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It's not an absolute requirement, most cat owners only have one and cats tend not to get too distressed from being alone. However with a friend your cat will have much more fun when you are away or occupied. If you are sure you won't be able to take proper care of two then of course, one cat is better than none. I don't think that two will be too hard to care after though even if you haven't had a pet before and are out for 12 hours a day, they are comparatively low maintenance pets - all you have to do is feed them, scoop their toilets, spend some time playing with them and occasionally comb them and take them to the vet. It's not like you need to walk them. They are pretty inexpensive to maintain as well (food and kitty litter), unless you get unlucky and one of them starts having serious medical issues. When they are young they can become worried from being alone for a long time, though. Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Mar 15, 2015 |
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Mar 15, 2015 12:58
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My cats keep each other busy while I'm away. Of course it didnt help that one cat is clingy as hell though, he wants attention from ME specifically. But on the plus side daily care is really not that much different. Just scooping more, feeding more and putting more water out. Vet bill also double. 
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Mar 15, 2015 13:01
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Boris Galerkin posted:My roommate is moving out at the end of the month and I think I'm just gonna replace him with a cat. I'm not new to cats but I've never owned one before. One cat might get a little bored but it should be fine, especially if you have a decent sized place with lots of things for it to jump on and windows for it to watch stuff out of. They're most active in the morning/evening anyway and tend to sleep all day. It is best if you can spare some time before you leave in the morning to play a bit and then play a lot more in the evening though. It also depends on the cat's age and personality. Older cats tend to be lazier and don't mind being left to their own devices to sleep all day, young cats/kittens could destroy your place while you're gone.
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Mar 15, 2015 13:21
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There is the option of adopting cats that are listed as solo cats, i.e. They just will not get along with other cats. The downside is that you cannot have another cat in the future, like if your housing situation changes.
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Mar 15, 2015 13:31
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Organza Quiz posted:One of my family cats had this for years. It was really simple for us to deal with though because despite being a very smart cat, she would eat her tablets right out of a small dollop of cream cheese so getting her tablet became her favourite part of the day. It does require getting into a habit of tabletting the cat at a regular time of day but you get used to it pretty fast. Otherwise she was completely fine. That's a relief. I think the form of tapazole our vet favors is a meat-flavored liquid, so I'm hoping Poyo will accept it in her wet food and not be super difficult. I haven't had to pill her, but I know she is really resistant to having her mouth (and feet) handled. Lareine posted:Maybe you should look into radio-iodine therapy. It's not cheap but considering how young your cat is, I think it might be worth investigating. I don't know if this is a thing my vet does; I'll have to ask her about it on a follow-up. I read that the most common reason for hyperthyroid is tumors on the thyroid, so another solution is removal (but that it's mainly palliative). Thanks for the reassurance, goons. I'm a little less worried.
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Mar 15, 2015 14:18
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RedTonic posted:I don't know if this is a thing my vet does; I'll have to ask her about it on a follow-up. I read that the most common reason for hyperthyroid is tumors on the thyroid, so another solution is removal (but that it's mainly palliative). That's the other big downside to radio-iodine, you might have to go somewhere else because vets need a special license to administer radio-therapy. Sometimes it requires hospitalization too since your cat ends up being radioactive for a bit.
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Mar 15, 2015 15:34
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Lareine posted:That's the other big downside to radio-iodine, you might have to go somewhere else because vets need a special license to administer radio-therapy. Sometimes it requires hospitalization too since your cat ends up being radioactive for a bit. Yeah, she seems skillful at surgical procedures (I have a cancer-cat, too), but no form of radio therapy has ever come up when we've talked about treatment. Cats! 
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Mar 15, 2015 15:42
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Boris Galerkin posted:My roommate is moving out at the end of the month and I think I'm just gonna replace him with a cat. I'm not new to cats but I've never owned one before. I'm also out about 12 hours a day, and I've found the time I have to invest in my cats is actually less with two of them versus one. If you've just got the one you'll have to spend more time playing and entertaining him when you get home; the two of them wrestle and keep each other busy while I'm gone, though, and don't require as much tiring out when it's time for bed. On the other hand you'll be buying a shitton of litter.
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Mar 15, 2015 17:21
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What's the best way to move a cat a long distance? I'm eyeing a cross-country move and I want to figure out the best option before the time comes. She hates being in the car so I imagine that extends to any form of transportation, and I read plenty of horror stories about putting pets in a plane cargo hold. I don't own a car and the place I'll be moving to is a lot cheaper to buy one than the place I'm living, so I'd rather avoid that option.
