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 My cat Shuffle is the mellowest cat I've ever met, and sweet as hell. I adopted him at ten months old from a guy who'd let him outside, so naturally Shuffle was curious about his new neighborhood even though I wanted to keep him inside. He's been an indoor cat for three years now, though one time soon after I adopted him he managed to escape. My friend had a humane trap, so I put that out. In the middle of the night, I was woken up to loud yowling, and ran outside to find another cat in the trap. There's a pair of friendly outdoor cats, obviously abandoned pets, who've taken up residence in my neighborhood. One seems like he's about eight years old, the other about the same age as Shuffle. They stick around because my friend drops off food for them and my neighbor does as well. The older cat had gotten stuck in the trap, and Shuffle and the younger cat were freaking out and putting their paws in the cage as if they were trying to free their friend. Less than 24 hours later we'd managed to grab Shuffle and bring him inside. The young girl next door named the older cat Tinkerbell and the younger cat Tigerlily, and then found out they were both boys. Now it's Tinker and Tiger. Tiger keeps coming to visit, stopping by the front door. Shuffle and Tiger paw at the door, meow/chirp at each other, and roll over. It's cute, and I'm tempted to let Tiger inside but I don't know if it's a good idea. I don't have a good way to introduce them, and I think I'd want to let Tiger in and out to let him visit his friend Tinker (and the neighborhood kids who he likes playing with) but I'd be worried about Shuffle getting wanderlust and going outside. I know of people who have indoor and indoor/outdoor cats, but their indoor cats are too afraid to go outside. But Shuffle was indoor/outdoor as a kitten, so it's kind of ingrained in him that outside isn't a scary place. He doesn't make a beeline for the door when it's opened anymore, but I still check to make sure he's not within pouncing distance of the door when I come in or out. What should I do? Tiger has been taken for his shots by my vet tech friend three years ago, but I'm nervous he might bring in diseases or something. So step one might be to take Tiger to my vet for some bloodwork. I mean, take a look at this cuteness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS46b054Uag
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Oct 13, 2016 23:20
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 11:33 |
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I just noticed that my four year old cat is slightly favoring his paw. When he sits, he kind of holds it up off the ground, and puts it down gently. At first I thought it was just him considering reaching out for attention, but then I noticed he was doing it when he wasn't looking at me. He's not limping noticeably. I dangled a cat toy and he pounced and swiped at it with the "bad" paw, but it's still concerning me. I picked him up and examined the paw and leg, pressing it all over, and he didn't seem to mind, but he's a very docile cat. Practically a stuffed animal. He's even digging his claws into my chair and scratching when he wants attention, so I can't imagine what's wrong. I guess I'll just watch him for a while?
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Dec 2, 2016 04:25
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anachrodragon posted:On this note, I think this one is fairly common: This better work because my 5.5 year old cat suddenly decided about a month ago that 4:30-5:30 AM is a great time to paw at my head and purr loudly until I wake up. Getting up, pushing him away, and locking him in the room while I go pass out again on the couch hasn't made him associate "wake human up" with "now I'm lonely and didn't get attention", so now this is my plan. Thanks, OP! Wish me luck.
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Oct 3, 2018 00:57
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My girlfriend is moving in with me, which means her cat is eventually as well. Her six year old girl is excited about our cats "getting married". We're bringing her cat to the vet tomorrow for a routine checkup and rabies shot, and were debating on stopping off with the carrier at my place so the cats can sniff each other. Her cat is ~10, mine is 5.5. My cat really wants a friend, but we're not sure her cat has even seen another cat before. We've been doing the thing where we rub their scent on a piece of clothing and let them smell it, but is the plan to bring her over after the vet a good idea? I think it might not be since she'd already be a bit stressed out from the vet. I'm nervous about introducing them in general.
