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Dienes posted:Bring one to another room, shut the door, work 1:1, at least to start. You want strong contingencies of behavior -> click -> treat, and if the other cat is hearing the click without the other two, it weakens the conditioning. This. Unfortunately Toaster starts crying if he hears Lucky, and vice versa, when they are seperated, so I mostly just focus on the same trick with them both and reward both. It reinforces Lucky's behaviour and Toaster has started to copy some of Lucky's behaviours (sitting up and waving instead of just sitting up). It's very slow, and I want to just have them separate for it but neither focus then. 
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Jul 24, 2019 05:20
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Sefal posted:Play fetch Canelitto actually did that without having to be taught... He makes us play fetch with him all the time, preferably with any sock he can find. It's adorable.
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Jul 24, 2019 09:29
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Muriel used to go nuts over tinfoil balls and bring them for us to throw. When we’re in the backyard we sometimes throw her pinecones but she can’t pick them up that well. It’s still adorable. 
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Jul 24, 2019 09:36
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Aleta loves zip ties! She just bats them around and tries to carry them in her mouth.
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Jul 24, 2019 12:19
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Domino plays hide and seek although I'm not sure how much of that is a trick and how much is he doesn't like being alone
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Jul 25, 2019 02:14
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My cat has gained like a pound in a day, wtf. He's acting normal, not breathing heavily. This is the day after he was sedated and had to go without eating for his ultrasound.
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Jul 25, 2019 05:26
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He did stuff himself silly with dry food when he got home. Also he had no tumors and his organs were deemed fine, minus some iffy thickening in part of his large intestine
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Jul 25, 2019 05:29
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Cat has figured out that jumping at door handles opens them. me
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Jul 25, 2019 12:37
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Christoph posted:My cat has gained like a pound in a day, wtf. He's acting normal, not breathing heavily. This is the day after he was sedated and had to go without eating for his ultrasound. So what, I can gain a pound in an hour 
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Jul 25, 2019 13:02
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Christoph posted:He did stuff himself silly with dry food when he got home. Also he had no tumors and his organs were deemed fine, minus some iffy thickening in part of his large intestine Good news on the test results! Given the sedation and fasting, he probably came home a little dehydrated too. A pound seems like a lot but it's probably not unreasonable if he took in a full tum's worth of dry food plus a good amount of water.
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Jul 25, 2019 14:13
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Christoph posted:He did stuff himself silly with dry food when he got home. Also he had no tumors and his organs were deemed fine, minus some iffy thickening in part of his large intestine Awesome. So it sounds like he has a far less severe instance of Rexie's condition. Seems like he had a flare-up so he lost his appetite for a bit. Rexie's gets bad enough to interfere with vitamin absorption, so giving her a B12 supplement also did wonders for her mood, that and a hydrolyzed protein food might be worth looking into.
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Jul 25, 2019 15:40
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Hi this is Percy and she likes to bask. 
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Jul 25, 2019 16:29
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BaronVonVaderham posted:Awesome. So it sounds like he has a far less severe instance of Rexie's condition. Seems like he had a flare-up so he lost his appetite for a bit. Rexie's gets bad enough to interfere with vitamin absorption, so giving her a B12 supplement also did wonders for her mood, that and a hydrolyzed protein food might be worth looking into. Thanks everybody! The vet is recommending oral steroids for his IBD. Anyone have experience with those? Or reservations about them? We are planning to give ol' Cosmo B12 shots, too.
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Jul 25, 2019 18:17
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Christoph posted:Thanks everybody! They do sell a chewable B12 supplement. I'll have to get details from Dienes, she's the one that orders those. We usually mash it up and add it to Rexie's wet food. B12 shot to get his levels back up is definitely a good idea, but long term the supplement will avoid more needles and vet visits. Rexie's on steroids as well. Unless it's just short-term, make sure Cosmo gets on prednisolone, not prednisone. His liver will thank you.
