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Jayne Doe posted:Oh, I think I misunderstood your post! My original question was if she would be okay with someone popping by once a day if I was going to be gone for 2-3 weeks, so I thought you were saying that probably wasn't enough attention. Oh shoot, I actually completely misread the original post then. That's my fault! Honestly that's always been fine for our cats. Once or twice a day for some intense cuddles and playing, then they go to sleep and end up napping most of the rest of the day anyway
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Mar 15, 2022 01:27
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Elvis_Maximus posted:Oh shoot, I actually completely misread the original post then. That's my fault! I would say this can be somewhat variable. I can go away for 2-3 days with a cat cam to monitor them, and my sibling cats barely even seem to notice that I've left as far as I can tell.
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Mar 15, 2022 12:55
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last time we went on holiday (2 weeks) we had someone coming in the mornings and another friend dropping by at dinner-time, then another friend (who works weird hours but loves cats) got a key to drop in whenever for extra attention. is this overkill? absolutely. but Kimchi is a pandemic baby so I wasn't sure how she would react to us being gone for so long and we have the luxury of having friends and family nearby who we trade cat and/or babysitting favours with.
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Mar 16, 2022 08:16
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Well, 2 out of 3 cats love the litter robot. The third one decided to piss in my bed. While I was in it. 
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Mar 16, 2022 13:16
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Deviant posted:Well, 2 out of 3 cats love the litter robot. Hopefully you already have multiple litterboxes for your cats anyway, so it might be helpful to have a "regular" one for your cat that doesn't like the bot. That way, you'll only have to scoop one box instead of 3-5.
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Mar 16, 2022 13:36
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There Bias Two posted:Hopefully you already have multiple litterboxes for your cats anyway, so it might be helpful to have a "regular" one for your cat that doesn't like the bot. there are 3 in a house of 3 cats, spread throughout. I'm going back to the regular box next to the powered-off robot for now to see if i can't get them to use it. Cat that no like is skittish and prefers to stay in this room anyway, so if nothing else, I'll move the robot to another room and get full usage of it there. It's just irritating. Scared cat is fairly anxious anyway, and has previously done their business in my laundry and bed and the bathroom rug if i leave it on the floor instead of hanging it up so we are going to The Vet to discuss this problem.
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Mar 16, 2022 13:40
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Deviant posted:there are 3 in a house of 3 cats, spread throughout. I'm going back to the regular box next to the powered-off robot for now to see if i can't get them to use it. Have you tried something like Feliway to reduce anxious cat's stress levels?
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Mar 16, 2022 13:44
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There Bias Two posted:Have you tried something like Feliway to reduce anxious cat's stress levels? It is plugged in directly next to the box and has been for some time. She has always been a little twitchy but it is worse lately.
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Mar 16, 2022 13:46
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Deviant posted:Well, 2 out of 3 cats love the litter robot. Let me tell you about every loving night my wife is out of town and Princess shits next to my loving head
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Mar 16, 2022 14:50
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I could not feel more lucky that Sinjin has never gone outside of his litterbox (internationally at least. His fluffy cat pants have betrayed us both). However he’s not been interested in his food the last couple days and I’m not 100% sure if it’s just daylight savings or if he’s suddenly decided he’s too good for chicken. Eat, stupid!
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Mar 16, 2022 20:30
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D34THROW posted:Let me tell you about every loving night my wife is out of town and Princess shits next to my loving head Close The Door
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Mar 16, 2022 22:26
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Rust Martialis posted:Close Then the other cats can't get in and out to their favorite box. If I shut the door, Prinny would just poo poo on the couch and drag it around or something. It's a protest poo poo, she does the same thing when we try anything other than the Walmart litter or when the box needs cleaned.
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Mar 17, 2022 14:30
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D34THROW posted:Then the other cats can't get in and out to their favorite box. Switch the boxes then, or put them all outside the door for the evening. I don't think cats are actually capable of expressing "protest" per se. It's probably an expression of separation anxiety, or discomfort in the case of the wrong litter or a dirty box. Also make sure you're scooping them once or twice a day
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Mar 17, 2022 14:37
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D34THROW posted:Then the other cats can't get in and out to their favorite box. Whenever the box needs cleaned, I crawl into bed and find a turd, under the covers, right where I sleep. That's the warning.
