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Hey peeps, my boyfriend and I have adopted two adult cats recently from some friends who are moving away. Meet Hector: And Pedro:  The cats are about 5 years old and have settled in well to their new home - we've had no toilet or eating problems and they seem to love roaming around and exploring. Anyway, I have a couple of quick questions! They have always been able to walk around on kitchen countertops in their old home, and they have done it quite a lot here. Their litterbox and food is in the big open-plan kitchen/diner that we have, and that is where we keep them overnight so they don't bother us. What are the chances of being able to train them out of walking on countertops, or stop them doing it somehow? Is it just a matter of trying out all the tricks (sticky tape, pans of water, those sprays that smell bad to them etc.) or are we unlikely to stop this behaviour since they've done it all their lives? They are both particularly partial to drinking water out of taps and will leap up whenever we run one. Also, they came with a bunch of wood based pellet litter which they are very used to. Their old owners said that of all the different litters they tried, this was the only one acceptable to Pedro, the fussy cat of the two  Is there likely to be a drama if we try and change brands (their usual brand isn't our nearest supermarket), or just type?
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Jul 16, 2012 18:22
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Thanks Hayden - the cats have always shared one box apparently and we've had no problems since they've been with us, but I'd always heard that they would need three. I guess we can try out a new litter in one box while keeping the other the same, see if they will use both. Will we have to train them particularly to use another box? I'd imagine it would be best to have another litterbox in a different area of the house, but I'm wondering whether they will actually realise to use it? The water fountain is an excellent idea too! I have a feeling our house may have more cat goodies than human furniture before too long
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Jul 16, 2012 18:48
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Ugh pee problems  We adopted our kitties from friends about 3 months ago and took their advice about what worked for them litter-box wise. One covered box between the two, scooped every day (their old owners said they scooped every other day with no problems, but ew). We kept using the same litter and didn't seem to have any problems - until this week when I notice that one of the cats has been using a couple of my bags and a bunch of paperwork as an impromptu litter tray! I've no idea how long for, I can't imagine more than a week. I can't believe we didn't notice though! It's directly under the dining room table, but we hadn't noticed any additional smells to the almighty poops one of our kitty does in the actual litter tray (in the same room). I only caught a whiff of ammonia when I bent down right underneath the table to get my bag and brought it up sopping wet. Gah. I've cleaned it all up, thrown everything the pee touched away and scrubbed it with some antibacterial cleaner - it's a tile floor so no carpet for the pee to soak into fortunately. We're planning on getting another litter box this weekend and keeping an eye on our cats. Is there anything else we should do??
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Oct 13, 2012 11:45
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I have a kitty behaviour question! We have two cats around 5 years old, both have always been indoor cats and we've been happy to keep them that way. However Hector has 'escaped' a couple of times since we adopted them last summer. Once for a few hours (we were out having a BBQ and didn't notice he'd sneaked through an open window) and once for just a minute or two after he legged it out the front door while we were carrying boxes in. We immediately chased him down and brought him back in but he was happy to go off wandering and exploring. Ever since his second escape, Hector has been meowing pitifully at the front door and scratching at it. I don't want to start any kind of 'should cats play outside' argument, but I just want a bit of reassurance that we're not bad cat-parents for keeping him indoors  Our decision to keep them indoor cats is based on us not having a catflap (we're renting) so they couldn't get in and out easily if we're not home, plus there's lots of other cats around and we're near quite busy roads and we don't want them getting hurt!
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Feb 9, 2013 12:00
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It's a fairly large house with plenty of places for him to explore, we do try and play with him regularly but he seems scared of the teaser style toys we mainly use with our other cat! Goes wild for the laser pen though We have considered a cat harness and some supervised outdoor time, I'm just imagining the hilariousness of trying to get him to actually wear it! Might be worth a try though
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Feb 9, 2013 14:49
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Talking of cat hair, anyone have any tips for ridding my entire wardrobe of cat hair D: Most of my work clothes are black/grey/blue or other dark colours, and I CONSTANTLY look like I've just rolled around on the floor with 10 cats, even if they are straight off the drying rack. My winter coat is especially bad, as it's a thick duffle style coat and it is SO hard to get cat hair off that fabric. I have a couple of those sticky roller devices which get the worst of it off my clothes, but wondering if anyone had come across any better solutions, short of shaving my cats or dying them black...
