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Has anyone got advice about introducing a cat to a puppy? She wouldn't be living with the puppy long term, it's just that my mother usually takes care of my cat at her place if I'm away, and we both want her to be able to continue doing that, except that she's recently adopted a maltese/shitzu puppy. We're not worried about the puppy because she's calm and friendly and being very well-trained, but I'm guessing my cat wouldn't be as happy to have a small foreign animal suddenly in the house she's in. Should we make an effort to introduce them before my cat needs to stay with her or should we just wait until then and then do the whole confine-to-one-room introduction thing? Or is that only relevant to introducing cats to cats? Would it be better to introduce them at my place, which my cat has always had to herself, or my mother's place, which the cat is equally comfortable in but did used to have to share with another cat? The latter would require driving her 25 minutes each way so I'm a bit reluctant to do that just to introduce them. Or am I just overthinking this and we should just plonk my cat down in the same house as the puppy next time we need to?
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Jul 21, 2015 03:15
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Anybody had any success or failure with toilet training their cats? My Russian Blues (Newt is 3 months and Ripley is 2 years) are settling in nicely after a fortnight (see the yospos thread for pictures) and I thought I'd start some training behaviours. Number one on the list will be accepting me handling their paws/claws which should make trimming them easier, then I figured that I'd start clicker training various useful behaviours like stay and come. After that Newt should be big enough to climb out of the toilet if she were to fall in (although I don't really want to test this experimentally) and I thought I'd make a start on the toilet training. I don't have any pressing reason to, just that it'd be more convenient and less smelly for me. gonadic io fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Jul 21, 2015 |
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Jul 21, 2015 09:19
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gonadic io posted:Anybody had any success or failure with toilet training their cats? This might be urban legend but I've heard that that can backfire really badly in terms of cats having trouble telling the difference between the toilet and, say, the bathtub or the sink. They're all white porcelain objects, after all. IIRC cats are also pretty terrible at "stay" and are better at commands that involve doing something like come and shake.
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Jul 21, 2015 09:32
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gonadic io posted:Anybody had any success or failure with toilet training their cats? If you want to try toilet training your cats, make sure you have a lot of patience, cleaning supplies, and a dedicated toilet for them and nobody else to use, because you should expect lots of scattered litter/piss/nugs in and around that toilet and room.
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Jul 21, 2015 09:41
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So as of late my cat has become randomly angry at me. I work at a vet clinic and I don't know if I smell like "gently caress YOU" pheromones or what but I'll go to pet him or pick him up and he flips his poo poo and becomes actively fractious. Hissing, swatting, peeing, not being intimidated by a spray bottle, the works. This continues even AFTER I change clothes and shower. He's always been a bit of a turd, I bottle fed him after he was abandoned at ~2 days old or so but he grew up alone and I guess he never learned How To Cat Properly. He's always been a bitey kitty and is TERRIBLE when it comes to restraining at the vet for blood work or even a nail trim but what the gently caress is his deal? He's never had that raw angry kitty behavior directed at me over nothing before. I've seen my fair share of mad kitties and he's really mad. I had to lock him in the bedroom because he kept coming at me with some serious "imma gently caress yo poo poo up" vibes. Is he mad because I bathed a diabetic cat? Is he mad my roommate moved out? Is he mad because I don't want to run around the apartment for 3 hours a day chasing him which is the only way he wants to play, ever? I'm REALLY tempted to just get rid of him, I don't want to have to deal with a pet that hates me  I love my kitty, I really do. But he's SO BAD AND MEAN and all he does is cause me problems and I found him when he was so little and fuuuuuuck  Just be good kitty, its not hard! He knows how to be good, he's let me hold him and he purred plenty of times I don't know what his drat deal is 
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Jul 22, 2015 04:04
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You're covered in animal smells when you come home. Sucks though. Presume you've got feliway running at home?
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Jul 22, 2015 04:10
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SynthOrange posted:You're covered in animal smells when you come home. Sucks though. Presume you've got feliway running at home? I have some but I haven't used it in a while. It was only to keep him from peeing on things. I'll spray it around and see what happens. He's never been this bad before about it, I've come home plenty of times smelling like other freaked out angry critters
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Jul 22, 2015 04:22
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Try out the feliway diffusers that run 24/7 too. More effective for covering large areas.