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Jul 25, 2019 18:38
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My cat Freya has been on prednisolone for her IBD for like 3 years now, and doing great. She's regained most but not all the weight she lost (but she was a pudgster before so that's a good thing) and her labwork has always come back normal.The only downside is that she's now VERY adamant about feeding time. She's actually really good about taking her pills, she lets me just throw them down her throat without a fuss because she knows she gets a treat after, and will regularly remind me that it's pill aka treat time
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Jul 25, 2019 21:15
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I’ve got 6 year old, adult, female, Siberian. Been thinking about adopting a kitten. I’ve read a bunch of advice on introducing an older, female cat to a kitten and it sounds rough. Is this a horrible idea? Should I wait until she passes and adopt two kittens from the same litter?
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Jul 25, 2019 21:42
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If you really want a second cat, then I'd recommend rescuing one who is a similar age. Is there a particular reason why you want a kitten? I mean they're cute and all, but they are also massive jerks that require a lot of time and attention.
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Jul 25, 2019 21:48
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Andro posted:I’ve got 6 year old, adult, female, Siberian. Been thinking about adopting a kitten. I’ve read a bunch of advice on introducing an older, female cat to a kitten and it sounds rough. Is this a horrible idea? Should I wait until she passes and adopt two kittens from the same litter? It really depends on the cat. I got my big 'un under the pretense that she would be good with my kitten, and she wasn't, because she's feral and part wildcat. That said, they now play together and Luna will call for the kitten if she can't find her. It took a couple of months, but it did work out.
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Jul 25, 2019 21:59
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The local humane society where I live decided to euthanize 31 cats that animal control took from a hoarder because they all had FPV. While I understand that this disease is highly contagious, is this something that could have been avoided with sufficient resources and a large quarantine space? I hate that it feeds into the misconception that surrendering pets is equivalent to killing them.
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Jul 25, 2019 22:54
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Andro posted:I’ve got 6 year old, adult, female, Siberian. Been thinking about adopting a kitten. I’ve read a bunch of advice on introducing an older, female cat to a kitten and it sounds rough. Is this a horrible idea? Should I wait until she passes and adopt two kittens from the same litter? I've never bothered doing any introduction stuff. Show them the litter box, then the food and water, and turn them loose. They figure each other out in a few days. I've never had any that couldn't get along.
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Jul 25, 2019 23:01
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Andro posted:I’ve got 6 year old, adult, female, Siberian. Been thinking about adopting a kitten. I’ve read a bunch of advice on introducing an older, female cat to a kitten and it sounds rough. Is this a horrible idea? Should I wait until she passes and adopt two kittens from the same litter? Both times that I've done this where the older cat was female, it was a disaster, and in each case the female never got past the "I'll grudgingly tolerate your existence but I will show you and the human every day that I am not happy and I will do it in the most offensive ways possible" stage. The other two times where the older cat was male and I brought in a kitten, it was easy and both cats were happy and playing/grooming each other within days. I'm not sure whether that was all just the luck of the draw, or a real pattern, but for whatever it's worth, that's been my experience.
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Jul 25, 2019 23:30
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Konstantin posted:The local humane society where I live decided to euthanize 31 cats that animal control took from a hoarder because they all had FPV. While I understand that this disease is highly contagious, is this something that could have been avoided with sufficient resources and a large quarantine space? I hate that it feeds into the misconception that surrendering pets is equivalent to killing them. Think about a person who adopted an FPV cat and then they decide to get a new kitten, and then the kitten gets incredibly sick. This could happen even weeks or months after the FPV cat is gone from the house, if that cat was still shedding the virus when it was brought into the home. Just the simple data also suggests shelters in the US can't currently afford to keep cats with something like FPV. National estimates suggest that 3.2 million cats enter animal shelters every year. Only half that number are adopted, and only 90k loose/stray cats are reclaimed by an owner. That leaves over 1.5 million cats entering animal shelters every year who are not being adopted out. Supposedly only 860k cats are euthanized per year. That leaves 650,000 cats every year that are not being placed in homes. I love the no-kill movement in principle, but the simple truth is, there aren't enough willing homes for the number of animals that need them. We still need to cut down the population somehow, and we still need people to be more onboard with spaying/neutering.
