Pets chit chat thread

[Jembru]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

I had seen pics of what I call skyway cat stuff. I don't know many people that would have this much room,or for that matter money to do this,but it sure is cool.http://www.hauspanther.com/2014/01/0...ing-furniture/
Here is a link to a pic..

http://hauspanther.wpengine.netdna-c...Goldtatze5.jpg

I could be tempted by that! We chose the 'tetris shape' shelves we put up last year because we could safely display items inside, but Dolly had the outer surface to climb on.

I've worked out how to share images directly from facebook, but can't resize so will leave this as a link..

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/1503400_10153571522625371_411749960_n.jpg?oh=ce82a65f700c1cef45830f397eb7f19f&oe=551EE5C5&__gda__=1423167389_340b169791a1ef515e9c747353572508

For some reason she never bothered with these though. She can physically get onto them, but she never does.

I discovered the videos on youtube that are designed for cats this morning. Dolly's personal favourite is this one..http://youtu.be/elXRFIRun20 and she also enjoys chasing this little mouse around.. http://youtu.be/nJUuGz3iiDI Very cute!

[DanieMarie]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Thanks to Turkey season sales...

I just got this for Smittens, who is both a climber and a hider

(seriously, $80? awesome--if I made one, it would cost more than that in stuff...we'll just have to vacuum the heck out of it, and its going in the kids room)

That looks awesome! Albert is also both a climber and a hider, and he loves his!

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I just want to say that this is 100% completely normal cat play, and to be honest, slightly on the tame side. Floor play then normally includes grabbing onto the thing and kicking with both hind legs, or ambush play. Whether or not claws are out during play depends on a combination of how well you trained your cat in the beginning and their innate personality.

The problem is that people try to play with their cats with bare hands (as opposed to Jembru's puppet system, which is a really good system to allow this very normal play)... but humans are too soft to cope with 'normal' cat play (or normal dog play for that matter). So we think they are being rough or mean or whatever, which is only true some of the time. Some cats play too rough, because they've never learned boundaries and what is appropriate in play. Usually this is hand reared kittens, or cats that were played with roughly when they were cute little kittens. Sadly, humans are very bad substitute cat-parents, because we just can't teach them the social skills and boundaries that mama cat can. If you look at outdoor cats, or feral cats, they actually don't tend to play directly with each other. There may be some chase games and a bit of wrestle with some cats, but the majority of natural 'play' in adult cats is playing with prey, chasing bugs, swatting at hanging foliage and things like that. Humans like one-on-one play, and indoor cats seek it largely because their toys don't move on their own. When you put the two together you have a recipe for the humans feeling like they're being torn to shreds.

The other thing is that cats and dogs learn very quickly to use the methods that work for them. Swatting you on the face at 4am with a bit of claw-contact is a VERY effective method for getting attention, so they do it. Launching at you from a hidden place as you walk past is also very effective. Being quiet and 'well behaved' and never saying peep very rarely attracts much in the way of interaction when they want it. So they do what works. And humans as a species are really bad at a) ignoring unwanted behaviours, b) rewarding the wanted ones (because who's paying attention to the cat when it's quietly sitting behind the couch?) and c) being consistent in our responses. We THINK we're consistent, but we aren't. Intermittant reward is the single most effective positive reinforcement technique out there... if it works never, you stop bothering to do it... it if works always, you take it for granted and the reward loses it's value... if it works some of the time, the motivation continues and you'll try harder next time in hopes that the reward will come. 90% of the time, 'rough' cat and dog play is either normal or is a proven technique for getting your attention.

This is really helpful....I posted earlier about Albert's tendency to attack when he wants attention. I think his previous owner used to play with him with bare hands, or a sweater-covered hand. That doesn't work for me (I have scratches all up my arm) and I'm having trouble finding the balance. H did, but H is away until we move over there with him in Feb/March and only comes every 1-3 weeks for visits. When H is here, Albert is totally quiet and happy. When he goes away, Albert scratches me in the face to get attention. I think a lot of it is stress, because the person he connects most with is gone, but I also have more trouble giving him the attention he wants. I haven't seen a glove toy here, but maybe I can make something like that? He's really, really fixated on hands, though. Will that make him attack me when we don't use the toy? Sometimes he attacks my hands when I'm typing and stuff like that....

