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HondaCivet posted:Free feeding is cool for kittens because they have tiny tummies and therefore need to eat more often in order to get the calories they need. You should probably transition them to 3 meals a day when they are 5-6 months old, then to 2 if you want once they are a year old. Some cats can free feed without turning into tubbos but a lot can't so meals are probably going to be best for them. My cat is 6 months old and I feed him twice a day: once in the morning he gets some dry food and then in the evening he gets half a can of tiki cat. At first he would eat all the dry food in the morning and freak out when I got home from work since he hadn't eaten in hours, but now he seems to have learned to pace himself; there's usually some food in the bowl all day. Am I feeding him too little, though? I can only feed him in the mornings and evenings, usually at 8:30am and 7:30pm.
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Oct 7, 2009 07:45
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If your cat isn't fat don't worry about cutting down his amount of meals. My cats are around 3 and I free feed because they don't have a problem with over eating, they know they are always going to have food and can have 20 tiny meals a day.
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Oct 7, 2009 08:52
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Victor Nightingale posted:My cat is 6 months old and I feed him twice a day: once in the morning he gets some dry food and then in the evening he gets half a can of tiki cat. At first he would eat all the dry food in the morning and freak out when I got home from work since he hadn't eaten in hours, but now he seems to have learned to pace himself; there's usually some food in the bowl all day. Twice a day is fine, and if he's not being obnoxious when you get home it's probably a good sign. If you're concerned that he's not getting enough food, start measuring how much you give him in the morning according to the instructions on the dry food bag.
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Oct 7, 2009 13:34
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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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A feral/stray cat bonded with me and my wife, so we captured him and took him to the humane society for the full workup. He's probably 6-7 months old, and a total mush. I was able to just pick him up and put in the carrier. Anyways, I'm completely lost on this. I am unbelievably allergic to cats, and I just found out allergy shots (which my doctor swears will work) will be quite a bit of money. We've trapped some other cats and brought them to animal control and we're pretty sure we know what happens to them, and I don't know if I can stand that happening to this little guy because he trusts us so much. Neither of us has ever taken care of cats before, where do we start?
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Oct 7, 2009 18:38
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multigl posted:Neither of us has ever taken care of cats before, where do we start? On page 1 of this thread 
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Oct 7, 2009 20:05
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dee eight posted:On page 1 of this thread I just read it. I'm still freaking out, it seems so unfair to put him back outside when we get him tonight. I don't know how to overcome the allergy problem (my wife isn't even a little allergic  ), maybe we can give him baths?
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Oct 7, 2009 22:36
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multigl posted:I just read it. Many people have good luck with OTC allergy pills and/or shots. Many people also become more tolerant of a particular cat the more they are around it. I don't suffer from allergies, so I can't really say anymore, but people manage. If you do let it inside, keep it out of your bedroom, and get a good HEPA vacuum.
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Oct 7, 2009 23:51
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Meow Cadet posted:Many people have good luck with OTC allergy pills and/or shots. Many people also become more tolerant of a particular cat the more they are around it. I don't suffer from allergies, so I can't really say anymore, but people manage. If you do let it inside, keep it out of your bedroom, and get a good HEPA vacuum. My girlfriend is rather allergic to cats, she gets good results from Zyrtec when she visits.
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Oct 8, 2009 14:16
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Loomer posted: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. I would take your cat to the vet just to make sure. Cat bites or scratches can be nasty and get infected very quickly if you're not careful. Is your cat up to date on his vaccines? I hope so, because you don't know if the other cat is. Your vet will be able to give you better instructions about how to care for him.
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Oct 8, 2009 14:33
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Helvetica Neue posted:So, I just found out that my coworker, who gave me my 7 month old cat, never got him his shots. She told me when I adopted him that they were all vaccinated and were FELV negative, but now she's saying she never said that and she only gave them flea treatments. Anyone?
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Oct 8, 2009 16:33
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Helvetica Neue posted:I've had him for ~6months now and he seems perfectly healthy; he stays indoors 100% of the time. Should I rush him to the vet to get checked out right away? Or wait for his 1 year birthday? I would call the vet and ask their opinion. Personally, I would go ahead and do it now.
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Oct 8, 2009 16:49
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Helvetica Neue posted:Anyone? Where I live, you must give your cat a rabies shot by 4 months of age, by law. So, there is a risk that if your cat ends up at a shelter, and you cannot provide a rabies certificate, you could get screwed. Or if a friend comes over, gets bit, you could be screwed even more. If I were you, I'd call the vet, and get things all squared away ASAP. And your co-worker is a shithead.
