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My situation is a little on the unusual side. There is a stray cat in my garden that I am trying to teach to come inside and be a pet - or even be an outside cat, if need be (I have a very old, blind dog. He did not react well to meeting the stray (he got too curious, got too close to see what the hell he was looking at, the cat got scared, and bam, somehow both of them wound up with no wounds but a hell of a shock. This dog will be gone soon, so he'd be an outside cat for probably another year at most, and we live in a low-car, no-sociopath neighbourhood). - Age: No idea, but I'd say probably five or six (actually, probably younger - my flatmates reckon he's probably just coming out of kittenhood now, and he does seem playful in that sort of way) - Sex: Male would be my guess. - How long have you had your cat?: Not really applicable, but I know it was socialized while young, from its behaviour. - Is your cat spayed or neutered?: I am unsure. - What food do you use?: Currently, I'm trying out different foods or just using tinned tuna. - When was your last vet visit?: Not had one. - Is your cat indoors, outdoors, both?: It is a stray, so outdoors with the occasional raid of my dog's indoor food bowl. - How many pets in your household?: One, the dog. - How many litter boxes do you have?: None as of yet. I am an Australian, and the cat is about a 3 on the build chart and seems to have been socialized with dogs. It also seems to be mentally disturbed. Is there anything in particular I should be wary of with trying to tame an extremely paranoid, half-feral stray? Any special diseases or problems to look out for? Any tricks in general to get it used to coming onto the verandah but not into the house proper, and to wean it from gnawing on the poisonous plants growing in the garden? (it seems to find sport in doing it a little. They're not too dangerous, but it's better to be safe than sorry). Loomer fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Aug 17, 2009 |
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Aug 17, 2009 08:31
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 21:44 |
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Time for more questions and an update on the stray cat I found wandering around a couple of pages back. He seems like he's an adolescent now that I've had a couple of weeks to get him comfortable, just from how playful he is in conjunction with his size, and he also looks desexed (I'm not an expert, so I'll be having that checked once I can get him in a carrier without completely pissing him off, which should be sometime in the next two weeks.) However, he doesn't seem to have been taught not to use his claws while kneading (fortunately, when he actually dislikes something, he keeps them away and just bats unless you really won't stop. This is good, or I'd have no skin.) so does anyone have advice on that front? Similarly, I'm trying to get him and my very old, blind fox terrier accustomed to each other by holding the cat securely in my arms and stroking him while the dog sits on the other side of a screen door. It's working, but very slowly - does anyone have tips for speeding it up? Thirdly, what's the goon verdict on the Coles 'Complete Cuisine' brand catfood? It seems to have actual fish (one kind has both real fish chunks and ground tuna, but it doesn't say they're 'byproducts' or anything like that, and the other I'm using is pure fish/prawn bits in gelatin and seems a little lighter - more gelatin, but still about 85% fishbits) and only about .7% salt, so it does seem like, for a pretty cheap catfood, it's fairly decent. I tried Kit-E-Kat (a horrendous grey sludge. Not doing that again, poo poo was terrifying.) and Whiskas (some mince flavour. Again, grey sludge, but at least it wasn't a homogenous grey paste) briefly but neither seems as healthsome as the CCC. At the moment he isn't getting dry food since he spends a lot of his time hunting in the garden, but I'm planning to switch him over soon. He is, however, eating a lot of grass - daily, at minimum. Is this just because half his diet is lizards, insects and other things with indegistible bits, or something to worry about?
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Sep 1, 2009 10:06
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My cat - now quite hopelessly domesticated, so we gotta get him a collar and chip - got in a fight with the neighbour cat about a week ago, and won, but I thought of it today since I checked his one wound (had the very front sliced off one of his front feet's back toepads) and it was looking like it'd healed healthily. Any advice in general for looking after wounded cats? I gave it a good, careful wash in some sterilized water right after the fight, but since it wasn't vet grade (unless it got infected, of course) I didn't really know of much else to do. Is that the extent of it, giving it a clean out, or is there something else?
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Oct 7, 2009 15:49
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My found-cat has an unusual condition. The hair on his nose, for about a fingertip's length, comes and goes. It's white and stubbly when there and then the next day fades, fades to nothing over a couple, then returns for a few. What the hell is up with my cat's nose? He doesn't seem to be scratching at it or anything.
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Mar 17, 2010 03:10
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So, some of you may remember me finding a gorgeous tuxedo stray about 10 months ago. He's a very happy cat now - still demanding to be an outside cat in the afternoons, but slowly becoming tolerant of spending most of his time indoors, eating well, very healthy, bright eyed, and playful. The only problem is that he tends to lose his collars to fights (which, oddly, only seem to happen when he has one, bell or no bell.) and I'm not sure if he was microchipped. He most likely was - he was already desexed when we found him and did the paper collar bollocks, probably already had his jabs as well. Now this worries me - if he's injured and we don't find him before whoever does (say he gets hit by a car by someone decent enough to actually take him to a vet) he goes back to the folks who, near as we can tell, abused him and then abandoned him at ~6-8 months of age. Does anyone know how you go about getting the registry information of a microchip changed? This is NSW, Australia, but general info would help too since I'm operating blind here. I do have proof of care - he's been to the vet three times since we got him (got his collar caught in his mouth in a fight and a tiny little sharp corner cut it up, a general examination, and then a barely formed abscess at the base of his tail), so hopefully that'd be sufficient proof.
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May 17, 2010 17:02
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