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Those dogs are very ashamed of that cat
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Feb 5, 2018 23:33
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Synthbuttrange posted:Additional proof: This is the funniest poo poo I've ever seen.
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Feb 5, 2018 23:52
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Sundae posted:This morning before vet, he was having (what we think were) cramps and falling over from dehydration Can you get some subq fluids from the vet to give at home? We have been doing that for our pancreatitis cat. It’s no fun for her or us but it’s easier than dragging her to the vet repeatedly.
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Feb 6, 2018 00:03
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Synthbuttrange posted:Additional proof: I'm in stitches laughing at your cat, that's incredible.
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Feb 6, 2018 03:33
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Not my cat, just an internet cat, incredible anyway. 
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Feb 6, 2018 03:44
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Our cat has been spraying on stuff lately. We have him cooped up in a (spacious) room with lots of vertical space and feed him adequately, but we're wondering why he's doing that. Is he lonely? He has also developed a habit of putting stuff (like newspaper pages) on the litter box to cover up his poo poo.
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Feb 6, 2018 03:49
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Both of us are home sick with the flu and the cat has been nursing us. Now she didn't eat about a third of her breakfast (unusual as she's a scarf-and-barfer) and didn't come running when the toaster popped. (Toaster=possible toast bits, one of her favorite treats.) No discharge, just lethargy.  Poor kitty. Now we're all sick. I just hope she keeps eating until one of us is well enough to take her to the vet, so we don't have to figure out how to get her to the vet via a non-sick friend. I'd feel so bad if I got the vet office sick.
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Feb 6, 2018 20:18
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What's the best way to handle wet food for the cats? I've been trying to get into feeding it everyday for their health in addition to dry food. We have four cats - the two girls are very picky about food and will only eat one specific Weruva wet food. The boys will eat anything. Is it bad to go with a cheaper (e.g., Friskies) or should I just spring the money for better stuff (e.g Wellness)?
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Feb 7, 2018 00:21
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The cheaper foods I've found make our cats poop stink real bad. They now get the Crave brand food every couple of days they hit spoiled getting it everyday and wouldn't eat it. If we skip a few days between giving the wet food they get all excited and scarf it down.
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Feb 7, 2018 02:22
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One of my cats prefers dry food to wet, and the other prefers wet to dry (granted, she eats literally anything). Sadly, dry food cat needs to eat wet food as he needs more hydration (urine crystals) and my other cat eats reduced calorie food. As soon as they're done eating they run to each other's eating spots to try and find scraps.
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Feb 8, 2018 00:05
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seiferguy posted:One of my cats prefers dry food to wet, and the other prefers wet to dry (granted, she eats literally anything). Sadly, dry food cat needs to eat wet food as he needs more hydration (urine crystals) and my other cat eats reduced calorie food. As soon as they're done eating they run to each other's eating spots to try and find scraps. Dunno why but I find this very funny. The only truly effective way to keep one cat from eating another cat's food that I've found is to utilize the possible physical abilities of the cats in questions. Like with Jackie and Sardine, I worked it out in the end by simply feeding Sardine on top of the fridge, and feeding Jackie on the floor like normal. Sardine could easily jump high, and Jackie, well.. Has trouble jumping onto certain couches, not necessarily because she can't but because she's super-apprehensive and scared about jumping. CATS. It's also such a fallacy that cats are graceful and acrobatic by nature; this is somewhat true, but not all breeds of cat required a high degree of acrobatic ability to adequate survive in their environment. Take a cat like Jackie; she's actually a funny creature (and IMO all Maine Coons and cats of that type are funny creatures) because they're a bit of a weird mix from an evolutionary perspective, yeah? I mean, as I understand it, all modern domestic cats (felis catus) originated from the African Wildcat, and therefore initially the domestic cat had a good deal more evolutionary adaptations to survive in an arid, hot, desert climate. What I find so fascinating is how the domestic cat has been able to thrive in just SO MANY other environments, and the result is that we get all these "mutt" cats from certain regions who may (or may not) have a lot of the genetic adaptations for survival in the region they were born. I dunno maybe I have no clue what I'm talking about, but it often seems that way. Jackie would be terrible at surviving in Africa in the sahara or something, but she could survive a Maine winter where perhaps cats from the Sahara could not. Stouter legs, a thick double-coat of fur, longer/larger frame to store more fat/food, and so on. And it does make sense to me that the cats wbo'd still be, well, around and breeding in the wild in an area like Maine means that they had to have certain genetic adaptations to survive. kaworu fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Feb 9, 2018 |
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Feb 9, 2018 13:48
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A lot of the issues with cats are kind of ones we create. For example, cats with urine crystals are probably from only eating dry food and they aren't drinking enough water because they don't think they need to. If they were hunting live prey, there would be plenty of hydration in a dead carcass than in dehydrated dry food. But hey, dry food is super convenient! Same with stress from being indoors. Cats that act out generally aren't stimulated enough by the environment provided for them. Granted, this isn't to say we should let cats out, since there's a lot worse things out there to hurt them (disease, cars, wild predatory animals etc) but them being inside certainly presents a different set of problems.
