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My cat’s driving me wild. He won’t use the Litter Robot, which, fine, I spent $$ and you won’t use it, fine, cat. But there’s a second litterbox in the bathroom and a third litterbox upstairs and when I’m in the living room he doesn’t think to go use them I guess? Yesterday he peed in a random basket which I just tossed. He’ll follow me to a litterbox and use it if I’m in the room but like, what the gently caress, dude. I changed litter to Dr Elsey’s recently, maybe he’s not a fan. Edit: just sat in the bathroom bc he was yelling at me in the living room and sure enough, now he’s ok with pooping. I stg this isn’t a cat, it’s a toddler in fur Hawkperson fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Jun 22, 2020 |
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Jun 22, 2020 04:12
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We bought some pellet litter in the hope that Moly won't spread it all over the house like she does with her usual fine grained litter. So far she doesn't get it, and cheerfully poops in the little box where we left her old litter for just this eventuality. This is worse than before because that box has no cover, so she jumps right out of it with a comet tail of litter sand. We've tried physically putting her in the main box when she seems poop minded, but she just looks offended. Do you guys have experience with putting a whole new type of litter?
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Jun 22, 2020 06:15
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Leal posted:
 At last, he knows how to sit on a lap.
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Jun 22, 2020 06:22
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pidan posted:We bought some pellet litter in the hope that Moly won't spread it all over the house like she does with her usual fine grained litter. So far she doesn't get it, and cheerfully poops in the little box where we left her old litter for just this eventuality. This is worse than before because that box has no cover, so she jumps right out of it with a comet tail of litter sand. Mix, don't try to do a hard cutover.
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Jun 22, 2020 06:54
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I too have a cat that loves to destroy houseplants, both chewing on leaves and digging in the dirt. It's the only "problem" behavior I've ever had with her. She absolutely knows what "NO" means and that she's not supposed to chew on plants. She'll stop chewing and hop away when you say "NO" but all that accomplishes is teaching her to eat plants when you're not in the room. What I've had success with is putting decorative rocks on exposed soil and putting the plants where they're totally inaccessible. If you leave a plant on a table or the floor where there's space for your furry dumbass to sit and gently caress with it, they will. Cats can jump really high if motivated, just putting a plant 4-5 feet up isn't going to do the trick, they'll eventually decide they want to hop up there and mess with it. You need to put plants somewhere with no horizontal space accessible around it to deny your gremlin a perch to sit and eat it. I'm 99% sure they just like playing with dangly leaves and in general will try to eat anything they can fit in their mouth. My cat will bite off leaves and alternate chewing/playing with them. Cats are not smart but they are very clever, they're also very curious. edit: so like for pidan's plants which are quite large, putting them on a stool, stand, or shelf (with no space for a cat to sit next to it) would work. Putting them on a desk, table, or cabinet which you think is too high for the cat to jump onto will not, you'll eventually wake up one morning to find dirt everywhere and your plant shredded. pidan posted:Here are my new houseplants, note the cat eating the Chlorophytum again. You'll want to repot them in heavy, attractive containers (ceramic or metal, probably) with a dish underneath to collect water. Stick them somewhere with appropriate light (google specifics for the plants you have), a room with a few windows should work fine, you don't want a dark room but they don't need to sit right in front of a south-facing window or whatever. Water once or twice a week, again depending on species. Just set a schedule and get in the habit of watering your plants, say, every Sunday. You don't need a ton of water, it's actually easier to over-water. The Calathea will want a bright room (again, not direct light, just across the room from a few windows) and watered more often. The Sansevieria (snake plant) is ridiculously hardy and can handle somewhat darker rooms and needs less watering. Most common houseplants are easy to care for (which is why they are commonly used house plants), you just can't forget to water them for three weeks or whatever. Don't overthink it! Fritz the Horse fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Jun 22, 2020 |
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Jun 22, 2020 13:10
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I was thinking about that today. One of my other favourite animals is elephants, and they're much smarter than cats. For example, my kittens will play with anything (of course), but if I take a piece of packaging they've started killing and they watch me put it on the bin, they go "oh, it's ceased to exist, what a shame". An elephant would have figured out the bin latch within 20 seconds and be fishing it out, I think. But then they go and do something fiendishly clever that surprises you. Or fiendishly stupid, like finding their way inside the mosquito net on the velux window... 