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Mar 15, 2015 17:34
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Boris Galerkin posted:My roommate is moving out at the end of the month and I think I'm just gonna replace him with a cat. I'm not new to cats but I've never owned one before. Like a 6 if you're getting a kitten, and more like 2 or 3 if you're getting an adult cat. The energy difference is large and cats are less likely to bond as adults, but it's still good in either case.
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Mar 15, 2015 18:22
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If for whatever reason you really don't think you'd want multiples, see if you can get one the shelter says needs to be an only cat. A lot of people have to pass those up.
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Mar 15, 2015 19:07
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I've got a pretty busy job and I got two cats and I don't regret it. They play with each other so much it's obvious that if I had just gotten one the poor thing would have been bored out of its mind half the time. When humans are being boring, they wrestle and chase each other around the house. Not related, but  - I have a little coffee table drawer where I keep all the cat toys (including Da Bird). My black cat Clyde's eyes get SO big when I open it. He looks like an 8-year-old on his birthday.
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Mar 15, 2015 19:38
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Zaftig posted:What's the best way to move a cat a long distance? I'm eyeing a cross-country move and I want to figure out the best option before the time comes. She hates being in the car so I imagine that extends to any form of transportation, and I read plenty of horror stories about putting pets in a plane cargo hold. I don't own a car and the place I'll be moving to is a lot cheaper to buy one than the place I'm living, so I'd rather avoid that option. You don't have to check your cat. There are airplane specific carriers and it just rides under the seat in front of you. The TSA will want to take it out to check it (for real) but you can request a private room for that. My cats are complainers and they shut right up in the airport too.
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Mar 15, 2015 20:11
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Hawkgirl posted:I've got a pretty busy job and I got two cats and I don't regret it. They play with each other so much it's obvious that if I had just gotten one the poor thing would have been bored out of its mind half the time. When humans are being boring, they wrestle and chase each other around the house.   Those eyes are, like, impossibly huge and he reminds me of Marvin the Martian. Luther knows Da Bird storage tube and gets excited when I pick it up, but not in such a cute way.
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Mar 15, 2015 20:32
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Hey guys, I've got a cat health related question if that's ok, I'll keep it brief. My mother has a cat who's 19-21 (We're not quite sure, rescue cat) who has suddenly shown a rapid decline in health recently. Standard cat behaviour of finding the tiniest nook in the house to hide in, rarely coming out. She stopped eating completely, but would continue to drink. My mom took her to the vets who gave her a 2-week antibiotic shot, and took a blood test which didn't show anything weird. I've just spoken to my mom though and I think there was a misunderstanding at the vets. The vet misheard my mom and assumed she was 16, not 19-21. My mom also left out the fact that this cat has been slowly getting weaker and weaker in the past year or so, falling over if you give her a nudge, falling over herself if she stretches/scratches. She only mentioned a brief period when the cat stopped eating, which was due to hyperthyroidism which has been treated. Since the antiobiotics, she's come out of her hiding place and is happy to sit on people's laps - but she's still extremely weak, extremely thin, and isn't eating at all. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm worried the vet misdiagnosed due to missing information - and she's simply about to die. Would anyone agree, or am I going down the wrong path here? If people do agree, what would be the best next course of action? We have discussed having her put down, however she doesn't seem to actually be in pain.
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Mar 15, 2015 21:27
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Call up the vet again, the cat's still not eating!
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Mar 15, 2015 21:29
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Will do! Thanks.
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Mar 15, 2015 21:33
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When I brought a kitten home yesterday I was really worried about the older cat bullying her. What is happening right now is the opposite - a 3.5 month old kitten is trying to sniff the 12 year old cat and the elder one is backing up away from the kitten while visibly worried. Cats are weird.
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Mar 15, 2015 21:40
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12 year old cat sees a kitten, and is worried an angry mama cat is going to appear out of nowhere and gently caress him up.
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Mar 15, 2015 21:47
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I wrote last time that my cat started to get on better with the dog... well, she's not 7 months old, but instead almost 7 years, but recently she has started kind of stalk the dog - she comes to him and starts mewing and hissing. Maybe it's a coincidence that sometimes she wants to go with me to the kitchen and the dog's there, and sometimes she wants to go to my sister's room, which is the dog's lawful abode... Well, it's a bit weird, and worrying. I guess it's back to obligatory segregation.
