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Sorry, this is going to be a bit long because there's a bit of history here, but basically I'm at a bit of an impasse when it comes to convincing two cats to co-exist and hoping someone has some advice that I haven't found by googling. I'll try and summarise as much as possible without leaving out anything important. A couple of months ago I adopted a then fourish-month-old kitten called Pepper. We also have another cat called Amber, who's 16 years old and little arthritic but generally in excellent health, still running around and jumping on things etc. Amber spent the first 15 years of her life being bullied by my childhood cat, who died peacefully aged 19 last year, so as you can imagine she's pretty wary of other cats. We knew that our mistake with the first two was probably that we didn't the faintest clue how to introduce cats (my excuse is that I was a child at the time), so this time I did a ton of reading up on introducing cats and we pretty much followed everything we were meant to do. Pepper has her own room and she lived in there mostly for about a week. We got Amber used to her smell and we let her see Pepper for short periods, we've had feliway in our main living room since we got her etc. Amber was at first extremely nervous but not aggressive at all. She basically ignored Pepper's existence whenever she could, even when Pepper was right in front of her. When we started letting them out together Amber was fine as long as Pepper ignored her, but would hiss at her to go away whenever Pepper bugged her. I took that as an okay sign, because Pepper has pretty good cat social skills. She's very circumspect about bothering Amber and always approaches her slowly and delicately, making little unthreatening chirping noises. If she's hissed at then she'll go away quietly and do something else for a while. Mostly she just wants to look at Amber from a safe distance. Pepper's not allowed outside but we have an enclosed back yard that Amber spends most of her time in during the day (Pepper hasn't worked out how to use the cat door yet and we've been actively trying to stop her from figuring it out). So Amber has a nice safe space that's her space that she can go if she really wants to not be bothered by the kitten. This has basically been our status quo for the last month and a half or so since we started letting Pepper run around the house whenever one of us is home. Amber would come inside in the evening and settle down on her favourite chair or whatever and Pepper would pretty much leave her alone while she slept. We figured that it might get better as Amber got more used to her presence but at least it wasn't too bad even as it was. Pepper's only going to be living in this house for the next twelve months or so until I move out, so as long as they can live together without murdering each other until then we're fine. Which leads me to our current problem. For the past few days Amber's been actually aggressive towards Pepper instead of just avoidant. Instead of just crouching and hissing and growling a little until Pepper went away, for the last two nights or so she's actively chased her a bit and given her a bit of a swat. I wasn't too worried about that because since then Pepper's been much better about coming to us for attention instead of bothering Amber for it so I figured they were working poo poo out for themselves. But tonight Amber was even more aggressive than the past couple of nights, culminating in her launching herself off a chair she was sitting on as Pepper walked towards it and landing on her and actually drawing blood. It's more or less the first time she's done anything to her without Pepper approaching her first with intent to bother. Pepper bled a fair bit while she was running around the house before I managed to get her into her room, but I've checked her all over and I can't even find where she was bleeding from, much less still see blood. I think Amber may have nicked her ear or somewhere else very shallow. I've had a very good prod of everywhere I can reach on Pepper and she doesn't seem to be in pain anywhere (she's a very good kitten who'll even let me handle her paws without complaining so that was easy). So I'm not worried about her from a health point of view, I'm just not sure of where to go from here. She's confined to her room for the night and I was thinking of keeping them separated for the next few days, but I also don't want to teach Amber that if she attacks Pepper then Pepper will go away for a few days. I should also mention that it's very, very difficult to motivate Amber with food. We've only very recently managed to find a treat that she actually likes that isn't as perishable as fresh chicken or something, and even then she won't go very far out of her way for it (or chicken for that matter). So any plan involving rewarding her with food for being near Pepper is unlikely to be successful. We've actually been trying that for the past week or so with the new treats and well, that doesn't seem to have done anything good. Is there anything we can try that I've been missing?
