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We attempted to adopt a 9-week old kitten from a barn cat litter. She was a little shy when we handled her at the barn but I thought it was going to be alright. When we got home, we released her into a quiet bedroom. From there on, if she wasn't hiding under the bed, she was hiding in her carrier. If you tried to comfort her, she would shy away from you and shiver but if you left her alone, she would start crying and she didn't seem to be getting any better. We had her for eight hours before we took her back to the barn to be with her mother and siblings because she was so unhappy. What did we do wrong? Should we have left her alone more? Is it just a personality thing and we picked the wrong kitten? Would she have gotten over it eventually? Was it right to take her back?
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Jun 9, 2013 03:24
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You only gave her a couple hours. It can take cats days or weeks to adjust. Kitten was just confused and scared by new surroundings, wondered where her mother was, and why she was moved around so much. She would definitely have gotten over it. poo poo, Pizza Brother's been with us for over 6 months and knows/loves us both, but when we moved to the new apartment he slunk around like a whipped dog and wouldn't come out from under the bed without coaxing, and skittered away from us as if we were strangers for about a week before he was comfortable hanging out with us again.
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Jun 9, 2013 03:27
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Noel, an incredibly skittish 13 month old, rang in 2009 by cowering under the bed for days. I felt like a monster, but she had been a stray and was afraid of everyone and everything. Eventually, she poked her head out and it was yay. Since there are other kittens, have you considered adopting one of her littermates as well? She might transition better if she had a friend. 
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Jun 9, 2013 05:20
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Yeah, even the most cossetted kittens can be like that - Hugo was very confused and lonely and spent a lot of time calling for his mother and littermates for the first couple of days. When we had foster kittens, there were two of them and even with each other for company it was a week before we could walk into their room and they wouldn't immediately try to bail under the couch. Of course, once they DID get used to us they started chirping at 6am every morning wanting attention... If you can accommodate two cats I would definitely recommend picking up a second kitten from that litter.
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Jun 9, 2013 05:23
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Nyarai posted:Noel, an incredibly skittish 13 month old, rang in 2009 by cowering under the bed for days. I felt like a monster, but she had been a stray and was afraid of everyone and everything. Eventually, she poked her head out and it was yay. I'd be lying if I said the thought hadn't crossed my mind but we already have three cats. With her included, that would make four which is already pushing it. Five cats would be ridiculous. We have cat experience, just not experience with this sort of cat. Out of all the cats that we've had, none of them were upset for more than an hour after we brought them home. I guess we've been extremely lucky in that regard. We thought maybe if we took her back and have her in a familiar environment while I visit every day might make her more comfortable when I take her home a few weeks later? They are only 9 weeks after all. Just let me set this straight: We are going to get one of those kittens. No buts. I had promised to take one of the kittens and I am going to keep my promise. I am just extraordinarily sensitive to sad kittens and may have made a rash decision due to emotions. Now that I am out of the influence of said sad kitten, we will be able to think more rationally about this and come up with a solution that is best for us and the kitten. Either we take her in a couple of weeks or we take one of the other kittens in a couple of weeks.
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Jun 9, 2013 05:45
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Lareine posted:We attempted to adopt a 9-week old kitten from a barn cat litter. She was a little shy when we handled her at the barn but I thought it was going to be alright. When we got home, we released her into a quiet bedroom. From there on, if she wasn't hiding under the bed, she was hiding in her carrier. If you tried to comfort her, she would shy away from you and shiver but if you left her alone, she would start crying and she didn't seem to be getting any better. We had her for eight hours before we took her back to the barn to be with her mother and siblings because she was so unhappy. 8 hours is nothing, especially when acclimating to a new, funny-smelling environment.
