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Knifegrab posted:So I will probably be a cat owner soon-ish. I like cats but boy I really really hate litter boxes. Anytime I've ever been to someones house who has a litter box the room its in always just smells like complete poo poo and piss. Is there anyway to avoid that or is it pretty much that a room is going to have be sacrificed so a litter box can reside there? And no, outdoor litter box would not work unfortunately. Mine is in the laundry room right off the kitchen so I stay pretty on top of it. First, for the box itself I put a liner in and then a disposable litter box on top of it, so when the time comes to replace everything I just throw everything out except the litter box itself. I use cat litter deodorizer (mostly just baking soda). A layer on the bottom before I add new litter and sprinkled on top every time I scoop. I scoop every 1-2 days, sometimes 3 but that's pushing it. Add a little fresh litter every time I scoop. Replace the whole thing every 2 weeks and vacuum all around. I go through more litter than most and the disposable boxes are an extra expense but it's way better than my house smelling like cat piss.
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Jun 17, 2016 21:15
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My cats will roll over so you can pet their belly for about 10 seconds then will go into the kick-kick-bite-bite routine on my arm/hand. He seems to be playing mostly because he will do the same thing with toys. I don't think I've ever seen my cat drool but occasionally he will start kneading my stomach (while heavily purring) and his nose will drip a couple drops of clear fluid. He will then start taking a nap on my belly. Apparently other cats do this, but he is the only one I've ever known that does this. I think unless they are hissing and have a bushy tail what cats do can either be chalked up to playing, affection, or neutral. Edit: or "feed me now"
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Jun 17, 2016 22:01
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What's a good method to get a cat to stop chewing on cables? Tuna seems to have decided that he really likes chewing on things, and I'd like for those things to be non-electronic. Also, is there a good cat-focused chew toy out there? I'm almost wondering if I shouldn't just buy him some of those denta-stix they make for dogs and letting him demolish those instead, but I don't know if there's some other thing that'd be better.
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Jun 17, 2016 23:16
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The Lord of Hats posted:What's a good method to get a cat to stop chewing on cables? Tuna seems to have decided that he really likes chewing on things, and I'd like for those things to be non-electronic. Also, is there a good cat-focused chew toy out there? I'm almost wondering if I shouldn't just buy him some of those denta-stix they make for dogs and letting him demolish those instead, but I don't know if there's some other thing that'd be better. I don't have experience with getting them to stop chewing cables but I can tell you one of my cats has this strip of leather which came with a handbag that we gave her when she was a kitten. She doesn't do much with it at the moment but for a good couple of years she could be found holding it and chewing it at least once a day. I guess just find something similar of a texture you know he likes that isn't a cable and see if he adopts it or not. 
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Jun 18, 2016 04:20
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My cats usually only chew cables when they want attention or want to be fed. You can either ignore it or succumb to their wishes. It's kind of a nasty cycle. Now they know they can wake me up for food in the early morning by going after my phone charging cable. I think what helps the most is to try to hide the cables the best you can, but barring that you can try a little hot sauce on the cables or some deodorant. They should get the message pretty quickly.
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Jun 18, 2016 05:36
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About a month ago, my cat stopped pooping in his litter box. He still pees in the box, and he poops juuuuuust outside the box. I've tried changing the litter a few times in case he was being picky, but I'm thinking its something else. The only running theory right now is that maybe he has outgrown the box and we need to find a bigger one? Has anyone else gone through this with their cat? Any thoughts or suggestions?
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Jun 18, 2016 05:39
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Is he older? One of my family's cats started to poop on the paper outside the box instead of in the box when she was about 14, but would still go in the box to pee. She had no litter problems before that. We just went along with it because she was a little old lady. Maybe she didn't like the feeling of climbing into the box with a full bowel or something.
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Jun 18, 2016 05:43
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You can get some plastic split loom to cover your cables with for very cheap on Amazon.
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Jun 18, 2016 05:43
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toe knee hand posted:Is he older? One of my family's cats started to poop on the paper outside the box instead of in the box when she was about 14, but would still go in the box to pee. She had no litter problems before that. We just went along with it because she was a little old lady. Maybe she didn't like the feeling of climbing into the box with a full bowel or something. No, he's pretty young. He'll be 4 in September.