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Jun 22, 2020 13:24
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in my (limited) experience, cats have a lot longer attention span than dogs and a drive to thoroughly explore / taste / destroy their territory, hence the "curiosity" My cat gets along surprisingly well with my parents' chihuahua, they play and have never truly fought, no hissing or claws. The dog will try and engage the cat for about 5 seconds, lose interest, and turn its back. As soon as the dog isn't looking at the cat, catbutt will square up and pounce. It's predictable and hilarious. Same thing for plants. You can shoo a cat away, but then they'll just wait until you're not looking or out of the room and go right back to destroying it. I never tried bitter apple though. She doesn't chew on anything else, the simplest solution for me was to physically locate them where the cat can't access them. I guess some cats would probably jump in the air to attack plants (because cat) but mine doesn't, she's only interested in sitting next to it and chewing/digging. pidan's Calathea has dangly leaves, I would bet that any plant with dangly bits might be tempting for a cat to jump and swat at edit: also I'm pretty sure boredom is a factor. I had the plants for several weeks without incident, then I got bad pneumonia and spent a lot of time in bed. That's when the plant destruction really started, she wasn't getting the usual amount of stimulation so she amused herself by attacking plants. Fritz the Horse fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Jun 22, 2020 |
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Jun 22, 2020 13:50
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When we brought our cacti inside this fall, we thought the cars would leave them alone. Aleta not only wanted to chew on the spines, she was DIGGING her paws into it. The loving cactus has battle scars!
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Jun 22, 2020 15:01
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my 8 month old cat isn’t fat but sure is getting thick and a hanging belly. She is an apartment cat but runs around a ton and doesn’t really eat excessively at all. I’ve read the hanging pouch is normal but have set an exam appointment to just get her looked at.
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Jun 22, 2020 19:19
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Paperback Writer posted:my 8 month old cat isn’t fat but sure is getting thick and a hanging belly. She is an apartment cat but runs around a ton and doesn’t really eat excessively at all. I’ve read the hanging pouch is normal but have set an exam appointment to just get her looked at. Yeah the hanging pouch is completely normal. Some cats just have more of one than others. Of course there's no harm in taking her to the vet, but I really doubt the pouch indicates any issues.
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Jun 22, 2020 19:23
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It's called a "primordial pouch" and it's there to protect their innards in case of an epic kitty kick battle with another kitty, nothing to worry about.
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Jun 22, 2020 19:57
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If it were just the pouch I would agree, she’s getting kinda big everywhere and the loose skin bunching up when she sits looks a little odd. I could just be worrying too much haha. Maybe she needs a special diet.
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Jun 22, 2020 20:06
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Yeah, more than likely you're worrying too much. It's probably just what your cat looks like, or just a phase of growing from kitten to cat. I would really caution against a special diet unless she's exhibiting some other issues and your vet recommends it.
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Jun 22, 2020 20:09
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Yeah my cat is a chonk (the one who’s not an rear end in a top hat) and the vet doesn’t seem too worried about it. She just likes food a whole bunch, idk I gotta say I sympathize 
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Jun 22, 2020 20:14
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Rotten Red Rod posted:Yeah, more than likely you're worrying too much. It's probably just what your cat looks like, or just a phase of growing from kitten to cat. I would really caution against a special diet unless she's exhibiting some other issues and your vet recommends it.
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Jun 22, 2020 20:14
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For digging in plants I've heard folks recommend a layer of crinkled foil over the soil. If you want you can do it somewhat artistically so it doesn't look ghetto as hell. Some cats hate the feel of foil on their feet and will avoid it. Of course some cats dgaf, because cats.
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Jun 22, 2020 20:18
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Paperback Writer posted:If it were just the pouch I would agree, she’s getting kinda big everywhere and the loose skin bunching up when she sits looks a little odd. I could just be worrying too much haha. Maybe she needs a special diet. Katya is getting this too, I think she's gained some quarantine weight but the pouch is probably just her filling out after kittenhood. Ngl, I was a little worried too but she lets me prod her without too much fuss and I think she could just stand to get less treats.
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Jun 22, 2020 20:25
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Paperback Writer posted:If it were just the pouch I would agree, she’s getting kinda big everywhere and the loose skin bunching up when she sits looks a little odd. I could just be worrying too much haha. Maybe she needs a special diet. She's growing from kitten to cat, she's going to look a little awkward and odd until she finishes growing. I'd only be concerned if she's still like that another six months to a year.