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Jun 9, 2013 07:00
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I've never owned a cat before but there's one that lives down the street from my new apartment. Sometimes when I walk by her house I see her in the bushes with some feathers in her mouth, which is great because not only do I hate pigeons and magpies but I love seeing animals doing what comes natural to them. I got to watch an Australian shepherd herding sheep last winter and that was also really great. Anyway though she pranced up to me while I was walking home today and rubbed against my leg and let me pet her for awhile before going to prowl after some birds or something. I've never owned a cat, though, and wasn't sure how to pet one. She kind of rubs up against me and then does a little hop and nudges her head against my hand. I of course took this as cue to pet but she did it even when I was actively stroking her head/back so I had to keep lifting my hand up like I was dribbling a basketball. Is this normal cat behaviour or is she just weird, and if the former what is the correct response?
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Jun 9, 2013 08:02
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Drunkboxer posted:Just for reference concerning his age, here's a picture of him. Is he younger than 5 weeks? He looks about 8 weeks old, which is plenty old enough for independent poopings.
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Jun 9, 2013 08:17
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Drink and Fight posted:He looks about 8 weeks old, which is plenty old enough for independent poopings. Yeah once he had the one he started going like crazy. I think he was just starving and didn't have anything in his poo-queue. You can't tell from the picture, but he's pretty thin.
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Jun 9, 2013 13:44
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:I actually want her to wake me up every morning in order to get me to feed her... I'm a very sound sleeper and alarm clocks routinely fail to wake me up. Quoting this for when you rue the day. Lots of people have one-eyed cats and they do fine. Just laugh at her when she fucks up at depth perception and all will be well. mistressminako posted:So I have the money to buy a fountain. I also have a male cat with a decent thirst drive. Unfortunately, said cat has never seen a fountain. How easy is to to get a cat to drink from a fountain? Just get a $20 FreshFlow. Seriously. It's about 2-3" off the ground, pretty easy to clean, and quiet so long as the water level is high enough. Lareine posted:We attempted to adopt a 9-week old kitten from a barn cat litter. She was a little shy when we handled her at the barn but I thought it was going to be alright. When we got home, we released her into a quiet bedroom. From there on, if she wasn't hiding under the bed, she was hiding in her carrier. If you tried to comfort her, she would shy away from you and shiver but if you left her alone, she would start crying and she didn't seem to be getting any better. We had her for eight hours before we took her back to the barn to be with her mother and siblings because she was so unhappy. Jeez yeah 8 hours is nothing. Bear in mind that from her point of view: giant terrifying predators took me by force and placed me in a confined space. Then they put me into a bigger box that roared and shook and bumped and possibly made me nauseated. Then they brought me by force onto another planet that doesn't smell like anything I've ever seen before, and made noise and thumped around and attempted to squash me with their giant mauling paws. After an interminable period they took me back into the rumbling death box and returned me to my planet, but I will never be the same. :has bath, sleeps, is the same again  :Gotta give her time and space to chill, and she'll be fine. She'd probably do even better if you brought a brother/sister along with her  thehumandignity posted:She kind of rubs up against me and then does a little hop and nudges her head against my hand. Normal and she was very into it. Keep on rubbing, scritching, etc, especially around the base of the ears (both front and back) and chin/neck and base of the tail.
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Jun 9, 2013 13:51
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So I rescued my (female) cat Charlie off the streets when she was roughly 8 months old. If you've followed this thread in the last couple of weeks you've seen all my posts about me freaking out about moving her to Japan. She's fine, very loving, and happy. But. I want to leash train her now. She ALWAYS wants to go outside, when I get home she tries to dart past me to investigate, and since I live in an apartment complex four stories up, I actually kinda take her for 'walks' letting her explore right outside our door. I would love to actually take her downstairs and outside because she wants to be outside so much. I call my balcony 'Kitty TV' because she'll sit out on it for hours looking at stuff. Has anybody had success with leash/harness training their cat? I read up a bit on it, but I'd like some goon input. 