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Feb 24, 2013 16:14
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Eggplant Wizard posted:
Alpha Kenny Juan posted:Pretty much this with a but: If you keep your car clean take a roller with you and roll yourself before driving, or after, or in the office, or whereever. If it's a big deal, you'll do it. If it's not a big deal you'll submit to it like I did. drat. I have to look presentable in work so I think I'll just take to having a roller in my bag. I'll need to attack the coat with sellotape I think, the roller does nothing to it! I swear my cat rubs himself all over my drat coat on purpose.
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Feb 24, 2013 18:46
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I'm looking for some advice/tips on cat 'dieting'. We have two cats, one being slender and small and an appropriate weight (Hector), the other being a giant greedy fluff-fest (Pedro). Our vet says that he needs to get down from ~6kg to ~4.5kg. Any advice on how to go about reducing the amount our fluff-monster eats while making sure the other cat has enough food?? At the moment we put dry food down in the morning (equivalent to a bit less than what 2 normal, healthy adult cats should eat per day according to the pack) and they each get one pouch of wet food in the afternoon/evening when we get back from work. Pedro is the cat always nagging us for food, and he'll usually go to town when we put it down, although they'll both mostly eat at the same time. He does sometimes try and bully Hector away from the food. I'm just really not sure the best way to go about this, whether we should be aiming to get Pedro eating less somehow, or switching him to lighter food (while somehow making sure he doesn't eat Hector's food...)
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Mar 10, 2013 12:02
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I need some advice for attempting to train the meow out of my cat. He likes to start meowing for food about 2 hours before his usual feeding time. For the afternoon feed (around 4.30pm) this is usually just when we get home from work, so it's not a problem. If he meows to the empty house then he's more derp than I thought... If we are in, we just ignore him and feed him at the usual time anyway. Annoying but bearable, although it doesn't seem to have stopped him trying. However, we also feed before we leave for work, usually around 7-7.15am. The last few days he's taken to starting to meow at around 5am!! Not good kitty, not good. The last two nights I've got out of bed, walked down to the kitchen/diner, and then shut him in when he inevitably follows me. I feel bad but I need my sleep and there's no way I'm feeding him at 5am. Apart from ignoring him and hoping he learns we'll never feed him before 7, or possibly getting a timed feeder, is there any other way to get him to stop meowing so much? We've had him for about a year and he STILL meows for his afternoon feed early so I'm doubting his learning ability. We are trying to be proactive with him and play with him etc. before he starts meowing for attention.
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May 27, 2013 10:48
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Timed feeder is your best bet. Otherwise, stop feeding him right when you get up and make sure you get dressed and shower etc before you feed him. That way maybe he'll associate your getting up less closely with food and tie it to a shower instead. That being said, get a timed feeder instead and/or shut him out of your room at night. We shut both our kitties out of our bedroom at night, but he has a LOUD meow and scratches at the door if he can't get in to meow in our faces. Same difference really, it still wakes us up! We do try and leave feeding for as long as possible before we get out of the house, but we're both quick in the morning so it's a max of 30 minutes usually. He doesn't wait until we get up or go downstairs to start hassling us, it's while we're still sleeping! A timed feeder does sound like a good idea for the mornings at least, the only issue with it is that loud kitty is on a diet, whereas our other cat isn't. There'd be no way of making sure that he ate the lighter food in the mornings and didn't try and gobble up the other stuff. Then again I suppose we could feed him regular food in the morning and light food at night.
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May 27, 2013 12:54
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Ahahaha genius, I can just imagine Fatty McFluffpants* trying desperately to get his head into a tiny opening to get at food... he is not only a bit podgy but overall much larger than our other cat so that could work! *not his real name
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May 27, 2013 13:22
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We've just started letting our cats outdoors to explore - only while we are home, as we don't have a catflap and don't really want to leave windows open or have them shut outside. Anyway, so far they haven't explored too far, just our garden and the neighbouring couple (we are in a terrace) and have been relatively easily wrangled back in. We've been timing our letting them out with food time, so they'll have been out for a couple of hours before feeding. Any tips for training them to come back in the evenings apart from putting food down at certain times and hoping they're hungry?? We kind of want to be able to shut the doors and lock up at around 8-9pm and be certain they are in and safe.