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May 7, 2013 15:28
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Have you been able to dedicate time to just playing with or petting Amber? Apart from the outdoor space, are there any other places that Amber can get to and Pepper can't? Is Pepper fixed yet? Pepper was fixed two days after I first brought her home. I do play with and pet Amber, usually outside in the mornings and then in the evenings when she comes in and especially after Pepper's been put to bed in her room for the night. I don't think she's hurting for attention because she's always been a pretty independent cat who likes being petted sometimes when she feels like it but otherwise wants to be left alone to do her thing. Which these days is usually sleeping all day. I can certainly make more of an effort to pay her special attention. There aren't any areas inside that Amber can get to that Pepper can't and I don't even know how we could make one since Amber's a very tiny cat and Pepper's basically her size already. She really does love being outside though, she's always spent most of her day lying in the sun. She also has a chair inside that's her favourite to lie on that angles such that Pepper can't see her and won't bother her if she's asleep on it (for some reason Pepper has no interest whatsoever in jumping on it). The trouble is that half the time we can't convince her to stay there and go to sleep. Eggplant Wizard posted:I mean, yeah, if she were food-motivated then trying to get her to associate Pepper with treats would help probably. Have you tried tuna or garbage fancy feast type stuff? Greenies? Cheese-flavored cat treats? How do they eat now? Scheduled feedings or free feedings? Same area or separate? Cheese flavoured cat treats are the treats I discovered the other week that we've been trying, since cheese is one of Amber's great loves. Cream cheese is actually her favourite but we currently use that to hide her hyperthyroidism tablet in and I don't want to use it for anything else in case it compromises her willingness to cooperate in eating her tablet inside it. It's the highlight of her day! She does like the treats but she'll still ignore them half the time. We currently feed them both dry food. Pepper's bowl is in her room and I give her some in the morning and some in the evening because we tried free feeding and she seems to just gobble down everything available to her instead of grazing. Amber gets free feeding except that these days that means her food is up out of reach of Pepper until Amber comes inside and then we sort of have to guard it so Pepper doesn't eat it. She mostly eats overnight while Pepper's in her room. It's not really ideal but I think it's better to have her associate coming inside with getting food than letting her eat outside. We do sometimes give her those little Whiskers packets as a treat so I could try getting her to associate that with the kitten more, it's just that I'm worried that A) it'll be hard to have her eat near Pepper without Pepper really bothering her for the food and B) she'll be really stressed out eating near her. We have been putting the wet food very close to the door to Pepper's room in the hopes of convincing her that being near the room is okay, that was part of our strategy right when we first brought the kitten home. I guess I'm also reluctant to use treats with her because it feels almost like it makes her more angry in a way. Like there have been times when she's been looking at Pepper fairly calmly so I've given her something nice and that seems to sort of upset the balance and make her get up and start growling. There's also the fact that she's gotten angrier in the week or so since I started giving her the cheese flavoured treats but I know correlation and causation aren't the same. It just feels less like I'm giving her a good association with Pepper and more like I'm giving her something to guard jealously from her or something. Or like it breaks her concentration while she eats it and then when she looks up she realises that Pepper's there all over again and gets angrier.
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May 7, 2013 17:06
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Okay, so here's a thing. Watch basically any episode of My Cat From Hell that features a multi-cat conflict and the guy will probably do this. Start feeding them at the same time. Get Amber used to eating at defined times. The way the dude on tv does it is he has people install a screen door in their house, and each cat eats on one side of it. Block it up with a cloth, then slowly raise the cloth until the cats can see each other. Another thing is to skip the cloth and simply have the bowls move closer and closer to each other over time. If they can eat near each other without incident, they'll have a direct positive association with one another's presence. It will take time. If you don't want to do a screen door (because seriously dude), a baby gate might work. You can do this with treats as well as meals sometimes, too. The idea is that they both have to feel protected from the other cat. Cat aggression is often fear-based, so Amber needs to feel safe or nothing will change. I'm Australian and we don't get that show here, but I might dig up an episode or two if I can. Thanks for the advice, that's definitely doable. We've got tons of vertical space in the house and Amber does indeed like to get high up to keep an eye on things. And yeah, it's taken this long for me to ask for advice because I thought it was probably just time. It's just been two months now and things seemed to be getting worse rather than better. I'm very, very aware that cats need to work things out themselves, because I think the fact that we used to yell at Blackie and Amber for fighting (really didn't have any information on introducing cats at the time) is most of what contributed to them hating each other for 15 years. That said, even though they hated each other they mostly just left each other alone and never drew blood, so it's hard to watch it happen now and think that everything has a chance of being okay if we just keep letting them work it out.
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May 8, 2013 01:41
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Should I be worried if my kitten's had diarrhoea for the last few days and it seems to be getting worse? A few days ago I noticed that while most of her poo poo was fine, some of it was soft and the ratio of okay to soft has been getting worse until today it was all pretty runny and disgusting. She's about 7 months old, spayed, eating fine, is just as active and friendly as usual and doesn't seem to be dehydrated if I pinch her skin (I've been putting extra water on her food just in case though). She's been eating the same brand of food for a couple of months now with no trouble past the transition period and I'm fairly certain she hasn't been eating anything else. Basically I don't want to take her to the vet if the vet's just going to charge me for the pleasure of telling me to wait it out, and she's not showing any signs that the internet tells me are serious (explosive diarrhoea, dehydration, changes in attitude etc) so I'm not sure how best to proceed.