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Jul 22, 2015 04:51
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You are describing my bottle-raised cat, too, Minarchist--except I don't work with animals that could trigger him. (Come to think of it, though, my worst bouts with him were while I worked in the office of a plastic-reinforced fiberglass company and that poo poo was making me sick.) I still can't always trust Luther so he gets timeouts in Lutherdome (stairway foyer, hall, bathroom) and I'm constantly watching my back when he's out because he is obsessed with controlling pathways and can get aggro if I DON'T hold him constantly. Nth-ing the Feliway diffuser and throwing in a recommendation for Sentry Calming Collars, too. I just use the collars now because of the expense of covering all zones in my home. Sounds like you may need the combo. He's more predictable now, if still a weirdo who can't Just Be A Cat, but routine schedules and lots of treats to teach him where he needs to be so I can go down the stairs without getting cat-murdered help. He's three years old now and it has been a lot of work. Still considering cat drugs for bad brains, but not thinking of euthing him nearly so often anymore.  On the plus side, he's hella-chatty, doesn't yell when alone in Lutherdome, never goes outside the litter box, initiates fetch, walks outdoors with a harness and leash, takes showers and baths with me, and has recently taken it upon himself to bring me the mail when it is dropped in the door slot. He has trained my main mail carrier to just put it in his mouth instead of dropping the post on the floor.
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Jul 22, 2015 05:29
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Your cat is autistic, the perfect goon pet.
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Jul 22, 2015 12:22
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Drythe posted:Your cat is autistic, the perfect goon pet.  I do call him "goony shitlord" pretty often.
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Jul 22, 2015 13:00
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I'm moving out of my current place, so I went back to my dad's to grab some boxes for the move. While I was there I took the time to let the cat out. She usually just goes in the front yard and eats some grass before getting scared and coming back in, but something seemed... Off. She was moving slow, wasn't going out of her way to rub on my hand until I was inches from her face, seemed more emaciated than I would have anticipated, etc. For being 17 years old you can expect there to be some deterioration I guess, but then I noticed a big lump on her paw, and upon closer inspection found what might be causing her a slight bit of discomfort: My first thought was to try and snip it off (which you can see) but she went mental on me, and understandably so. I messaged my dad, he's going to meet me there in an hour and we're going to try and clip it off ourselves. Failing that, he's got a vet appointment booked early tomorrow morning. My question is, is it risky to try and clip it ourselves? I'm worried that if we do it outselves and pull it out that it might start bleeding from the pad? I don't quite understand how my dad hasn't noticed this, but then again I can't really fault him because this doesn't normally happen with cats, but I'm still a bit upset that she's been having to deal with this for who knows how long.
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Jul 22, 2015 23:12
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This happened to mine and I didn't even notice it (she's very shy and mistrustful, so I don't see much of her paws) until she went to the vet, who just trimmed it, let it bleed naturally, and told me not to worry about it. If it's not infected and doesn't get infected, she'll probably be ok?
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Jul 22, 2015 23:20
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Handen posted:I'm moving out of my current place, so I went back to my dad's to grab some boxes for the move. While I was there I took the time to let the cat out. She usually just goes in the front yard and eats some grass before getting scared and coming back in, but something seemed... Off. She was moving slow, wasn't going out of her way to rub on my hand until I was inches from her face, seemed more emaciated than I would have anticipated, etc. For being 17 years old you can expect there to be some deterioration I guess, but then I noticed a big lump on her paw, and upon closer inspection found what might be causing her a slight bit of discomfort:  ), and a litttttle bit with my current cat who is sometimes lazy. This happens when they're either too lazy to maintain their claws by biting them or scratching, and the claws eventually curl back around and push into their feet. It sucks for obviously pushing into the pads, but also they kind of click when they walk around from the nails tapping the ground all the time.You can go ahead and clip it by using scissors style claw trimmers and just cut through that middle part first, then trim the nails back normally. There's no quick in the claw that far out, so you don't need to worry about that so much until you trim them back(like normal). Luckily, you still have some empty space in the middle of that curl there; my cat's nails were so bad when I got to trimming her nails that it was almost a solid disc so I had to clip tiny bits off at a time and pretty much break the nail apart just to get a decent angle on it to start trimming it back.