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Jun 22, 2020 20:54
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The GODDAMN loving MAGIC KITTEN ATTRACT LITTER DOESN’T loving WORK AT ALL, BOTH MY KITTENS HAVE PISSED ONCE AND SHITTED AT LEAST 3 TIMES THAT I COUNTED OUTSIDE THE LITTER BOX SINCE WE SWITCHED TO IT THIS MORNING Tell me what else to use instead, THEY’RE making GBS threads ON MY STUFF ALSO THE poo poo IS DIARRHEA AND I DON’T KNOW WHY, but they’re been eating both wet and dry adult cat food out of our adult cats’ bowls I’m about to take them to the vet for their first shots, so I can get the diarrhea looked at then, but that appointment’s not until next Friday, July 3rd (this was the earliest appointment I could get  ), so should I probably take ‘em somewhere else to do the diarrhea before that?
I. M. Gei fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Jun 25, 2020 |
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Jun 22, 2020 22:49
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I. M. Gei posted:The GODDAMN loving MAGIC KITTEN ATTRACT LITTER DOESN’T loving WORK AT ALL, BOTH MY KITTENS HAVE PISSED ONCE AND SHITTED AT LEAST 3 TIMES THAT I COUNTED OUTSIDE THE LITTER BOX SINCE WE SWITCHED TO IT THIS MORNING 1. Take a breath; part of the social contract you make with a animal is that sometimes they'll just make a mess on your stuff and you have to accept that, and if you're not willing to accept that you probably shouldn't have gotten more 2. Are you letting them just eat whatever loving food they want? They're probably getting upset tummies from constantly eating different foods 3. You didn't answer the question of do they have a box that's just for them or are the other cats pooping in that one too? are they running around the entire house or do they only have a limited area to explore that keeps them no more than 20 feet from the litter box
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Jun 22, 2020 23:10
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I. M. Gei posted:I’m about to take them to the vet for their first shots, so I can get the diarrhea looked at then, but that appointment’s not until next Friday, June 3rd (this was the earliest appointment I could get June 3rd is a Thursday.
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Jun 22, 2020 23:41
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Hello Sailor posted:June 3rd is a Thursday. I only assume he meant July 3rd, not June 3rd, as June 3rd was 2 and a half weeks ago.
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Jun 23, 2020 05:55
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Fuckin' cats having time diarrhea out here. Give them kitten food, don't switch it for another brand until they're roughly a year old. Mine loved the Royal Canin Mother and Baby Cat so much that I now give them the pellets as treats.
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Jun 23, 2020 08:18
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Remember they're still toddlers, and they have very poor object permanence at that age. If they can't see the litterbox from where they are NOW then they don't know it exists. You have to keep them in like a single room/small area, not give them the run of the house. Preferably one with floors you don't mind accidents happening on. Definitely one without anything valuable to ruin. If you don't want them to poo poo on your stuff you gotta confine them somewhere there's nothing to poo poo on until they learn how to poo poo in the box, this is something you, the adult human, is responsible for doing. Not the baby animals. Also yes, make sure they eat their own food and only their own food or they're gonna have the shits and then they'll REALLY have problems getting to the box in time. E: Also they're strays iirc, have they been de-wormed yet? That can cause the shits and I'd ask about it when you get their shots done if you haven't done it yet.
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Jun 23, 2020 17:22
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I've only ever gotten kittens from the humane society where they learn to use the litterbox from other cats, and even then, for the first few days we confine them to one room which has an easily accessible, low-walled litterbox.
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Jun 23, 2020 17:28
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Along with restraining them to a smaller area, if affordable you could get a couple more cheap litter boxes and try a few different textures of litter at the same time. Occasionally the little bastards just decide they don't like the way litter X feels on their paws. And it's pretty common to decide they don't want to share a litter box with other cats, so extra boxes might help anyway.
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Jun 23, 2020 19:23
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I've been looking into getting a cat for a while, had acquired all the necessary supplies, and then this morning I saw a 6mo old listed on the city shelter website, called them four hours ago, and... now I have a cat??  I've never owned a cat before, so I'm pretty terrified even though I did a lot of reading/research and feel like I ... probably know how to take care of a cat? She's six months old, according to the shelter, and is extremely friendly and fearless. It took her about one minute after leaving her carrier to decide that she wanted me to scratch her belly. She's already eaten some and had some water, so she seems to be settling in well, but I'm terrified that she'll decide she doesn't like the litter box or something like that. She really wants to be in whatever room I'm in, so my plan is to let her range freely during the day and maybe keep her in the bathroom with the litter box / water at night until I'm sure that she knows where it is and isn't going to create giant messes while I'm sleeping? Earlier she was going nuts with a toy, threw it behind her in her excitement, and then couldn't figure out where it went. 