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Jun 18, 2016 05:52
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The Lord of Hats posted:What's a good method to get a cat to stop chewing on cables? Tuna seems to have decided that he really likes chewing on things, and I'd like for those things to be non-electronic. Also, is there a good cat-focused chew toy out there? I'm almost wondering if I shouldn't just buy him some of those denta-stix they make for dogs and letting him demolish those instead, but I don't know if there's some other thing that'd be better. My comedy suggestion is to paint your cable with  . (click for link to page)I suspect it will actually work pretty well, but I doubt you want your house smelling like coyote urine. I'm curious if someone has actually tried something like this and what they found. And yeah, hard plastic cable covers may be the way to protect cables and cats both otherwise.
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Jun 18, 2016 05:54
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mick ohio posted:No, he's pretty young. He'll be 4 in September. Have you caught him in the act at all? Is he in the box but hanging his butt over or just not going in the box at all?
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Jun 18, 2016 05:59
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mick ohio posted:About a month ago, my cat stopped pooping in his litter box. He still pees in the box, and he poops juuuuuust outside the box. I've tried changing the litter a few times in case he was being picky, but I'm thinking its something else. The only running theory right now is that maybe he has outgrown the box and we need to find a bigger one? Has anyone else gone through this with their cat? Any thoughts or suggestions? He's probably standing with all four paws in the box and assuming that means his butt is inside the box. One of my cats has the same problem, I just bought her a covered litter box and all crap goes in the litter now.
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Jun 18, 2016 07:17
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This morning I smelled a whiff of cat-pee on the carpet by our front door. It's unusual because to my knowledge they've never peed outside the box. It wasn't a very strong smell. I had to actually bend over and get close to it to smell it. Our cats are usually very well behaved when it comes to litter boxes. They've put up with a lot and will patiently wait for me to empty the litter boxes before going inside for a piss. This makes me think that it's actually a territorial marking. They both like chilling by the little crack at the front door and they don't fight over it more than any other place in the house. It does concern me a little that they're willing to hang out where it smells like piss, like they're insecure or something and want to smell themselves. I want to believe one of them smelled a cat outside on the porch and took the liberty to tell that cat to gently caress right off by pissing as close to it as they could, or the other cat detected cats at our house (via the front door or the window) and pissed to tell them to stay inside. On top of all this my intact female likes squirming over there when she's in heat. I wouldn't put it past her to pee a little when getting excited. So, Cat Piss Mystery Theater
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Jun 18, 2016 14:29
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MrSlam posted:Cat Piss Mystery Theater i loving hate this show
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Jun 18, 2016 15:41
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The female in heat is marking. Spay her 
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Jun 18, 2016 17:37
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toe knee hand posted:Have you caught him in the act at all? Is he in the box but hanging his butt over or just not going in the box at all? I've seen him in the act a few times... he is not going into the box to poop but he will to pee. Sometimes, when I find his poo, it will be on the ledge of the box, leading me to believe that he has attempted to go inside the box. I'm going to try making a big, deluxe litter box out of plastic storage bin and see if that helps.
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Jun 18, 2016 20:37
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MrSlam posted:In some cases though (my cases) cats bite because they want to play instead of cuddling Yeah, my kitten will go all facehugger on my hand and gnaw gently on it if she comes to visit me on the couch while still halfway on play-mode. It's conveniently identical to one of the things she does with toys, or maybe somewhat gentler on the bites.
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Jun 19, 2016 10:28
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The Lord of Hats posted:What's a good method to get a cat to stop chewing on cables? Tuna seems to have decided that he really likes chewing on things, and I'd like for those things to be non-electronic. Also, is there a good cat-focused chew toy out there? I'm almost wondering if I shouldn't just buy him some of those denta-stix they make for dogs and letting him demolish those instead, but I don't know if there's some other thing that'd be better. I soaped my cables. Basically, take some dish soap, put some on paper towel, and pass the cord over it a couple of times. I found it on some YouTube video. It worked really well.
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Jun 20, 2016 06:41
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CompactFanny posted:The female in heat is marking. Spay her This, yeah.
