Sendhelp Posted March 2017
Caregiver's cats behaving badly.
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Does your Cat (or any pet) misbehave since caregiving your loved one?
Have you been required to take care of your loved one's pet after they have passed? Does your pet have cute antics that entertain your loved one?
And finally, has the cat or dog transferred their loyalty to your Mother?
My sister offered to take a litter of baby white mice off a colleague. For a similar reason. When she realised what the plan was the colleague was outraged.
Oh! - Do you mean a battery-operated toy gerbil, or a live one raised intensively?
Divo and Delilah have shared a household for many years. They had much more space before, though, so now it's close quarters...
...and this is why giving them separate litter boxes or separate anything is difficult, as space is limited. I'm already scratching my head as to where their crate is going to be stored. But they get along well enough that they'll hide out in the same closet, in very close space together.
And I'm ok with them taking time to adjust. I'm not ok with urine, feces, and vomit, but I didn't realize how particular the older one is when it comes to his needs. NO weird food, NO new type of litter box (and I bought the scented litter and I'm considering he may not like it...), NO NO NO. Or else. lol
Their old mom came by this morning and brought their old litter box, a high-walled step-in box that will work for what I want (to keep litter relatively contained) and obviously they are used to it. I think the three of us - me and 2 cats - are going to be just fine, but it is a process, like FF said.
And maybe the older one does have some health issues. Me and his old mom talked about this. I need another week, at least, to observe when he has the right food and his old litter box.
If you have 2 cats you really need to have 3 litter boxes, the open kind, and no scented litter, all my cats had dislike the scented stuff. I used Cat Pride clumping litter that comes in the lime green plastic bottle. And I need to scoop out whatever at least twice a day. I found just moving one of the litter boxes to a more private location had helped, my older cat didn't like having the new cat watch him when he was in the litter box :P
For cat food, thankfully the previous owner told the SPCA that the cat liked the Iams Hairball Control, being she is a Norwegian Forest Cat, she has a lot of hair. She also will now eat Purina One hairball control and "maturity" selections. Boy, that hairball food really does work !!
The hard part of a new adult cat is to find a place that they like to sleep. Rosie must have tried 30 different places until she finally settled on one. But I need to change her blanket every couple of days. When my old guy Charlie, 18, slept on it the other day, she refused to use the sleeping place, guess she didn't like that old man smell :P I had to get out a new blanket for her.
Rosie likes playing with the clothes-line rope. I will drag it behind me and she will attack it. She started to warm up to me once I started doing that. Rosie really likes my sig other, he's the only one that can brush her, which is usually 6 times a day. And catnip, there is this one cloth small toy that has capnip sewn into it, both cats like it.
Your posts made me run upstairs to fetch "French For Cats" by Henry Beard, looking for the chapter on "The Play - Le Jeu."
We have The Cat Toys - Les Jouets de Chats, including the rubber mouse, the cloth mouse, the ball of yarn, and the ball with a bell in it.
The cat toys are boring.
Les jouets de chats sont ennuyeux.
Let us turn to
The Things That Are Not, Strictly Speaking, Cat Toys, But Which Nevertheless Have Great Play Value.
Les Choses Qui Ne Sont Pas, à Proprement Parler, des Jouets de Chats, Mais Qui Ont Tout de Même une Grande Valeur pour le Jeu.
The Vase - Le Vase.
The Lamp - La Lampe.
The Knickknack - Le Bibelot.
The Little Crystal Candy Dish - Le Petit Plat en Cristal Rempli de Bonbons.
I like to play with things that are not, strictly speaking, cat toys...
J'aime jouer avec les choses qui ne sont pas, à proprement parler, des jouets de chats...
Alas, they are not very durable.
C'est la vie.
Cats can be very strange sometimes.
A sudden food change can cause vomiting. Not always but sometimes. Eating too much at a time can cause vomiting. I have to feed the recommended amount but spread out throughout the day.
Urinating and/or pooping outside the litter box could be from changing the style of litter box, changing the brand of litter, or not cleaning the litter box often enough. Do you have a litter box for each cat?
If the urinating outside the litter box is accompanied by loud meowing like kitty is in pain, cats have urine sludge like human kidney stones.
I have 2 cats. The younger male Siamese is the offender in my house. I have had to get Vet advice or treatment on all of the above due to this guy.