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Jul 23, 2015 04:38
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My cat is constipated. No turds have appeared in the litterbox for a worrying long time, maybe 24 hours. I know in the long term she needs more water, and to lose weight, but she's 14 and stubborn. And paranoid. very fearful of a dripping faucet. She eats mostly canned food, i rarely see her drink water. Thinking of getting one of those fountains. Again. had one that broke down. Is there anything i can do for her immediately? Do i need to get stool softener in diet somehow? Is there anything other than milk that she would want to drink? She will lap up ranch sauce if given the chance but I don't think that helps.
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Jul 23, 2015 08:32
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Handen posted:I'm moving out of my current place, so I went back to my dad's to grab some boxes for the move. While I was there I took the time to let the cat out. She usually just goes in the front yard and eats some grass before getting scared and coming back in, but something seemed... Off. She was moving slow, wasn't going out of her way to rub on my hand until I was inches from her face, seemed more emaciated than I would have anticipated, etc. For being 17 years old you can expect there to be some deterioration I guess, but then I noticed a big lump on her paw, and upon closer inspection found what might be causing her a slight bit of discomfort: Overgrowth of nails is also a potential sign of hyperthyroidism
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Jul 23, 2015 09:22
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So i rang the shelter again today about Smudge and her anxiety. Turns out there are several key bits of information that they possibly should have let us know about her when we adopted her. Such as the fact that she was found as a very young stray kitten, adopted by a family, then surrendered to the shelter at about 10 weeks, desexed at 12 weeks after initial vet checks, then lurked at the shelter till she was 7 1/2 months old when we adopted her. So THAT explains the uncertainty, the fear, the anxiety, the trouble settling in- 3 families, 3 massive changes in lifestyle and 3 homes in 8 months. Gonna go have a chat with the vet about some anti anxiety medication to try and mellow out her wild mood swings until she adjusts to the house. Trust my luck to get the broken cat, but now I have a reason behind her behaviour- she doesnt hate my guts for no reason, so now im thinking more medicating than euthanising.
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Jul 23, 2015 12:31
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Millions of Crows posted:My cat is constipated. No turds have appeared in the litterbox for a worrying long time, maybe 24 hours. Could try canned pumpkin, unspiced
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Jul 23, 2015 14:12
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Millions of Crows posted:My cat is constipated. No turds have appeared in the litterbox for a worrying long time, maybe 24 hours. My Tigh currently takes 1/16th teaspoon of miralax every morning (per vet's orders) due to chronic constipation and tendency for megacolon. You would want to call your vet about it first, of course.
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Jul 23, 2015 14:35
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The last time my cat got constipated, I gave her a bit of hairball paste. It kinda greases up the whole system. She pooped sometime overnight after I'd given it to her in the evening and hasn't had trouble since.
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Jul 23, 2015 18:55
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duckfarts posted:Could try canned pumpkin, unspiced ^^^ Pure pumpkin puree is usually found in the grocery store on the baking isle. Make sure it doesn't have ANY spices. Mix it in gradually, start with a small amount so she can get used to the taste. You can also call your vet.
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Jul 23, 2015 18:57
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She pooped. Though only 1/5 in the litterbox. I'm not sure how she's doing this. At 5am i hear the crunch and shuffling of litter. I check, and find a turd on the little mat in front, like it's setting off on its own.
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Jul 24, 2015 06:33
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Millions of Crows posted:She pooped. Squatting, and missing the inside. My cats do this time to time. Yay for poop, though!
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Jul 24, 2015 06:52
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So I'm just about done with my first week as a cat owner and it's going great! Lots of playing, lots of cuddling, no poops or pees out of place and she is just the cutest drat thing ever. I was wondering what kind of things your cats like to do when it's playtime? Elliot loves the laser pointer, hiding and letting us find her, chasing toys up and down furniture and just batting things around. Is there anything big I'm missing that we should be doing? Also we've been trying to put a lot of her playtime after dinner so she gets as tired as possibly for the night, this isn't counterproductive, right? Finally here's a picture for putting up with this wall of text! 