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Feb 9, 2018 23:14
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I would be really interested to see a study about how drat good cats are at adapting to different environments. It seems like the only places they don't make it to are the Arctic and Antarctic, and I suspect the former is for want of prey rather than anything intrinsic to the cat. but otherwise? The deserts they evolved for, sure, and hardly a surprise that they can thrive in scrublands and savannahs as well. But also forests, and jungles, tundras, mountains, not to mention all the stray-to-feral ones that live in our urban environments, which often has benefits from kindly humans but has added dangers as well. And then you get great LUMPS like my aunt's cat Rosie and you just know it's a good thing this one is domestic.
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Feb 10, 2018 07:30
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Ms Adequate posted:I would be really interested to see a study about how drat good cats are at adapting to different environments. It seems like the only places they don't make it to are the Arctic and Antarctic, and I suspect the former is for want of prey rather than anything intrinsic to the cat. but otherwise? The deserts they evolved for, sure, and hardly a surprise that they can thrive in scrublands and savannahs as well. But also forests, and jungles, tundras, mountains, not to mention all the stray-to-feral ones that live in our urban environments, which often has benefits from kindly humans but has added dangers as well. The interesting thing is, cats effectively domesticated themselves. They weren't like dogs where humans actively bred them to become companion animals. Cats, on the other hand, were attracted to early human settlements because our farms attracted vermin and lots of them - lots of prey for cats to eat. Early humans saw this, and decided this was a good arrangement. So human settlements became safe sources of shelter for cats in addition to excellent sources of food. Thing is, we never started breeding them for domesticity until the last couple of hundred years. Cats in the wild - with certain exceptions - tend to be very solitary animals. They meet occasionally to mate, but otherwise they tend to be reclusive and territorial with each cat having a territory of their own for prey. Humans changed that with the abundance of prey our farms brought with them. With no interference from humans, the needs of this new environment lead to wild cats self-selecting for docility, friendliness, and a willingness to live in close proximity with other cats as well as humans. With so much food and shelter available, large numbers of cats could and did begin to live in close proximity with each other and with humans. And, in the end, some cats went so far as to become housecats rather than the farm cats and barn cats many still are today.
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Feb 10, 2018 14:26
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That's actually quite true - unlike dogs, cats kinda actively through their lot in with these crazy human civilization-things that were springing in up the last 10k years, and effectively tied their survival to ours. A question I find interesting is whether Felis Catus would have survived (or would even exist!) if humans had, say, become extinct in the midst of the Egyptian civilization, say. I actually find a certain amusing commonality in the manner that both the ancient Egyptians and our global world community (as exemplified through the internet) both show a very marked appreciation and I daresay reverence for cats. I sometimes wonder what some outsider alien would make of the human obsession with cats, and the fact that it stretches as far back as our known history goes, practically. Kinda funny: I was just finding myself wondering whether hunter/gatherer groups of humans might have kept pets (maybe cats?) or not, when I realized what a comically absurd notion that was 
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Feb 10, 2018 22:02
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Well, the African Wildcat - the species the domestic cat came from - is still alive and well today, so there was never any danger of that. Around the world, cats have always been associated with settled, agrarian civilization. But there are some amusing stories about the Age of Exploration, when European explorers would set foot in the New World and on Pacific islands... along with their ship's cats. Whatever the locals thought about the Europeans, in the logs of the explorers, their cats were universally adored. No joke, the Portugese considered cats valuable if unconventional trade goods, these islanders and tribes that had never seen anything like a domestic cat almost universally loved the critters. From a serious historical perspective, it's actually an open question whether cats played a meaningful role in pest control on early farms or not. Vermin attracted predators and lots of them - before adopting the cat as the guardian of crops, the ancient Egyptians used weasels for the same purpose - and there isn't much evidence to suggest that cats actually did much better than any other predator species that coexisted with early agriculture like weasels, coyotes, and hawks. The difference is, early humans just plain liked cats more than their peers and cats through their own self-selection became steadily more docile and friendly with humans to maximize that relationship. I'm not sure what it says about either species that cats of their own hook decided that humans were great and moved in with us, with our blessing.