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Jul 14, 2013 20:14
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Any tips on how to get a cat to wear a collar? One of our cats seems to have found the trick of getting his off, one of the ones with a safety snap. He's now hidden two somewhere in the house... On a related note, one of our two cats recently escaped from the house and was missing for three weeks before being found a few miles away. We had been letting them out into the back garden when we are around (we can't have a cat flap because we rent) but he had escaped through the front door somehow (we think when our landlords came round) and disappeared. We're not sure about letting him back out again, to be honest he hasn't shown much interest in going out but I'm just worried he won't come back again!! Do we just need to suck it up? It just makes life difficult when we are letting one cat out and not the other.
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Aug 7, 2013 18:11
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Hi all, does anyone have recommendations for a super sturdy timed feeder available in the UK? One of my cats (Pedro) meows like crazy near to feed times (when I say near, I mean sometimes up to 2 hours before scheduled feed time). This is annoying as hell in the mornings, so we wanted to get a timed feeder so we don't have to get out of bed and maybe they'll meow at that instead of us... unfortunately the cats learned VERY quickly that the feeder has food in it and attack it! I'm not entirely sure if they got it open before the timer went off, but it was dragged all over the kitchen floor and food was everywhere so I suspect they did. As an aside, is there any possible way to help cats be less food motivated? Pedro is very vocal coming up to food times, and the other (Hector) is just obsessed with trying to eat anything we are to the point we sometimes have to lock him out of the room when we are eating. We had to move our bin to a cupboard based one as they kept knocking it over to get at food. We feed wet food 3 x a day on a regular schedule and never feed early due to meowing. They used to be free fed before we got them aged around 4 (they are coming up to 6 now) but Pedro was quite overweight as he would eat more than his fair share. To complicate matters, Hector escaped and went missing for 3 weeks last year and came back very skinny which we think has triggered his obsession with food.
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Jan 11, 2014 09:32
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I have a cat 'training' question (ahahaha). One of our cats, Pedro, is a total rear end in a top hat when it comes to food. Before we got him he used to be free fed dry stuff with a bit of wet in the evening, but he was quite overweight so we have switched to a largely wet food diet, 3 times a day. However he meows LOUDLY and for a long time before feeding time is coming up. Not so bad in the afternoons/evenings, we are either out or can distract him with playing or something. However he has taken to meowing from 5am, constantly, when we normally get up at around 7am. As much as I love my kitties I can't take 2 hours of sleep deprivation every morning! What I normally do, which I'm hoping isn't too much of a mean move, is to get up, let him follow me into the kitchen/diner and then shut him in and go back to bed. It's a large space where the food, water and litter is all kept. We can't just shut our bedroom door as he will just sit outside it meowing loudly and scratching at it. Another option would be to shut him and our other cat in the kitchen/diner at night before we go to bed, but they don't really enjoy being confined to one space. I was hoping that I could just absolutely ignore him and make sure we only feed him as the last thing we do before we leave the house in the morning so he associates us getting out of bed slightly less with food. However he's a slow learner (we have never ever fed either cat early because they have nagged us) and I'm not sure I can take 2 hours of cat yells every morning!! Any ideas on what might work, or should we be resigned to shutting them downstairs at night? We can make the place comfortable for them I'm sure.
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Mar 15, 2014 09:07
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Serella posted:Scare the poo poo out of him. Seriously. When my cat used to meow early in the morning for food, is open the door, scream, and chase him down the hall. He stopped after a few days because he realized it had terrifying consequences. Yeah I don't really want to make my cat scared of me. Anyway, he will just come back 2 mins later and continue, he is... persistent. We do have a food timer but don't generally use it (mainly just when we are away) plus the cats tend to try and break in as they know there is food there! Generally they don't succeed, and I reckon if we used it consistently they would get used to it. I might try shutting them in the kitchen/diner at night combined with the timed feeder for a week or so and then see if we leave the door open, they have learned that food comes no matter what time we get up. Dienes posted:
Yeah we are guilty of feeding nearly first thing when we get up. If the food timer doesn't work (because our cats are super greedy and break it or something, or we suck and forget) I will definitely keep waiting until after the morning routine and just before I go to work. We do have them on a 3x a day feeding routine though which makes things trickier, but leaving dry food out all day doesn't work as they will both gorge themselves and throw it back up again. Aah cats, gotta love em.