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Jul 24, 2015 07:36
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Spaz your hand around under blankets
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Jul 24, 2015 08:18
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Thelonius Van Funk posted:So I'm just about done with my first week as a cat owner and it's going great! Lots of playing, lots of cuddling, no poops or pees out of place and she is just the cutest drat thing ever. I was wondering what kind of things your cats like to do when it's playtime? Elliot loves the laser pointer, hiding and letting us find her, chasing toys up and down furniture and just batting things around. Is there anything big I'm missing that we should be doing? Also we've been trying to put a lot of her playtime after dinner so she gets as tired as possibly for the night, this isn't counterproductive, right? Finally here's a picture for putting up with this wall of text! If you can, handle your cat. Often. You really really want to get your cat used to being picked up and handled if possible because it will make things like clipping nails, giving medicine, baths(should you need to), and vet visits so much easier down the line. If they nip you, that's fine and good; it's the biting you want to stop/cut down on. Nipping means they're controlling their bite pressure. Towards the "make nail clipping easier" thing, I'd suggest seeing if you can flip your cat over and put her in your lap, belly up. If she squirms, try and keep her there until she stops moving for a few seconds, then give a signal(click your tongue or something) and let them go. Do this for progressively longer periods over time. After a while, you can try to start handling her paws a little bit, and eventually extending the claw for clipping and such. Thelonius Van Funk posted:Also we've been trying to put a lot of her playtime after dinner so she gets as tired as possibly for the night
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Jul 24, 2015 10:10
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Hi where do you live I'm going to steal your gorgeous cat thanks in advance
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Jul 24, 2015 13:23
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I need a reality check. The cat I grew up with is now 19 or 20 years old. She's still fairly healthy, underweight, but I got her pet ensure and she takes wet food and a little bit of dry kibble like a champ. She's never been a big cat but she is kind of skinny. Thing is, she lives with my mom and stepdad, and I don't think she gets the love or the attention that she needs. She doesn't get along terribly well with the other 3 cats in the house either. She grew up with one of them, but the other two are new and younger and too energetic to be good company. I also know that my folks can't really afford to take her to the vet. I told them I would pay for any vet visits, but they are stubborn and proud. Compounding this is the fact that my partner and I own a wonderful friendly snuggle bug tortoiseshell cat who is about 8. She's never been alone in the house all day until these past few months, because my partner used to work from home and then I freelanced for a while after we moved across the country for his new job, but now we're both out at offices. I can't help but wonder, now that we are both working out of the house during the day, if she would benefit from company. She isn't misbehaving, but she is very needy. Is it a hugely terrible idea to take my ancient cat across the country and let her live out the rest of her life with my other cat, who has too much love to give to us humans?
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Jul 24, 2015 20:35
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Nicol Bolas posted:I need a reality check. The cat I grew up with is now 19 or 20 years old. She's still fairly healthy, underweight, but I got her pet ensure and she takes wet food and a little bit of dry kibble like a champ. She's never been a big cat but she is kind of skinny. Thing is, she lives with my mom and stepdad, and I don't think she gets the love or the attention that she needs. She doesn't get along terribly well with the other 3 cats in the house either. She grew up with one of them, but the other two are new and younger and too energetic to be good company. I also know that my folks can't really afford to take her to the vet. I told them I would pay for any vet visits, but they are stubborn and proud. If her living with you would result in reliable access to a vet then it is probably a good idea to take her. My old rear end cats are doing much better now that they have reliable vet access and medicine.
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Jul 24, 2015 22:00
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What's the story about the guy killing his cat by stepping on it?
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Jul 24, 2015 23:02
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Boris Galerkin posted:What's the story about the guy killing his cat by stepping on it? A poster had a very young kitten, was trying to hand-raise it, was keeping it in the tub, they didn't think it could escape from there. Turns out they were mistaken, kitten got out and underfoot where the poster was not expecting it. Just a really lovely story.
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Jul 24, 2015 23:06
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So I think we caught the piss bandit thats been tagging our house and freaking out smudge and Isaac! Found this useless ball of fluff in the cat trap this morning and by GOD is he a cranky bastard. Im off to the doctors at noon to get the half dozen puncture wounds from his teeth in my hands looked at because he bit me THROUGH leather riggers gloves. Took it to the vets, Got a collar but no tag or microchip, went up and spoke to the neighbours a street above us who we've seen with a similar looking cat and got a "oh, we noticed he wasnt around" load of apathy from the people house sitting for them. Apparently the cats just allowed to roam whenever he likes outside and gets fed in the shed, so basically they've got a semi tame stray cat they let roam which is pure bullshit. I've asked them to pass on a message to come down and see us when they get back because im not putting up with a cat that pisses on my house and freaks out my cat if they cant be a responsible cat owner. If it hasnt learnt from its ordeal today and winds up back in the trap again then its going to the council pound and they can pay to get it back.