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Oct 13, 2018 04:37
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So my vet said my cat is on the hefty chonk side and needs to cut it with the dry food. For the past five years I've had him I've left out dry food for him and didn't think it was a big deal since he doesn't eat a lot at a time. I switched him to Wellness Core grain-free high-protein food and he loves it, but it's been around two weeks and he hates the schedule. At night he's fine, we feed him at 7 to 7:30 and he doesn't beg even though he hasn't eaten since 8 AM. But at 6:30 AM he starts meowing, scratching at doors, and if he sees one of us he'll go nuts with the various stages of cat begging (pawing at us, trying the cute act, etc.) until he gets fed. It's very disruptive in the morning. We thought it was because we were giving him wet food at night and he wasn't eating enough, but even with the dry food it's no different. The vet told us to give him 1/3rd of a cup of dry food and take it away after a half hour, but is there a huge danger if we give him maybe a little more and let it sit there overnight? He'll probably finish it around 3 AM is my guess based on his appetite with the older food, and maybe he won't be such a typical cat in the morning when we're trying to sleep and/or get ready for work? I can't believe how well he adjusted to new food and the night schedule, but not the morning routine. What can we do?
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Oct 16, 2018 01:50
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ILL Machina posted:You can follow your vets recommendation. The cat was content when he could gorge and overeat and there'll be some pain and noise to go with the adjustment. An automatic feeder! Great idea. I forgot those existed.
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Oct 16, 2018 02:11
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I'm surprised at my cat's memory. I neglected his flea medicine for a few months and he got fleas, so I put some flea medicine on him. Of course it didn't eliminate the fleas, but it stopped them from living on him. A month later (and after a few goes with the scary vacuum) I go to put it on him again, and as soon as he sees the silver wrapper he starts flinching and backing away. My poor feline son, too smart to live in blissful ignorance. At least he's good about me putting it on him.
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Nov 6, 2018 04:48
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It's my cat's first year with a Christmas tree! That means I'm going to have to get prepared to stop him from chewing on it, because he loves chewing on plastic things when he's bored or pissed off that no one's paying attention to him, which is a habit I'm trying to break but have no idea how. He doesn't eat anything, he just chews on it. Any tips? To test him, I put up a small tree that has fiber-optic light strands on it. He immediately went to town chewing on it, and I'm afraid he'd chew on the actual (fake plastic) tree and chomp on a light wire and get electrocuted, even though he's good about not chewing on wires. Is there anything I can spray on the tree to stop him from chewing? We won't have tinsel and the tree will be unplugged when we go to sleep. I'm going to pick up some bitter spray from a pet store - I was looking at this stuff but it's got horrible reviews on Amazon. Wiki-How says apple cider vinegar sprayed on the tree will help, which I happen to have handy, has anyone had success with that? Maybe mixed with orange juice?
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Nov 28, 2018 22:00
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Joburg posted:Seems like the perfect opportunity to foster. My cat did that when he was going deaf. He'd go into the basement where his meows would echo the loudest and just meow sadly into the dark, probably to listen for if he could hear himself. He never totally lost his hearing before he passed, but eventually he stopped giving himself hearing checks and just accepted that he couldn't hear the can opener in the morning anymore.
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Nov 30, 2018 14:58
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Zwille posted:Oh god that’s so loving sad and I’m saying that as a deaf person. Did ya try showing him the can opener or something so he’d be able to see it? Dunno if that would’ve been practical or helpful, just a thought. He had his younger buddy who'd hear the can opener, and that was his cue to run into the kitchen. Don't worry, he never missed a meal! He was just a little scared when the hearing loss started.
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Nov 30, 2018 15:08
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Sprayed raw apple cider vinegar on our small tree to stop my cat from chewing on it. It didn't work. Now he knows what the tree smells like and he scratches at the closet door where the tree is quarantined until it stops smelling like a Kombucha factory. I need something to make it smell like oranges, because he hates oranges based on how he reacts when he smells our hands after we've eaten one.
