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I have the opportunity to adopt a couple kittens. I've never owned cats before, so I'd like to run some numbers by you guys regarding monthly costs so I can properly budget for them. $50/month for wet food. $15/month for litter $20/month for insurance $2/month for water fountain filters. That's $87/pet/month, before treats and toys (since those costs will depend on their personalities) and other fixed startup costs (Litterbox, dishes, etc). And also assuming that insurance will cover vet costs. Do those numbers seem right? As they transition to adult cats, I've been told that feeding them nothing but wet food is also bad for their teeth, so I need to toss some dry food their way. Any ideas how that might affect costs?
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Apr 15, 2015 05:59
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 06:08 |
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Gonna be a first-time cat owner in June. So nervous.  Someone requested pictures. Here they are!   And have some bonus videos: Kitten lineup Squeaky kittens in a kitten pile Brother in law holding a kitten My sister and her husband are adopting two, and I'm adopting one. The white ones are Mantou and Da Long Bao, and one of the grey ones is Taro. I hope I can raise the kitten properly. I'm waiting until they're 12 weeks old before adopting them, but I've never had a cat before, and I keep reading about cats not being socialized properly or destroying furniture or failing to be litter trained or developing health problems or any number of other problem scenarios. 
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Apr 20, 2015 22:52
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Da Long Bao's eyes have opened! Is there a such thing as corrective lenses for cats?
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Apr 21, 2015 21:38
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 Da Long Bao may be coming to her forever home soon, and I am super nervous. I've never owned a cat before. I've thrown together a list of things to buy. Please let me know if there's more stuff I need to buy or if there's something that I shouldn't be buying, or if there's something I could be getting better or for a lower price. I know she's going to be terrified at being separated from her family and thrust into a new and unfamiliar room. I just want to make sure I can provide for her when she feels comfortable enough to come out. She's only seven weeks old, so I hope the litterbox and food dish won't be too big for her.
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May 11, 2015 23:59
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Zaftig posted:Heads up that that carrier kinda sucks. I bought that exact one and my cat ripped a hole in the seam on the first use by pushing her head against it to get out. She is 8 pounds. It lasted 20 minutes. Wow. Thanks for the tip! Dumping that one and getting a hard carrier.
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May 12, 2015 06:08
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Are cats okay with collars and nametags? I wanted to get the kitten chipped, but I feel like an additional layer of security would be good.
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May 12, 2015 20:26
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Any advice for how large a room should be if introducing kittens to a home? I feel like a bathroom is too small, but it's either that or a bedroom. I'm thinking about going with the bedroom and just sleeping on a couch for a few days so I won't distress them. Any suggestions on keeping them away from under the bed?
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May 16, 2015 02:23
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I hadn't really considered myself as a source of comfort. I assumed they'd be terrified of me. I guess I'll see how they deal with me before evicting myself for their sake.
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May 16, 2015 03:10
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I was going to give a stuffed animal to my kitten when she arrives, but I realized the stuffed animal has plastic eyes. Am I right in guessing this means it isn't safe to give to her?
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May 20, 2015 22:48
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I made a video to try to to help some kittens near San Francisco find forever homes. I can't tell if I'm dumb or clever. demota fucked around with this message at 17:22 on May 23, 2015 |
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May 23, 2015 08:18
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Does anyone have experience with pet insurance? I'm picking up my new kitten in a couple weeks, and I'm wondering about what are good companies to go with (or if it's just a bad idea).
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May 29, 2015 20:42
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I'm torn between Pet Plan and Healthy Paws. They both have a ton of advocates.
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Jun 3, 2015 02:54
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Kitten's coming in Saturday or Sunday. Any idea how to tell when a kitten is ready to leave a room and start exploring the house? I figured I'd just give her my room for a few days, but I'm not sure when it's okay to go "Yeah, you're free to check out the whole place."
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Jun 3, 2015 20:46
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My new kitten came in, and she took a poop but didn't bury it. Should I be concerned? Obligatory pic: 
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Jun 8, 2015 18:17
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Tamarillo posted:Ah, I see you have a non-poop-covering-ragdoll too. My boy only sometimes covers his poops, and when he doesn't our other cat runs over with a look of horror and quickly covers it up. Is that what she is? I'm new at this cat thing. I was mostly just thinking of her as a designer cat mix. Her mother is a Stray and her father is a Mystery.
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Jun 8, 2015 23:39
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Need some advice here. My new kitten, Da Long Bao, is home, but mom doesn't want the kitten to ever leave my room unless I'm home to supervise her. This is to make sure she doesn't scratch furniture. Kitten is 11 weeks old right now. She's never showed an inclination towards scratching wooden surfaces. She's scratched sisal poles, cloth (when attempting to climb it or if it's waving around), and human skin. Never scratched wood or walls. She has scratched her litter mat and some fluffy cloth bathroom mats. I want to give her free reign around the house, but I don't want her to ever scratch our wood/leather furniture. Though she's never shown a desire to do that. I hate the idea of her being confined to a single room for 10-11 hours of the day when I'm not home. Obligatory pic:  From left to right: Da Long Bao, Taro, and Mantou
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Jun 15, 2015 17:42
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My kitten keeps ripping up paper. How do I get her to stop?
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Jul 28, 2015 15:05
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 What is this? I'm worried. 
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Aug 7, 2015 21:00
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Thanks. I'll try clipping her nails first!
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Aug 7, 2015 21:27
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I took my kitten in for spaying and she had a reaction to the anesthetic. She never woke up. I'm numb. They're refunding the spaying cost and covering the cost of cremation.