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Mar 16, 2014 17:42
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So, training the cats to harass the cat feeder not us is not going to well. Or it's going TOO well, as they harass it until the battery falls out and it won't open, and then try and prise the food out. We are currently using this timed cat feeder, does anyone have any recommendations for sturdy timed feeders suitable for wet food and available in the UK??
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Mar 19, 2014 18:54
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Serella posted:I use a similar one, and I've never had issues. Even my fatty cat couldn't pry it open. He attempted to open it by knocking it off the counter once, but all that did was flip it over and prevent him from getting food at the designated time, so he's never done it again. Hmm yes we have been putting wet food in as we only feed wet food... thinking we might switch to a measured amount of dry food in the morning to put in the feeder. We just can't leave a days worth of dry out for example as they will gorge themselves and be sick! Are there likely to be any issues with switching to dry food for one meal out of three?
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Mar 20, 2014 17:44
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Becklespinax posted:It can be hard to find, but if you can get the larger C50 version, it's a lot bigger and sturdier and less easy to shove around. It has ice packs in the bottom and you can put wet or dry food in it, and you can set the timer up in a variety of different ways over 4 days. It's also great for short stays away, I've used it to go away for a couple of nights and the cat loves it. Is there room for two kitty heads to get at food in one of the compartments? Ours will share a bowl if necessary, but we have one that is slightly greedier (and larger) than the other and I don't want the smaller cat to get short changed! I'm tempted to get this dry food dispenser for morning feeds, if only for the hilarious reviews about how badly the instructions are written, and to see if my techie boyfriend can work it out before he smashes it through a window...
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Mar 20, 2014 22:52
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Does anyone have experience introducing an older cat to two younger ones? We have two 6 year old male cats who have been together since kittens (not litter mates) and they... lets say tolerate each other. There's the occasional scrap and swipe and there's no catpiles but they generally get on ok if quite separately. After visiting a cat adoption centre we really want to give another cat a home, preferably an older (10 year old) female. Apart from checking out with the cat centre how she is with other cats to make sure she isn't likely to be overly stressed, and following normal cat introduction procedures, is there anything we should be really worried about? We have a fairly big house with plenty of escape room and the cats go outside in evenings when we are home. We're happy to get additional litter trays and scratching posts etc.
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Jun 17, 2014 18:21
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Ouhei posted:Cat house merging advice needed: This is exactly what we did when we introduced our new cat to our current two, and they were tentatively sharing space and not needing supervision after about a week. I wouldn't force contact between the cats, you just want them at first to be comfortable being in the same room as each other. Keep on with supervised visits, as long as they aren't seeking each other out to attack they'll probably be fine.
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Jul 24, 2014 17:49
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So our new cat Slinky hasn't bonded with our current cats as well as we hoped. We did all the usual cat-introducing steps and after less than a week they were quite chill around each other, no hissing or growling or anything. In the last couple of weeks however, Slinky has been hissing, growling at and occasionally going for our other cats. Not constantly and they can sometimes chill out in the same room together. She almost always instigates it - there's never any real danger signs like the ears going way back or anything, but she is less and less tolerant towards them. Part of the problem I think is that she has basically taken the front room as her territory - she rarely leaves it except to use the litter tray or go and sit up on my fiancée's lap when he's at home alone and upstairs on his computer. Our other cats pretty much share the entire house, they have been together since kittens and are comfortable in every room although aren't super affectionate towards each other. I wonder if she sees them as threats towards her territory? We've tried to encourage her out with food and playing but she's reluctant... In another complication we are moving house in a couple of weeks. I'm wondering whether to do anything now to try and a) entice her out of her comfort zone and get her exploring the house or b) going through the re-introduction process again with the other cats. Or, should we wait til we move house and then maybe try re-introducing them then? Or just cross our fingers and hope that as it's a new house for all three of them they will work it out amongst themselves?