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Jun 17, 2013 05:39
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Less-tiny kitten diarrhoea update: Woke up this morning to discover it had gotten to the almost entirely liquid stage and her kitten room was a disaster area, took her to the vet and got medicine to settle her stomach and that nice, bland science diet food (vet (and internet) suggested I give her chicken and rice but Pepper is one of those spoiled brat cats who doesn't understand what actual meat is, which is something I'm planning on working on later but now doesn't seem like the time to start on that). And the moral of the story is even though the kitten might be okay and would probably get over it by itself given time, go to the vet early or else you will have to pay for the vet AND spend a day cleaning kitten poo poo off everything in its room.
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Jun 18, 2013 07:03
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You can also have a friend hold them down at the shoulders so they can't reach their paws up for scratching while you tip the head back and chuck the pill in there. Hold the mouth closed until you see a tongue and obvious swallowing motion because some cats are champions at holding the tablet in there until you let go and they can spit it out. There's a bunch of tutorial videos on youtube if you search, that's where my household learned the technique.
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Jul 2, 2013 17:05
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crowtribe posted:2. Any cat toys we can get to exercise the single cat in the meantime? We've tried to find laser pointers at various stores, but Australian states have strict legislation on lasers, and they're difficult to find at the best of times due to this. We're still on the hunt for them in the meantime if anyone knows of anywhere in Perth, Western Australia. I do, in fact! If you're anywhere near Morley, there's a crappy electronic stuff shop in Coventry Square that has them. I've had exactly your problem and spent ages looking both online and on the ground and it's the only place I found to have just plain little laser pointers rather than things designed for professional powerpoint presentations. The other toy that's worked wonders for my kitten is knotting up a drinking straw and tying it to the end of a string (and the string onto a stick or something for the sake of your wrist). She goes absolutely nuts for it like nothing else I've ever seen and as a bonus will still play with the straw by herself when I stop playing with her.
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Jul 5, 2013 02:07
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Cameron posted:I'm looking for a cat recommendation. I want a cat that's very low energy, quiet, and likes to nap and be touched and pet. I would prefer short hair cats as well. Some that I have been clued into are British Shorthairs and Scottish Folds. Are there any other breeds I should look into? Cats aren't like dogs where some breeds are practically different species and it's normal to go looking for a certain breed or cross from the beginning. Unless you have a very specific desire to have a particular breed you'll be much better off just going to a shelter and getting whichever cat seems like a good fit from there. If you want a low energy, quiet cat then you'll be wanting to adopt an adult cat rather than a kitten, which also means you'll know their temperament better and can get one that loves a lot of attention and petting.
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Jul 7, 2013 01:28
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Stemmler posted:For the most part he has been well behaved for a kitten. The one behavior we want to try to stop is him jumping up on the tables and counters. He's not big enough to get to the counter yet but can get on the chair then to the table. I've been doing the vacuum cleaner trick with my kitten since it's the only thing that genuinely bothers her. Leave the vacuum switched on nearby the table/counter you want to discourage him from jumping on, plug it in near where you're going to be for the next while and leave it switched off at the plug. Then switch it on at the plug when he jumps up. That way he doesn't associate the scary noise with anything but jumping up where he's not meant to be. Doesn't work quite as well as it does for stopping cats scratching on bedroom doors since you have to stay in the area with the plug, but it's still pretty good. That said, I'd suggest giving up on most tables and counters in your house and really just focusing on the kitchen and anywhere that has stuff that the cat might actually knock down or something. Cats just really love jumping up on things and if you don't have enough things for them to jump up on then they'll jump on whatever they can find.
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Jul 10, 2013 01:47
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Turtlicious posted:I read the OP and I'm just asking for more info, so I know I'm making the right choice. I was also thinking of buying those soft claw things, but is that bad for kittens? Also my grams cat used to sleep in my bed, is that an ok spot for a cat? Or should I get them a cat bed? How do I know what scratching post they'll like? It sounds to me like you're worrying too much. Which is better than worrying too little, but still. Cats will sleep where they like and you can get a cat bed if you want but every cat I've ever known has had a new favourite sleeping place every few months, mostly not in places I ever thought they'd want to sleep. I don't know about soft paws and kittens but I'd say there wouldn't be much point in getting them for a kitten because you could be teaching the cat not to scratch in unwanted places instead (cover them in cling film or aluminium foil, or if you end up with a very accomodating cat just take it to its scratching post every time you see it scratching something it shouldn't). You'll know what sort of scratching post it'll like because it will either like what you give it or it won't in which case you should try something else. Some cats are fussy about various things in their lives but most cats aren't really, especially if you start them out with something as a kitten. Just try out whatever re: scratching, litter boxes, food, water and anything else and if the cat doesn't like it then worry about changing it. Also, cats make excellent working-from-home company. Just try to make sure you have something tempting for your cat to sleep in that's close enough to the computer for petting but far away enough that it's not actively impeding you. And don't worry too much if it's intimidated by you and your home for a while, it's just getting used to the new, big, unfamiliar place.
