|
seiferguy posted:Has anyone ever used an automatic vacuum with cats around? I’ve decided to get one because my rear end knows I won’t vacuum more than once a week. I’m looking for a good one to get cat hair and dander (i.e. has a HEPA filter) but isn’t too loud as my cat obviously is not a fan of the vacuum. Any recommendations? Budget is about $300 but am happy to spend less, obviously. Meh had a an Ironpie for sale for $120 just before Christmas, so I got one. Our cats are wary of it, but not really scared. One will follow it around all over the house, and then jump and run away if it turns toward her. The others just stay away. Not a big deal.
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 02:44
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 00:19 |
|
|
Has anyone had trouble with botched cat introductions? I jumped the gun introducing my new cat (5 year old female) to my old cat (4 year female) and it's been chaos. How do I reset and try to introduce something resembling harmony? I have been using a Feliway Multi-cat diffuser going, if that helps. I'm about to keep one cat in a crate with food and water, while having it stare at the other cat behind a baby-gate, while slowly moving them closer over a period of a few weeks. Any advice would be very much appreciated. If it helps, here are the two butt holes: https://imgur.com/a/uZXblrB https://imgur.com/a/ja4JGAq A Dapper Walrus fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Feb 5, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 03:07
|
|
|
Full reset is keeping one locked up, swap bedding between the two so they get used to each other's scents, move food and water near the door, then closer and closer, eventually right on each side of the door. Once that's peaceful, let them get a peek, maybe supervised separated by gates. Scrapping a little bit is ok as long as there's no blood and it ends on its own. My idiots were separated for months, then roam only when i was home for more months, then finally let roam after about 6 because my first cat is a huge rear end in a top hat. I still had to break up fights while supervised. While separated they it was by baby gate so they just had to deal with seeing each other to eat. Pics of my kitty gulag are in my history here it was 3 baby gates stacked on top of each other.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 03:12
|
|
|
^^^^^ edit to add: yep basically this^^^^^A Dapper Walrus posted:Has anyone had trouble with botched cat introductions? I jumped the gun introducing my new cat (5 year old female) to my old cat (4 year female) and it's been chaos. How do I reset and try to introduce something resembling harmony? I have been using a Feliway Multi-cat diffuser going, if that helps. Others may have more thoughts but my initial instinct is that forcing the cats to stare at each other, or forcing one cat to live in a crate, may introduce so much stress that you're all set back even further (possibly irrevocably since they cannot get out of sight of each other, which would be intolerable for many cats). I'd suggest that you reset their noses (spritz your hand with cologne and then pet each cat all over.) Do not spray the cats directly since they have sensitive respiratory systems. Then put one on each side of a closed door for a few days. Then start short supervised visits with treats for positive interaction (or even when they benignly ignore each other). You'll get there, just don't rush, and make sure they always have a chance to get out of sightline and that you reward for good interactions.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 03:22
|
|
|
We've never done anything special for cat introductions, through about 15 cats over the years. Show them where the food and water are, then drop the in the litterbox so they have those important landmarks, and walk away. I let them deal with the socialization themselves. Fighting is fine as long as there's no blood. It's how cats interact and learn to respect each other. We've never had cuddle buddies, but all our cats have always gotten along just fine after a week or so.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 03:27
|
|
|
Furry little jackass walked by me today and I noticed a scarily large swelling on his hind leg, like the size of a lemon. tl;dr, it's cancer.  He's 19, but somehow "cat is old and he knows you love him" doesn't make this suck any less. I'm waiting on biopsy results to find out how aggressive it is before I do anything else.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 03:30
|
|
|
Dirt Road Junglist posted:Furry little jackass walked by me today and I noticed a scarily large swelling on his hind leg, like the size of a lemon. So sorry 
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 04:03
|
|
|
Boogalo posted:Full reset is keeping one locked up, swap bedding between the two so they get used to each other's scents, move food and water near the door, then closer and closer, eventually right on each side of the door. Once that's peaceful, let them get a peek, maybe supervised separated by gates. Scrapping a little bit is ok as long as there's no blood and it ends on its own. This is what we did. It took six months before they could be unsupervised and it's taken a year to get where we are now, where them sleeping within six inches of each other was a huge achievement Deteriorata posted:We've never done anything special for cat introductions, through about 15 cats over the years. Show them where the food and water are, then drop the in the litterbox so they have those important landmarks, and walk away. We had fur fly and possible blood when we did this, and had to do a reset after a few weeks of slow introductions didn't take