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Mar 17, 2022 14:39
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There Bias Two posted:Switch the boxes then, or put them all outside the door for the evening. My wife is pregnant, I'm scooping at least once a day for nausea reasons  Also, if I put the box outside the door, Perdy would have nowhere to go. She will not leave the room because she's so scared of everything. Catch 22s all around yo
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Mar 17, 2022 14:44
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Crocobile posted:I could not feel more lucky that Sinjin has never gone outside of his litterbox (intentionally at least. His fluffy cat pants have betrayed us both).  as soon as we brought her in and opened the carrier door she took off howling across the room. Directly onto the cream-colored, custom-made, absurdly expensive MCM sofa I had just inherited from my sister a few weeks before. I've never seen my partner move so fast, it was like she teleported to the couch to scoop up our poo poo-covered little goblin in a lap blanket. I ran to the kitchen to grab some paper towels. In my partner's arms the cat was having an absolute meltdown, while I frantically tried to wipe the poop smears off her cat pants. She was thrashing around with claws out and my partner finally had to let her go, but luckily her little cat butt was mostly clean by then and the front door was closed so she couldn't escape. She darted under that sofa instead and hid for probably an hour. Just zero dignity on the part of everyone involved.The story is funnier to me now because she's otherwise been pretty good about using the box. When she had a growth spurt and her hind legs got super long she did accidentally hang over the edge and poop on the floor a couple of times, but we got a box with higher walls and it ended up fine. Usually when it happened, our other cat who likes to dig would follow her and fastidiously scoop litter out of the box to cover the turd on the floor. He always looked so disappointed, it was heartbreaking but also hilarious.
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Mar 18, 2022 08:02
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Haha, on the rare occasion that my cat takes a turd with her when leaving the toilet, she always stays next to it pawing at the floor in frustration. So congrats to your cat for being smarter than mine!
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Mar 18, 2022 08:29
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Don't mind Fartie, she's just over here using hay from.the bunny cage to cover the food bowl shes decided is hers
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Mar 18, 2022 11:50
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Speaking of covering food, I've never had a cat that wanted to do that before but Pavarotti will periodically attempt to do so half heartedly. Usually it's at the shared feeding time that we do at night. Sage gets some of his favorite wet food as a treat, and since Pavarotti doesn't like any form of wet food that we can find we give him some super fancy and extra smelly dry cat food that he gobbles down. He usually doesn't finish the bowl though, and every once and awhile he'll stand over it and just start.. scratching the floor I guess to try and hide it? They have completely separate food bowls otherwise (and both are chip feeders so it's not like they ever catch a cat eating their food), so I don't think he's anxious about food being stolen or something. I've just never seen a cat do it in person
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Mar 18, 2022 12:42
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My cat does this all the time. She rarely eats everything in the bowl and won't eat food that isn't from a new can most of the time so every now and then if I try to give her the second half of a can she'll just start pawing at the ground around the bowl as her way to tell me "you better open up a new can, fat boy".
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Mar 18, 2022 12:59
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Anybody have suggestions for cat treats that are kind of like plastic? This sounds super weird but my cat is obsessed with plastic, particularly anything that's kind of thin and crinkles easily like, for example, a Little Debbie snack cake wrapper (loses her mind over these, will ferret them out of the trash if allowed, I have a lid on my trash can now) or packing tape. Not so much ziploc, but she has nibbled on those before too. Obviously I don't let her eat those, but I feel bad because it's like her absolute favorite thing that she magnetizes to, so it'd be cool if something like that existed that is somehow edible and safe for cats, or at least in really durable toy form. She also likes to tear her way through bags into any delicious edible contents she smells inside, even if the contents are not so delicious, like the times she has literally torn a hole into a bag of (clean!) cat litter and started eating it. So edible bags would be cool too? Does anything like that exist? I know pictures are important so here are a few of my sweetheart. Her name is Hubris, Hubie for short. Featuring her amazing accordion powers where she goes from looking like a blob to a scrawny thing because of all her winter fur (those last two were taken a couple weeks apart).    Honestly, anything that's like, as un-foodlike as possible that seems like something she's not supposed to have would probably work. Like if there's some weird papery vegetable out there that's safe for cats. Edible rice paper, maybe??? Tiny Myers fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Mar 18, 2022 |
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Mar 18, 2022 18:38
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Tiny Myers posted:Anybody have suggestions for cat treats that are kind of like plastic? This sounds super weird but my cat is obsessed with plastic, particularly anything that's kind of thin and crinkles easily like, for example, a Little Debbie snack cake wrapper (loses her mind over these, will ferret them out of the trash if allowed, I have a lid on my trash can now) or packing tape. Not so much ziploc, but she has nibbled on those before too. I'll wait for others to chime in about the rice paper, but if it's safe I would love to try it with our cats too.