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Jul 16, 2013 07:04
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Rabbit Hill posted:Back with another question: If it sounds like he's coughing up a hairball but nothing's coming out then it could also be an asthma attack. My older cat's had intermittent ones for about a year now and it took me a few before I realised that's what was going on. In her case I can actually hear the difference between her retching and wheezing now that I know that there's something to listen out for, but it does sound a whole lot like trying to throw up. If I hadn't spent the last 15 years hearing her throw up I sure wouldn't know the difference. I guess that doesn't really help you that much since you won't know what him actually throwing up sounds like, but maybe try phoning the shelter and asking if the cat has a history of asthma? Otherwise yeah, I'd say it's vet time.
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Aug 8, 2013 15:26
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Blinks posted:Questions about introducing cats. Isolate the kitten in whatever room you don't mind spending time inside and which won't be too hard to clean up potentially. You absolutely should keep him company whenever you can, even if he's terrified and just wants to hide for a while you can still just exist in the room with him and get him used to your presence without pushing him to interact. Don't keep him in a crate because the idea is to get your other cat used to the presence of a new cat without even having to see the new cat for a while. When you want to introduce them face to face then the crate might be a good idea.
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Aug 27, 2013 04:42
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Fruity Gordo posted:I went to my vet to look for stuff the other day and they didn't have Feliway (I'm in Australia) and the pheromone things they had in stock were made in China so I want to google the brands the have before I buy them because I'm wicked paranoid about chemicals with overseas provenance. I'm also in Australia and I get my Feliway from here. Costs 2/3 of what it does at the vet and for some reason it seems to last longer too.
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Sep 1, 2013 03:10
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Since we're talking cheap cat toys: get a straw and knot it a couple of times. If you want to get really fancy then tie it onto a string. My kitten who gets bored with all toys within a couple of days still goes nuts for it months down the track.
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Sep 2, 2013 03:03
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If you've got a cat who gets freaked out by the pointer disappearing you could also try finishing the play session by giving them a treat or letting them play with something they can catch. Then they still get the "Yay, I caught something!" satisfaction after all their hard work and you still don't have to get off the couch for most of the afternoon.
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Sep 4, 2013 02:46
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Grab Meatcastle posted:I read the whole FAQ and while there's a lot of stuff there about litter boxes and spraying, I couldn't see anything about relocating/removing a litterbox. You're right that they still think it's a place for making GBS threads. Try moving the litter box back to where they think it should be, and then slowly moving it to where you want it a little bit each day. That way they'll hopefully get used to the change as their mental map of appropriate making GBS threads places adjusts.
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Sep 5, 2013 03:22
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Grab Meatcastle posted:I've seen this suggested but I'm not sure how its going to work with the fact I would have to somehow gradually get it down a flight of stairs. The last thing I want is to have to precariously balance a box of cat poo poo on the stairs for x days, and if I get it over to the top of the stairs then the next movement is all the way to the bottom of the stairs I have this horrible concern that these two fluffy assholes are just going to start crapping at the top of the stairs instead. Good point, stairs are tricky. If I were you I'd try getting the cats to watch you move the litter box from the top of the stairs to the bottom and actually picking them up and showing them that the litter box is not at the top of the stairs and in fact is now at the bottom of the stairs. Good luck not stepping in cat crap at the top or bottom of the stairs, either way.
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Sep 5, 2013 08:05
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Canadian Bakin posted:Can anyone offer a possible explanation as to why my boy cat follows me into my kitchen and starts to meep, rub against my legs and flop around on the floor? He shows no interest in people food or beverages, other than to demand a sniff of whatever I am serving myself, and treats are only served at the cat tree. Am I missing some message here? Your cat is a cat and is working as intended.
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Sep 13, 2013 05:46
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PFlats posted:I have a great cat, Sherman, that I rescued years ago, who's always been a big of a pugilist. It's okay; he's from the streets like me. He's my bro. What worked to keep our cat from scratching the brand new carpet was to put her scratching post down horizontally on the actual carpet. Now she goes goes to that when she feels like scratching. Of course, this has the obvious disadvantage of having a scratching post sitting in the middle of the living room all the time, but at least we can put it away when we have people over so they don't know how much she owns us. A scratching pad that's designed to be horizontal would probably work just as well and be less of an eyesore. That said, we never tried covering the rug in tinfoil or anything so I guess that could work.
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Sep 14, 2013 05:57
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Bananaquiter posted:I work at a rescue, and someone wanted to adopt a cat but was disgusted by the idea of having litter boxes in their house so always in the past let their cats potty outside. We had inside/outside cats when I was growing up and never had a litter box until we decided to start keeping them in at night, maybe 10 years after getting the second one. They basically never used it, it was just there in case they did. I don't see a problem with not having one inside, especially if they put one outside in a covered area to save the cats from ever having to get their paws wet ever. I certainly wouldn't have thought it'd be a dealbreaker for adopting out cats, but maybe my idea of how many cats get adopted vs put down is skewed.