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Feb 10, 2018 22:26
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Yeah, I'd say any animal that is able to combine a role of utility (Cats and pest control; Dogs and hunting assistance) with companionship were at a massive advantage. You can tame many animals but it's often a big effort, whereas your average dog just needs to understand who is the boss and how to ask for the bathroom, and cats don't even need that much. I love weasels and suchlike but they're a lot of work in comparison, whereas your average cat just needs to grow up around humans and they'll be pretty cool with them for the rest of their life. Today of course things are a bit different because the proportion of working animals to companion animals has changed a good deal in favor of the latter, but even so, as you're both saying, the simple fact of combining utility with being friends we like having around makes them incredibly good pets. I love that the little buggers domesticated themselves, or perhaps domesticated us instead of the reverse  They do have a fascinatingly symbiotic relationship with humans compared to other animals.
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Feb 11, 2018 01:28
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Ms Adequate posted:They do have a fascinatingly symbiotic relationship with humans compared to other animals. We're just too big for your average housecat to easily murder, they would treat us like the other animals if they could.
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Feb 11, 2018 03:49
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Ms Adequate posted:Yeah, I'd say any animal that is able to combine a role of utility (Cats and pest control; Dogs and hunting assistance) with companionship were at a massive advantage. You can tame many animals but it's often a big effort, whereas your average dog just needs to understand who is the boss and how to ask for the bathroom, and cats don't even need that much. I love weasels and suchlike but they're a lot of work in comparison, whereas your average cat just needs to grow up around humans and they'll be pretty cool with them for the rest of their life. Today of course things are a bit different because the proportion of working animals to companion animals has changed a good deal in favor of the latter, but even so, as you're both saying, the simple fact of combining utility with being friends we like having around makes them incredibly good pets. I like to think that we as a species bonded so closely with dogs because dogs remind us of what we like to think we are. We also bonded closely with cats, because cats remind us of what we really are.
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Feb 11, 2018 03:58
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So, me and my girlfriend had to put our Crumbles down this past week, we adopted her 7 years ago, didn't know anything about her, best decision we ever made. I have never loved anything as much as i loved our little cat, but her health was failing fast, and atleast the 7 of her 18 years was all about love and cuddles. We adopted a kitten yesterday, shes 12 weeks old, the only girl of a litter of 4, and shes a bengal maine coon mix. This is our first kitten, and we are a bit worried, shes mostly been hiding under the bed since yesterday, we managed to play a little with her, and i woke up with her between us this morning, but as soon as i woke up, she ran under the bed again, is this something we need to worry about? She's gone to the litter box a couple of times, eaten, and drank some water, but 80% of the time is spent under the bed, sometimes crying out with those heartbreaking peeps, is it something we can do? or just leave her be?
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Feb 11, 2018 11:24
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Handcranked posted:So, me and my girlfriend had to put our Crumbles down this past week, we adopted her 7 years ago, didn't know anything about her, best decision we ever made. If she's eating, drinking, and using the litterbox, she's probably okay, just freaked out and getting her bearings. Give her time, and keep socializing when she's interested in you, and she should get more comfortable. Good luck! (Also, I really want to know what a Bengal/Maine Coon mix looks like; Google just gives me a bunch of pictures of DSH-looking cats.)
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Feb 11, 2018 11:30
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If she's sleeping between you two when you arent looking, that's amazing progress for day 2. Give her time.
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Feb 11, 2018 11:36
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Antivehicular posted:If she's eating, drinking, and using the litterbox, she's probably okay, just freaked out and getting her bearings. Give her time, and keep socializing when she's interested in you, and she should get more comfortable. Good luck! The only pics i managed to take of little Farty before she ran under the bed again.  
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Feb 11, 2018 11:43
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A bengal/maine coon sounds like an absolute menace in the best possible way, please post pics of all the poo poo she gets up to. For now just spend time just quietly hanging out in the same room as her and let her decide when to interact with you.
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Feb 11, 2018 13:49
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Antivehicular posted:If she's eating, drinking, and using the litterbox, she's probably okay, just freaked out and getting her bearings. Give her time, and keep socializing when she's interested in you, and she should get more comfortable. Good luck! Synthbuttrange posted:If she's sleeping between you two when you arent looking, that's amazing progress for day 2. Give her time. Agreed. Let her get used to you and interact with you at her own pace. Give her the space and time she needs to adjust and get used to her new situation.