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Jun 9, 2013 17:50
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It's day 2 of owning Poko. This dude wanted to play ALL night last night, probably because my girlfriend and I had to go to work about two hours after we got him. Good news is that he's extremely affectionate and people focused. The bad news is that he's people focused and kept me awake most of the night. I tried ignoring him, which worked great until I got a claw to the eye... three times. He's also in love with the wires I have around my apartment, all of which I've sprayed with the no-bite spray and I've done my best with wire concealers, etc to keep them hidden or protected, but there's some that I haven't been able to do that with. I am deathly afraid of coming home to an electrocuted cat. It got so bad that last night before my girlfriend left she hid all my surge protectors and covered all the remaining wires in pillows, et cetera so the kitten wouldn't get to them. The kitten is great though, he's super friendly and talkative and was purring and nuzzling us within a half hour of us bringing him home. With that said, how often do kittens get electrocuted? This is working fine as a band-aid but isn't a feasible permanent solution.
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Jun 9, 2013 21:30
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How does one un-spoil a cat? My boss' daughter is going to work abroad and can't bring her two cats with her, so instead her dad's taking them in for something like 14 months while she's overseas. The cats themselves haven't moved in yet, but the daughter's already sent her cats' things to my boss' place, and holy poo poo is that some fancy-rear end stuff. There's some wooden play thing that I don't quite understand how it's supposed to work, cases of pheromone spray, some no-scratch stuff I don't know what the gently caress, an electric collar thing that buzzes if the collar gets too close to the sensor (meant to deter the cats from going near the doors of the house), and other things along that line. I helped my boss unload all that and we began grousing. How does one un-pamper a cat so my boss doesn't have to keep spending money on his daughters' cats?
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Jun 9, 2013 23:01
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Ofaloaf posted:How does one un-spoil a cat? My boss' daughter is going to work abroad and can't bring her two cats with her, so instead her dad's taking them in for something like 14 months while she's overseas. Most of that sounds like stuff to deter scratching problems, escape attempts, or put nervous animals at ease (the pheromones - is it something like Feliway?). So, I doubt the cats are actually "spoiled". Spoiled would be letting them scratch the hell out of everything. They would likely prefer that. As far as the pheromones go, some cats hate each other or change and Feliway products help put them at ease. The cats may or may not actually need those things if they transition well into their new situation and aren't engaging in other stress-induced behaviors. It really sounds like she's just had issues with them in the past and has taken a lot of preventative measures. I'm sure if your boss wants to try going without those products and seeing if they refrain from scratching his stuff/peeing on things out of stress or whatever, there shouldn't be an issue. It's really more his loss than the cats' if they do those things, after all. If they need the collars to keep them away from doors, that's something I'd take a little more seriously since it can incredibly easy to lose a cat and hard to get them back once they've escaped.
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Jun 10, 2013 00:07
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Loki's first box adventure!  He's been doing a lot better. He's out and following me around. He does meow a lot, and he tries to nurse on me when I lay down. His toys aren't so scary anymore either What can I do to get him to sharpen his claws on his scratching post and not on the box spring on our bed?
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Jun 10, 2013 00:14
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I desperately wish the cat wouldn't suddenly take ill on Sunday night when the vet's office is closed. He was eating and drinking this morning and he used the litterbox, but since then he's become lethargic and hissy and won't eat. And as I'm without a car, the emergency vet downtown isn't an option. I also wish I knew how to check a cat's pulse because he's breathing rapidly as well. I think I might have to stay up until I can take him to the vet in the morning.
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Jun 10, 2013 01:58
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Someone mentioned the cat dancer toy a while back, and seeing as I'm cat-sitting for the summer I decided to pick one up. Surprisingly the cat store near me had it for half the price listed on Amazon. Unsurprisingly, Kip apparently has a seven foot leap and destroyed the poor feather thing in minutes. I came prepared with a refill but at $4 a pop this could be an expensive summer! He loves the thing though. Here he is (to scale) with my golf clubs.