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Sep 17, 2013 16:25
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Zenzirouj posted:I only caught him once or twice when he was young, but are you really telling me that catching him doing something and immediately punishing him for it will have little/no effect? If so then cats are even worse than I thought. I'm no cat psychology expert so I could be wrong about this, but from what I've read cats don't respond to "discipline" or "punishment" in the same way that dogs do and the way you seem to be expecting. If you get angry at a cat and the cat knows you're angry at it, it'll go "Oh, Zenzirouj is angry and doing things I don't like to me again, I'll just wait until they stop that and go on with my life" rather than wanting to please you or prevent you from being angry. It might, at best, decide not to do the thing while you're there and watching and try to do it when you're not watching. For example, when my kitten used to jump on the bookshelf where she wasn't allowed then yelling at her would make her jump down but it wouldn't stop her jumping back up again as soon as she felt like it. What cats are VERY good at is deciding that they don't want to do something ever again if that thing itself turns out to be unpleasant. The trick is that you have to make the thing they're doing unpleasant in itself or trick them into thinking that it was the thing which was unpleasant. It can't come from you directly. For example, the way I stopped my kitten from jumping on the bookshelf permanently was to put the vacuum cleaner nearby and switch it on from a distance whenever she jumped on the bookshelf. She did it twice and she has never done it again since because the vacuum cleaner terrifies her and apparently jumping on the bookshelf will invoke the awful scary noise. So basically your best bet is to get a bit creative with things that he hates and connecting them to peeing on the bed (or jumping on the bed at all, if that's easier). Cats like peeing on soft things, you could also try putting a board or some other hard surface on top of your bed while you're not in it.
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Sep 24, 2013 16:51
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Are grain-free cat foods really better than foods with grains in if it looks like they've just replaced corn with pumpkin or something? I've been noticing more grain-free dry foods popping up around the place here and thinking of switching to one, but it seems to me like they don't actually have any more meat content than the ones that have grains in them. I was under the impression that cats didn't do so well at processing anything other than meat, in which case it wouldn't really matter what else is in there with it to bulk up the product or whatever they're using it for. I guess what I'm asking is whether cats get more out of eating pumpkin etc than corn etc or whether it's just a fad thing that sounds good on paper.
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Sep 27, 2013 15:49
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JustJeff88 posted:I've heard and read a lot about the grain-free thing and I take it very seriously. I feed my cats Wellness CORE Kitten No-Grain, both wet and dry, and I keep a packet of both wet and dry treats for them that are grain-free as well (Blue Buffalo & Authority Dental) even though that's a tiny portion of their diet. As I understand it, cat physiology just can't properly digest corn, soy and the like and, while it fills a cat up and makes her feel satisfied, it doesn't really provide proper nutrition. As I understand it, cats need protein, protein, and more protein with a touch of fat and a bit of Taurine, of which Wellness has a lot. To put forth the best metaphor I can conjure, it's like a human eating a lot of junk food - it will sustain the body and keep you going, but it's not giving you what you truly need to thrive. That said, food like Wellness is proper expensive and, while it's no problem to keep it stocked for my two little furballs, I have to give the cheap stuff to the ferals that live near my building - I just can't afford to give them the top-shelf stuff when they eat 16 pounds a week as a group. I am looking forward to my kittens getting old enough for adult food so I can switch to Wellness adults brands as those can be bought in 12-pound bags for a much better price. I understand the whole thing about cats needing mostly protein, but "grain free" doesn't actually seem to mean "more protein" when the "grain" part has just been replaced with another vegetable not known for being full of protein. I don't know about the USA, but cat foods here in Australia all have labels that specify the percentage protein, fat etc content of the food. When I've checked, the "grain free" foods seem to have exactly the same percentage protein as the ones that have grains, usually around 30-38%. They're still full of vegetable, it's just that it's pumpkin or tapioca or whatever instead of corn. What I want to know is if there's an actual nutritional difference depending on the part of the food that isn't protein/fat/essential vitamins.
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Sep 27, 2013 17:54
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Esmerelda posted:Have you checked out the Nutrition Thread yet? It might have the answer you're after. I didn't realise there was a new one after the last one was archived, thanks for the link.
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Sep 28, 2013 04:15
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Bad Mitten posted:So, I think it's going well? I'm not really sure what to do next though. I really, really want this to go well. After the situation with Maggie I don't think we could handle another cat Cold War. I guess I'm not setting my heart on having them be bffs but tolerance would be fantastic. Any advice? Suggestions? Thanks for letting me vent my insecurities. Sounds like it's going fantastically to me! We've got an older cat who tolerates but dislikes our kitten and it took ages to get them to eat that close (we've had the kitten for abour 6 months now). There also would have been fireworks if the kitten had dared to touch the older cat. But in general they live pretty well together with a minimum of fuss and stress. So if yours are already acting like you describe then I'm sure things are going to be just fine.