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Oct 8, 2009 17:40
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My wife and I have a very cute cat (Bella) who I think is half Himalayan / half domestic short hair. She is about 4 years old now. For the longest time we have been considering getting her a buddy so she doesn't have to spend so much time alone. The thing that worries us is that she is pretty skittish and very untrusting of strangers which makes us wonder how she would adapt to a new kitty or adult cat. We'd love to get her a friend but don't want to mess up a good thing and have her freak out and start peeing everywhere or something. Any advice on whether adding another cat would be a good or bad idea in this situation? Also...any truth to the idea that male cats are friendlier than female cats? Bella is friendly with us but she is definitely not a lap cat. She prefers to be near us but not right next to us most of the time. Any truth to male cats being much more likely to urinate / spray in the house?
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Oct 14, 2009 21:04
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Buckeye posted:My wife and I have a very cute cat (Bella) who I think is half Himalayan / half domestic short hair. She is about 4 years old now. For the longest time we have been considering getting her a buddy so she doesn't have to spend so much time alone. The thing that worries us is that she is pretty skittish and very untrusting of strangers which makes us wonder how she would adapt to a new kitty or adult cat. We'd love to get her a friend but don't want to mess up a good thing and have her freak out and start peeing everywhere or something. Any advice on whether adding another cat would be a good or bad idea in this situation? How much cats enjoy the company of people and that of cats is usually not very related. Some cats hate other cats but love people, some love both, some hate both, etc. If she seems bored and lonely then another cat would be something good to try. You just have to make sure that you introduce them properly . . . I think this is in the OP, otherwise there are lots of pages online about the subject. Neutered males do tend to be a bit less territorial than females but there are plenty of friendly happy-go-lucky females out there too. If you go to a good shelter, they should be able to help you find a good match, male or female. That sort of thing tends to only be a problem with intact males, not neutered ones. I wouldn't worry about it. P.S. You can't go saying how cute your cat is without proof. 
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Oct 14, 2009 21:35
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Buckeye posted:My wife and I have a very cute cat (Bella) who I think is half Himalayan / half domestic short hair. She is about 4 years old now. For the longest time we have been considering getting her a buddy so she doesn't have to spend so much time alone. The thing that worries us is that she is pretty skittish and very untrusting of strangers which makes us wonder how she would adapt to a new kitty or adult cat. We'd love to get her a friend but don't want to mess up a good thing and have her freak out and start peeing everywhere or something. Any advice on whether adding another cat would be a good or bad idea in this situation? Buckeye posted:Also...any truth to the idea that male cats are friendlier than female cats? Bella is friendly with us but she is definitely not a lap cat. She prefers to be near us but not right next to us most of the time. Buckeye posted:Any truth to male cats being much more likely to urinate / spray in the house? Has your kitty ever been around other cats? Are there any neighbor/friend cats you could introduce her to, to see how she might get along? Given her skittish personality, I would be worried that a second cat might just push her further into seclusion, hiding from humans and the second cat, etc.
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Oct 14, 2009 21:59
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Thanks for the thoughts so far. Here is Bella. The only time she has been around another cat is a few months ago. We had a stray that was wondering our neighborhood and we had started to feed it at night on our front porch. Bella would sit at the screen door and watch. She would make some funny noises on occasion but no hissing or anything really aggressive. We were pretty surprised she was so calm. Then one night she snuck out as I was going out the door to feed the stray. She immediately chased the cat out of the yard in a very aggressive manner...hissing, fully puffed up, etc. The stray never came back after that.  Buckeye fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Oct 14, 2009 |
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Oct 14, 2009 22:17
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Helvetica Neue posted:Has your kitty ever been around other cats? Are there any neighbor/friend cats you could introduce her to, to see how she might get along? Given her skittish personality, I would be worried that a second cat might just push her further into seclusion, hiding from humans and the second cat, etc. Given that it can take a couple of weeks to properly introduce two adult cats (and it can take them months to warm up to each other), I wouldn't put too much stock into visiting with friends and neighbors. Anecdotally, I've heard it's easier to introduce an adult male to an adult female rather than another adult female. What goes generally is not necessarily the rule, though. If I were looking for a buddy for Bella and there was a local shelter that fosters cats or keeps them in groups, I'd look for a calm adult cat of a similar age who adjusts fairly readily to new cats and doesn't push the other cats around.
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Oct 14, 2009 22:38
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Buckeye posted:Thanks for the thoughts so far. Here is Bella. Wow, you weren't kidding about the cuteness . . . Pretty much any cat is going to be pissed about a stray outside so I wouldn't worry about that too much. Get a calm, friendly adult friend, introduce them properly and see how it goes.
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Oct 14, 2009 22:38
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Kittens are hard work! I've resorted to using a brush and dustpan because the cat litter did bad things to the vacuum cleaner.
