idea, so I'm going to sponsor the one-eyed cat and we adopted two of the nine. _____ * Lady got pregnant and was worried about toxoplasmosis, so she gave it back.
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Nov 27, 2011 21:46
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Are there any good flea collars? Grumples and Hat keep getting fleas, and Frontline has failed us twice now.
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Nov 27, 2011 22:53
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Kerfuffle posted:Yeah that's pretty typical. Read over the cat introduction section in the OP of this thread. Getting a feliway plug can help the older cat out stress-wise. Just don't rush it. Oh yeah, I read that, just wondering if there was further advice. I'll check into the feliway thing. Thanks!
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Nov 28, 2011 00:54
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Aelia posted:* Lady got pregnant and was worried about toxoplasmosis, so she gave it back. The amount of stupid and wrong things people think about pets in general boggles the mind.
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Nov 28, 2011 01:03
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marshmallard posted:Are there any good flea collars? Grumples and Hat keep getting fleas, and Frontline has failed us twice now. Nope. They are pretty much all awful. There is a flea megathread around here with great advice, but you should try topical alternatives like revolution or advantage. Edit: the thread is about 3 pages back, I can't link it using the app. RheaConfused fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Nov 28, 2011 |
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Nov 28, 2011 01:45
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I think my kitten is trying to geld me. I don't know why, she was already spayed when I got her, so it cant be a revenge angle. She loves sitting on my lap, which is fine. The problem is she keeps stepping on my balls...
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Nov 28, 2011 02:49
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My kitty licked much but not all of the Frontline off of herself. I apparently didn't put it high up enough on her neck. Now I don't know whether to re-apply or not. :-/ Diogines, once my husband was sitting at the computer and our cat leaped onto his lap and his back paw slipped between the buttons in the fly of his PJ pants and left a huge scratch on his dick head. Yep. Be careful with that!
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Nov 28, 2011 04:39
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I posted this in the black cats thread, but it occurs to me I might get more responses in the cat advice thread. Backstory on the stray cat here. quote:I'm starting to get a bit concerned about my stray cat's behavior. She was already hanging around outside my apartment a lot but now she seems to be there *all the time* when I'm home, even when it's dark out and the windows are closed. She just sits outside the window and stares...and stares...and stares. Sometimes she'll hop up on this ledge outside the window by my bed and stare in almost directly at eye level with me. This is driving my cat crazy, who runs around trying to get the best vantage point, making concerned and frustrated noises and generally trying to stare down the stray cat. Sometimes they'll sit on either side of the front door and meow at each other. The stray cat has even meowed at me through the window, even after she's been fed. What is going on with this cat? She still runs if I get too close and definitely doesn't want to come in or be petted. She just wants to stare. Anyone familiar with semi-ferals? Is she trying domesticate herself? Is she madly jealous of the Inside Cat? Or does she just really enjoy staring into my apartment?
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Nov 28, 2011 05:00
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And it's kind of creepy.
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marshmallard posted:Are there any good flea collars? Grumples and Hat keep getting fleas, and Frontline has failed us twice now. There are also neato oral medications in meat pill form (like heartworm meds) that people have had success with, but I'm not certain if they are available in the UK. Your problem with them not working is likely because the fleas in your area have developed an immunity. If you call up your vet they might be able to give you their best suggestion. If they recommend frontline it would be helpful for them to know about it not working. But yeah, check the flea megathread for how to de-flea your house. I recall you have wood floors, so you're fortunate in that area.
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Nov 28, 2011 06:49
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wraithgar posted:The amount of stupid and wrong things people think about pets in general boggles the mind. Yeah, I wasn't too impressed, either. I suppose I shouldn't complain too much about her stupid, though, since it resulted in me getting my twin terrors.
