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We just got a new kitten! Pic below. This has led me to realise that I've never had to choose an adult cat food before. The late Jimmy got through about 2 helpings of Felix before eating special kidney food for the rest of his life, and we've just been feeding young Maple the same kitten food she got in her foster home. I asked briefly about wet food before, but this new kitten (Gaia) came with some different foster home food, which prompted me to look at ingredients, with a view to unifying their diets now and/or in adulthood. Basically, Maple's wet food tins are 100% meat, while Gaia's pouches are "meat and animal byproducts, plant protein extracts, grain, plant byproducts, minerals, fish, egg, sugars, oils and fats". This seems to be the case with several of the pouch brands, who of course all make grandiose claims about the health benefits of their products. What's best for the kitties? I can either stick with the pouches, and transition them both onto the adult version, or move Gaia over to the meat tins now and get the adult version of that in 2 slash 9 months, respectively. Or does it not really matter? Bonus pic: 
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Jan 24, 2021 22:47
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It doesn't really matter. My recommendation would be to transition new kitty onto the meat tins, just be aware she might have some runny poops for a little while. You can make it easier by mixing the foods for a couple days/week or so to get her from one to the other but kittens aren't usually too fussy about food put in front of them. I'll always recommend getting some salmon into your cats through whatever means you choose because it really does help their coats to be soft and shiny but pet food has been regulated to the point where the brand is mostly irrelevant (in the states at least).
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Jan 25, 2021 07:07
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Speaking of catfood and catpoop and catdiarhea......... We noticed a month or so ago that our cat had a tiny bit of blood on his butthole after poopinh. We took him to the vet and she said it was probably from hard stool causing tearing and recommended to keep an eye on it and if it kept up maybe try either probiotics or switch up the catfood. It happened a few more times so we decided to switch the catfood. He had been on Natural Balance for his whole life until this point. We switched him to Hill's Science Diet and it actually seemed to help! The one weird thing is it caused his hair to get a little coarse / less fluffy, so we decided to try switching it again after a few weeks. We just started him on Wellness on Thursday and he had some diarhea on Friday night. We read on the internet that can happen when you abruptly switch foods (and, of course, saw the (now too late) recommendation to mix the foods together while transitioning) and decided to give it 2-3 days. He didn't poop at all Saturday, and then had diarhea again 3(!) times Sunday. It's actually a little more solid than it was on Friday night and he has no other symptoms (eating fine, being cuddly and cute and all that catstuff), but it happening 3 times in one day is concerning since he usually only poops once every ~1.5 days. Anyway I'm sort of overwhelmed by the number of ways to proceed and having trouble deciding. Keep him on Wellness, switch back to Hill's, switch back to Natural Balance, start retroactively mixing catfood now, try probiotics (with which one???), etc. Things are also complicated by the fact that we're out of Hill's but still have plenty of Natural Balance and Wellness. We're going to try to call the vet tomorrow morning but if they don't respond, any suggestions thread? ETA: I guess I'm asking more in the short-term then the long-term. In particular; is 3 diarheas in one day enough for you to immediately yank that food away and try something new, or still in "wait-and-see" territory?
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Jan 25, 2021 09:15
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mistaya posted:It doesn't really matter. My recommendation would be to transition new kitty onto the meat tins, just be aware she might have some runny poops for a little while. You can make it easier by mixing the foods for a couple days/week or so to get her from one to the other but kittens aren't usually too fussy about food put in front of them. Great, sounds like a plan. The tins are cheaper per unit food and more recyclable anyway. And they have salmon-containing options. I also find the pouches amusing as they say to give something like 2¾ pouches per day (if not using dry), which is like, guys that's really impractical, you get to choose the pouch size!
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Jan 25, 2021 17:15
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How much should I worry about my kitten potentially developing FIP if she was adopted from a shelter? It was a local cat cafe, and she's been healthy, and we've had her for almost 7 months now. I know I sound crazy, but someone in my family lost a cat to FIP recently and it was devastating. Is there a normal time frame it's likely to develop?