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Mar 18, 2022 19:40
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Starting to be a bit concerned about my very large elderly cat and the possibility of mental decline. He's nearly 13 now (adopted at age 10), and has in the last few months grown very clingy as well as far less active throughout the day. He spends most of the time asleep (as cats do), with maybe 10 minutes of zoomies per day. The concerning part is that he gets distressed when he's alone and starts crying if nobody's in the room with him. He's also very attached to my wife and will start crying if she comes home late from work. He absolutely needs to be in close proximity to one of us at all times, and after about 6pm he'll get very upset if my wife isn't one of those people. He was always a bit of a big baby, but it's been extra noticeable lately. He has some mild medical problems with constipation and kidney stones, being managed with diet and medication successfully, but I'm thinking that he might be starting to get confused in his old age and need someone familiar around. I'll be back at the office full time pretty soon after working from home, and I do worry he'll end up a total wreck if he's starting to get a bit senile. 
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Mar 18, 2022 21:52
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gloom posted:Hubris is a cutie, and has a great name for a cat! One of ours loves batting around cough drop wrappers, which are paper with some kind of coating. As far as I can tell he doesn't eat them, although he will carry them in his mouth. Mostly he just wants to dribble them like a soccer ball. Maybe some kind of crinkly paper might be a close enough substitute to catch her attention? Otherwise edible rice paper with a plasticky feel seems like it might work. I've had some on Taiwanese candy that was indistinguishable from plastic, I actually tried to unwrap it before a friend told me it would just dissolve in my mouth. Mine will occasionally go nuts for tie wraps like you get with electronic cables. Not sure why batting that around is any more interesting than a ball of foil or their 100s of actual toys that go ignored  For crinkly paper-y food, look up if pressed seaweed would be safe. My sister gets them from Costco every once in a while. They smell like salmon. These, I think: https://www.costco.com/kirkland-signature-organic-roasted-seaweed-snack%2C-0.6-oz%2C-10-count-.product.100435873.html e: Google seems to think seaweed is fine for cats, in moderation, but again do your own research. Takes No Damage fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Mar 18, 2022 |
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Mar 18, 2022 22:50
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Tiny Myers posted:This sounds super weird but my cat is obsessed with plastic, Not weird at all. One of my cats literally eats plastic and foil wrappers and will jump on the table or dig through the trash to get at one. I've literally found packing tape in her poop, and every once in a while she'll puke up some plastic. It's amazing she hasn't killed herself doing it yet. Her favorite toys are those little foil balls, which thankfully she can't swallow. One of our others has started chewing on plastic bags, but not eating them like her, thankfully. I think he learned it from her.
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Mar 18, 2022 23:26
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Thanks everyone for your ideas and anecdotes!TheSwizzler posted:Starting to be a bit concerned about my very large elderly cat and the possibility of mental decline. He's nearly 13 now (adopted at age 10), and has in the last few months grown very clingy as well as far less active throughout the day. 12 seems pretty young to be going senile, though. The aforementioned old cat lived to about 20 and it was around her turning 18 or 19 that we started to notice these issues. Maybe just separation anxiety, and something to talk about with your vet for sure. Definitely talk to vet to rule out other causes, and talk to your partner and weigh and measure it heavily and read up on safely introducing another cat, but is it possible a second cat might help his loneliness?
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Mar 18, 2022 23:51
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Tiny Myers posted:Thanks everyone for your ideas and anecdotes! We may look into the eyesight situation, since he has trouble finding his treats and is easily startled I don't think another cat will help, he's hyper-aggressive towards other cats he sees out the windows and gets upset for a full hour. He even got very angry at a life sized photo of a cat he saw on a large bag of cat food edit: Come to think of it, he had some mismatched pupil sizes that made us really concerned about 8 months ago, we took him to the vet but they couldn't figure out what was wrong, and eventually his eyes went back to normal after a few days TheSwizzler fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Mar 19, 2022 |
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Mar 18, 2022 23:57
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My cat goes nuts for tissues or pieces of paper but I don’t let her because I worry what happens if she eats it
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Mar 19, 2022 00:16
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You have paid attention to his plight, so here he is as a seal:
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Mar 19, 2022 00:27
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For a crunchy papery snack you could also try bonito flakes. Human grade from an east asian grocery are cheap and just dried shaved fish.
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Mar 19, 2022 01:46
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TheSwizzler posted:The concerning part is that he gets distressed when he's alone and starts crying if nobody's in the room with him. I had a cat who went pretty much blind. Until I figured it out, I was keeping the litter box in the basement, and sometimes he would get lost down there and just miaow. The part the box was in was a big empty space, so he didn't really have walls to navigate by, which was how I figured it out; he'd always go along the walls upstairs and the house was cluttered and not that big, so he could find his way around pretty well. It may help if you can eliminate large open spaces with no landmarks, and probably don't move the furniture. Maybe leave some blankets with your scents on them to give him a better feeling while everyone is gone. I'm assuming continuing to work from home is not an option. Poor kitty. I hope this helps.