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Jun 24, 2020 01:06
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Jayne Doe posted:I've been looking into getting a cat for a while, had acquired all the necessary supplies, and then this morning I saw a 6mo old listed on the city shelter website, called them four hours ago, and... now I have a cat?? It's less of a concern if she's 6 months old already, if she was properly using the box in the shelter, you should be okay. As long as the box is fresh and clean, and there's nothing else that's really diggable, as long as she uses the box once before you go to bed, you could probably get away with letting her roam at night.
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Jun 24, 2020 01:15
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Yeah at 6 months old and shelter-raised, as long as she knows where the litter box is you're not likely to have any issues. I'd let her roam free at night.
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Jun 24, 2020 01:56
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That's good to know! I definitely feel pretty neurotic because I've never had a pet before and so don't have much frame of reference for anything other than information I've read on the internet. The employees at the shelter said she had never had any issues, so it sounds like I should probably just chill a little bit and enjoy hanging out with her. EDIT: Litter box successfully used, so I guess now I can relax and enjoy having the actual best cat in the world. Jayne Doe fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Jun 24, 2020 |
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Jun 24, 2020 01:59
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heh yeah I was scared and put towels all over my bedroom floor the first week, but no accidents with the 5 month old I adopted. and thanks for making me worry less about my chubby awkward teenager everyone.
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Jun 24, 2020 02:37
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In general cats are pretty good pets for neurotic people, since they tend to be rather self-sufficient and chill pets that really only need you to feed them and will shower you with love and cuddles in return.
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Jun 24, 2020 03:18
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After the loss of our cat last month and a frantic search since (seriously, we applied for 12+ kittens from rescues and shelters across 3 states and had 20+ applications ahead of us every time), we've had our baby boy kitten now for a week (he's about 9-10 weeks old now) and he's the freakin' bestest and is giving our previous cats some serious competition. Sleeps well at night, bonafide lap cat, smart, and has great litterbox habits. The guy is sleeping on our heads and purring non-stop. He also managed to give me a nice scar down my wrist while we tried to give him his antibiotics for the diarrhea he had since he was at the shelter, but it's all worth it.  He'll soon be joined by his hopefully-future-BFF ragdoll bro
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Jun 24, 2020 06:00
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necrobobsledder posted:After the loss of our cat last month and a frantic search since (seriously, we applied for 12+ kittens from rescues and shelters across 3 states and had 20+ applications ahead of us every time), we've had our baby boy kitten now for a week (he's about 9-10 weeks old now) and he's the freakin' bestest and is giving our previous cats some serious competition. Sleeps well at night, bonafide lap cat, smart, and has great litterbox habits. The guy is sleeping on our heads and purring non-stop. He also managed to give me a nice scar down my wrist while we tried to give him his antibiotics for the diarrhea he had since he was at the shelter, but it's all worth it. My 1(?) year-old had a puncture on his nose, I cleaned it up but didn't put any hydrogen peroxide on it because I figured it must not have been too bad if he wasn't licking at it (and still isn't), but a couple days later it's made quite the bump on his nose under the wound. He doesn't appear bothered by it at all but are there any risks to not addressing it? I mean besides the obvious
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Jun 24, 2020 19:38
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tomanton posted:Super cute. My family has only ever taken in strays from near the house or adopted senior cats or whatever, I had no idea kitten adopting was so competitive, I assumed shelters were full of them. I think it's probably due to COVID - people are adopting pets like crazy to alleviate boredom at home. We adopted our latest kitten last year, and there were literally dozens of kittens available with no waiting. Now, they list 6 total kittens up for adoption for the entire county (San Diego) and one shelter (Escondido) actually announced they had cleared out ALL their adoptable pets at one point.
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Jun 24, 2020 19:45
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Oh right. Now that you mention it when the lockdown/quarantine brought all those animals-wandering-suburbs stories I saw a ton of new cats. This little lady was the most photogenic, only saw her for three days though: 
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Jun 24, 2020 21:02
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Rotten Red Rod posted:I think it's probably due to COVID - people are adopting pets like crazy to alleviate boredom at home. We adopted our latest kitten last year, and there were literally dozens of kittens available with no waiting. Now, they list 6 total kittens up for adoption for the entire county (San Diego) and one shelter (Escondido) actually announced they had cleared out ALL their adoptable pets at one point. Yeah, apparently foster mailing lists are claiming kittens that need fostering in <30 seconds.