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Jan 25, 2021 21:50
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I am not a vet but FIP isn't something that will just pop up out of nowhere, 7 months is much longer than it should incubate without showing signs. You should be in the clear for that one.mancalamania posted:ETA: I guess I'm asking more in the short-term then the long-term. In particular; is 3 diarheas in one day enough for you to immediately yank that food away and try something new, or still in "wait-and-see" territory? At this point the more you mess with it the more his poor tummy tum is gonna revolt. In this specific situation I'd personally (again, not a vet!) give him another 1-2 days on the Wellness just to see if it was the abruptness causing the issue, if it doesn't improve go back to the OG food and let his digestive tract reset and try something else. Cat having the poops for a couple days isn't going to kill them, though keep an eye on their water intake to make sure they aren't getting dehydrated.
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Jan 25, 2021 22:27
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I have a ton of random kitten and cat food thanks to the year long quest to find good food for my prima donna poo poo head. Im planning to give it away to a shelter, ASPCA good PETA bad right (reputable no kill orgs)? Its all canned up, just in rando amounts /brands/favors \/\/\/ Gaj fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Jan 26, 2021 |
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Jan 26, 2021 01:32
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Just as a heads up, my local shelters (at least the ones I'm aware of) only take sealed/unopened food donations.
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Jan 26, 2021 01:51
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So it's looking like my cat has megacolon. He's a rescue with a poorly healed fracture on his hip that doesn't hurt him but gives him a noticeable limp, which I understand is an aggravating factor for megacolon. He got constipated real bad about 3 years ago and our vet at that time managed to remove the blockage with some fairly aggressive gastric lavage. After that we switched him to a high fiber food and he was ok for years until around 4 months ago when he started getting constipated again. His new vet (we moved) has managed to unblock him a few times with gastric lavage but now it doesn't seem to be working. In any case, my question is that the vet isn't recommending surgery yet but from everything I read megacolon just gets worse over time and putting off surgery is just worse for the cat. This is the cat's third constipation in 4 months. Should I be looking at a second opinion?
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Jan 26, 2021 15:04
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mistaya posted:I am not a vet but FIP isn't something that will just pop up out of nowhere, 7 months is much longer than it should incubate without showing signs. You should be in the clear for that one. Thanks for the advice! Just want to check in that our little guy is feeling better now and his poops are much more normal.
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Jan 28, 2021 20:01
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Cat update, I'm starting to think that our adult cat is just not going to learn to love the kitten at this point. She's still pretty territorial about the downstairs part of our house. If she manages to see the kitten down here, it usually results in a quick chase back up stairs to put him back in the bedroom, after which she comes back down slightly poofed and everything continues as normal. We've been a little lax about feeding them together in the past week, as we've been trying to kind of swap their territories for a couple days at a time to see if that would help. The kitten's never slept by himself however, so someone has to stay downstairs with him or he gets really anxious. Last night my wife was coming to bed very late, so we thought that it'd be fine to leave him downstairs for a few hours alone.. until we heard him jumping over the pet gate in the middle of the night. Once he got upstairs, Socks saw him and hissed, then chased him into the corner. After she cornered him (and I called out to her) she turned and came back into the bedroom and the kitten didn't seem any worse for wear, but it's been 3 months and they still can't even be in the same room together for an hour unless there's food distracting the adult cat  How could anyone hate this cute little boy? 
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Jan 30, 2021 14:08
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Elvis_Maximus posted:Cat update, I'm starting to think that our adult cat is just not going to learn to love the kitten at this point. If the kitten is jumping over a gate to get to the adult cat, it's not in the least bit scared. Leave them be and they'll sort it out. They don't seem particularly mad at each other.
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Jan 30, 2021 17:32
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We're on day 6 of the new ginger and white kitten being in the house, and introductions are going ok-ish, I think. The hiss threshold distance is getting smaller, and today they ate treats about 30cm apart while occasionally eyeing each other suspiciously... then hissing and mrowgrowling when the treats were gone. My wife thinks this means they will hate each other forever. I'm just thinking we keep taking it slow and they'll be fine.