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 17:03
|
|
|
Boogalo posted:Full reset is keeping one locked up, swap bedding between the two so they get used to each other's scents, move food and water near the door, then closer and closer, eventually right on each side of the door. Once that's peaceful, let them get a peek, maybe supervised separated by gates. Scrapping a little bit is ok as long as there's no blood and it ends on its own. Did the baby gate thing too and it helped. Also I found it really helpful to not just put them together and see what happens but instead give them something fun to do in each others presence. When it was just me I'd bring them in the bathroom, feed them a few treats each and then separate them before any major growling or hissing. Then I had a friend help me and she would play with one cat in the living room and I'd bring the other cat in a play with her in the kitchen where they could both see each other but were distracted by feather wands or whatever. Tried to make it seem like "other cat here = fun things and/or treats"
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 17:16
|
|
|
I'm feel lucky I got two cats at the same time. They weren't bonded but the shelter staff held one of the cats from cage to cage and I picked a pair that didn't hiss at each other. It took them a few months to start playing together, but now they play every day, groom each other every night, and form cat puddles.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 17:18
|
|
|
I came home yesterday and saw my neighbor throwing.. something. When I pulled in I see a cat on my yard and its meowing. When I step out of my car the cat has moved closer, again meowing. Then it ran off to the fence. There is only one reason a stray would meow at people  A peace offering  Its been a day now and whats odd is, outside of the first time he wont get off the fence. he stays right up there. He'll walk along the fence to follow, but wont get down. The only time I got him down he walked a bit in my backyard but ran off when I got on the patio and sat down. I got some canned cat food and tried to get him to come down so he wont knock down the can while eating, but he wouldn't. I'm now looking into getting an outdoor cat house, in the first 2 pictures you'll see a shed and a bush behind the cat, thats where he hangs out at. But thats my neighbor and I'm afraid if she catches him hanging there she'll do something to him. Hopefully having something he can hide in on my side of the fence will get him to embrace my side of the backyard.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 18:23
|
|
|
So I've got a question, here's a bit of background. We have 5 cats, in order of adoption. - Prinny: Our oldest. Has problems with personal space - spends HOURS sleeping 3 inches away from my wife and literally petting her face. Loves Bootsy. - Perdy: Extremely skittish. Only comes out of the garage when it's quiet and won't let a goddamn one of us pet her. Loves Chino and Ruby, likes Bootsy. - Chino: Extremely friendly and gangly. Poly on all 4 paws. Our older male. - Bootsy: Our youngest, we got him as a needle-clawed little poo poo of a kitten. Gets along with everyone mostly; most of his aggression is play. - Ruby: Gets along with everyone. Chino has been a real jerkoff lately to Prinny in particular. At night, he'll chase her into my wife and my's bedroom and up onto the bed. We hear jingling collars and growls and we freak the gently caress out. It's only really been happening for the last few months, maybe since a while after Ruby came into the picture? I'm just trying to understand what's happening and what we can do.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 19:04
|
|
|
What's happening is you have way too many cats and their personalities are clashing. Some cats just don't get along. The best you can probably hope for is they eventually work it out and (mostly) make peace. Although you may want to restrict Chino from the bedroom at night if the fights keeps waking you up. Are there any actual injuries? Do any of the cats seem overly stressed? Is there any spraying? Are the fights constant? If no to all these, well, this could just be the status quo for those cats.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 21:01
|
|
|
TofuDiva posted:So sorry Turns out it's...not that worrisome? It may need to be removed if it bothers him due to the location, and at 19 any anesthesia is a risk, but the vet says it's not malignant 
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 22:06
|
|
|
Dirt Road Junglist posted:Turns out it's...not that worrisome? It may need to be removed if it bothers him due to the location, and at 19 any anesthesia is a risk, but the vet says it's not malignant Oh hey that's great to hear!