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Mar 19, 2022 04:48
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Tiny Myers posted:Honestly, anything that's like, as un-foodlike as possible that seems like something she's not supposed to have would probably work. Like if there's some weird papery vegetable out there that's safe for cats.
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Mar 19, 2022 05:56
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Thanks all! Looks like nori is safe as long as it's in moderation (it has a lot of iodine which can increase hyperthyroidism chance in cats) and bonito flakes are too. Looks like I'll be heading to the Asian grocery soon.
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Mar 19, 2022 07:15
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Tiny Myers posted:Thanks all! Looks like nori is safe as long as it's in moderation (it has a lot of iodine which can increase hyperthyroidism chance in cats) and bonito flakes are too. Looks like I'll be heading to the Asian grocery soon. Periodic comment: Hills Y/d (low iodine) food works, but check the iodine content of the water your cat drinks. In Denmark the tap water is quite high iodine content. My 16-year old hyperthyroid, hypertensive, mostly-blind girl: 
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Mar 19, 2022 08:01
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Maple loves the soft thin plastic that you get around a multipack of drink bottles - or in our case, the litter liner bags, which stick out like a skirt around the box. Just seems to be a thing for her, we're hyper sensitive to weird eating, because her (blood-relative) sister Peanut started sticking her head in the litter box and chowing down, and a week later she had passed away from a mysterious bone marrow thing. Don't mean to scare anyone, but suddenly eating litter like it's a meal, or licking the walls etc, can be a sign of the cat trying to get something its missing, and are worth a prompt vet visit. Emphasis on the sudden change - both our kitties have now had worried-parent bloodwork and are fine, so presumably their current behaviours are just cat being cat. I need to look at the litter robot again, these two just tear through the liners of their current dumb-box, making them largely pointless, but the plastic of the litter box itself degrades and cracks under the urine. It's kind of the Lionel Hutz of litter boxes - we should stop buying them!
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Mar 20, 2022 12:00
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We have had a cat, Stanley Herbert Fitzhenry, for just over a year; we got him when he was a kitten. 90% of the time, he is an excellent cat. However, every now and then he decides that he's going to be a total rear end in a top hat towards my eight-year-old daughter and will literally stalk her around the house and attack her legs. He doesn't display this behavior towards me, my wife, or our three-year-old son, and as far as I can tell she is doing absolutely nothing to provoke the cat. There also isn't any specific thing she did to cause trauma to the cat or anything like that. What causes aggression towards one specific person like this, and how can I get it to stop? EDIT: Stanley's mother was a feral cat if that makes a difference in his behavior.
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Mar 20, 2022 22:23
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How many in here got cats that will perforate cardboard for no dang reason? Any time we got an Amazon box or whatever sitting open on the floor, one of ours will jump in and staple gun all the way down the edge. Doesn't eat any cardboard, doesn't rip it. Just spaces holes all the way down the length. Best guess I got is it's an instinct to clean their teeth.
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Mar 20, 2022 22:36
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Haschel Cedricson posted:We have had a cat, Stanley Herbert Fitzhenry, for just over a year; we got him when he was a kitten. 90% of the time, he is an excellent cat. However, every now and then he decides that he's going to be a total rear end in a top hat towards my eight-year-old daughter and will literally stalk her around the house and attack her legs. He doesn't display this behavior towards me, my wife, or our three-year-old son, and as far as I can tell she is doing absolutely nothing to provoke the cat. There also isn't any specific thing she did to cause trauma to the cat or anything like that. Does she wear any type of clothing that might be attracting the cat's attention that your other family members don't? Stuff that's shimmery, flowy, frilly? I know little girls sometimes wear stuff like that. Maybe he thinks it's a toy.
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Mar 20, 2022 22:40
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There Bias Two posted:Does she wear any type of clothing that might be attracting the cat's attention that your other family members don't? Stuff that's shimmery, flowy, frilly? I know little girls sometimes wear stuff like that. Maybe he thinks it's a toy. Unfortunately no; there doesn't seem to be any pattern to it.
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Mar 20, 2022 22:41
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xzzy posted:How many in here got cats that will perforate cardboard for no dang reason? Any time we got an Amazon box or whatever sitting open on the floor, one of ours will jump in and staple gun all the way down the edge. Doesn't eat any cardboard, doesn't rip it. Just spaces holes all the way down the length. My cat does that too, and I think it's just fun for her. Humans like popping bubble wrap, and cats seem to like biting cardboard.
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Mar 20, 2022 22:44
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