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Jun 10, 2013 02:01
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HellOnEarth posted:
This is one way to do it, but I've never had luck with cats this way. Maybe you will? quote:To find your cat's pulse, press your first two fingers against the inside of her upper hind leg, where the large femoral artery is located. If your cat is obese, you may not be able to find a pulse. I found this site on basic first aid for cats and I think it's pretty informative. Anyways, take your cat tomorrow morning and keep us updated!
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Jun 10, 2013 02:11
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HellOnEarth posted:I desperately wish the cat wouldn't suddenly take ill on Sunday night when the vet's office is closed. He was eating and drinking this morning and he used the litterbox, but since then he's become lethargic and hissy and won't eat. And as I'm without a car, the emergency vet downtown isn't an option. Check his temperature. If you have a thermometer and think you can manage to get it in his rear end (use lube, obviously, and plenty of it. vaseline or k-y jelly work) If it's over 103 he's in trouble. Also the fast breathing is worrisome...can you call a cab or take a bus? Time may be of the essence here.
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Jun 10, 2013 02:13
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Minarchist posted:Check his temperature. If you have a thermometer and think you can manage to get it in his rear end (use lube, obviously, and plenty of it. vaseline or k-y jelly work) His feet and ears don't feel hot, but that's not a very scientific gauge and I'm unfortunately unable to actually get the thermometer in his butt. But, if I think he's getting worse or his breathing gets worse, (It's currently at 40 per minute) I'm just going to call a cab and go. As of now I think I'm going to stay up watching him.
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Jun 10, 2013 02:48
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I will very likely be adopting a dog and bringing it home soon, to live with me at my parent's home until I move into a new apartment at the end of the summer. My parents have a two-year-old cat (I posted her a little earlier in the thread) who has never been around other cats or dogs, is pretty skittish, but generally well-behaved. She doesn't claw the furniture or eliminate outside her litterbox, and is sociable with us. She enjoys her daily routine. She has tons of toys and vertical spaces. She isn't very food motivated, if you give her a treat she'll sometimes eat it, sometimes lick it for a bit and then leave it (she has done this with countless brands). The concern we have is that bringing a new animal into the mix will disrupt her life and cause her to act out, like marking or being destructive, which my parents are not super enthused about. We really want to avoid this and make integrating a new pet into the house as easy and non-traumatic as possible. How should we go about this? My parents have never mixed animals, so they don't know how to go about this either. The dog will live with me and be an occasional visitor with me after this summer, so the animals will have to mix every once in a while. For all her nervousness, the dumb thing rode out a tornado in the worst possible spot and didn't have any behavioral issues afterwards, so maybe she's heartier than we think. 
Double Plus Good fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Jun 10, 2013 |
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Jun 10, 2013 03:11
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HellOnEarth posted:His feet and ears don't feel hot, but that's not a very scientific gauge and I'm unfortunately unable to actually get the thermometer in his butt. Given that it's so sudden, he might be in pain. Will he let you rub him down? Gently rub everywhere, all 4 limbs, tail, tummy, back, armpits, and jawline. If something hurts he'll let you know 
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Jun 10, 2013 03:27
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Minarchist posted:Given that it's so sudden, he might be in pain. Will he let you rub him down? Gently rub everywhere, all 4 limbs, tail, tummy, back, armpits, and jawline. If something hurts he'll let you know He doesn't get too anywhere, but he seems reluctant to let me touch his belly and just gently kicks me away. He doesn't growl or hiss, he just makes an annoyed sound.