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Feb 11, 2018 14:43
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Antivehicular posted:I'm really glad you're able to take him in. I have a soft spot for cats like that, who were clearly owned and dumped, or who were owned but not properly cared for. (One of our guys came into the shelter as an un-neutered 2-year-old with a collar. Glaring at you from across time and space, previous owners.)  why happen (all of those are from a week ago when he was just arriving... haven't gotten much except for this one, he's been a pretty good boy tho, that's one of their shy-er kitties.) 
Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 15:14 on Feb 11, 2018 |
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Feb 11, 2018 14:57
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That Bengal/Maine Coon looks eerily like Jackie did as a kitten - incredibly soft double-coat of fur, short--but-strong legs, big paws and a big thick tail... it's really eerie! Not to mention, they're both "Classic" style tabbies unless I'm mistaken... It makes some sense, though. Jackie is a Maine Coon/something(s) mix, so yeah... Here's a few pics of Jackie when she truly was a baby kitty - the big furry ears and long whiskers and stout legs and classic tabby patterning all look pretty similar though there are some differences...  Ah this is a better pic of Jackie wrapped around her dog; they are both still hale and hearty (Freda has had more problems then Jack of course though) with Freda the Weim pushing 13! They were *both* babies when this pic was taken, even if Freda was at full-size.  You can pretty clearly see the 8 digits on Jackie's front paws. She has 5 on her back paws for 26 total... I think? Anyway, it's really another Maine Coon genetic adaptation - the genetic 'abnormality' is far far more common amongst Maine Coons than other cats, which would indicate there was something useful about that adaptation in this environment. Supposedly, they worked like snowshoes - the more foot area you have the less weight you're putting on small individual spots, and instead you spread the weight around your 7-digit front paws and barely sink into the snow at all. Supposedly. I mean jackie is clumsy as hell and has tripped over her own feet before when she was younger so it is tough to say. kaworu fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Feb 12, 2018 |
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Feb 11, 2018 19:37
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Adopting a 15lb big boned 6yo male cat currently eating purina dry and friskies canned, half and half. Considering this as a diet for once he’s settled in here: • 6oz Blue Buffalo Wilderness Chicken canned food (250 cal) in the morning around 8am (this will be as I’m getting ready to leave for work for the day on week days) • 1/4 cup of EVO Turkey & Chicken dry food (135 cal) via these hunting feeders that I’ll put out when I get home (typically around 6pm, but if I was going to be getting home late I would probably put one or two out before leaving the house) • I’m also planning to mix a bit of extra water into his wet food to make up for the portion of dry My questions/concerns: • This is less than the food packages recommend but the 380 combined calories seems to be around what is recommended for a cat his size? I’m assuming the food companies are just trying to sell more food with their recommended portion sizes. • What do you guys think of the hunting feeders? I think it seems like a great way to keep a cat active engaged with his surroundings. Our cat’s going to be an only pet so I’m trying to take extra precautions against boredom. • Should I divide the wet food up into two separate meals? My morning routine is pretty consistent, but evenings can be a little less consistent so I’m less confident in being able to have specific set dinnertimes. • Please don’t make fun of me for being willing to pay $40 for five plastic mice
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Feb 12, 2018 06:44
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Those feeders look like a racket. You can get a plastic ball, like a hamster ball, with adjustable-sized holes along the sides, for like $6 that will be just as good. You put the food in and the cat smacks it around so the food falls out. It's called a treat ball but they hold a serving of dry food easily. My cat maintained her healthy weight of 9lbs on 1/4 cup of dry and 3oz of wet per day (now she's on Rx, so it's 1/2 cup dry now). You may need to adjust for your cat, just know its ideal weight and check on it till you reach a good balance. Cat food instructions do typically recommend overfeeding, not just to sell you more but also to avoid someone suing for their pet being malnourished. I do not think it matters how you break up feedings as long as the wet food isn't allowed to sit out for so long it goes bad. Cats seriously sleep most of the day. Don't worry too much about it being bored, if you make the time to play with it every day it'll be fine. Edit: even cheaper than I remembered: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0018CG40O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_WMtGAb081WJE5 I used one of these for my cat when I first got her. She was eating too fast and making herself sick, so this helped her slow down. No complaints. Rat Patrol fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Feb 12, 2018 |
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Feb 12, 2018 07:48
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It seems like a good plan but be prepared when the cat won’t stick to any routine whatsoever. I would divide up the wet food into twice a day just to prevent your cat being a jerk when he gets hungry. My cats get less annoyed if they get fed in regular intervals and not once a day. You could also look into getting an auto feeder (https://www.petsmart.com/cat/bowls-and-feeders/automatic-feeders/petsafe-eatwell-5-meal-automatic-pet-feeder-32824.html?cgid=200104) for the dry food to more evenly space it throughout the day. The extra water in the wet food is a good idea, but figure out how much he will tolerate. My cats will only take about an extra 10 mls of water per serving before ignoring the wet food. You’ll probably need to have some of the friskies and Purina on hand to switch him over slowly otherwise he just may ignore whatever you give him. Congrats on the new cat!