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2020 22:09
|
|
|
D34THROW posted:So I've got a question, here's a bit of background. We have 5 cats, in order of adoption. I don't know what might have provoked the change in their relationship, but I'll add my own anecdote that two of my cats are also like this -- Kirk (male) chases around and terrorizes Geki (female) -- but their spats are short-lived and don't result in any bloodshed. The most we've been able to determine is that Geki is kind of a poo poo and sometimes Kirk wants to put her in her place. We do intervene and break up the scuffles when we're around to do so.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2020 15:46
|
|
|
Rotten Red Rod posted:What's happening is you have way too many cats and their personalities are clashing. Some cats just don't get along. The best you can probably hope for is they eventually work it out and (mostly) make peace. Although you may want to restrict Chino from the bedroom at night if the fights keeps waking you up. my cat is norris posted:I don't know what might have provoked the change in their relationship, but I'll add my own anecdote that two of my cats are also like this -- Kirk (male) chases around and terrorizes Geki (female) -- but their spats are short-lived and don't result in any bloodshed. The most we've been able to determine is that Geki is kind of a poo poo and sometimes Kirk wants to put her in her place. No injuries beyond wounded pride, no overstressing, no spraying, no constant fights. It's only once or twice most nights. We don't even have to break them up. Once she's up on the bed, it's over; he never chases her up there. She settles in around my wife's or my head and all is well again.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2020 17:31
|
|
|
Yeah it sounds like what you have are the normal interactions of 5 cats. You're lucky it's not worse than that, I've been in a situation with cats that literally hated each other and would hardcore fight/spray constantly until we finally permanently separated them. Hell, we have 3 cats who love each other now, and they still fight at times. Mostly play fighting that gets a little too much, but it happens. Normal cat stuff.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2020 18:07
|
|
|
Rotten Red Rod posted:Hell, we have 3 cats who love each other now, and they still fight at times. Mostly play fighting that gets a little too much, but it happens. Normal cat stuff. At least we have some cat-love. Oftentimes at night, when we're in the living room, Chino will be perched on the end of the sectional backrest that half-covers the chaise. Perdy comes up to him and presents her head, which he dutifully grooms for a few minutes. A few days ago, I caught her doing this with Ruby when the kids were napping.  We always joke that Prinny is the grumpy grandma (she's a senior, she was actually free from the shelter because she was older), Perdy is Prinny's daughter and Chino's wife, Boots is their baby, and Ruby is the weird aunt (because she is aggressively affectionate, as in she is currently laying on the bench next to me grooming and pawing at my knee for attention).
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2020 20:13
|
|
|
Kind of a dumb question, but what’s a reasonable amount of time to play with a cat per day? Anytime outside of meal time and nap time is playtime for Neela and she’s gotten to whining if she feels I’m not playing fetch or waving a fishing pole around enough. Am I going to drive her crazy if I don’t wear her out each time? I already notice she sometimes eats when she’s bored which she didn’t used to do, but that could be because we finally found food she really likes (very picky eater). I know one remedy is to get a second cat, which might happen someday. Any other thoughts?
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2020 20:53
|
|
|
Like half an hour a day is good, 15 mins each time. And yeah, getting a 2nd cat as a playmate is like putting that on easy mode. It's still good to play with them, but they will likely get what they need daily themselves. Trying to go until they seem "exhausted" is a fool's errand, some cats can just keep going as long as you try.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2020 21:07
|
|
|
Made an appointment to take my Boogie (female DSH, 9-10y/o) to the vet tomorrow AM. Her appetite has decreased in the last couple of days, still eating just not as much and there was some blood at the end of her stool this afternoon. She hasn't shown any lethargy or change in behavior. Hopefully it's nothing serious and can be treated easily. She's a 100% indoor cat and has always been kept up to date and shown no other health issues.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2020 22:24
|
|
|
I figure my little rear end in a top hat is turning 1 soon. This is him when I got him last April. They told me he was 8 weeks old.  And here is now with his favorite toy in the world: The bit you pull off a bag of Orijen 
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2020 18:48
|
|
|
Rotten Red Rod posted:Like half an hour a day is good, 15 mins each time. And yeah, getting a 2nd cat as a playmate is like putting that on easy mode. It's still good to play with them, but they will likely get what they need daily themselves. Keep going, they'll get there, unless they're a kitten in which case I hope there are two. I can tire one of my cats out in in about 10 minutes, but after a couple minutes they're ready to go for another 5, then break, then a couple minutes more until they can barely move and that's job done for several hours.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2020 21:42
|
|
|
Lol nah I have a cat that will just keep playing and playing as long as you are willing, I've tried. Multiple cats makes it so much easier, they get way better exercise chasing each other around than I could ever give them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2020 21:55
|
|
|
Hi Cat Thread, been a while. Butters is about a year and a half now and he's FUCKIN HUGE
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2020 23:30
|
|
|