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Dec 9, 2018 02:27
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I popped in here a few months ago asking for advice on feeding my cat. We used to leave lovely dry food out for him all day, which was making him chonky and the vet was worried about him becoming diabetic. So since then his diet has been this: at 8 AM I give him a 2.8oz can of Tiki cat food with about half a cup of Wellness Core dry food. At 7 PM I give him a bowl of the same dry food. The problem is he gets really hangry at around 5 PM, jumping on people and most annoyingly, chewing on everything piece of paper or plastic he can find. He does it for attention because he knows we'll scold him for it and then he can run in the direction of his food dish while looking at us. His favorite things to chew are cardboard boxes or plastic bins. I don't think he's getting too hungry because he doesn't finish his wet food (unless it's the tuna with pumpkin flavor, that's his favorite) or his dry food at night. How do I balance his diet so that he gets his nutrition, doesn't get overweight, and isn't an annoying brat? It's 4:30 right now and he's pestering me non-stop, chewing on my knee (just my pants, not my leg, just enough to be annoying) and finding whatever paper makes the most noise to chew on, so I caved and gave him some dry food so I can work in peace. Today's the worst he's been.
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Jan 18, 2019 22:34
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How's an automatic feeder work with two cats? We're going to have a second cat in the next month or two, long story short. Any recommendations on automatic feeders? Should I give him a small can at night to go with the morning one, and then a snack in the afternoon? I work from home for now, so that could work.
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Jan 19, 2019 05:43
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Someone recommend me a good, budget-conscious automatic feeder so this cat stops associating me with food, please.
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Jan 23, 2019 19:45
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Sydin posted:Ditto. I keep Mel's food in a cabinet under my bathroom sink, and if I so much as bump the door she comes dashing over from wherever she is to jump up on the counter and do her "feed me!" routine. When I'm actually feeding her she also really likes to nuzzle the food cans, which actually delays the process of feeding her because I can't open the drat can and pour it in her bowl when she's too busy cuddling it. This is me at the cat adoption place I volunteer for. Touch the food drawer, they all come running. I can barely get a can open without some of them jumping on the counter and nuzzling my hand.
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Feb 5, 2019 00:06
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I'm at the end of my rope with this cat being so food-driven. I got the PetSafe 5 Meal Automatic feeder, which was highly recommended by everything I read, but it's a lemon. I can set the clock, but it doesn't actually turn, even when I press the manual feed button. It just makes a very low clicking noise. He needs to eat at 8 AM, 3 PM, and 7 PM or he chews on everything in sight, meows, and stretches on everyone - including our six year old, who understandably freaks out. Going to try asking Amazon for a replacement.
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Mar 31, 2019 16:55
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We got our first good night's sleep since we moved into this apartment thanks to Ssscat. The only bad part was waking up to a pile of thrown up partially digested food because he ran out of food in the middle of the night. Running out of food gets him so stressed out he throws up, which seems counter-intuitive to me but must make sense to him. What I think happens is he "runs out" of food, meaning there's food in the bowl, but he can see the bottom of it so it's "empty" to him. Then after a while he gets desperate and eats the remaining food way too fast, which causes him to regurgitate what he just ate.
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Apr 9, 2019 17:44
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We moved into this basement apartment in March, with my cat. A few months later, we had to take in my fiance's cat that lived at her grandparents's home. Her cat had never lived with another cat before, but mine wanted to be friends. They tolerate each other finally, sitting next to each other for food and treats, but the female cat does a lot of growling and hissing... mostly when my cat tries to jump on the bed or doesn't move out of her way in the hallway. Both cats are due for their annual checkup. If we take them in together, will that mitigate the "you smell different so I hate you" factor? They've made a lot of progress and I don't want to take multiple steps backward now. They're also using the same litterbox, which is probably a positive thing! But it's also making the apartment smell... well noticeably like cat litter. We clean it every day and even washed it out completely, but it's a small basement apartment. Would unscented cat litter be better? We were using Tidy Cats 4-in-1, but I picked up Arm & Hammer Clump & Seal based on a recommendation and that stuff smells like if dirt could rot. Are there pet-safe air fresheners we could use? While I'm at it, are lightweight litters good these days? I know back many years ago they caused a lot of dust issues.
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Oct 10, 2019 21:02
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Rotten Red Rod posted:I wouldn't take two cats that aren't getting along to the vet at the same time. It's already a stressful situation and you're multiplying it by putting them together in it. Okay, we'll do one at a time. Thanks, I'll grab unscented cat litter. There isn't a strong ammonia or poop smell usually, it's just the litter that smells bad, so changing to unscented might actually let us have people over without being embarrassed. We do use a covered litterbox and recently changed the filter, but it really doesn't do anything.