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Will get a pic up in a couple days, but Yoshii is here!. I'm a little worried cause he's got some scratches and some build-up in his ears and on the sides of his nose. Doesn't sound raspy, but we may need to get him some antibiotics. I have an ear cleaner I'm using for now to help with the buildup in his ears. He has an apt Dec 1 to be fixed and get shots. Since it's a spay/neuter clinic, I'm not sure they do regular checkups so I may still have to get him into the vet.

He's had a bath and a nail trim and handled both relatively well. He was a little resistant to the bath, but that's only natural. I would have put that off, but he was pretty muddy from the recent snow melt. And the nail trim had to happen. His were really long and very sharp.

Currently he's in our room sleeping with all of us, including the dog we still have, and purring up a storm.

Rae, or anyone really, do you have a guide to cat expressions that isn't intended to be completely humorous? It's been awhile and while I get the jist of it, there is some body language I'm not quite sure of.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

A friend is covering the cost of his neuter/shots as our Xmas gift this year so this will be taken care of ASAP. The clinic sent me a response yesterday scheduling him for Dec 1, so a little over a week from now. We actually already have our Xmas tree up thanks to the hubby's over exuberance so he can climb and hide in there for awhile. It's fake though, so I already know I'm going to have to monitor to be sure he doesn't eat it. I got the plainest litter I could find on my friends advice, but I'm glad for the tip of mixing in dirt. How do you clean it with dirt in it though? Just dump it every couple days and replace it?

Ideally you should change the whole lot daily, but that's hard if you don't have a lot of dirt in your yard! So you should scoop out the wet patches and faeces every day, and change the whole lot at least once a week. He may only need the dirt for the first few days, 'cos then you can mix in the litter slowly and he'll get the idea that the litter is what he toilets in. It's just to try to prevent issues... he may just take straight to the litter and it wont matter. But litter substrate is one of the things that cats can be really, really fussy about... and it's one of the culprits in toileting-in-inappropriate-places-issues. Number of litter trays, the size of the litter tray, where the litter tray is, what's in it and how often it gets changed are all really important factors. This is what's tricky about getting an older cat vs a little kitten... you can impose your preferences on a young kitten easily, but older cats have their own preferences.

Now this may not be a problem for you, but I'll warn you of one thing that can happen with male outdoor cats that are transferring indoors. Make sure he is actually peeing every day. Sometimes if they are used to going outdoors they'll refuse to use the tray (which is why putting dirt in there to start with can make such a difference). Don't panic if he doesn't pee the first 24 hours, but after that, if he doesn't pee every day, he could get crystals and get blocked. That's a BIG DEAL in a male cat, because it's life threatening. So keep a careful watch on what he's doing, and if you notice that he hasn't peed for a few days, or that he's trying to pee but not producing anything, get him to the vet asap. This is where being an entire male will work in his favor though... if he's going to spray, he'll empty his bladder. So just watch for that.

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This is really helpful....I posted earlier about Albert's tendency to attack when he wants attention. I think his previous owner used to play with him with bare hands, or a sweater-covered hand. That doesn't work for me (I have scratches all up my arm) and I'm having trouble finding the balance. H did, but H is away until we move over there with him in Feb/March and only comes every 1-3 weeks for visits. When H is here, Albert is totally quiet and happy. When he goes away, Albert scratches me in the face to get attention. I think a lot of it is stress, because the person he connects most with is gone, but I also have more trouble giving him the attention he wants. I haven't seen a glove toy here, but maybe I can make something like that? He's really, really fixated on hands, though. Will that make him attack me when we don't use the toy? Sometimes he attacks my hands when I'm typing and stuff like that....

I would get a glove toy (use a puppet like what Jembru uses, rather than those woolen glove toys you get from the pet store, as they'll insulate your hand better and have the puppet at the top). Then just make sure that you do daily play with him with the glove toy (preferably BEFORE he comes asking for it) and consistently ignore him when he tries to play with your hands. Or if he's trying to play with your hands, then calmly get up, walk slowly into the lounge, get the glove toy, then play with him a few minutes.

Also make sure that when H is back, HE uses the glove toy too, just so that there's no confusion and so that you are both really consistent. And make sure he has an outlet for ambush play too... in the cat toys thread we did recently Thalassa and I were talking about ambush play... so go have a look in there for some tips. Also get a string-on-stick type toy (or make one, literally with string and a stick) so that you can play with him with that... it's easy then to lay on the couch or sit on a chair, and idly flick the stick with one hand while you're watching telly or using the computer... if he'll use it, of course! Never leave string toys unattended with cats though... they are strictly human-involved-play only.