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Jan 30, 2021 17:48
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I'm on day checks calendar 823 of introducing another young adult to a pair of littermates and the female STILL hisses loudly if he dares encroach on her while she's sitting on the bed with me. Like, "how DARE you come within eyesight of me!" hissing. But otherwise they'll share a room to sun together, which was an improvement over last year where she'd flee if he so much as got into eyeshot of her. I don't think they'll ever be friends. But they've learned to tolerate the existence of each other.
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Jan 30, 2021 18:17
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Yeah I'm on year 10 of toleration for my pair and Max will still give Sam the ol' hiss-and-swat if she sees him on a bit of furniture she doesn't think he should be on. You can't force them to love each other sadly but if you're at the point where calling the aggressor-cat's name causes them to peel off you're probably fine to just let them work things out on their own.
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Jan 30, 2021 18:24
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Cat update:seiferguy posted:I noticed that my cat had some scabs in his armpit area. Then today, he hopped on my lap and I noticed he had a scab on his head: Took him to the vet earlier this week, and they did some hair analysis and got the results today. No ringworm  vet thinks something on his head aggravated him like a bug bite. Also, he normally has a heart murmur when they check his pulse, and there was no murmur today, so double good news!
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Jan 30, 2021 18:33
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Couldn't think of where else to post these. I got a slightly older kitten 2 weeks ago (19 weeks) and I have 3 older cats (12, 3, and 3 yo) I kept the kitten seperated for a week in a room by herself, and let her out after that. It's not going well. My house is seperated into 2 levels, and I had litter boxes in just one, but with the kitten, I added one downstairs, which the kitten used for a few days. The older cats got wind of this and now are bullying the little to the point that she only hides in my kitchen and will go to the bathroom in the kitchen when there's a litterbox close in the room over. Did I screw this meeting up? How can I start fixing the situation?
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Jan 31, 2021 16:10
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dervinosdoom posted:Couldn't think of where else to post these. I got a slightly older kitten 2 weeks ago (19 weeks) and I have 3 older cats (12, 3, and 3 yo) I kept the kitten seperated for a week in a room by herself, and let her out after that. It's not going well. My house is seperated into 2 levels, and I had litter boxes in just one, but with the kitten, I added one downstairs, which the kitten used for a few days. Two weeks isn't much time. The kitten is still regarded as an intruder who needs to be chased away. They'll eventually figure out that it's not going anywhere and start accommodating it. It will also help to interact with the kitten in the other cats' sight, so they know you're on its side. If they're still hostile after a month or two, you may need to take other steps. At this point continue the introductions and let them be in the same space together for a while.
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Jan 31, 2021 18:13
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I wouldn't wait 2 months. That can solidify little one's scared-ness. I would start completely over now. Reset for a few days isolation, then very slowly re-introduce. Swap beddings between their areas every other day or so so they get used to the smell of each other, then fee on opposite sides of a door at the same time. Eventually, crack the door a little so they can see and smell but not get to each other. I eventually stacked baby gates in a doorway so they could always see each other but had to go there to eat. At some point, let one other cat into new cat's room at a time, extremely supervised, for short periods. have them play on opposite sides of the room with different toys, and then with the same toy. If there's any aggression call it off and try again the next day. Once they're not crossing the room to attack new guy, you're probably in good shape to let him out to explore for a while with the others locked up so they get a look around. After that goers ok and they don't just hide, let them all out and keep an eye on them. I had to keep milly and butters separated for about 4 months, and then extremely supervised for two, before I could let butters free roam. They still brawl sometimes but its more playful and ends after a few seconds without my intervention.