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Oct 10, 2019 21:30
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seiferguy posted:It's a bit bigger than mine and there is an extra room that could hypothetically house a cat tree. I already keep the cats out of the bedroom at night at my place. "The 24 hour allergy pills from Costco" doesn't promising. Allegra? Claritin? Xyzal? There's a bunch of different ones, and of course the shots are a bit of a drastic move, but she should try different ones to see what works. I could be wrong, but I think taking them regularly works better than popping them "as needed". Hopefully she can find one that works for her and doesn't make her too drowsy... I mean she can take them at night, they are 24 hour. You can't keep cats off couches, but keeping them off the bed will make her life easier.
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Oct 10, 2019 23:42
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Shuffle has a little bump on his head, about an inch from his ear. Does this look like a cyst or something I should be more concerned about? He's acting perfectly normal.  
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Nov 26, 2019 22:53
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So update, I took him to the vet and it was just a cyst that they drained. I figured it was, but he was due for his annual visit anyway. A few years ago, he'd gotten outside and I borrowed a humane trap from a friend to try to catch him. Shuffle didn't fall for the trap, but one of the two pseudo-strays who are fed by the neighbor got caught. I ran out because I heard frantic meowing, and saw that her male friend AND Shuffle were climbing over and clawing at the trap as if they were trying to figure out how to rescue her. It was adorable and sad. I'd even see them laying next to each other outside. We eventually caught Shuffle; I sat outside listening to some YouTube videos that I normally listened to, and he heard the voice and came meandering over to listen and we were able to grab him. Since then, Shuffle has cried whenever he saw the male stray outside. Today when I brought Shuffle outside in his carrier, the male stray came running over. They were so excited to see each other, they were nose-to-nose sniffing and rubbing against the carrier, against my hand, etc. It was so cute to see how they were so comfortable with each other. The vet found a subtle heart murmur, which he's never had in his previous visits. He's only six years old and very healthy and playful and breathing fine, even when he's asleep.
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Nov 27, 2019 18:57
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BaronVonVaderham posted:Definitely something to keep an eye on but it could be transient (can sometimes be brought on by stress, the heart contracts too strongly and you get a whooshing sound in some of the valves...Rexie gets that). The vet probably recommended a follow-up soon, but just in case, I'd say go back in to get that rechecked in the near future. I will say he was super stressed because there was a ton of traffic on the way there... but yes, I'm going back in 4-6 weeks to see what's up. I don't know exactly how to keep an eye on it, just make sure he's doing normal cat stuff including eating, drinking, using the litterbox, and breathing?
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Nov 27, 2019 19:58
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Of course the second I order two extra cans of Ssscat spray it stops working on him and he frantically claws and bangs on the bedroom door at night waking everyone in the house up even while Ssscat sprays him. We have a small baby gate which keeps the older cat out but he can jump over. We have an accordion door in front of it that he partially broke trying to push open, but I can close but it doesn't matter because he can somehow open it and jump over the baby gate. Spraying him with water as soon as we open the door doesn't work, he's back at it in five minutes. If we let him in he chews on plastic obnoxiously, which is his strategy when he's hungry - but his food dish is overflowing. He's good for weeks at a time but then will have a long stretch of days where he's intolerable. Holy poo poo I want more than four and a half hours of sleep, cat.
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Jan 23, 2020 12:06
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Does anyone have casement/egress windows and have experience with pet-proof screens? My cat scratched up the screens so bad last year that we couldn't even crack open the window without worrying about him escaping. If he sees another cat or a leaf or a figment of his imagination outside he'll meow and jump and claw at the screen, and obviously we can't stop him every time. We just have a simple mesh screen that came with it now, but I don't know what to buy.