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Oct 15, 2009 15:27
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CagedLiberty posted:Kittens are hard work! Kittens are very hard work. I woke up this morning to find that Smudge had decided that litter no longer goes in the litter box so he'd kicked out a huge pile of it onto the carpet.  I have a seperate vacuum for litter, it's my old lovely one that barely works but it gets the job done for stray litter and I won't be too heartbroken if it breaks on me.
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Oct 15, 2009 15:59
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CagedLiberty posted:Kittens are hard work! At my house we brush around the litter boxes every day when we scoop them. It's less hassle than bringing out a vacuum, and doing it every morning makes it pretty effective in keeping the apartment from looking like one big litter desert.
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Oct 15, 2009 17:52
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I just run the shopvac around the litterbox every so often. Speaking of litterboxes, Fidel Catstro took such a horrid poo poo day before yesterday that I had to rub Vaporub under my nose and put on a painter's respirator just to go in and scoop it.
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Oct 15, 2009 18:13
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exactduckwoman posted:At my house we brush around the litter boxes every day when we scoop them. It's less hassle than bringing out a vacuum, and doing it every morning makes it pretty effective in keeping the apartment from looking like one big litter desert. This is what we do, too. I have a little mini broom and dustpan by the boxes to make it easier.
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Oct 15, 2009 18:52
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We use a swivel sweeper since it's great at picking up kitty litter on almost any surface. It's not great for anything else, so we just keep them by the litter boxes.
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Oct 15, 2009 19:18
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Hady posted:We use a swivel sweeper since it's great at picking up kitty litter on almost any surface. It's not great for anything else, so we just keep them by the litter boxes. I've been thinking of getting something like a swivel sweeper. I have wood floors, and when I use a normal broom, I often just fling it all over the place. I'm glad to hear a good review of the swivel sweeper.
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Oct 15, 2009 23:07
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I actually just chucked my swivel sweeper in the trash, it was useless for me. I never tried it as a dedicated litter picker upper though.
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Oct 16, 2009 03:08
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My Izzy seems to have diarrhea. It's her only abnormal symptom though, and she's still active and has a good appetite. While I haven't actually seen her eat much (I've been out of the house a lot) both the food and water dishes are empty at the end of each day. She hasn't gone outside the litterbox, and there doesn't seem to be anything bothering her physically. Should I take her to the vet in the morning, or is this a wait and see type thing? Poor Izzy. I think she was the runt of the litter. 
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Oct 16, 2009 04:55
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So things have been going pretty good for the past few weeks with Gary and Leela. Only trouble is Gary is constantly making GBS threads himself. He's good about going in the litter box, but it always seems like he's got it on his rear end. Theres times when he's sits down and leaves a mark where ever he sits. I've woken up to the scratching post thing they sleep on to find it covered in poo poo. We need to mop the kitchen floor every morning and when we get home from work. It seems like we're constantly having to wipe or bathe him. Is this normal? Leela doesn't seem to be having any problems and is getting the same food as he is. We're using Blue Buffalo Longevity Kitten food (http://www.bluebuff.com/products/cats/longevity-kitten.shtml) and feed them about a 1/4 twice a day. Please help as we've taken him to the vet like 2-3 times and haven't gotten info other than "Looks like he's got diarrhea."
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Oct 17, 2009 00:03
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Maybe he doesn't know how to cover it properly in the litter box or sits down whilst he does his toilet? Sometimes the best way to fix the former is by taking the cats paws and manually showing them what to do.
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Oct 17, 2009 01:31
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Znorps! posted:So things have been going pretty good for the past few weeks with Gary and Leela. Only trouble is Gary is constantly making GBS threads himself. He's good about going in the litter box, but it always seems like he's got it on his rear end. Theres times when he's sits down and leaves a mark where ever he sits. I've woken up to the scratching post thing they sleep on to find it covered in poo poo. We need to mop the kitchen floor every morning and when we get home from work. It seems like we're constantly having to wipe or bathe him. Is this normal? Leela doesn't seem to be having any problems and is getting the same food as he is. We're using Blue Buffalo Longevity Kitten food (http://www.bluebuff.com/products/cats/longevity-kitten.shtml) and feed them about a 1/4 twice a day. Please help as we've taken him to the vet like 2-3 times and haven't gotten info other than "Looks like he's got diarrhea." That sucks . . . I had this problem with one of my cats. Curing his chronic diarrhea seemed to do the trick. Does the little guy have diarrhea all the time? If so you should see about fixing that and that may take care of the problem. If the vets can't find a medical reason for him having the runs then I'd try changing their food.