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Feb 12, 2018 11:41
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I'm using the no bowl system on Gizmo. She uses it pretty well but I still supplement with a little food in the bowl. Why? Because she has me trained. Here she is exploring the basement foundation or something. She's definitely doing crimes. 
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Feb 12, 2018 15:18
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Huntersoninski posted:Cats seriously sleep most of the day. Don't worry too much about it being bored, if you make the time to play with it every day it'll be fine. This is a very good point, especially since you are getting a 6yo cat and that's sort of.. solidly in middle age territory for a cat, in the sense that they're nowhere near as constantly interested in play and in need of attention as they used to be, though this varies. Also, there is a big difference between 'play' and 'attention', and different cats have different needs. Some cats really NEED to play on a near-daily basis, and merely seems to tolerate the time you may spend time stroking their fur or giving them attention. Whereas some cats NEED that attention and always have to be on a lap or next to you, and maybe 'plays' a couple times a week to keep their claws healthy. kaworu fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Feb 12, 2018 |
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Feb 12, 2018 15:57
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I took Raiden in for his follow up appointment. Good news is he has no urine crystals, so the new food is working! Bad news is during the course of the checkup, the vet heard a slight heart murmur. Vet suggested that since it was so mild the best course of action would be to monitor it and check in his next yearly exam. How worried should I be? I've never dealt with heart issues in animals.
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Feb 12, 2018 20:35
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seiferguy posted:I took Raiden in for his follow up appointment. Good news is he has no urine crystals, so the new food is working! Bad news is during the course of the checkup, the vet heard a slight heart murmur. Vet suggested that since it was so mild the best course of action would be to monitor it and check in his next yearly exam. How worried should I be? I've never dealt with heart issues in animals. I took one of my cats to the vet a few years ago (he was 2 or 3 years old) and the vet said he had a slight heart murmur. A few years later we moved and took the cat to a different vet and they couldn’t hear it at all. He went under general anesthesia for dental cleaning with no issues whatsoever. It could be something they grow out of or it could be something that is aggravated by going to the vet or it could be completely dependent on the vet listening to their heart beat. Overall it’s probably not something to be concerned about. If you ever go to a different vet let them see if they hear it without telling them about it first.
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Feb 13, 2018 00:22
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It's going really well with Karl so far. I shut him in my room alone, he spent the first night hiding under the bed, he seemed tired+scared to come out but he'd let me pet him under the bed. After work I pulled him out and put him on the bed and petted him for a while, and he's spent all evening sleeping on top of the bed now.
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Feb 13, 2018 06:51
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Do cats see humans as humans, or as big, weirdly-shaped cats?
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Feb 13, 2018 15:44
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Pollyanna posted:Do cats see humans as humans, or as big, weirdly-shaped cats? The latter. It's why cats will sometimes bring you dead mice and birds - they think you're an infirm and incapable cat who can't hunt for yourself. Dogs, on the other hand, see themselves as small-to-large, weirdly-shaped humans.
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Feb 13, 2018 15:50
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Cythereal posted:The latter. It's why cats will sometimes bring you dead mice and birds - they think you're an infirm and incapable cat who can't hunt for yourself. I was gonna say that cats don't meow at other cats, but they do meow at their mothers. Maybe I guess they see us as disabled caretakers?
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Feb 13, 2018 15:56
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Pollyanna posted:I was gonna say that cats don't meow at other cats, but they do meow at their mothers. Maybe I guess they see us as disabled caretakers? Well, there was a legitimate theory going around that most domestic cats live in a sort of extended kittenhood, with humans basically being big hairless mommy-cats in their eyes
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Feb 13, 2018 19:47
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| # ? May 16, 2024 09:08 |
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Thanks for the food advice ladies and gents. Here's to a fine lustrous coat on ebery cat in the world.
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Feb 13, 2018 20:35
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