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Jan 31, 2021 18:30
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My cat has been... acting a bit weird since last night. He sometimes acts upset when we're getting ready to leave (i.e. gets the look of sadness / fear in his eyes), but when we come back, he's usually fine. When we got back from the grocery store, I changed my couch covers (I do this every other week) and he immediately cowered behind a door, laying down in a "I know I'm going to the vet" type look. After awhile, he kind of came out, sniffed around but when I went to look at him he walked away and hid in his cat house. Later on, he did eventually come out and jump back on the couch with us while we were watching tv and cuddled a bit. Then later he hopped on my lap while I played some games. He's since been sleeping in his house this morning when he normally sleeps on the couch in the morning. He ate his food this morning, hasn't thrown up, and last night he peed and pooped with no abnormal signs as far as I could tell, and doesn't seem to be any labored breathing. He was just at the vet earlier this week, and the general checkup was that he looked to be in good health (basic stuff, she felt his body, his pulse, ears, mouth, eyes etc.). I probably overreacting a bit, and he's still somewhat of a nervous cat and has had bladder struvite crystals in the past (he's on urinary S/O food for this). I dunno if that trip to the vet still annoyed him or something. I know cats gonna cat, I'm just not sure when to tell if it's an emergency or not.
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Jan 31, 2021 18:36
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I honestly have the opposite issue with my kitten being introduced to my adult cats. He is completely and utterly fearless and 100% refuses to ever stop trying to 'befriend' my adult cats regardless of how hostile they might be toward him or how much bigger they might be. One of my cats has realized she can just punch him in the head and pin him if he gets too annoying, though that does not really cause him to stop trying to play with (jump upon and bite) her so eventually she tends to just leave if she is not in a mood to play. She will find somewhere too high for him to follow then glare at him. Other times she will actually play with or even snuggle with him if he is in a less rear end in a top hat kitten mood. My other cat though? She will growl and hiss and maybe swipe at him but because he has no fear she eventually backs off. It is bad enough that he will steal her breakfast or drive her out of rooms where she was snuggling with me just through being very sure he wants to follow her around and will not be scared off. This is stressing her to the point where she is making GBS threads on the floor next to her litter tray to try to mark her territory. She is literally four times his size. Edit: Cat tax, first of all the kitten and Artemis, the cat who tolerates him when he is calmer:  And a comparison of him and Hera, who apparently fears him and is successfully bullied by him? 
Patrat fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Jan 31, 2021 |
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Jan 31, 2021 18:38
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new cat day here, collected our new 11-year-old pair from the rehoming centre this afternoon Lainey (girl) hasn't come out of the carrier yet but Bennett (boy), while preferring to stay mostly behind furniture, is very happy to give licks and headbutts and had a very long think about coming up on the arm of my chair just now  e: very nearly 
Julio Cruz fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Jan 31, 2021 |
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Jan 31, 2021 18:53
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^^Happy new cat day!Boogalo posted:I wouldn't wait 2 months. That can solidify little one's scared-ness. Thanks for this post, even though it was to someone else  We've been letting our two see each other, and they've got closer and closer before hissing starts, but it still happens and now Gaia's (small one) ears are going back and Maple is swatting (but not making contact). I think going back to the beginning sounds like a plan. It's hard because Maple doesn't seem to like to eat away from her usual eating place, so the door thing makes her suspicious before you throw in the new cat.I think we overestimated both of their adaptability to a new cat
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Jan 31, 2021 19:04
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Boogalo posted:I wouldn't wait 2 months. That can solidify little one's scared-ness. Thanks! Here's the little one in question, her name is Heidi:  She's a ragdoll and I got her from a friend who breeds them. She's the chillest cat I've ever met and that might be the issue. Her parents and her will all sleep together in a pile, she's not use to cats that are not cool with her. Here's the oldest and the calmest of the three, Mira:  and here's both 3 year olds: Bullet  Leona  I hope to just get them cool enough with each other.