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Aug 10, 2014 20:47
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Does anyone have tips for getting a greedy cat to eat slower? One of our three wolfs down his food and then stalks the other two while they eat theirs, we have to basically observe the whole feeding process to make sure he doesn't steal their food.
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Sep 15, 2014 20:33
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Thanks for all the tips for slowing down our greedy cat! We're now feeding him in the kitchen separately from the other two, but I like the idea of putting a golf ball in the dish or finding some other bumpy one, for entertainment value if nothing else.
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Sep 16, 2014 18:21
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Any tips for a bullying cat except Feliway? Our big fluffy monster cat, Pedro, is a bit of a bully to our other two. He often, particularly in the evenings, chases them around the house, swipes at them, sits glaring at them etc. and it's 99% of the time him who starts it. Yesterday I found one of them hiding in a litter tray after being chased into the bathroom  There's no blood and little fur flying, and our other cats aren't avoiding certain places, peeing where they shouldn't or displaying really scared or anxious behaviours. They will occasionally all nose-boop each other and act friendly. Should we just chill and let him assert his authority, just intervene when they look like they're getting into it, or is there anything we can do to train him not to be a dick?
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Jan 24, 2015 09:55
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Just look for any advice about dealing with a cat who has heart failure. One of our 8 year old boys, Hector, who has always had a mild heart murmer, has been diagnosed with heart disease/failure Poor little guy was in a really bad way on Saturday but pulled through and is responding quite well to medication at the moment. Luckily we were insured which should cover the bulk of the vets bills for the diagnosis/emergency stuff. Unluckily we didn't get lifetime cover so will be attempting to fund ongoing heart meds for as long as he needs them, eek! Any idea how much this might cost?? (We're in the UK). Also any tips on getting him used to taking pills 3x per day and managing his lifestyle much appreciated! Really bummed out at the moment the poor dude has really been through it the past few days Here's Hector being unimpressed at being booped on the nose 
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Jun 9, 2015 20:26
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Braki posted:Not sure about prices unfortunately since I'm in Canada but try to keep the pills as low-stress as possible. Are there any treats that he loves that he'll eat them in? Preferably low in salt? If he does tend to steal human food I'd try to keep him away from salty things as that will worsen his heart condition. He normally loves dreamies and tries to steal all our food (particularly fish, cream, yoghurt etc.) We had to pill him on Sunday before we took him for more tests, and cracked open a dreamie to stuff the little pill inside (it's only a quarter pill so not very big). He wouldn't eat it out of normal food, peanut butter, yoghurt or cheese but he did out of the dreamies after some cajoling... Since we're going to have to do it 3x/day forever I want to try and make it as easy as possible!! I've ordered some of those greenies pill pockets so we'll see about those. Does anyone know any brands of super stinky delicious cat food that is not in chunks, the smooth kind? Might be easier to hide a little pill in a small amount of that and just make sure he eats it all. He's quite fussy about food sometimes and will just lick the jelly/gravy off.
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Jun 10, 2015 07:38
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Any advice on training a cat to eat at an automatic feeder at a set time? We have two cats, a male (Pedro) who we've had for about 4 years and a female (Slinky) who we've had for 2. Pedro is definitely the dominant of the two - he's a lot larger and likes to assert his dominance by swiping at her now and then and chasing her around. There is no serious fighting/violence and they will chill/sleep in the same rooms etc. so not a massive problem but she's not very confident around him. We have a timed feeder that goes off for dry food in the morning and Pedro will eat from that, but it dispenses a set amount as he is greedy and we don't like just leaving food out. Slinky won't eat from that feeder at all and isn't as food motivated as him, we've also had trouble getting her to eat from a separate timed feeder at the time it goes off - I think she is more of a grazer. However if she doesn't eat what she wants of the food when it is dispensed, Pedro is likely to steal her food. Most of the time it's OK as we feed her when we wake up and she will eat what she wants up on a table without Pedro disturbing her. Sometimes she is up in her eating spot waiting for her breakfast but sometimes she's not that bothered and needs encouraging to eat. Is there a good way to train her to eat from a timed feeder more consistently? It would be much easier if we are away for a few days to be certain she can eat her fill in the mornings and just have someone come once per day to check litter and give them their evening meal. We have considered getting a microchip feeder so she can graze at leisure but they are so expensive!