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Jul 25, 2019 23:59
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You know, for just one month of my life, I would like to not have a veterinary emergency. Came home and Binx was holding his left eye shut. Some preliminary examination showed some obvious scratches. Normal vet is closed for the day and booked for all of tomorrow, so I’m at the emergency vet getting it looked at and hoping I won’t have a dumb idiot pirate kitty. Him and my other cat Salem never fight and we leave our new puppy in his crate when we aren’t home so I have no idea where the scratches came from. I’m glad I got a raise recently but I am not earning this extra money to fund veterinary expenses!!
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Jul 26, 2019 00:35
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TMMadman posted:If you really want a second cat, then I'd recommend rescuing one who is a similar age. Is there a particular reason why you want a kitten? Cuteness is the only reason I want a kitten. I’ve never raised one, only adopted older cats. I’m gonna hit the shelters this weekend and see if I can’t find youngish cat to bring home. The 6 year old we have now has played with cats in the past, but I understand it’s a roll of the dice if they end up getting along with another cat. I guess I’m just worried about ruining her routine or stressing her out. I don’t want my cat to hate me? Lol
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Jul 26, 2019 00:44
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 rear end in a top hat had “superficial” scratches on his eye. Antibiotic eye goop and cone of shame prescribed.
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Jul 26, 2019 03:45
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First time cat owner as of March. Say hello to Neela. 
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Jul 26, 2019 05:46
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Hi Neela (absolute cutie)
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Jul 26, 2019 07:19
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10/10 very good, high-quality catte.
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Jul 26, 2019 07:29
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i have a 16 year old cat that has been inside/outside the vast majority of her life. the last three years we've been in a third floor apartment and she would hang out on the balcony as much as possible in summer. i'm in a duplex now with a yard and she makes us go out there a lot but i'm afraid when she explores the neighbors. the only ways she can escape the yard are three 4x4 standard fenceposts, where she can huck herself up like a lumberjack. she's too old to make the full sprint and jump. do i let her explore and leave her alone? she obviously comes back to the door when she wants in. but this place is about 10x more dense than her previous roaming area and the street out front gets a lot of traffic or do i put up guards to keep her in? it's not what she wants, and also i dunno what to do. should i buy a plastic office furniture mat and saw it into 10" wide, 4' strips and screw it to the few posts she can climb? better ideas??
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Jul 26, 2019 09:29
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my goal is to let her bask in the sun for ten hours a day like she used to
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Jul 26, 2019 09:30
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with some weird clairvoyant feeling last night I ask Sancho not to give himself a bald spot this winter. Wake up this morning and he has a bald spot, he did a weird wheezy thing while he was doing his usual morning routine, and I noticed his ears where a bit dirty a few days ago. Vet time.
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Jul 26, 2019 12:00
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TofuDiva posted:Both times that I've done this where the older cat was female, it was a disaster, and in each case the female never got past the "I'll grudgingly tolerate your existence but I will show you and the human every day that I am not happy and I will do it in the most offensive ways possible" stage. The other two times where the older cat was male and I brought in a kitten, it was easy and both cats were happy and playing/grooming each other within days. I’ve only ever adopted adult cats - two males that had been together since kittens but only really tolerated each other, then later a third female older cat. We only have one of the boys left now (I say boy, he's a senior 12 year old now) and he’s never played with or groomed another of our adult cats. He’d share a sofa or bed with them but mostly would chase them around if he interacted at all. I think to try and prove he was tough or something as he’s a massive softy and scaredy-cat otherwise. We’re currently debating whether to get another cat, we really want to give another adult cat a home but part of me thinks our dude is kind of enjoying being the only cat. He seemed to really miss us when we were on vacation recently though so who knows, he might like company *shrug*
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Jul 27, 2019 07:03
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i say swears online posted:i have a 16 year old cat that has been inside/outside the vast majority of her life. the last three years we've been in a third floor apartment and she would hang out on the balcony as much as possible in summer. i'm in a duplex now with a yard and she makes us go out there a lot but i'm afraid when she explores the neighbors. the only ways she can escape the yard are three 4x4 standard fenceposts, where she can huck herself up like a lumberjack. she's too old to make the full sprint and jump. he;lp
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Jul 27, 2019 08:26
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You should absolutely keep her in the yard, that's plenty of room for her to lie around in the sun while not getting into trouble. Given her age and that there's probably only one or two escape routes you can probably cobble something together to keep her from getting out.