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Jun 24, 2020 21:50
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Two very cute white and gray pals upthread, big fan.Rotten Red Rod posted:I think it's probably due to COVID - people are adopting pets like crazy to alleviate boredom at home. We adopted our latest kitten last year, and there were literally dozens of kittens available with no waiting. Now, they list 6 total kittens up for adoption for the entire county (San Diego) and one shelter (Escondido) actually announced they had cleared out ALL their adoptable pets at one point. As someone who was also looking for a cat during COVID, I can definitely confirm this. I went to a shelter that usually has ~120 cats which is apparently down to ~15, all of whom were spoken for when I visited (and the next group of kittens coming in were all already slated for adoption). I'm really glad cats are getting adopted, but my goodness it really took so many applications etc. to adopt this cat than previous ones. On a different note, does anyone have tips/tricks for taking a cat on a flight (in an underseat carrier)? I know for getting a cat used to car trips you can sort of slowly ramp up their time in the carrier/car to acclimate them, but I'm not sure what all translates to plane training - I can't really bring them to just sit in a plane cabin for a bit to get used to it. I've only ever brought previous cats on cars and trains so this is kind of new territory. The actual flight won't be for months, but I want to be ready.
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Jun 24, 2020 22:07
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RIP ZEEZ
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foutre posted:On a different note, does anyone have tips/tricks for taking a cat on a flight (in an underseat carrier)? I know for getting a cat used to car trips you can sort of slowly ramp up their time in the carrier/car to acclimate them, but I'm not sure what all translates to plane training - I can't really bring them to just sit in a plane cabin for a bit to get used to it. I've only ever brought previous cats on cars and trains so this is kind of new territory. The actual flight won't be for months, but I want to be ready. This link has good advice: https://www.humanesociety.org/resou...%20the%20cabin. Short version, call the airline ahead of time to work it out.
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Jun 24, 2020 22:21
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necrobobsledder posted:After the loss of our cat last month and a frantic search since (seriously, we applied for 12+ kittens from rescues and shelters across 3 states and had 20+ applications ahead of us every time), we've had our baby boy kitten now for a week (he's about 9-10 weeks old now) and he's the freakin' bestest and is giving our previous cats some serious competition. Sleeps well at night, bonafide lap cat, smart, and has great litterbox habits. The guy is sleeping on our heads and purring non-stop. He also managed to give me a nice scar down my wrist while we tried to give him his antibiotics for the diarrhea he had since he was at the shelter, but it's all worth it. Yaaaay! Kind of a similar story to ours actually! My wife and I lost our 12-year old kitteh Sophie back in November to a sudden brain tumor. It was pretty devastating. But, now we've adopted a pair of sisters, Ada and Newt. Behold:  (sorry about the lovely quality, it's literally the only instance I could get them to look at the camera at roughly the same time) They were rescued by a local org here in Napa. When the org found them, they were really malnourished and in pretty dire shape. One of their brothers lost an eye to an infection, and it looked like Ada might too. Luckily, the rescue group eyedropper-fed them, and gave them the meds they needed, and now they're both 3 lbs at 10 weeks of age. Still small, but they're eating like gangbusters. Ada's eye is still a LITTLE cloudy, as you can see, but it looks worse in the photo than it actually is, it's improving every day, and her sight is fine. We had an "incident" yesterday that's hilarious in retrospect but was unpleasant at the time. Both of them use the litterbox fine most of the time, but Ada's a little tidier than Newt at covering stuff up. She'll often go into the litterbox just to kick sand over her sister's poo. Unfortunately, last night she jumped the gun a bit. While trying to get into the litterbox while Newt was pooping, Ada ended up with a face full of turd. Luckily, she was easy to grab and scrub off quickly before she rubbed her sister's poo poo all over the place. Neither of them seemed worse for wear from the experience, but I'd prefer they not do it again. I think the problem was that there was kind of a detachable rim, on the litter box, a couple inches high, that had a narrow-ish opening on one side. I'm guessing Ada got a little intimidated, decided not to try to jump in, and tried to muscle her way through what seemed like the easier path instead. We detached the rim, though, and there haven't been any incidents since, so fingers crossed! Anyway, the moral of this story is, kittens are adorable and also very stupid.
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Jun 26, 2020 03:49
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