The other thing I would do is make sure that you are playing with him last thing at night before you go to bed. The thing that we often do with dogs and cats, is let them sleep in the early evening, because it's when we are having our own 'quiet time'. So then they wake up at 4am raring to go and wanting to play. Play with him in the evening before bed, and then make sure he has some of his daily food ration in his food ball, so that he can occupy himself for a bit after play, go to bed in his own time, and is then more likely to sleep through the night and not want breakfast at 4am. If that means he gets fed three times a day then so be it... that actually suits the cat metabolism better anyway. It's a pain to change your routine around the cat, but the trouble with cats is that they are very good at enforcing THEIR routine if you don't make one that suits them. That's why we have the ongoing joke of 'cats own their humans' and 'cats are the real masters of the house'. It's because they scratch your face at 4am and it's hard to ignore that! They literally ARE training you and manipulating you, and they know exactly what to do to make you do what they want you to do. Retractable claws are very helpful for that.

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Rae, or anyone really, do you have a guide to cat expressions that isn't intended to be completely humorous? It's been awhile and while I get the jist of it, there is some body language I'm not quite sure of.

Mine are all in my textbooks and in my brain... but I'll do some digging for you. I know that Sophia Yin has some great dog ones up, so I'll see if she's got cat ones too. Some of my textbooks also have companion websites I may be able to download from, though I may need to email those to you as my 'client' to circumvent any copyright issues.

[Heka]

You 'mericans. I thought that was a great deal, clicked it, and out of curiousity, decided to see how much the 'free shipping' was to Canada. $80 cat house, $140 shipping.

Holy shit.

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Ideally you should change the whole lot daily, but that's hard if you don't have a lot of dirt in your yard! So you should scoop out the wet patches and faeces every day, and change the whole lot at least once a week. He may only need the dirt for the first few days, 'cos then you can mix in the litter slowly and he'll get the idea that the litter is what he toilets in. It's just to try to prevent issues... he may just take straight to the litter and it wont matter. But litter substrate is one of the things that cats can be really, really fussy about... and it's one of the culprits in toileting-in-inappropriate-places-issues. Number of litter trays, the size of the litter tray, where the litter tray is, what's in it and how often it gets changed are all really important factors. This is what's tricky about getting an older cat vs a little kitten... you can impose your preferences on a young kitten easily, but older cats have their own preferences.

Now this may not be a problem for you, but I'll warn you of one thing that can happen with male outdoor cats that are transferring indoors. Make sure he is actually peeing every day. Sometimes if they are used to going outdoors they'll refuse to use the tray (which is why putting dirt in there to start with can make such a difference). Don't panic if he doesn't pee the first 24 hours, but after that, if he doesn't pee every day, he could get crystals and get blocked. That's a BIG DEAL in a male cat, because it's life threatening. So keep a careful watch on what he's doing, and if you notice that he hasn't peed for a few days, or that he's trying to pee but not producing anything, get him to the vet asap. This is where being an entire male will work in his favor though... if he's going to spray, he'll empty his bladder. So just watch for that.

I started out with litter, just to see if he would use it, and he's already pooped in there. I haven't looked close to see if he's peed, or checked to see if he's sprayed. I would think I would smell it, but I don't really smell anything yet. If I do end up using dirt to get him to pee, can I throw it back in the garden after? If not, I can go pick up up to two tons of compost free from the city. I'm sure that would be more than enough.

He's transitioning really well, I think. My husband let him in our room last night and he got up and wanted to play when I got up with my daughter and had some trouble going back to sleep, but I think he finally decided I wasn't interested and went to explore the living room. We don't have a hallway so when our door is open he has access to our room, the living room, and the kitchen. Unfortunately that's about as limiting as we can get on space. I wanted to put him in the attic to start with but it's carpeted up there and if he starts spraying there'll be issues. When we got him home yesterday we gave him a bath, etc, but then left him alone in the living room area for a few hours. Even took the dog with us when we went to a friends house. So he had some quiet time to transition.