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Jan 31, 2021 20:10
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I can't help with your introductions but your cats are beautiful. I do have good news from the shelter - among the handful that went home this week, our one-eyed office cat Woody finally found somewhere to go home to! I always worry about pirate pets finding a place, it's harder for them. Windy, who I think I talked about before, went home too. Happy stuff all around. Still working on getting any of my guys a home. e: I'm not embedding, because no upload would play nice except with a two minute long gif, and I've seen those do weird things to page loading. Android camera rolls suck SkyeAuroline fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Jan 31, 2021 |
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Jan 31, 2021 20:18
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Bobstar posted:^^Happy new cat day! Swatting or hissing is actually ok and is just cats setting boundaries as long as there's no blood drawn. What to look out for is either one looking scared or hiding all the time except to eat, or them crossing the room to brawl and not stopping without intervention. What worked surprisingly well was if I had to break up a fight, Milly got timeout in the tiny bathroom for just a couple of minutes of sad kitty crying and eventually she wouldn't start poo poo when I was around, and then stopped doing it at all. Milly was enormous dickhead to Butters but fortunately butters is way too quick for her and doesn't give much of a poo poo about retaliation and just wants snuggles. She wanted Butters extremely dead. I leave Butters claws untrimmed so she has a bit of advantage even though she's 6lbs to Milly's 9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm3yyBEi2b0 This was 2 months in where she would at least stop on her own but she'd go up and gently caress with Butters for a minute and then leave. At this point they had free roam as long as I was home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c-rl-ATBok By October they both had free roam but Butters still had her safety room. And this is how things are these days. No cuddles yet. Lookit those tails go  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ3rxzrMxzA This is of course not typical, Milly is just a huge rear end in a top hat, but a month or two isn't unheard of for them to get used to each other if some of the jerks are super stubborn.
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Jan 31, 2021 23:02
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Straight post the mp4 link in URL tags and it'll work. Don't use imgur's resizing options or timg.
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Jan 31, 2021 23:03
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Boogalo posted:Straight post the mp4 link in URL tags and it'll work. Don't use imgur's resizing options or timg. Neat. Today I've learned something.
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Jan 31, 2021 23:04
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Boogalo posted:Swatting or hissing is actually ok and is just cats setting boundaries as long as there's no blood drawn. What to look out for is either one looking scared or hiding all the time except to eat, or them crossing the room to brawl and not stopping without intervention. What worked surprisingly well was if I had to break up a fight, Milly got timeout in the tiny bathroom for just a couple of minutes of sad kitty crying and eventually she wouldn't start poo poo when I was around, and then stopped doing it at all. Yeah, that was the problem, Heidi was constantly hiding unless I was near! I hope this doesn't start an argument, but does the majority here free feed? I do, but if that's bad for them, I'll switch. But if I do switch, how much do I feed them and how often?
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Feb 1, 2021 01:32
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dervinosdoom posted:I hope this doesn't start an argument, but does the majority here free feed? I do, but if that's bad for them, I'll switch. But if I do switch, how much do I feed them and how often? I free feed dry, and it is a blessing that there are no mealtime shenanigans and I can stay overnight somewhere without worrying about the cats being fed. I also supplement with a spoon or so of wet food a day which goes goes about 20% uneaten. I think if your cat does OK with free feeding and drinks plenty of water ( a fountain helps this a lot) and maintains a steady weight then there's no reason to switch to scheduled feeding. If there's a weight problem or one cat needs very special food then you may need to split things up. Milly is on a prescription diet, but Butters will eat it too (and got the vet ok) and is smol so its not that much extra to let them both nosh on it. Sometimes I wish they were more food motivated so it would be easier to train or pill them but I'll take it. They don't even care about treats most of the time.
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Feb 1, 2021 02:28
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Feeding is so cat specific that you can make only vague and overly broad generalizations. Some cats only eat when they need to and can be free fed. Others are like dogs and will gorge themselves given the chance. You have to know your cat and your own situation. My last cat before my current herd was a free feeder who grazed throughout the day a few bites and never got more than 10 lbs. My current cats include one that would like to be freefed and is adamant about having a bowl of food available, one that will eat when I tell her to but will happily starve herself if she doesn't want to bother me, and one that has ballooned in weight because he's a beggar and cannot be trusted with any food that's open. Even my vet is like "well, iunno, sucks to be you."
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Feb 1, 2021 03:43
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Wife an I are thinking about getting a dog. While we are def leaning towards adopting . we were thinking of shopping for a Shiba Inu. Wondering if anyone of the cat parents in here are also Shiba Inu parents and how that goes. The interest seems to be looked in to this will lead to a dead cat.