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Mar 16, 2015 10:01
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Therion posted:When I brought a kitten home yesterday I was really worried about the older cat bullying her. What is happening right now is the opposite - a 3.5 month old kitten is trying to sniff the 12 year old cat and the elder one is backing up away from the kitten while visibly worried. Cats are weird. I don't think you have much to be worried about unless the older cat gets physical, which it seems like it would have done by now.
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Mar 16, 2015 10:18
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:I don't think you have much to be worried about unless the older cat gets physical, which it seems like it would have done by now. She doesn't seem to be too aggressive, she has hissed at the kitten and cat slapped her lightly when the kitten tried to lick her face, but apart from that it doesn't seem like there will be a serious conflict. For now they just usually sit a meter apart and stare at each other. A part of it is that I got the kitten from a breeder where many other cats were present, while the older cat was given to me by a friend when she was a month old, so as a result she is not very socialized. Cat Planet fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 10:49
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Well my cat Jinx's paw pad biopsy results came back. He's got "Plasma Cell Pododermatitis", aka Pillowfoot. I'm going to pick up his meds and get the biopsy sutures removed from his feet tomorrow. Anyone dealt with this before? My regular vet was stumped, but the dermatologist was pretty sure after a first glance this was it, and confirmed it with biopsy. It sounds like recovery time varies hugely. The meds also apparently only come in the squirt in mouth variety. Ugh, that is going to be fun!
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Mar 16, 2015 18:10
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crowbb posted:Well my cat Jinx's paw pad biopsy results came back. He's got "Plasma Cell Pododermatitis", aka Pillowfoot. I'm going to pick up his meds and get the biopsy sutures removed from his feet tomorrow. Anyone dealt with this before? My regular vet was stumped, but the dermatologist was pretty sure after a first glance this was it, and confirmed it with biopsy. It sounds like recovery time varies hugely. The meds also apparently only come in the squirt in mouth variety. Ugh, that is going to be fun! When I have to squirt medicine into my cats' mouths, I find it's pretty easy if I do it at mealtime. I pour them their food, then as they go to the bowl to eat, I sneak up behind them, kneel with one knee on either side of them with my feet crossed behind me (so they can't back out) and then kind of grab their head and squirt it in. They get all upset for about 2 seconds and then realize there's still a bowl of food in front of them and suddenly they can't remember why they were so mad. But then, my cats are pretty food-motivated so your mileage may vary. Also, since it's a paw issue, they may give you shredded paper to use as cat litter (so the litter doesn't get into any paw wounds). Paper litter is so gross and also absorbs next to nothing. If you do wind up needing to use it, see if you can find a cheap litter box with one of those sifter inserts - they're really not great for actually sifting litter, but, you can dump some normal litter in the bottom of the box, place the sifter on top of the litter, then fill the remainder with the shredded paper. That way the cat's still stepping on paper but pee, which otherwise would pool up at the bottom of the box, will sink into the litter beneath the sifter and save you the trouble of trying to pour it out.
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Mar 16, 2015 18:21
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Yesterday's News is a brand of cat litter made from recycled paper that I find easier to wrangle than just shredded paper. It won't be the same as a clay based one, but it's better than just dumping out your office shredder.
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Mar 16, 2015 18:54
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My cat outgrew the biggest cat harness most pet stores carry so I've been looking for a vest-like thing and ran into http://crazykfarm.mybigcommerce.com/handmade-in-the-usa-kitty-holster-cat-harness/ Has anyone tried it? Just reading the description it should be a ton easier to put on the cat than the old harness. On a totally separate note, with winter gone I can have the windows open. Some birds landed on the tree outside and were chirping and my cat was doing soft meows in between the chirp pauses . I really need to get a bird feeder to lure more birds around.edit: the link above is the store page, the product page is - http://www.kittyholster.com/
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Mar 16, 2015 20:46
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Danith posted:On a totally separate note, with winter gone I can have the windows open. Some birds landed on the tree outside and were chirping and my cat was doing soft meows in between the chirp pauses Our apartment building keeps the temperature somewhere between sweltering and literally in hell oh god I'm melting, so we kept the windows open all winter. Tali has what we like to call "window time", usually between 9 and 11am she sits at the window and meows at the birds. If you disturb her she angrily meows at you before re-settling herself at the proper bird mewing spot. I don't know what she's going to do once we put the air conditioner back in.  She's a year in April, I am considering getting her a party hat.