He has started scratching at the corner of our bed already, which annoys me, but we're getting a new bed when we get tax money so I'm not angry over it. I got him a cheap house with a scratcher on the corner for now and am trying to redirect him to that, and my husband is going to make one of those corrugated cardboard scratchers for him. We didn't want to spend $15 on that when we have plenty of cardboard to make one here at home. He seems to like Velcro, so I might do something with that as well. And maybe make a cloth scratcher for him, since he's scratching the corner of the bed and that's cloth.

The other odd behavioral issue is that every now and then he'll be cuddling and he'll randomly bite us. Not hard, just a light nip, but it still doesn't feel good. Last night he kept wanting under the covers and every time Alex let him under he'd lay down and five seconds later nip his leg.

The house with scratcher we got is this brand: http://kittycityusa.com/ We got the hideaway version, which is just one cube with a toy on one corner and a scratcher on the other. What I really like about this get up is that we can buy more parts and add to it as we have the money. I'm also thinking of making him a tree of some sort. The typical carpet covered kind only more tailored to him in particular. So far he's shown no indication that he's interested in climbing, but I know that could change as he gets more comfortable.

He's a real lover, wanting to cuddle and get pets, and he still loves my daughter so that's all good.

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

So another not so good behavior we need to work on. Yoshii will come up and just grab our food off our plate. He treats our plates just like he would his food bowl. Not sure how to change this. I put him on the floor and he just jumps right back up. (We typically eat in bed, out of habit.)

[Heka]

Hehe both our SOs are Alexs. We have awesome taste.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

The other odd behavioral issue is that every now and then he'll be cuddling and he'll randomly bite us. Not hard, just a light nip, but it still doesn't feel good. Last night he kept wanting under the covers and every time Alex let him under he'd lay down and five seconds later nip his leg.

Yeah some cats do this. It's usually one of two main reasons:

Sometimes it's because they are getting over stimulated... usually that's what it is when you are patting and smooching and cuddling and all of a sudden they turn around and nip you. If you pay attention you can see the changes in body language and therefore see it coming, in which case stop the pats before they reach that point. On the other hand, my cat Casper used to nip you when you stopped patting her, as if to say 'don't stop, I didn't tell you that you could stop'. She also used to 'grab' you with her paw if you stand up when he's laying next to you.

The other reason is that lots of cats actually don't enjoy being patted. Yes I know... GASP. But it's true. You know when you've got a cat on your lap, and you're idly stroking it and it's just sitting there? That's your cat NOT enjoying being stroked. When they are enjoying it, they'll purr, they'll lift their head into it, they'll knead or they'll do some other actively engaged thing. If they are just sitting there, they'd rather that you just sat there as well. Humans are actually really rude to cats and dogs... we do all sorts of things that they tolerate because they prefer to coexist peacefully rather than rock the boat. Cats in particular like your body heat enough that they'll put up with lots of unsolicited stroking just to sit in that squishy warm spot. Ever seen a kitten trying to play with an adult cat, and the adult cat is sitting there with this long suffering look trying to give the kitten the cold shoulder but refusing to get up and move? Cats do that to us, too. So sometimes a gentle nip is them saying 'please don't do that, you're disturbing my rest'. Usually they've done a few little tail-tip swishes, turned away from you, dropped their ears or shifted around first... these are the subtle signs to say 'just stay there and don't move', but most people don't notice them.

The ego crushing reality is that dog people are generally right... your cat probably doesn't love you as much as you think it does, and it's not there to please you or comfort you, and it's almost always got an ulterior motive. (Of course, if it makes anyone feel better, I can say similar ego crushing things about dogs.)

So try to pay attention to what is happening when he does it. Ask yourself questions like... Is it when you pat a certain place? Is he enjoying the pat or has he simply been tolerating it for the last ten minutes? Is he crawling in the bed because he wants to play rather than sleep? Did he move a certain way? Is there something else going on in the room?

Either way, when he does it, push him away or move him off the couch/bed. Do it gently, so that it's not uncomfortable for them, and slowly, so that they don't interpret it as play. If he gets back up that's fine, but he can only stay if he doesn't nip. And if you think that he's doing it because he doesn't want to be patted like that, then stop patting him like that.

So another not so good behavior we need to work on. Yoshii will come up and just grab our food off our plate. He treats our plates just like he would his food bowl. Not sure how to change this. I put him on the floor and he just jumps right back up. (We typically eat in bed, out of habit.)