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Jun 20, 2016 06:50
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Re: cable chewing. I got cable and the plug is right at cat chew level and so the cable sticks out like 2". I got this cheap rear end stuff at the pet store (don't remember which one). It reeks of alcohol and maybe apple... Mostly alcohol. They won't go near the cable. Prior to that stuff I found some cord protectors and used those. They're about the size of a quarter in diameter:  Called a split plastic tubing/split flex tubing, from Home Depot or Lowes but it looks like it's on Amazon too. There's also a bunch of pretty, colorful skinny "cable protectors" on Amazon but I don't know how well skinny ones will work with rear end in a top hat cats. Anyways I've mostly removed them at this point because my cats stopped caring about cables now, I think (hope) it's because they associate cables with those giant un-chewable things, plus they're not exactly pretty (but apparently they sell them in different colors!), but I kept them on stuff that's always on & exposed like my microwave just to be safe. E: OH and you can cut them up to any size so like if you have a switch thing on a lamp's wire, you can cut the tube to fit the top half of the wire, have the switch exposed, and then cut more tube for the other half. /words Thin Privilege fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Jun 20, 2016 |
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Jun 20, 2016 08:44
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Thin Privilege posted:Re: cable chewing. I got cable and the plug is right at cat chew level and so the cable sticks out like 2". I got this cheap rear end stuff at the pet store (don't remember which one). It reeks of alcohol and maybe apple... Mostly alcohol. They won't go near the cable. ymmv with bitter apple stuff; i know some cats do not give a single poo poo about that stuff
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Jun 20, 2016 09:41
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While on the subject of biting, my kitten is a real piece of poo poo. She was removed from her family too early (6 or 7 weeks I think) and then almost immediately went into isolation to treat ringworm for another 5 or 6 weeks so her socialization history is pretty rocky. Now she is free to roam the house as of two weeks ago, but all she likes to do is hunt and bite us and our dogs. We play with her with toys and she enjoys it (until she remembers that we have hands), but literally the only time we can pet her without her biting us as hard as she can is if she has fallen asleep. We can't just put her in time out so she learns biting is not okay, because that is all she does. In the evenings she jumps on the couch and bites our fingers; I pick her up and drop her on the ground away from us, and she comes right back. At night, she cuddles up next to my wife's neck, and then in the morning she will bite my fingers/nose until I toss her on the ground. She also brings her toys into bed, but still bites my hands. Is she going to grow out of this? Do we need to get another kitten to even her out or is 3-4 months old too late for that? Do we just need to coat our hands in bitter apple spray every day? We got her because our younger dog loves cats but even he is frightened of her and tired of her poo poo.
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Jun 20, 2016 22:26
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Friend posted:While on the subject of biting, my kitten is a real piece of poo poo. She was removed from her family too early (6 or 7 weeks I think) and then almost immediately went into isolation to treat ringworm for another 5 or 6 weeks so her socialization history is pretty rocky. Now she is free to roam the house as of two weeks ago, but all she likes to do is hunt and bite us and our dogs. We play with her with toys and she enjoys it (until she remembers that we have hands), but literally the only time we can pet her without her biting us as hard as she can is if she has fallen asleep. We can't just put her in time out so she learns biting is not okay, because that is all she does. In the evenings she jumps on the couch and bites our fingers; I pick her up and drop her on the ground away from us, and she comes right back. At night, she cuddles up next to my wife's neck, and then in the morning she will bite my fingers/nose until I toss her on the ground. She also brings her toys into bed, but still bites my hands. maybe whenever she bites you, instead of just moving her away from you, you should actually scare the poo poo out of her. Make loud hissing noises at her, and let her know in cat language that you're loving mad. It works on my adult cat, at least. Sometimes she forgets that I don't like getting the poo poo bitten/clawed out of me, so I make scary loud hissing noises in her face, and she goes slack-jawed and bug-eyed, and runs away. And then 5 minutes later she's nice and friendly again.
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Jun 20, 2016 22:50
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Friend posted:Is she going to grow out of this? Do we need to get another kitten to even her out or is 3-4 months old too late for that? Do we just need to coat our hands in bitter apple spray every day? We got her because our younger dog loves cats but even he is frightened of her and tired of her poo poo. Other people will have better advice for this than me I'm sure. This is just my experience. My male cat was always very bitey but he seemed to mellow out once he was neutered and got a companion cat. Eventually I learned the cues of when he wanted to be petted and when he wanted to play so I almost never get bitten, and him knowing that I know weirdly enough makes him bite me a lot less. It might be best just to not pet her for a while. Young cats IMO have to show you when they want to be petted and won't let you pick them up and cuddle-torture them like older cats will. Like, I can pick up both my cats and make them do a dance at this stage, but I could never get away with that when they were younger. I'm always up for adopting more cats because I'm a crazy person, so that'd be my suggestion. I'm of the opinion cats communicate much better with other cats than with humans, so her having someone on her level might be a good thing. But on the other hand, some cats just mellow out when they get older (or when they get more settled in) which means it might be a waiting game. My other cat (a longhair permakitten) took three years to warm up to me because her mats got so bad one winter I had to hold her down and snip them out one by one. For some reason this was a bonding experience which she equated to grooming and now she urges me to brush and cuddle her everyday. Unless your kitten's super aggressive and drawing blood I'd let her chew on your hand a few times (like I said, I'm a crazy person  ). Drawing your hand away can sometimes make them think you're playing with them so when you don't resist they'll look confused and a little awkward.