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Oct 17, 2009 04:06
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HondaCivet posted:That sucks . . . I had this problem with one of my cats. Curing his chronic diarrhea seemed to do the trick. Does the little guy have diarrhea all the time? If so you should see about fixing that and that may take care of the problem. If the vets can't find a medical reason for him having the runs then I'd try changing their food. Yeah, it seems its all the time. We took him to the vet this morning and he gave us some prescription food called "Hills Prescription." We'll give it a try for a few days and see how he is. If it doesn't get any better a friend recommended a vet in our town that they've been using for years so we'll give him a shot. Thank you Civet and and CagedLiberty for the help. Hope this gets better soon. Sucks not being able to have him up on the couch sleepin and stuff. Edit- Finally did the right thing and went to the independant pet store in town. Picked up some cans of that wellness and innova evo food. Everything I've read online said higher protein and the vet said they might be alergic to fish so these seem promising. Hoping our little guy starts to feel better. Thanks for all the help again guys. Inside Out Mom fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Oct 17, 2009 |
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Oct 17, 2009 16:45
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Just as a reminder-- if you switch him too quickly to new food, his poop is probably going to get worse before it gets better. Even though it's going to be annoying, doing a gradual change is probably best for your boy's little sensitive system.
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Oct 17, 2009 22:48
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pandafan fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Apr 21, 2019 |
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Oct 17, 2009 23:23
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pandafan posted:Cat eating hands. Kittens do that because that's how they play. You have to yelp at her and let her know that's bad and you won't tolerate it. It works because my kitten stopped doing it after a bit of being firm, yelping, and just ignoring him for a bit. Don't chastise her or be mean btw and avoid petting their tummy especially if they're new to you. You need to let her know it's not cool, but in a good way. Stuff is in the op about that. Spaying will help smooth out her behavior too. Get that poo poo done soon. quote:Claws and small living space You need to clip the nails and give her a scratching post for her to scratch on, otherwise she's going to keep on screwing things up. See the 1000 posts around about scratching posts. If it's too much of a problem you can get the softpaws (info in the op) and they work well enough. As for a small living space, make sure she's got vertical space/climbing area. If you can get a nice cat tree and put it in the corner you'll do a lot more for the kitty than having more horizontal space. I've known people with kitty cats in shitbox apartments who gave their cats lots of vertical space and the kitties seemed quite happy and had a lot more room to play in. quote:What food do you use? Eukanuba Kitten food, and some Max Cat wet food. I've been thinking of switching to wet food though because I keep reading that its better. Go read the pet nutritional thread on what to feed your kitty. There is better food for the same price than that if you want to feed her well.
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Oct 17, 2009 23:49
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Probably asked a million times, but how to I get my cat to stop using my chair for a scratching post? I've tried the obvious idea of putting the actual scratching post next to the chair, but he seems to like the chair better.
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Oct 18, 2009 02:13
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OatmealRaisin posted:My Izzy seems to have diarrhea. It's her only abnormal symptom though, and she's still active and has a good appetite. While I haven't actually seen her eat much (I've been out of the house a lot) both the food and water dishes are empty at the end of each day. She hasn't gone outside the litterbox, and there doesn't seem to be anything bothering her physically. Should I take her to the vet in the morning, or is this a wait and see type thing? Take her to the vet. It could be nothing serious, but it could also be a parasite or something more serious. One of my cats barely escaped a bout of pancreatitis this summer, so you don't want to fool around.
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Oct 18, 2009 04:44
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Well, I took Izzy to the vet yesterday. They said she might have picked up a worm somewhere so they gave her some deworming stuff and told me to keep an eye on her. If wednesday comes along and there's no improvement they told me to call in so we can decide what to do next. The little girl is shaping up to be one hell of an expensive kitten. She and her brother are totally awesome though, so it's worth every penny to make sure she's healthy.
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Oct 18, 2009 19:55
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Xerin posted:Advice Thank you! I will try these things.
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Oct 18, 2009 22:37
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Alright, well, Izzy just went outside the box. I've cleaned up, closed her in the bathroom with food, water, a warm place to rest, a litterbox, and her brother as company. I'm going to quickly eat my dinner before it gets any colder and then call the e-vet, since to my understanding going outside the box can be indicative of some really bad stuff. Wish me luck guys. Update: I called two e-vets and they both said as long as she's drinking and staying hydrated (she is), she can wait until morning and see her normal vet. I'm gonna call and make an appointment as soon as they open tomorrow. She's stopped crying and frantically trying to escape the bathroom, and seems to be just hanging out with her brother on the makeshift bed I set up. Distant Chicken fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Oct 19, 2009 |
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Oct 19, 2009 00:36
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