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May 15, 2016 14:22
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Does anyone have experience with cats with acid reflux? Our kitty Pedro was diagnosed a week ago and has been much improved with a round of antacids. He still occasionally retches/regurgitates though and I'm wondering if we should change his food. We have him on good quality dry in the mornings (applaws) and a pouch of gourmet wet food in the evening. We don't free feed as he's a greedy bugger who'd get fat!
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Jan 22, 2017 22:17
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Any Canadian peeps have recommendations for bland food for a cat with a sensitive stomach? We're currently in the UK and have our cat Slinky on gastro intestinal food (royal canin) which seems to keep gut infections at bay. However we're moving to Canada in a couple of weeks, can't bring food with us, and that food doesn't seem to be available except from a vet. I'm sure she'll be OK for a few days, but we're hoping to order something for when we arrive to tide us over until we can get her registered/seen etc. Any suggestions would be most welcome, preferably something we can order online to be there when we arrive.
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Jun 10, 2018 21:03
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Canadian Bakin posted:Robot Mil, looks like you should be able to get Hills Science Diet from amazon.ca to at least tide you over until you can see a vet. There's several other brands to choose from though I can't speak to how great they are. Ah good shout, I'm sure that stuff will be ok for her. ILL Machina posted:Chewy.com is where I get mine from. If you set up a scheduled delivery it's real cheap and you can always edit the planned delivery and ship it immediately. They only ship within the US unfortunately :/ I was also wondering about insurance for our two - they are 11 and 14 so older kitties, and Slinky has some pre-existing conditions - she had a tumour removed from her leg last year and has had gastro/gut issues previously although they seem to have been settled for a few months now. We have them insured under PetPlan in the UK who provide good cover, I'm not even sure we'll be able to get insurance for them in Canada that would cover anything we would be likely to need it for. I'm pretty sure if cancer came back it would not be covered - the vet had said that they removed it all but the only way to be sure it wouldn't come back would be to amputate, which we decided against. This is the little lady in question  And this is Floofer, AKA P Kitty AKA Noisebox. His only medical problem is an inability to go without food for more than 5 minutes without yelling at us, also he doesn't know how to sit down properly 
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Jun 11, 2018 08:28
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Kidney Stone posted:Just had to get my 16 year old cat put down. Sorry for your loss We had to make the same decision today for our 16 year old Slinky, she had kidney failure and was in a bad way. I know it was the right thing to do but I miss her little face!
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May 5, 2019 03:19
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Protocol7 posted:Crowley is in kidney failure. He is on his way to taking the long nap. What a handsome kitty. Ours had kidney failure in the end, letting her sleep was definitely the best decision as much as it sucks for us. Rest well Crowley!
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May 5, 2019 21:54
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TofuDiva posted:Both times that I've done this where the older cat was female, it was a disaster, and in each case the female never got past the "I'll grudgingly tolerate your existence but I will show you and the human every day that I am not happy and I will do it in the most offensive ways possible" stage. The other two times where the older cat was male and I brought in a kitten, it was easy and both cats were happy and playing/grooming each other within days. I’ve only ever adopted adult cats - two males that had been together since kittens but only really tolerated each other, then later a third female older cat. We only have one of the boys left now (I say boy, he's a senior 12 year old now) and he’s never played with or groomed another of our adult cats. He’d share a sofa or bed with them but mostly would chase them around if he interacted at all. I think to try and prove he was tough or something as he’s a massive softy and scaredy-cat otherwise. We’re currently debating whether to get another cat, we really want to give another adult cat a home but part of me thinks our dude is kind of enjoying being the only cat. He seemed to really miss us when we were on vacation recently though so who knows, he might like company *shrug*
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Jul 27, 2019 07:03
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kw0134 posted:You know how the best simulation of a cat is just a cat? It's probable he misses you specifically and there's no substitute for the affection his humans can give. He'll likely view another cat as an encroacher on the resource he wants, your attention. Yeah probably. I meant he seemed to miss us and be more affectionate when we got back than he usually is when we’ve been away - it was the first time since our other kitty had passed away.