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Jun 10, 2013 03:41
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Lemony Fresh posted:Loki's first box adventure! Charlie (my female cat) was trying to sharpen her front claws on the bed. Whenever I saw her do it I clapped loudly, yelled, then put her near her cat tree. This has worked wonders in under a week, and I see her clawing the cat tree constantly (I also periodically rub catnip on the tree) edit: Sorry, I didn't really explain what to do. Next time you see your cat scratching something he shouldn't, make a loud noise (clap or yell) or water bottle him. Then take him to your scratching post, rub cat nip on it, and watch how he reacts. feverish and oversexed fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Jun 10, 2013 |
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Jun 10, 2013 06:50
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Dante Update, I managed to get to the emergency clinic when my panicky tears moved the heart of somebody who had a car. He did have a fever, it turns out, and the vet said his breathing was just a little fast which might be because of some discomfort in his abdomen, there seems to be something going on there that's making him upset. It's not fluid retention but something is obviously bothering him. She gave me antibiotics for him to take for the next week and administered fluids and a pain killer. When the regular vet opens at 8 today, I'm going to take him in for bloodwork and x-rays. He finally ate his wet food when I got him home so that's good. Currently he's cleaning his butthole in order to make up for the injustices performed upon it today.  (The vet also expressly forbid me from doing anything involving his butthole, re: taking his temperature.) HellOnEarth fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Jun 10, 2013 |
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Jun 10, 2013 07:40
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Hello, cat thread. Just had a quick question. I think I already know the answer to it, but wanted to throw it out there to hear what others thought. My wife and I have finally moved in together after a couple of years apart (work/school stuff). Naturally, we brought our cat, whom we've had since a few days after she was born (abandoned). She's now almost four years old. While we've been apart for the last two years, the cat has lived with my wife, who was with her parents. That means she was with four people (wife, her little brother, her parents) and two dogs. So we brought her out to our new house and she spent the day exploring. Seems to have found her new litter box, etc. At about 4 AM this morning, she started meowing, short little sounds, back to back to back to back. Didn't sound like she was in pain, but she's never been very vocal, so we assumed she was trying to tell us something. At first I thought she hadn't found her litter box and she needed to poop or something, so I got up with the intention of doing the old warm towel on the butt trick, but she didn't want to be picked up. When I would go over to her she would stop making noise, drop to the floor, and roll around like she wanted to play, but when I would bend down to pet her she would just bat at my hand like it was a toy. When I decided she was just being goofy and wasn't in any kind of distress, I went back to bed, and she just started making noise again. Cue the wife waking up and doing much the same as I did, with the same result after she came back to bed. Now that we're awake, she's no longer making noise. I think that she's just not used to her new surroundings yet, and hasn't been a lone pet for a while, so she just wanted us to wake up and pay attention to her. Like I said, she seems to have found her litter box, and doesn't sound like she's in any kind of pain, but I'm a little paranoid, so I wanted to see if anyone had other thoughts.
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Jun 10, 2013 11:20
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I am in pretty much the same situation as you, sans wife. When I first rescued charlie there were two other cats in the house. then roommate added another. Charlie finally came to my arms June 1st, but she left a 4 cat (including her) two person household. SHE WAKES ME UP CONSTANTLY. She's used to bullying the other cats so now that they're gone she bullys me T_T but yeah, your reasoning is right. feverish and oversexed fucked around with this message at 12:19 on Jun 10, 2013 |
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Jun 10, 2013 11:49
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leftover posted:She's used to bullying the other cats so now that they're gone she bullys me T_T Yeah, this is the reason that we don't have another cat. When she was very young she lived with my wife's other cat, Ralphie, who has since died. She was pretty mean to him at times. We just figured that it was because she was abandoned before her eyes were even open, and hand raised by us, so she just didn't learn how to be around other cats. She never got along THAT well with the dogs either, more because they liked to chase her around than anything else, but her experiences sharing space with other animals haven't been great.
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Jun 10, 2013 11:55
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McCloud24 posted:Yeah, this is the reason that we don't have another cat. When she was very young she lived with my wife's other cat, Ralphie, who has since died. She was pretty mean to him at times. We just figured that it was because she was abandoned before her eyes were even open, and hand raised by us, so she just didn't learn how to be around other cats. She never got along THAT well with the dogs either, more because they liked to chase her around than anything else, but her experiences sharing space with other animals haven't been great. I was thinking about getting another cat after she arrived, but she's doing pretty well by herself (besides annoying me). I guess some cats just fly solo. And are assholes.