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Nov 28, 2011 09:13
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ABFA00 posted:The FAQ seems like mostly kitten stuff but: I have a four year old cat who I've had for about a month and a half, adopted from the MSPCA I volunteer at. When I got her, they said she was special because she's female and calico and extremely friendly. Apparently friendly female cats are rare and friendly female calico cats are even rarer. She loves everyone she's met, greets me at the door when I come home, purrs all the time and meows a lot, I think she gets bored and might like a playmate, or more interactive toys, but the only real problem I have with her is that she bites me. Not constantly, and it doesn’t seem like she's doing it to be a jerk (it's not like she comes up and starts attacking) but it's annoying. She'll just be sitting on my desk next to me and my laptop purring, getting petted occasionally, and then suddenly reach her cat face over and bite me. She'll also do it sometimes when she's sitting on my lap in bed or watching tv or something. I asked this earlier as well and got very little response, so here goes: My cat bites as well, but he's not overstimulated (he often walks up seemingly ONLY to bite me) - I think he does it for attention. He knows a bite will get immediate negative attention, whereas I've learned to ignore his meows (he mews CONSTANTLY whenever we pass by the room with his food dish, despite him getting more than adequate nutrition and a bit of a potbelly). What I've been doing that's curbed it a little bit is going "Ow!" whenever he bites, and if he's in my lap or next to me on the bed/couch he gets dumped on the floor. When he's not bitey, I try to give him lots of petting and attention, but the second he bites he is dead to me (...for about fifteen minutes).
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Nov 28, 2011 14:56
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Kerfuffle posted:There are also neato oral medications in meat pill form (like heartworm meds) that people have had success with, but I'm not certain if they are available in the UK. Your problem with them not working is likely because the fleas in your area have developed an immunity. If you call up your vet they might be able to give you their best suggestion. If they recommend frontline it would be helpful for them to know about it not working. I love how well people know me here! I've just read the flea thread and got thoroughly depressed about how hard it seems to get rid of them completely. But I've bought some Advantage (mini cat size for Hat, fat cat size for Grumples), 6 vials of Program for cats and 2 cans of spray fleakiller to douse the house in. We do have wooden floors but with rugs because of Hat's clompy feet, so they'll need more work. On the bright side, they don't seem to have many fleas - I combed Hat through and only found two and one egg thing, and three adults on Grumples. That's not bad, is it?
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Nov 28, 2011 15:10
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vonnegutt posted:I asked this earlier as well and got very little response, so here goes: As for permanent behavior altering stuff, I haven't found anything that sticks that long. This may be due to not using the right method or that cat being dumb as a bag of hammers.
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Nov 28, 2011 16:50
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I'm having a slight problem with my cat (not a kitten but still young at 2 years old). I adopted her about 6 months ago and, besides having some problems with parasites that took a couple months to shake, she's got a clean bill of health from the doctor. Recently I've noticed that she has a noticeable amount of dandruff at the base of her tail and when I scratch or comb there she starts licking her left paw. I thought maybe she just had dry skin and tried a supplement to help with her skin but the dandruff in that one spot persists. It's worth mentioning that she is a little chubby and I know she has trouble cleaning the base of her tail. I'll sometimes come in to a room and she's walked herself in to a corner so she can lick her back. Any suggestions? Is this a normal problem with cats that are fat? 
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Nov 28, 2011 18:33
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Rufus T. Turnbuckle posted:Any suggestions? Is this a normal problem with cats that are fat? Keep brushing/combing her and that can help. Same with the supplements. But the best thing you can do for her is help her lose some weight so that she can clean herself in a more dignified manner.
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Nov 28, 2011 19:03
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Thanks for the information. I'll bring it up to the vet at her next check up. I just wanted affirmation that it's not something life threatening. We're working on her weight. The owner who had her before me fed her table scraps along with the worst dry food you can buy. I've got her on a better food and a nightly playtime regiment and her weight is coming down slowly. edit: I didn't even think about the weather aspect. This started happening right around the start of the fall weather.
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Nov 28, 2011 19:29
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