So I posted in December that we adopted two 6 month old kittens. They've been wonderful kittens and very gentle. They love our kids and especially our 10 year old. They follow him around like he is their mom. Anyway, the reason for this post, is that today, we had our first big incident. My 10 year old son while leaving for school, closed the door to his bedroom. Unknown to him, Lilly, the grey one, was somewhere in his room, and had to spend the whole day there herself without food, water, or kitty litter. Both the cats usually have the run of the house, and we have two kitty little pans, multiple scratching posts, and plenty of room for them to run and play. We came home this afternoon and found the doorway carpet to his bedroom all ripped up, and pulled up from the divider. Lilly was crying inside the bedroom closet and actually hissed at me for the first time ever. She didn't even hiss at me when we met her for the first time at the adoption place. My wife was pretty upset and even though it's not my son's fault, he felt really bad about it, and cried about it. I already called a carpet repairman and they are coming tomorrow. They say the base quote is $150 for repair if they can stretch the carpet. My question is there anything we should do with Lilly. It's probably too late to reprimand her now since it was done earlier in the day. I told the kids to not shut their doors unless they check for the cats now. Maybe a cat location check whenever everyone is leaving the house? We just want to make sure it doesn't happen again as it could have happened to any of our bedrooms or even a closet if we didn't notice them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 01:17
|
|
|
It's definitely too late to reprimand her, and honestly it doesn't sound like she misbehaved, just that she was stressed and frightened. I think the best option is just to do checks and make sure this doesn't happen again.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 01:19
|
|
|
My idiots have trapped themselves in one of the spare bedrooms and tore up the carpet in a desperate attempt to escape. That's not punishable; they're animals who were in a bad situation they don't understand. So the result is going to be strictly a human behavioral change; I just leave that door closed and accept that if the cats get in to that room to make sure they're not there when I leave.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 01:49
|
|
|
Yeah, you can't really blame or reprimand the cat for what it did and the only thing you can do is make sure that the humans around it check to make sure that cats don't get locked in a room. I've got a closet that I keep generally cat free and the door is always closed, so whenever I open it and do stuff in it, I always make sure that I count cats after I am done in there and close the door.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 01:56
|
|
|
Something like this happens in pretty much any catly household sooner or later. There's a weird freakout that cats can do when they are in a situation like this. Their domesticated personality goes underground and they become all fight-or-flight for a bit. They won't even recognize you. Sounds like that's the state Lilly was in when you found her in the closet. In my experience, the only thing to do is leave the cat be until their mind and hormones fully re-equilibrate. I'm glad you're taking extra steps to reassure your son, since his intellect may get that it wasn't his fault, but his emotions may take a while to catch up. And as for Lilly, after some ramp down time she'll recover. Maybe have your family carry treats in a pocket for a while, and when she makes any friendly overture (and she will, in her own good time) they can reinforce it right away. My guy is both an escape artist and a small spaces aficionado, so I am really cautious about doors. I routinely do cat checks whenever I get ready to leave the house, or if I just haven't seen him for a while. If there's ever any doubt where yours are, leaving doors cracked open is a really good thing. It'll be ok. One other thought, though - having the carpet guy in to work on the scene of her freakout may trigger her right now, so if you can herd and sequester her somewhere safe before he arrives, it might be a good thing to do.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 02:12
|
|
|
I must have had weird cats growing up. Whenever that happened to any of the cats I had growing up, they'd just poop in a corner of the room and have apparently spent the rest of the day sleeping.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 02:24
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:I must have had weird cats growing up. Whenever that happened to any of the cats I had growing up, they'd just poop in a corner of the room and have apparently spent the rest of the day sleeping. That's probably the more common reaction. Over the years I've had one or two that go full freakout, but the rest just make a political statement and then sulk.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 02:40
|
|
|
Many years ago a roommate had his childhood cat brought to him who loved me and my closet. One day he indeed locked himself in and pooped on my clothing while resigning himself to death.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 02:41
|
|
|
We have four cats. One, three year old Winston, just went through a urinary blockage that required a several day stay at the hospital. He is home now, but the vet has prescribed Hill's Science Diet c/d for urinary support. The problem is that he won't eat the dry food and he only tolerates the wet food (and takes forever to eat it). Additionally, we can't keep him separated from the other cats 24/7 so that he never eats their food. The vet office said he should be on this food permanently. Is he doomed to a life of barely eating food he doesn't like, in solitary? I just don't see how this is going to work in practical terms. Is it really that necessary that he only eat this food?
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 03:06
|
|
|
Urinary blockage is no joke, especially in male cats. I would listen to your vet. What do the other cats think of that food? Would it be feasible to switch them all over so you don't have to maintain separate food supplies? That's what we had to do with our two cats when the vet prescribed a strict urinary diet for one of them. There was some grumbling at first but they both got used to it and eagerly eat it up now.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 05:28
|
|
|
Our vet specifically said not to feed the other cats the special diet.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 06:11
|
|
|
justFaye posted:Our vet specifically said not to feed the other cats the special diet. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07XTRYP7B?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title This would stop your other cats from eating it, you'd just need to buy extra tags for the other cats. He'd have food available as desired / portioned out. Works really well for my two cats who need to eat different amounts to stay healthy. Had to buy two though to stop one from eating the others.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 07:41
|
|
|
Has anyone invented cat-safe rubber bands yet?
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 12:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 00:19 |
|
|
Man I'm really lucky, whenever rear end in a top hat has gotten locked in something he isn't supposed to he just goes to sleep occasionally waking up to pathetically meow. If no rescue comes he's back out
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2020 12:50
|
|