Just keep pushing him away. It's not at all unusual - my clinic cat Flynn would take food out of your mouth if he could... sometimes he tries to knock food off your fork while you're eating it. My cat Tomas wont get on the table but if you are eating on the bed or couch he'll get that 'oh, what's that, is that food?' expression on his face and try to make you give him some with the power of his mind (you'll discover THAT particular look soon enough... all cats do it lol). Tomas wont normally steal it off your plate, but sometimes he'll tap your arm with his paw as if to say 'can I have some please' and you have to push him away to tell him 'no, you can't'. Either lock Yoshii out when you're eating, or just keep pushing him away. If he were a dog then there are some other things you can do, but it's much harder to do them with a cat and most people don't have the time or patience to do it. He may always be inclined to try it if he thinks he'll get away with it, but consistently pushing him away or locking him up will reduce the behaviour. Also, NEVER EVER EVER feed him off your plate. EVER. Which will be hard with Nova, but that is the single most important thing to do. If you feed him off your plate sometimes, you are telling him that it's okay to eat of your plate and encouraging the behaviour. All it takes is 1 in 500 times to reward that behavior. When we're talking about dog and cat behaviour, 'never' literally means 'never ever'. Don't bother getting mad and yelling or whatever... it generally doesn't work.

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The house with scratcher we got is this brand: http://kittycityusa.com/ We got the hideaway version, which is just one cube with a toy on one corner and a scratcher on the other. What I really like about this get up is that we can buy more parts and add to it as we have the money.

Ooh I like that! I've never seen ones like this before, but they are awesome.

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

The kitty is fitting in nicely. He was fixed on Monday and has recovered as far as I can tell from that ordeal. He likes to sneak into the babies room and hop up in her closet on this storage hanger we have and cuddle in there. It's kinda funny. Kinda like these only bigger http://www.pinterest.com/pin/509469776570725564/

He's still got a little discharge from his eyes that I'm not sure about, but the docs checked him out and said there was nothing unusual. They looked at his ears and said they didn't see any signs of mites or an infection and he sounded good and all so that's good. Absolutely no problems with spraying, though I'm having to change his litter out completely on a weekly basis and I've been told that with only one cat, once every two weeks should be enough. But it gets bad, smelly and yuck, so I'm changing it out more often. Of course, the litter we have is the cheapest you can find because I didn't want anything fancy as we transitioned him indoors.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Absolutely no problems with spraying, though I'm having to change his litter out completely on a weekly basis and I've been told that with only one cat, once every two weeks should be enough. But it gets bad, smelly and yuck, so I'm changing it out more often. Of course, the litter we have is the cheapest you can find because I didn't want anything fancy as we transitioned him indoors.

Once every two weeks is absolutely not enough! Whoever told you that doesn't change theirs often enough.

Most cats prefer fresh litter every day, but not many people are willing to do that. So I recommend scooping out the poop and wet patches daily, and changing the whole thing weekly. No one likes to toilet in a stinky ammonia filled box... not even cats.

[thalassa]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

We scoop daily and we change the litter weekly. Its Chickadee's job...

[anunitu]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

I have had indoor cats,and outdoor cats...Changing at least weekly is very good. With the outdoor cat,no worry about the litter,BUT you have to worry about the Cat catching something from other cats OR from eating wild game. Even an outdoor cat is inside some of the time so you do need a litter box for the times you can't get up to let the cat out.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Most cats prefer fresh litter every day, but not many people are willing to do that. So I recommend scooping out the poop and wet patches daily, and changing the whole thing weekly. No one likes to toilet in a stinky ammonia filled box... not even cats.

I tell the cats that they are camping, and have to deal with pit toilets, or hold it until they get home.

[Shahaku]

Re: Pets chit chat thread

Once every two weeks is absolutely not enough! Whoever told you that doesn't change theirs often enough.

Most cats prefer fresh litter every day, but not many people are willing to do that. So I recommend scooping out the poop and wet patches daily, and changing the whole thing weekly. No one likes to toilet in a stinky ammonia filled box... not even cats.

It was based on advice of a friend who works for a local humane society. I think they change them out completely once every two weeks if a single cat is using them and more often depending on the number of cats per box. They scoop them out twice a day, but they only completely change them once every week to two weeks. So I'm not sure. I'm changing his out completely, weekly, scooping daily.

How deep do you usually pour it? I'm using a storage tub I converted to a litter box and filling it about two inches deep.