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Mar 17, 2015 00:49
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Hah. That look reminds me so much of my prior cat's "You have disturbed me for the last time" look. It was usually followed not by a bitchy meow, but rather a near-silent prolonged grunt that flexed her sides. She had a whole vocabulary based upon grunts, creaks, and silent meows. Real meows, even when delivered in her old age, were kitten-like pleas reserved for when she thought you had something really special she wanted to see/eat. Hope you get some sort of window compromise worked out. Sounds like Tali really digs her routine and totally deserves a party hat. Luther isn't into birds so much as he is into their shadows  or...himself.I nudged his non-kibble feeding station over from its spot directly under the shelf a few days ago and, ever since then, I've caught him a few times doing this:  I'm pretty sure that he's staring at himself in his water bowl. Mirrors? Gives no fucks and actually makes eye contact with me in them. But the Luther in the bottom of the bowl must be a handsome chappy who doesn't make fun of him for sitting on his primordial pouch like that and looking like a fatty fat-fat who won't eat his veg.
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Mar 17, 2015 03:00
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Danith posted:My cat outgrew the biggest cat harness most pet stores carry so I've been looking for a vest-like thing and ran into http://crazykfarm.mybigcommerce.com/handmade-in-the-usa-kitty-holster-cat-harness/ I don't have a kitty holster vest but I do have one of these and it's excellent. I didn't go with the kitty holster because my cat has a really fluffy stomach and I didn't want the fur getting caught in the velcro whereas these ones have press studs, but your mileage may vary depending on fluffiness of stomach vs how tolerant the cat is of having someone fiddle around with press studs across her stomach. Anyway, I do find it much easier to put on since I just leave the neck part fastened and put that on over her head. She likes it a hell of a lot more than the harness that's just made of straps too.
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Mar 17, 2015 03:42
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Oh. So, these cat harnesses are made in different sizes, and in addition it's possible to use dog harnesses? I'm interested in this stuff because I have a ropey harness from an old cat, and I tried it on on this cat a while ago, and she looked really uncomfortable in it... Although maybe because it'd spent a long time in an unwrapped state I put it together wrong, and that's the problem... Nope, doesn't look like it could work differently. Here's what it looks like: On the one hand I'm tempted to go on a shopping frenzy for a new harness, on the other hand I'm not sure my cat's ever going to get comfortable going outside with me in any form, regardless of what the harness looks like.
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Mar 17, 2015 05:35
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Boris Galerkin posted:My roommate is moving out at the end of the month and I think I'm just gonna replace him with a cat. I'm not new to cats but I've never owned one before. I wasn't a big cat fan and moved in with my wife who has three. It's loving awesome. 2 would be ok and 1 would be not enough.
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Mar 17, 2015 08:28
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Speaking of cats and harnesses and going for walks, I am starting to have an issue. For the first couple of weeks I was taking Pepper out for like half an hour in the afternoon into the back yard and she was perfectly well-behaved and great about it. She went out and enjoyed herself and I could bring her back in with only a little bit of crying and then she would be happy back inside again. We had a couple of days of rain over the weekend and while I still took her outside for a little bit and she did want to sniff some stuff and eat some grass, she wasn't nearly as enthusiastic since the ground was wet etc. The last couple of days have been dry again and she's been ecstatic about it. Just really happy running around and pouncing on things and playing with sand, batting at it etc. The problem is she's started being a raging arsehole about coming back inside again. Well, a raging arsehole on the Pepper scale of behaviour anyway. She's a very, very polite and well-socialised animal who's very good about not hurting people but yesterday when I tried to pick her up to bring her in she yelled really loudly and tried to bite me the whole way in. She didn't scratch or growl or hiss, just very loud offended meows and me holding her up so she couldn't bite. It also took a few minutes before she'd let me take her vest off (I have to unclip studs from her stomach, which she's normally perfectly patient about) and she was pretty mad at me for a good half our after she was back inside, which again isn't necessarily unusual for cats but is unusual for her. Today I've just taken her out again and she turned into even more of a dickhead when I tried to bring her back in again. Any attempt to pick her up was met with more offended yelling (but again no hissing or growling) and twisting and batting at and at one point as I bent down she tried to jump up at my face, although I think she was just trying to intimidate me because she still didn't have claws out or anything. I eventually gave up picking her up and pulled her inside instead by the leash, which she thankfully eventually went along with more or less. She did seem less mad once she was actually inside though, she let me take her vest off just fine. I'm kind of worried that if I keep taking her out the behaviour's going to escalate and I'm not sure how to get her to stop getting more and more angry about having to go back inside. I'd rather not stop taking her out because she really does enjoy it and it means less litterbox cleaning for me. I'm thinking of trying treats but firstly she's not a very food motivated cat (she won't eat meat, she quite likes cheese but she could take or leave it if the other option is doing something fun) and secondly I'm finding it difficult to work out at what point I'd reward her anyway since it would have to be pretty immediate for her to make the connection. I did hiss at her for jumping up at me and she's pretty half-hearted about her attempts to stop me, so I could just power through them and bring her in anyway, but I'm worried that that will make her escalate into actually trying to attack me.