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Sep 29, 2013 03:12
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My old-grumpy-cat-and-kitten-who-only-wants-to-love-her household has been doing pretty well lately. The older cat (Amber) has been much less aggressive to the kitten (Pepper) and Pepper has been much better about not annoying Amber unnecessarily. Amber still dislikes her, but definitely tolerates her a lot better. Feeding them on opposite sides of a door/baby gate etc has been coming along nicely too and we've recently started feeding them a metre or so apart without any barriers at all. The remaining problem is that we feed them at about 6pm every night, but at somewhere between 4:30 - 5:30 most nights Amber decides it's dinner time already and starts getting very excited and talking and following us around, especially if anyone goes anywhere near the kitchen. That's all normal and fine, but she also gets quite aggressive towards Pepper when this is happening. Nothing really serious, but she will chase her down from across the house to hiss at her and swat at her a bit, and it's led to Pepper being very tentative about doing anything around that time. My current strategy is to pick Amber up and shut her in a bedroom whenever I notice her doing it, just to separate them and give her time to calm down a bit and also not let her form a direct association between going after Pepper and getting her nice food. She does cry a bit and scratch at the door a lot but does actually seem calmer and less aggressive when I let her out. Does that sound like a reasonable thing to do? Are there any strategies I'm missing that might help? Am I awful for putting her in a small room when she's completely convinced that we're obviously eating all the delicious food ourselves on the other side of it?
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Oct 4, 2013 08:19
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Pendergast posted:I just woke up about tweenty minutes ago from my cat making this horrible sound. A very distressed and loud meow, like she was in pain. She was in our back bedroom, which is full of stuff and she kept making the same horrible sound. Or other cat was nowhere near her at the time. I have never heard her make this noise before and she is over 12 years old. She was near a window so I don't know if she could have seen something, but she's never acted that way toward any animal, even other cats. I think this is just a thing that happens with some cats when they get older. I've had two older cats and sometimes they've both woken up crying and distressed when they can't immediately see a person. They calm down quickly if you go say hello and pet them a bit and reassure them. I always thought they'd had a nightmare or something, but it definitely has to do with being old and confused rather than in pain, at least in their case. Generally cats who are actually in pain tend to hide it and try to act as normal as possible rather than crying. That said, nothing wrong with taking the cat to a vet to be sure the first time but just don't be surprised if it keeps happening and there's nothing wrong.
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Oct 8, 2013 16:14
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Hummingbirds posted:Is immediately putting my cat inside when she jumps up on the railing of my porch the best way to teach her not to do it? The best way to teach her not to do it is to make the act of doing it unpleasant in itself. Put something that feels bad to land on like aluminium foil or find a sound that she hates and make that sound happen when she jumps up (but the less connected to you, the better). If she's a very obedient cat then punishing her might work but more likely it'll have no effect or at best she'll just do it while you're not around. That said, if there's something really tempting on the other side of the railing then you're probably never going to convince her not to do it.
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Oct 11, 2013 11:01
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DM Zero posted:My wife and I are considering getting 2 ragdolls - has anyone ever owned a pair of these and can discuss their general behavior? Obviously they have a reputation as being extremely friendly and docile, but does that by extension tend to make them lazy? We want cats that are laid back, but will still play and chase/kill bugs, chase a laser pointer, etc. I'm absolutely not one of those "YOU MUST GET A SHELTER CAT" people and if you've got your heart set on getting purebred cats then please ignore me and absolutely get purebred cats, but since you seem to be deciding on cats based on temperament and coat length rather than wanting a specific breed I thought I'd mention that cats aren't really like dogs when it comes to different breeds. There's much less differentiation and (as you can see from the post above about a ragdoll that won't go floppy when picked up) breed is not the be-all and end-all of temperament. If you're not specifically after a purebred cat and just want a fluffy, friendly cat, you'd do just as well to look at young adult cats at a shelter and pick a couple who get on well and are known to be docile and friendly. It's especially easy to find Maine Coon-looking cats and it's much, much cheaper than getting an "actual" Maine Coon. I think they're also less likely to have health problems, so they're easier from that point of view too.