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Jul 25, 2015 03:04
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AtomikKrab posted:If her living with you would result in reliable access to a vet then it is probably a good idea to take her. But won't a drive + 3 hour flight + drive + new house and new cat be crazy stressful? I'm confident (perhaps foolishly) that she will get along with my other cat, but I worry about over exciting her or stressing her out in a way that affects her health and leads to her death. Ideally I would like her to live out her remaining days in the lap of luxury feeling loved but I don't know how best to accomplish that.
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Jul 25, 2015 04:21
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So we (my boyfriend and me) just adopted these two cats from the shelter:   The shelter couldn't tell much about them, all we know is that they are both 6 years old and grew up together. The red one is male, the grey is female, we didn't pick names for them yet. They are both neutered. We brought them home on tuesday, the shelter had their vet check them and we were told they're healthy. They are kept as strictly indoor cats, with 2 litter boxes and we have no other pets in our apartement. We tried to find really good food and are currently feeding them "catz finefood" which is supposedly quality cat-food. They haven't eaten much since we brought them home, especially the grey cat is a very scarce eater so far. We feed them 85grams of food for both of them three times a day, at the beginning we gave them 85grams each, but they at best ate half, if even. The shelter told us this is normal at the beginning, but it's still starting to worry me. So my first question is: when should her not eating much start to worry me? When should I consider seeing a vet? We both are new cat owners, so we are generally a little nervous about everything. We really want the cats to be very happy and healthy. But we juts brought them home and taking them to the vet means stressing them again, which I don't want to at this time if it's unnecessary. What bothers me is that the grey cat seems to have changed in behaviour. When we met them at the shelter, she was very loving, she directly came to us, demanding to be petted, even more so than her brother. But since we brought her home, what she usually does is sleep in one of the countless hiding spots we arranged in our apartement. They both seem to seek close proximity to us (they always stay in the same room as we do), but now whenever we try to pet her, she seems annoyed, sometimes even scared by that and avoids it. She never gets angry, but trying to pet her in any way usually results in her leaving (and if she leaves we let her go and don't follow her). Is this something I should worry about? Other than that she seems very relaxed, doesn't seem like she's in pain or that there's anything wrong with her. Besides, the vet at the shelter checked her thoroughly just a few days ago. Keep in mind that I haven't had cats before, so I may be overthinking. I have not adopted a cat before, so this is all new to me. Advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Jul 25, 2015 16:18
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Sounds to me like normal moving stress and the cats aren't sure about their new environment yet. I'd give them a week or two to get settled.
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Jul 25, 2015 16:25
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Ophidia posted:So we (my boyfriend and me) just adopted these two cats from the shelter: Whats the ingredient mix on the food, are you feeding them wet or dry? If wet get some dry and have it available, a lot of shelters can't afford to give cats wet food and so the cat is used to dry... and regardless some cats are assholes who stubbornly refuse to consume wet food no matter what Also environment adjustment takes a bit.. get one more litterbox.
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Jul 25, 2015 16:41
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My cat hid inside the hollow part of my couch for the majority of the first week I had her, and now she follows me everywhere and flops on me. I don't think you need to worry about yours being a bit standoffish. 
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Jul 25, 2015 16:49
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AtomikKrab posted:Whats the ingredient mix on the food, are you feeding them wet or dry? If wet get some dry and have it available, a lot of shelters can't afford to give cats wet food and so the cat is used to dry... and regardless some cats are assholes who stubbornly refuse to consume wet food no matter what That's what I'm afraid of. They had lots of wet and dry food that was available all day long. So how long should I wait for her to adjust to only wet food. The ingredient mix for the food: 70% meat (musclemeat, heart, lung and liver), meat kind differs depending on which sort it is 25% water 5% filler (cranberries, potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.) Analytical ingredients: 10% protein 6% fat 2% ash 0.4% fiber
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Jul 25, 2015 17:05
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We have mice! Mocha is useless! She has entirely forgotten how to hunt.
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Jul 25, 2015 18:18
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Lilac Poop-update #3 I took her to the vet, a short walk, during which the sound of a loud car scared her, and she managed to piss on the side of my leg through a small hole in the cardboard carrier. Vet found nothing worrying in the examination, but we did sort out what is likely happening. Lilac is getting some high fiber kibble, and a drinking fountain to encourage her to drink more water. It seems to me she is just showing her age, and I have to put more effort and money into keeping her healthy.
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Jul 25, 2015 23:57
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