MrSlam fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Jun 20, 2016 |
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Jun 20, 2016 22:57
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MrSlam posted:Unless your kitten's super aggressive and drawing blood I'd let her chew on your hand a few times (like I said, I'm a crazy person Yeah, that's good advice. If a cat say, gets your arm in a death grip, the more you try to move your arm away, the more you tend to get bitten/scratched. In my experience, If you just stay still and calm for a few moments that's often enough for them to loosen their grip and then you can get away. But sometimes you also have to hiss at them or make some other startling noise or something, in order to snap them out of it.
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Jun 20, 2016 23:08
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I tolerate love bites but i have like calloused hands of death. If it does get uncomfortable you can try the puppy approach where you yelp to teach bite play, which often doesn't work well, but Rah!'s suggestion of a hiss and bared teeth does seem to work pretty well to teach decorum. or just a light "pay attention to me" bop on the nose with a finger can distract as well. Kittens shouldn't get used to biting folks and having it hurt, just like any animal.
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Jun 20, 2016 23:12
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Rah! posted:Yeah, that's good advice. If a cat say, gets your arm in a death grip, the more you try to move your arm away, the more you tend to get bitten/scratched. In my experience, If you just stay still and calm for a few moments that's often enough for them to loosen their grip and then you can get away. But sometimes you also have to hiss at them or make some other startling noise or something, in order to snap them out of it. SneakyFrog posted:or just a light "pay attention to me" bop on the nose with a finger can distract as well. Just throwing this out there, but I know a guy, who knew a guy, who knew this other guy that in the 1970's flicked his finger directly at a cat's nose and it died instantly. The story goes that the nose bone went into its brain or it got a concussion or something. Is that stupid or entirely possible?
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Jun 20, 2016 23:26
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MrSlam posted:You guys got the good advice. i suppose if the dude were a welder and he gave one hell of a flick as opposed to a bop MAYBE? but i havent killed any kittehs yet even when the little fucker jumped out of my arms last night at the top of the second floor staircase, bit it hard and rolled the rest of the way down sooooo....
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Jun 20, 2016 23:29
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duckfarts posted:ymmv with bitter apple stuff; i know some cats do not give a single poo poo about that stuff Well my point was that it's mostly alcohol hence repulsively strong
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Jun 20, 2016 23:32
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MrSlam posted:You guys got the good advice. No, it would take a whole lot more than a finger flick to do that. Swatting a cat on the bridge of its nose with a finger or two is actually pretty effective, so long as you do it rarely. It's what mother cats do to settle down overly rambunctious kittens. Every cat knows that bop as "MOM SAYS STOP!"
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Jun 20, 2016 23:41
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Deteriorata posted:No, it would take a whole lot more than a finger flick to do that. Swatting a cat on the bridge of its nose with a finger or two is actually pretty effective, so long as you do it rarely. It's what mother cats do to settle down overly rambunctious kittens. Every cat knows that bop as "MOM SAYS STOP!" I used that once or twice on one of my old cats that would get extra rear end in a top hat-ish at times, and it worked well (until he decided to be an rear end in a top hat again a couple days later)...but I'd be afraid to do it to my current cat (not that she's done anything that a simple hiss won't fix), because she's so nice and trusting, and she also used to get beaten up constantly by that other rear end in a top hat cat, and occasionally by a feral cat and the neighbor's dog, back when she was an outdoor kitty. So I'm afraid that one nose bop too many would convince her that I'm yet another scary rear end in a top hat that wants to constantly gently caress with her.
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Jun 21, 2016 00:04
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I should probably be a little less gleeful about spraying water in Tuna's face when he jumps up where he's not supposed to, but dammit it works and is strangely satisfying. I do make sure to give him scritches once he stops doing the thing, though. Also, my cables are now Tabasco-ed up, so hopefully that does the trick.