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Oct 12, 2013 06:47
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Shnooks posted:Our old cat always was kind of rambunctious at night, but ever since we got our new cat it's even worse. He wails all night and then around 4am he starts eating poo poo he's not supposed to, banging on our miniblinds, or knocking poo poo off my dresser. We tried ignoring it but he starts getting seriously destructive. If we lock him out, he scratches at the door and leaves scratch marks. We tried a spray bottle but it doesn't even bother him anymore. We feed him at 7am every morning, 4:00am is too drat early. Is he scared of the noise of the vacuum cleaner? If so: shut him out of the room, put the vacuum near the door switched to "on", plug it in next to your bed and turn the power off at the plug. When he scratches and yells at night, flick the plug on briefly so the vacuum turns on for a bit without you even having to get out of bed. Repeat until he stops. If he isn't then you could try work out a similar set up with a noise he does hate (I've had luck with simply making a loud angry-cat-hissing noise before) or try shutting him in a different room at night that doesn't have things he can destroy and is far away enough that yowling won't wake you up. Also, do you feed him as soon as you get up? It might help if you start only feeding him after you've gone about your own breakfast/shower/dressing/whatever routine so he associates getting food with that happening rather than with you getting up specifically.
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Oct 16, 2013 12:50
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Has anyone had a cat just seemingly forget how to do something really simple all of a sudden? I keep our younger cat confined to a room overnight which she's always been cool with because it's the room she stayed in as a new kitten and it's her lair and she's a bit of an anxious creature who likes being in a nice safe space overnight. In the room, amongst some other furniture, there's a desk next to the window and a bed next to the desk. She likes lying on the desk to sleep, but for the past few days when I've gone to let her out in the morning she's been acting like she's forgotten how to get down from it. She just stands on it and cries at me and occasionally peers down from it until eventually she very gingerly steps down onto the bed, at which point the spell is apparently broken and she bounces out of the room perfectly normally. My first thought was that something was sore, but she's perfectly happy and healthy otherwise and runs around and jumps up and down every other thing in the house with no signs of reluctance whatsoever. She's about a year old and I've had her for about 9 months so it's not like she hasn't spent months jumping down from this desk without any problems. In fact it's not even a very high desk and she'd be perfectly capable of jumping straight from it to the ground if she chose to. Could something have spooked her or is she just being particularly stupid? And should I like take her and put her on the desk a few times to show her nothing bad will happen if she jumps down?
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Nov 17, 2013 09:33
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Blinks posted:I always thought this meant that the cat didn't like it's food. I have changed brands about 6 times now and now we are back to the first brand we were on, it always seems to happen when the cats get bored of the same food after a while. If cats don't like food they just won't eat it. As far as I'm aware it does have to do with not wanting to leave food in the open so that bigger predators can find it etc.
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Nov 17, 2013 14:09
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Lofty132 posted:She is 8 months old, we have two cats. The other is 3 years old. Dolly is being a pain when she goes out. The older cat makes short trips on the yard wall before coming back, Dolly is capable of scaling the wall yet routinely ends up in a neighbours yard and won't return, crying until she can see one of us. We give the cats treats when they return and the older one comes back immediately when she hears the box of treats being shaken. Dolly is not taken in by such a ruse. The problem is she causes so much aggro in the house if she isn't let outside for a little while it seems cruel to keep her in, but her behaviour is becoming a problem. If it were me I'd just keep her inside and give her lots of love and treats and play with her a lot until she got used to being inside. It's not cruel to keep a cat inside in theory, especially if they're young enough to get used to it. That said, if you want to let her out a bit but don't want her escaping, you can let her out on a harness for a while. Then she can still run around and sniff things and chase stuff, but she can't get out of your sight.
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Nov 27, 2013 05:23
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Is it worth getting my cat shaved for summer? Any time it gets over about 30 C she starts moping about the heat (in fact it isn't even that today, it's just humid) and our summers can go easily over 40 C when they get going. She's not really a long-haired cat though, just a bit fluffy, so I'm not sure if shaving her will actually do much for her except make her look stupid. My previous cat had much longer fur and didn't seem nearly as bothered by the heat as Pepper is. Here are pictures of her trying to melt into the floor to give a better idea of what I mean about her fur:  
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Dec 7, 2013 07:32
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Goodpancakes posted:You could get her an old porcelain sink (whatever is cheap) and keep that somewhere shady. The poor conductivity of the sink will make sure its a cool spot for the cat to chill. That's a pretty good idea if shaving won't help. She has a wooden bowl that she likes to lie in and I've seen her find another couple of cool places on very hot days so she is reasonably good at finding places to not overheat if necessary, but more and cooler can't hurt. It's just that if having less fur would make her more comfortable I'd rather do that. Her normal schedule is chasing butterflies (and catching and eating them) all morning before having a snooze in the afternoon and if it's too hot for her to do that she ends up with too much energy come evening. For example, she's being a total dickhead right now since it's cooled down a bit and she basically didn't move all day. So anything that'll make it easier for her to work off young cat energy (she's just over a year old) during the day is a plus for me.