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Jul 27, 2019 17:25
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Since we're not going anywhere for a while given the pandemic, we moved up our plans to adopt a new kitty, Holly. She is 11 so a senior kitty, seems pretty confident, wandering around the apartment like she owns it. She's quite social so introduced her to our other kitty fairly quickly, they both seem pretty chill only minor hissing and mostly ignoring each other. She loves head rubs and likes to be around us, purrs a lot and enjoys watching birds. The only worry we have is her eating. Apparently she didn't eat for a while at the shelter and lost a fair bit of weight, we have the food she did eventually start eating there. She hasn't eaten a lot over the past couple of days, although has eaten a bit, is drinking and using the litter trays. We tried giving her some other high quality fishy food which she seemed to like but then threw up a bit and had some diarrhea today so we're going back to the original stuff. Makes sense she might be a bit off her food if that was disagreeing with her though. We're going to try and get her in for a vet check up next week but not sure if that'll work given many places are shut except for emergency visits. At what point should we worry/it would turn into an 'emergency'?
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Mar 30, 2020 04:28
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Thanks for the reassurance everyone! She ate everything we put down for her overnight and started eating more when I refilled her bowl this morning so I think she'll be fine. Now we just need to teach her how to use the microchip feeder we have as our other kitty is an absolute greedbox and will eat anything that's left out. I think we're so used to having a food monster who will eat anything it threw us a bit that she wasn't eating that much, she's probably more of a grazer at the best of times.
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Mar 30, 2020 15:18
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Looking for some advice on handling our new kitty who is turning out to be quite the handful! It may just be part of settling in, and getting used to us and our other cat, and we’re trying to read her body language regarding petting and when to stop. She will take swipes at us pretty frequently, often a warning but sometimes drawing blood and not always related to us petting her. One of the issues is that she likes to plonk herself down right in the middle of what we are doing (playing a board game, working on a computer etc) and will fairly aggressively resist attempts to move her, including biting. Sometimes she’ll like us walking with her, and sometimes will seem to get freaked out very suddenly and the ears go back and she growls/warns. We’re going to get some feliway but any other tips much appreciated! All our other cats have been much more chill. We’re going to try more active playtime in case it’s about attention or boredom. Edit: she's not a total monster cat, she's currently purring away chilled out on top of our sofa, and loves head scritches in the morning and being brushed. As with all cats I guess it's things very much on her own terms. Robot Mil fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Apr 22, 2020 |
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Apr 22, 2020 04:22
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Hello cat goons! Looking for a bit of advice or tips for caring for our newest kitty rescue - he is a young lad, about 2, extremely shy and timid of humans, way more so than any other cat we have cared for. Our current sassy lady cat walked out of the carrier like she owned the place and that hasn’t really changed lol. This little dude has been hiding under the bed since we brought him home yesterday. We were fully aware of his shyness and it’s not a problem, I know it’s early days and we’re happy to be patient, just have some questions if anyone has had a similar kitty! How much time should we spend with him vs leaving him alone? We’ve been popping in and out to say hello, play some calming music and just chill for now. Should we be trying to engage him through play or just sit with him? I’m worried about him being lonely but also don’t want to stress him out! At what point might it be a good idea to try and remove or block off the bed so he is forced to be a bit more out in the open? It seems likely he’s going to be super shy of humans for a while but apparently likes other cats, any tips on introducing him to our other cat safely? He’s definitely nibbled a few treats overnight and possibly a bit of kibble, at what point should we get concerned if he doesn’t eat?
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Oct 11, 2020 17:52
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Thanks for the suggestions! I don’t think he’ll accept pets or scritches for a very long time tbh, I don’t think he ever did when he was with the foster family. He did once eat treats out of their hand though... after about two months He doesn’t seem overly stressed, no hissing or yowling, his ears aren’t going back, he’s just.... watchful and if we get too close he just slowly moves a bit further away.
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Oct 11, 2020 18:46
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