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Jun 10, 2013 12:21
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After years of hearing about feline acne in PI and thinking "sure glad my cat doesn't have it!" now one of my cats finally does have the dreaded cat acne   I've been using the same plastic bowls for years without issue, so I don't know why it's a problem now. I replaced the food bowls with glass and metal, and I've replaced their plastic auto-waterer with a broken decorative fountain I got at goodwill and cleaned up.  It just circulates the water and makes it bubble up to the surface, which is what most non-filtered pet fountains do. It also has a little light in it which I can't turn off. The cats don't love it so far, since it splashes tiny drops of water around and they look unimpressed when they use it. Does a cat fountain need a filter to cure acne? And in the meantime, what should I be putting on my poor kitty's acne? Hydrogen peroxide?
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Jun 10, 2013 19:49
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I need the opinion of some cat experts. My live-in girlfriend wants to adopt a cat that has a problem with peeing everywhere. The cat is male, 5 years old, and neutered. The current owner seems to think that he just needs to be an only cat and this behavior will stop when he's alone, but I am skeptical. I like cats but I don't want to adopt one that I am just going to end up hating right away. So, is this the type of thing a cat can grow out of, or would my entire apartment be covered in piss?
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Jun 10, 2013 19:54
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revtoiletduck posted:I need the opinion of some cat experts. Has the current owner taken him to a vet? He might have a medical problem. I would rule that out first.
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Jun 10, 2013 19:57
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Ema Nymton posted:Does a cat fountain need a filter to cure acne? And in the meantime, what should I be putting on my poor kitty's acne? Hydrogen peroxide? Honestly switching the bowls was probably enough. The fountains usually aren't a problem because they haven't got their faces all up on the plastic. Just leave it be and it'll clear up if the bowls were the problem. revtoiletduck posted:So, is this the type of thing a cat can grow out of, or would my entire apartment be covered in piss? It depends a TON on the individual cat and there's no way we can know, sorry. Taking him to the vet and getting a urine sample tested would be a good first step though.
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Jun 10, 2013 20:00
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Why does my cat cry after using the bathroom? Not during, but afterwards she'll leave the bathroom and walk around meowing a couple of times.
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Jun 10, 2013 20:07
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His Divine Shadow posted:Why does my cat cry after using the bathroom? Not during, but afterwards she'll leave the bathroom and walk around meowing a couple of times. Is this whenever she does anything, or only when she poops? My cats always come tell me about their poops after they do 2 laps of the apartment at full speed to shake the poo ghosts.
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Jun 10, 2013 20:11
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Silly Hippie posted:Has the current owner taken him to a vet? He might have a medical problem. I would rule that out first. Sorry, I should have included that with my original question. The cat has been taken to the vet and there's no medical issue.
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Jun 10, 2013 20:12
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What do you guys think the little scratches on our orphaned kitten's face are from other cats or him scratching his face because of all the 100s of fleas he had? I'm taking him in to the vet on Wednesday and am getting paranoid that he might have feline leukemia.
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Jun 10, 2013 20:47
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So my wife found another 6 week old cat on the side of the road. That's #2 in three years. I'm starting to think she goes out, buys them, and then brings them home with a sob story. Either that or I am now running a shelter. Either way, what is the best way to introduce a 6 week old cat to a 3 year old cat who has been the only pet in the house for those 3 years? She's been around a dog and another cat (briefly) before and hated both of them.
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Jun 10, 2013 21:28
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My (female) cat had a litter of kittens before she was spayed. She then accepted two orphaned little kittens from a different momma cat, and let them suckle her as if these two kittens were her own. Is such behavior common in cats? Some experts would have me believe that cats routinely kill not-their-own kittens.
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Jun 10, 2013 21:36
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GAY 4 ORGANS
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His Divine Shadow posted:Why does my cat cry after using the bathroom? Not during, but afterwards she'll leave the bathroom and walk around meowing a couple of times. Still find it odd that so many people don't know about poo ghosts.
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Jun 10, 2013 21:56
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