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Dec 7, 2013 11:51
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Cythereal posted:Florida goon with a long-haired cat here. Tile floors and the porcelain sink and bathtub are where my cat loves to laze around during the summer months - those materials are well insulated and stay cool even during the height of summer. However, my cat is an indoor cat and by the butterfly comment it sounds like your cat is mainly outdoors. Outdoor cats are a very bad idea in general, as far as I'm concerned, and my cat, who's a long-hair of indeterminate breed, usually avoids the screened-in porch during the summer. Actually, she only has access to a pretty well cat-proofed backyard in terms of outdoors. She's out there a lot when it's not too hot for her because it's full of interesting things but when it's hot she's inside moping all day. She's capable of finding coolish places to sleep indoors, I'd just prefer her being more comfortable in general rather than melting into the floor. I wouldn't mind so much if she was a bit older and more prone to sleeping all day but as is she gets really antsy as soon as it starts cooling down because she hasn't done anything all day.
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Dec 7, 2013 17:46
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Cythereal posted:I had my cat shaved one summer to see if it made any difference, and he's much fluffier than yours. It didn't seem to make much of a difference. It usually gets over 100 F here during the summer, about the temperatures you're reporting, and my cat is indeed very lethargic when it's that hot out and usually retreats indoors. Shaving your cat likely would help a little, but in my experience cats don't like to be active when it's that hot out. My cat usually gets more active in the evenings during the summer. Thanks, that's good to know. I guess I'll just try and make things as comfortable indoors as I can for her. By the way, I don't remember who it was who recommended getting our cats to eat together as a way of getting the older cat (Amber) to hate the younger cat (Pepper) less, but we have been doing that and it really has worked wonders. We started on opposite sides of a door and went to a babygate-like-thing and now they eat about a metre apart without anything between them at all. Amber does still dislike Pepper and I don't think that will ever change but she doesn't chase her anymore, she just leaves her alone unless Pepper actively bothers her. And Pepper doesn't bother her so much except for testing whether Amber wants to be her friend yet every few weeks or so. It's definitely a much more peaceful household in general.
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Dec 8, 2013 03:26
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Rah posted:Poor Pepper Our previous cat bullied Amber for 14 years until the day she died (not too much information on introducing cats properly on the internet in 1998) so as far as Amber's concerned nothing good ever comes from other cats. Honestly we're just glad that she's content to leave Pepper alone and isn't continuing the bullying cycle. It is still pretty cute though watching Pepper follow her around at a safe distance and try to play with her and imitate her. Hopefully next year I'll be moving out to somewhere where Pepper can have a proper animal friend who actually likes her.
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Dec 8, 2013 12:24
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All she wants is a friend and Amber is so mean to her
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Daily Forecast posted:So we got a second cat. Wasn't much our choice, but now he's ours. His name is Theodore and he is extremely sweet. He even seems to be okay with our resident cat, Jasper. I'm no expert but I have just been through a process of introducing a new young cat to an old cat who loving hates other cats so here are my thoughts: There's nothing wrong with separating them even though they've met already if you still wanted to go the long and cautious route to introducing two cats. Just because they've seen each other, doesn't mean they couldn't benefit from being separated and only having to deal with each others' presence in limited circumstances. I guess what you do have is a better idea of how comfortable they both are with things. Is Theodore comfortable in a big new environment? If he seems nervous about things it might be better to let him get used to just one room for a while, but if he seems fine then it doesn't matter too much. Honestly that reaction does sound really mild though. Our old lady cat refused to acknowledge the presence of the younger one until she had no choice and then it was growling and swiping if the younger one got anywhere near her. At first she was reluctant even to walk past her in the same room without a ton of growling. So sniffing and hissing and running away really is pretty good going. The thing that was the most help in getting our two cats to coexist peacefully was to convince them to eat delicious wet food together and therefore associate each other with delicious nice things. First we had them on opposite sides of a closed door that has a bit of a gap from the bottom and we had to have their bowls quite far apart before old cat could be convinced that it was okay to eat her food. We moved the bowls closer and then went to a babygate-style barrier so they could see each other and now they eat perfectly happily less than a metre apart with no barrier between them at all. I should note that the process above took months to reach the point they're now at, but also that our old lady cat is pretty far down the scale of hating and fearing other animals. I doubt it'll take months for your two to get along better. I also wouldn't be too concerned about having them actually like each other though. If they can exist peacefully without either of them seeming stressed then that's enough, I guess unless you've got your heart set on the first cat having a playmate.
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Dec 11, 2013 11:14
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 20:47 |
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TheMirage posted:The first time she took it off she started licking around the area. The area was shaved so I think she's just itchy. When she was in the area she definitely licked the wound a bit. I'm afraid she might keep at it when she's alone. You should be able to buy something to put on the area to make it taste bitter and awful. That seems to be the method of choice for my local vet rather than a cone of shame and it works wonders. It only lasts for a few days at a time but for all but the dumbest cats a few days is long enough for them to associate licking the stitches with terrible tasting poo poo.
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Dec 12, 2013 15:21
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