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Feb 1, 2021 06:02
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You need to get a dog with a low prey drive, which can vary (a lot) between individual dogs. Check out stuff about prey drive on dogs and you'll get a better idea. From what I remember Shibas are on the high end of prey drive so you'd want to be very careful, but I'm not really a dog expert so maybe go ask some folks in the doggo thread.
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Feb 1, 2021 13:02
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I imagine a lot depends on dog exposure to cats whilst a puppy also? My mother's cockapoo would never hurt a cat but does tend to freak them the gently caress out as she bounds forward making excited noises to be their friend. Most cats flee, some smack her on the nose and establish boundaries.
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Feb 1, 2021 13:31
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We free feed with dry cat food and they tend to ignore it. They get a spoonful of wet food twice a day, which Aleta usually ignores and Luna either noms both servings in five minutes or shoves hers underneath the saucer, depending on which personality is in the control of the puppet body at any given time. We also have both a water bowl and a coffee mug because sometimes Boo will only drink out of a cup, because she is a people.
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Feb 1, 2021 17:13
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We feed three portions a day at the same time every day, it's gonna be real rough for them if we ever go back to the office. Maybe we should look into a automated feeder but I don't know if that gets complicated with two ravenous piggies.
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Feb 1, 2021 17:16
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The problem around here is keeping cacti and Q-tips out of their mouths. I WISH they'd try to eat their actual food with that much tenacity. When Aleta was a baby we used to smear her with wet food so she'd eat something.
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Feb 1, 2021 17:18
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Gus is nine years old and has always been a bit finicky about food--he prefers kibble (if we give him wet food he'll lick off the "gravy" but not eat any of the meat), but after a few months he'll get sick of one kind of kibble and it'll be off to the races to find something that pleases his palate. We've done bloodwork just to make sure everything is OK, and he's clean--just picky, apparently. Then we got the kitten in September, and Gus is all about her kitten food. I give him a little less in volume to compensate for the high calorie count, but hey, as long as he's eating I'm happy.
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Feb 1, 2021 17:31
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JaneError posted:Gus is nine years old and has always been a bit finicky about food--he prefers kibble (if we give him wet food he'll lick off the "gravy" but not eat any of the meat), but after a few months he'll get sick of one kind of kibble and it'll be off to the races to find something that pleases his palate. We've done bloodwork just to make sure everything is OK, and he's clean--just picky, apparently. Katya does the same thing as Gus ever since she had an upset stomach a while ago, she also loves the kitten's wet food now so she gets some mixed in with her kibble once a week. We might try to transition her back to having regular wet food once the kitten gets fixed, I really miss having one type of dry/wet food on a regular schedule.
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Feb 1, 2021 17:44
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We're lucky that our two are (so far) easy feeders. They both feed themselves dry food during the day, and go crazy for the evening helping of wet. The only change recently is that they eat different dry food right now (Royal Canin and Hill's Science Plan), which are fairly similar, but each of them has realised the other is getting something different, and therefore more delicious, and are eager to get their faces in it! Boogalo posted:Swatting or hissing is actually ok and is just cats setting boundaries as long as there's no blood drawn. What to look out for is either one looking scared or hiding all the time except to eat, or them crossing the room to brawl and not stopping without intervention. What worked surprisingly well was if I had to break up a fight, Milly got timeout in the tiny bathroom for just a couple of minutes of sad kitty crying and eventually she wouldn't start poo poo when I was around, and then stopped doing it at all. Thanks, that's reassuring. It isn't totally one sided (10.5 vs 3.5 month old, the little one's hissing as good as she gets), but we are of course aware of the size difference. Ideally we want them to be best buddies forever, but "able to coexist in the same house" is good too. It's funny that if we swap their rooms, they go "ooh, interesting, this room smells totally like another cat, that's cool, better have a sniff round before I settle down", but then they meet and go "aaah another cat, who could have foreseen this bizarre development??"
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Feb 1, 2021 18:23
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