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Jun 21, 2016 02:06
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My ladyfriend just moved in recently, and we've gone from a single cat household to a two cat household. Oh boy. Existing cat:  Abby, calico female shorthair, 9 years, spayed, has always been a single cat. She's historically been aggressive towards other animals; i'm told that this was because of an abuse situation before I adopted her. I adopted her in 2009, so we've spent 7 years living together - at first alone, then I moved in with roommates (she mostly stayed in my room, though if I was gone for a while she would visit the roommates occasionally) and such. New cat:  Frida, black female shorthair, 4 years, spayed, adopted February of 2015. Curious, likes to jump onto things and explore. Abby has always really liked staying in my room, so i've put all her stuff in the bedroom. Frida has food, water, and a litterbox in our laundry room, though we havent kept her in there since she probably would prefer a place to hide if the laundry machines were going, so she can explore the rest of the house. Abby's never really quite been too adventurous outside of my bedroom, so she's pretty pleased with everything being my (our?) bedroom now. Everything I'm reading online is written as if you're selecting a second cat for an existing one cat household, which just isn't the case here. Abby is territorial and a creature of routine and Frida is easy going and kind. Is there any hope, do I just extend the introduction period to months? Are there success stories where two cats have reached a mutual agreement to just be chill when one is just.. not very chill? E: They just met each other with a door separating them as Frida explores the outside -- abby growled a lot, eventually hissed and scratched the door. mrbucket fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Jun 21, 2016 |
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Jun 21, 2016 03:10
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I adopted this fluffy idiot/ragdoll a few months ago from a family member who could not handle him after they bought two other dogs and stopped paying attention to him   Anyway, he's great but he sheds LONG silky fur like crazy, and I'm pretty sure we're both ingesting his fur. Can I shave him, at least for the summer? I see him trying to find cool places all around the house to lay down so it might have a slight benefit for him along with hopefully reducing furballs. He is very mild tempered and loves it when I groom him with a brush or furminator, and he has no problems with me brushing all of his belly. He will squirm when its time to clip his nails, so I have to have at least one assistant to hold him still for that. He is also afraid of the vacuum cleaner, bit I don't think an electric razor should be so loud to freak him out. What say you, PI? If shaving isn't a bad idea for the summer, how do you locate a good groomer, and what should I expect to pay?
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Jun 21, 2016 20:32
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Growing up Texas we always got our long hair cat lion cuts in the summer, they seemed a lot more comfortable and you get to laugh at them as a bonus. A friend of mine does it with his cat now too. I don't recommend shaving him yourself though, cat skin is really loose and you run the risk of badly cutting a panicked cat. We just had our vet do it, it's a pretty common thing in hot areas.
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Jun 21, 2016 22:39
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Yeah, I'm in Texas, as well. He has been shaved once before when he had to have surgery after he got into a basket of plastic easter "grass" and ate it along with some hair ties. The previous owners told me that he seemed to enjoy the lion cut. Any idea what a vet charges to do it? For that matter, if anyone can tell me why this cat insists on licking or biting anything plastic, I'd love to know-- and also how to break that habit.
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Jun 22, 2016 00:01
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I'm a big dumb idiot who is allergic to cats and this is Milly   Negotiations are going well.  3.5 years old, adopted her from the local spca yesterday afternoon and she's super snuggly, seems to have an infinite tolerance for manhandling, belly rubs forever, playing with feet etc. I kept her in my room last night and other than a little prodding at bedtime, she let me sleep through the night. I've never had a cat before and so far she's drinking, but as of this morning hadn't eaten or used the litter box but scratched at it a couple of times. (Not?) looking forward to what I find after work today. 
Boogalo fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Feb 6, 2023 |
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Jun 22, 2016 17:36
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Kitten is doing awesome. She's around 4 weeks old now, we're working on weaning her and she's happy as can be with her doggy brother. It's really cool watching her develop so fast and gain confidence. She stomps around, climbs stuff, is starting to really play and is getting closer to being able to pounce like a real cat. Nearly impossible to take photos of though, but I try!
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Jun 22, 2016 18:00
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I am going insane. So I moved back in with my dad after grad school, and for the most part it's a great arrangement. The only issue I have is with the family cat, who's now 11. At some point she stopped pooping in the litter box, and basically goes wherever on the basement level. This isn't a crippling problem for my dad et. al, who only came down here prior to service the catbox and move poo poo, but I'm living down here now, and I am exceptionally tired of cleaning up cat poop literally every day. The box is in the downstairs bathroom--that's the one I'M using now, and while I could deal with the catbox I cannot handle the place never seeming or smelling clean because every day there's new poop all over the floor. Is there any conceivable way to retrain the poor girl to use the box again? I know she's really old, but I will take any suggestions--just living with it becomes much more of a problem when it's in your corner of the world.
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Jun 22, 2016 18:14
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Redeye Flight posted:I am going insane. So the box is on the basement level? Or the box is in the downstairs bathroom which is above the basement but below the upstairs level? Older kitty might have trouble with stairs?
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Jun 22, 2016 20:47
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