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May 3, 2020 21:10
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We feed our cats around 7-7:15. Every day around 4:30-5, my one cat starts going nuts. He'll go around being as annoying as possible, gnawing on things (making this un-ignorable "rahr rahr rahr" noise as he gnaws on anything hard plastic), jumping around places he knows he shouldn't be, clawing at furniture, etc. The worst is that if I'm sitting in the kitchen, he'll jump up and grab me with his paws, claws out. It hurts like hell. I yell "OW!" but he won't stop. I can't even relax in my own freaking apartment. And the kitchen thing doesn't matter - any time I'm there, he thinks it's wet food time, unless it's within an hour after he already ate. It's a small apartment so I can't even quarantine him during the times he's most annoying or whenever I sit at the kitchen table, because my only option is my bedroom where he doesn't have food/water/litter and will probably knock over things. I've thought about moving his wet food time to around noon, but even though I work from home in Normal Times, I can't guarantee I'll always be home for lunch in Post-Pandemic times. He was never this annoying before we were quarantined aside from maybe a half hour before wet food. Like I said, I can't even relax because he'll jump on me and dig his claws in. He doesn't mean to hurt me, it's more of a grab/slap. Any advice on making him stop? He's such a mush when he's not being annoying for attention, pretty much the perfect cat otherwise.
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May 9, 2020 22:29
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We brought in my fiance's grandparents' cat, Bella, almost two years ago, and they don't really get along that well still. They can sleep on the same couch/bed, but Bella hisses, growls, and sometimes swats at Shuffle just for existing. He just wants to be friends.  But it looks like she got a lucky hit in last time she swatted at him for the crime of being a cat in her presence, and I think it's infected. It's oozing red/white stuff, but not too badly at all, and now I have to call early tomorrow and try to get an appointment at the vet. He's almost eight years old. Is there anything topical I should put on this? It's almost time for his annual checkup anyway.  
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Jan 16, 2021 01:32
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Patrat posted:That honestly does not look too bad and will almost certainly heal up by itself with no sign it was ever there. Cleaning it with salt water would help with any possible infection but also be displeasing for your cat. You're right, I woke up early today to take him to the vet, but it looks much better. It's a little red scab and some scattered fur where the wetness was. But he has runny eyes normally (probably allergic to cat fur) so that was probably contributing to it looking scary.
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Jan 16, 2021 15:02
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 11:33 |
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My cat's always been very food-driven, but he's gotten crazier over the past few months. He knows exactly the places we don't want him to go and makes it his mission to seek and destroy. The Christmas tree is always a problem, thankfully that's gone, but he'll climb onto the table by the window and knock things over, claw at my chair and then try to destroy my computer (already got a nice scratch one monitor from him pushing over another), or loudly chew on cardboard until his mouth gets sores on it. We can't figure out exactly what he wants, but it's a set schedule: Morning (people wake up): Climb on things, try to get attention, demand to be fed even though we haven't fed him in the morning for over half his life (he's 9). This is somewhat of a change; he'd want attention in the morning, but now he thinks he should get wet food for some reason. Afternoon: Best cat ever, totally chill lap cat. 4:30 PM: Cause as much damage as possible, because dinner is at 6 and maybe we'll feed him early? (We never do, we even adjust for daylight savings). This often gets him locked out of every bedroom. 5:30ish: I have to decide how much I really want to make dinner because he's going to make everyone's life hell by getting in the way. 6 PM: Dinner! 6 PM - 10 PM: Best cat ever. 10 PM: Chaos cat until the bowl gets a fresh layer of dry kibble. This is the new part, mostly; he used to be fine all night, only getting antsy if I stayed up too late (past midnight) and hadn't refilled the dry food. Even though we don't feed him when he's bad, getting up and tossing him out seems to give him some feedback that what he's doing is getting him attention. It's a small apartment with three humans and two cats, so we don't even have a room to lock him in. Now that I've typed all this I'm wondering if he just needs more wet food; like I said, he's always been food driven, but this behavior really started when it got colder out, so maybe he just needs more because it's winter? My nerves are freaking shot between 4-6 PM and after 10 PM because there's nothing in the world that will dissuade him from destroying the most expensive things in here including himself. We literally can't afford to ignore him. What can we do? My Bombay son's got anxiety.
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Feb 6, 2022 05:44
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