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Mar 17, 2015 11:05
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Organza Quiz posted:Speaking of cats and harnesses and going for walks, I am starting to have an issue. For the first couple of weeks I was taking Pepper out for like half an hour in the afternoon into the back yard and she was perfectly well-behaved and great about it. She went out and enjoyed herself and I could bring her back in with only a little bit of crying and then she would be happy back inside again. We had a couple of days of rain over the weekend and while I still took her outside for a little bit and she did want to sniff some stuff and eat some grass, she wasn't nearly as enthusiastic since the ground was wet etc.
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Mar 17, 2015 12:22
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The blue bunny posted:Are you able to change her feeding times, so she needs to come inside for dinner? Alternatively, try clicker training to signal its time to come inside. Actually yeah, the first thing might work. She gets free fed but she still gets SUPER excited when it's time for me to put more food in her food thing anyway even though she always has food. She is in fact getting really excited about bugging me to give her more food right now even though the arbitrary time I do that is only in half an hour. There's no reason why I can't make it after she comes inside, I'm already taking her outside at a fairly regular time every day. Thanks, that's a really great idea. I've been meaning to try and clicker train her to do some tricks that she's already inclined to do (standing up on her hind legs, jumping through/into stuff) so I guess I could actually get around to getting one and trying that although like I said, not hugely treat-motivated. I think I can teach her to do things that she already seems to like doing but I'm not sure there's any treat in the world that would outweigh being outside to her.
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Mar 17, 2015 15:10
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Organza Quiz posted:I've been meaning to try and clicker train her to do some tricks that she's already inclined to do (standing up on her hind legs, jumping through/into stuff) so I guess I could actually get around to getting one and trying that although like I said, not hugely treat-motivated. I think I can teach her to do things that she already seems to like doing but I'm not sure there's any treat in the world that would outweigh being outside to her. My cat has the same issue with training right now. It looks real nice outside, so he just stares out the window and ignores me instead of giving me fives or whatever. I'm planning to start training him outside so it becomes more normal, rather than exotic and exciting, and hopefully get rid of the cues of his current training time and location.
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Mar 17, 2015 15:17
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supermikhail posted:Oh. So, these cat harnesses are made in different sizes, and in addition it's possible to use dog harnesses? In my quick search to find a bigger harness I ran across someone saying you shouldn't use dog harnesses because the chest/leg ratio is different and will probably irritate the cat. Not sure if it's true or not but sounds believable
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Mar 17, 2015 15:30
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Cats can also slip out of most harnesses fairly easily.
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Mar 17, 2015 16:20
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Cat aggression question: New cat Winston and indoor cat Sadie get along great, with sadie definitely being the dominant cat between the two of them. But Winston and outdoor cat that often comes inside Minnie went from what seemed to be a promising introduction to not getting along at all. Winston wants to fight her and she just wants to get away but Winston will pursue. I think he learned that if he ran up to her she would retreat so I'm not letting them near each other anymore to stop the feedback loop. Winston sometimes sees her through the window and will gets a touch agitated. He's easily distracted by toys, petting, or brushing so it isn't like super anger or anything but I was wondering if it would poison any chance at a gradual reintroduction (likely over months and months). I could arrange it so he can't see out the windows but that's not something that I want to do if I don't need to (or if him seeing her from a distance is an alright thing to get him accustomed to the idea that she is there. She isn't taunting him right outside of the window or anything, just 15-40ft away).
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Mar 17, 2015 16:29
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My new cat likes to meow when she pees, has anyone else had this. It doesn't look like she is in pain though.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:36
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Therion posted:My new cat likes to meow when she pees, has anyone else had this. It doesn't look like she is in pain though. Has this always been the case?
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Mar 17, 2015 18:58
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