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Jul 27, 2019 08:55
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Here's an old post about us trying to keep the cat in our fenced backyard, maybe it'll help? Of course, the roller bars ended up being no competition for her parkour skills so we added a strip of netting on top of it. That's really as ugly and impractical as I'd like to go, so we've made our peace with just slowing her down enough to be able to have chill supervised yard-time. v  vInvisibleMonkey posted:We cat-proofed our backyard!
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Jul 27, 2019 09:59
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Robot Mil posted:He seemed to really miss us when we were on vacation recently though so who knows, he might like company *shrug*
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Jul 27, 2019 16:19
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I'm worried about one of our cats, and I wanted to see if anyone in this thread has seen something similar. And yes, before anyone asks, he's already been to the vet once and they couldn't find anything seriously wrong, and he's going in today for an x-ray. He's a little under 2 years old, and was a crazy, spunky kitten - absolutely nuts, energy off the chart, would get in play fights with our other cats twice his size. Until a few months ago - he rapidly calmed down, stopped playing as much, stopped ripping up screens to get outside, etc. I just figured he grew up and his true, chill personality came out. But then we noticed he had started losing weight - he's already a runt, so he's literally full grown and half the size of the other two cats, but he he stated getting dangerously skinny as well. And his chillness now seems more like lethargy - he has no interest in toys, moves very slowly and carefully, like an elderly cat, and spends most of his time sleeping or just sitting in one spot. The ONLY thing that gets him excited is food - we always have a full bowl of dry food out, but he's obsessed with tuna and lunchmeat whenever we get it out. In an attempt to fatten him up, we started giving him wet food every morning and night, which he loves - but even when he gets it, he eats slowly and doesn't always finish a quarter of a can. And then some mornings he's been puking up his food. The two things the vet suggested were changing the dry food, which didn't seemed to change anything, and that he may have a sinus infection, which actually probably WAS true, as he'd started sneezing that week, and gave us antibiotics for that. But the infection likely wasn't responsible for this starting months ago, and he seems to be over it now and is still lethargic. Anyway, it's a bit of a shot in the dark, but please someone let me know if they've run into this before (and tell me my cat doesn't have cancer). We want our goofy, crazy, mischievous runt back
Rotten Red Rod fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Jul 27, 2019 |
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Jul 27, 2019 16:22
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kw0134 posted:You know how the best simulation of a cat is just a cat? It's probable he misses you specifically and there's no substitute for the affection his humans can give. He'll likely view another cat as an encroacher on the resource he wants, your attention. Yeah probably. I meant he seemed to miss us and be more affectionate when we got back than he usually is when we’ve been away - it was the first time since our other kitty had passed away.
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Jul 27, 2019 17:25
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Rotten Red Rod posted:Stuff The x-ray found he has an intestinal loop. He's going to go in for surgery. I'm not sure how serious or dangerous this is so I'm trying not to freak out. Edit: turns out there's no blockage, it's just a bunch of gas. But that doesn't explain the lethargy, so we're being referred to a specialty center for an ultrasound. Rotten Red Rod fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Jul 27, 2019 |
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Jul 27, 2019 17:29
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Does anyone have any experience with the various "take indoor cats outdoors" products? I've had my 2 year old cat for about 7 months and I'm worried he's getting a bit stir crazy in my apartment. I've been thinking of getting a stroller or harness to take him out but would like to hear some opinions on if cats even really care or if it's more for the benefit of the owner. Somewhat related, I bought him a collar with a tag when I first brought him home and tried to put out on him once he felt comfortable after a few weeks. He basically flipped out and started biting at it and screaming, and even managed to get his lower jaw stuck on it and understandably freaked out. I realize that in the case of the latter thing the collar was too loose but now I'm terrified of putting it on him since something might happen while I'm at work, or just general discomfort. But he's been eyeing the door a lot more when I leave and I feel like it's just a matter of time before he slips out and I'd like the piece of mind of having a name tag on him. Any suggestions for easing a cat to a collar? 
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