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Aug 16, 2015 03:24
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Thanks for the sympathies, everyone. I looked it up and this kind of reaction happens 0.24% of the time. Which is not the same as 0%. I don't know how long it'll be before I pick up another cat or kitten. I'll definitely get her spayed, but it's going to be extremely hard to do that without feeling like something awful is going to happen.
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Aug 16, 2015 16:14
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Thank you for the kind words, everyone. The next time I adopt a cat will probably be pre-spayed to save myself the trauma trigger. Da Long Bao is being cremated, but the urn will need to be buried. I found out about something called an urn vault to protect her remains from being disturbed. Does anyone have any experience with these? I want to protect her and I want to make sure that if I have to move, I can take her with me. I don't know what materials to avoid or what are good materials or how to open it if necessary while still making sure water can't get in, it won't crack under temperatures, and gophers can't punch through.
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Aug 18, 2015 02:47
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It's been a few months since my last kitten, Bao Bao (who inspired the "Poop on her poop to show her who's really the boss" quote) passed away from an allergic reaction to anesthetic during her spaying, and I decided I was ready to adopt another cat. My family fell in love with an eight week-old kitten. I felt a little guilty about picking him up since he was so young, but I gave in to social pressure. He's sleepy here, but he's extremely playful and likes to bite at my hands. How do I get him to quit that? I know an older cat who likes to bite at hands when playing, and I don't want Boba Tea to grow up to be like him. Second question: He's super young. Like, 9 weeks old. Before adopting him, I was strongly leaning towards a three year old lady cat who had recently weaned a litter, who's been described as extremely affectionate and mellow. I think that Boba would be much happier and well-adjusted if he had another cat around to serve as a mother figure. Am I off here? I've done a lot of reading, but I'm not going to pretend any of that serves as a substitute for practical cat experience. I know I'm supposed to introduce them gradually through closed doors over a week or so, then give them daily supervised time together for another week, but I'm hoping that a kitten with no mom and a recent mom without her kittens will be able to bond smoothly.
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Jan 15, 2016 17:54
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Reik posted:Seconding Iron Crowned, get him interactive toys like Da Bird or the Go Cat Cat Catcher and have him channel his play in to those. When he does bite your hand pretend like it hurts, pull it away and make a pathetic cat whimper sound. A second cat would be incredibly helpful with socialization. When it comes to the introduction I'd feel it out before going the standard two adult cat route, it's very possible she'll just go in to full mom mode and treat him like one of her own kittens with no introduction required. Oh, that's a good idea. I picked up Da Bird for Bao Bao, but it's just kind of been sitting around since I figured it was too big for him. Considering how hyper he's being, maybe he's old enough to play with it. Fun fact: He used to wake me up by using his tongue to sand off my eyelids, but he seems to have quit that.
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Jan 15, 2016 18:17
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 And one more for the road. He likes hunting, so I figured maybe he'd be into Bloodborne, but he doesn't really have the parry timing down yet.
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Jan 15, 2016 18:21
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Update on the two-cat situation. The lady cat is acclimating to her new room, but she was definitely afraid for a while. The boy kitten managed to slip into the room and the lady cat hissed at him when he got close. This is on the first day. How screwed am I if this is their first impression?
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Jan 18, 2016 06:17
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I adopted an older cat to serve as a mom for my kitten, except the older cat growls at the little one. I tried introducing them by scent through closed doors for like a week. She's okay through closed doors and even visual range, but my idiot of a kitten keeps trying to charge her to play, and she will have none of it. The growling discourages him for a while, but within a few minutes, he'll try to wrestle her and she smacks him and hisses. This never actually drives him away for more than a couple minutes. They just had an altercation where he jumped on her and they rolled around for a while before the kitten ditched. I keep hearing about how growling and hissing and swatting is normal for cat introductions, but I'm afraid that the kitten might get hurt given the size difference I have the option to return the older cat to the shelter, and if she's really going to be unhappy here, that might be the best option. I tried to do site-swapping once, but the older cat just got scared and wouldn't leave a hiding space, so she wasn't going around the house and picking up the little one's scent. 
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Jan 26, 2016 07:35
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Hyperlynx posted:Feliway. Feliway's been running in that room for like, a week now. The diffuser, at least. Maybe I need the spray?
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Jan 26, 2016 15:07
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Thanks. Maybe things aren't as bad off as I thought. I'm not using any scented candles. I'm going to try for longer site-swapping today, then try to give them more introductions tonight. In other news, my sister's kitten ate her hair lying around the house, then took a poop, but the hair didn't all come out with the poop, then the kitten ran around the entire house with a poop trailing behind her.
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Jan 26, 2016 18:34
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I use an Omega Paw roll-and-clean litterbox. I'm noticing that my cat will do her business, leave the litterbox, re-enter it halfway, then start pawing at the sand. She hasn't eliminated out of the litterbox, but I'm wondering if the litterbox might be too small to be comfortable for her.
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Apr 7, 2016 22:50
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SynthOrange posted:Isnt that all cats? They cover up their business. I thought they usually were able to do that without having to leave the litterbox.
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Apr 7, 2016 23:05
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I went to clean out the litterbox and found this disgusting turd.
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Apr 10, 2016 06:35
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Latte's been tearing apart the carpet at the doors and I'm very sad about this. I'm not sure what to do. I've got a scratcher right next to it, and that's shown signs of getting scratched. I'm ordering more sticky paws rolls, but they don't seem to be doing a great job of training her since I've already gone through a whole roll trying to train her. I need to figure out how to repair the carpet too.
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Jan 12, 2017 22:36
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 06:08 |
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I think my next cat is going to be a jellicle. Does anyone know any reputable jellicle breeders in the Bay Area? Or have advice about taking care of them? I know jellicles are really only happy if you have at least two, and I'm going to want soundproofing.
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Jan 28, 2020 18:15
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