I decided in the spring to close my bedroom door at night to keep the cats out. We were having a bad allergy season. The male would stand on his hind legs beat the door with his paws, yowl loudly and leave a huge puddle of urine. Off to the vet. No urine stones, no diabetes, nothing....Vet told me to open the bedroom door or she could give him kitty Prozac.🤦🏼♀️ I opened the bedroom door...it worked.
There is a product called Natures Miracle that does neutralize the smell and is good to have on hand for emergencies. They have a formula specifically for cats. I’ve found the Lavendar scent not as effective as the plain formula. I found it at Pets Mart.
Cat smells are especially offensive to my bionic nose!
Good luck with your new babies.
Ming was an issue when I got her, not using litter box. She was so sick. I kept her in the bathroom with box, food and bed for a week or two, then she was fine.
I had just come home from the grocery store and as I was putting away the groceries,I looked and looked for the big white mushroom I had purchased and when I finally found it,"Toots" had it under the coffee table and she'd chewed it into tiny pieces and earlier,I awakened to my big old boy cat's claw dug under my eye and now I have a black eye.No tellin'what tomarrow will bring.I never know what they'll pull next~
If they do fine with a bowl of water and the tray litter box, then the problem isn't health related, it's New Overload causing behavioral issues. And then I can introduce new things along with old things and give them time in between to adjust.
Today I saw puddle-trails of clear-looking spit-vomit in several places in my bedroom on the hardwood floor. I see a good size food vomit patch on the living room rug. I see there is poop (yeah, I think it is actually poop, not hairball, but dry poop balls) on top of my big desk in living room and some on the rug. There is a huge amount of urine (definitely urine) soaked into the upholstered bench where I had draped a towel to make a fort for kitties.
Seeing as there are 2 cats, I'm not sure which one is the offender. With so MUCH stuff going on, I suppose it could be both. I think it is the older one, though, for the urine and poop. I think he may not like new litter box. But I don't know WHY he doesn't like new litter box, and I don't know if he needs more time to adjust to it, or he needs a simple tray box back for good. The younger one is using the new box ok, it seems.
Also, I think older one doesn't like some of my offerings on my cat food buffet and puked them back up. He is very cranky pants today, but otherwise seems healthy. I went to store and bought the wet food he is used to and set it out, but he hasn't touched it today.
I don't know which one is over drinking the water, maybe the younger because I've seen her drinking it, but one of them is drinking too much because... I filled the fountain base up a few days ago, about 1.5 liters, and it was all gone today. That seems excessive to me. These are indoor cats and they don't exert themselves and need to drink a lot of fluids, right?
I wonder if they will both adjust to drinking out of the fountain and won't drink too much now that they're used to it, or do they need a small bowl that I can monitor. That seems weird, a lot of people have water fountains for pets, so I think their over drinking is temporary.
I thought I would put them in the crate to do some cleaning up and they both REFUSED this. I can force Delilah but Divo is having none of it. I'm not giving up on them, far from it, but the wind is definitely out of my sails as far as thinking this was going well.
Some eat dry food and wet food. One female cat loves catching mice/rats and eats them. My tomcat Fluffy who passed away a few months ago loved raw meat. I fed him ground chicken or pork. Occasionally he got beef as treats. Oh how he loved raw meat! He was always hanging outside my kitchen when I prepared meat waiting for me to share some pieces. I loved that boy.
Right now my old boy Charlie likes both styles of food.... his sweetheart only eats dry food I think, unless she is the one cleaning up the wet food in the middle of the night.
Charlie will eat people food, he does like potato chips. Rosie won't take any people food.
Of course we laughed and Kitty got his share. Jacques has always been a nibbler with kibble but loves his occasional treats. He enjoys hamburger and rotisserie chicken too. The gyro garlic made MY tummy growl (I can finally eat!).
Jacques used to have a ‘kitty bro’ who hogged the food and when Bodhi died at 13 years old, after Jacques greived, then he started putting on weight. We didn’t realize Bodhi was preventing Jacques from eating. Apparently the dominant cat will do this. Jacques was the runt of the litter too. He looks like a little bear now, he’s much bigger but is active. I’ve had him since he chose me to save him after Hurricane Katrina visited our area. Thirteen happy funny years.
I recommend older cats. They are calm and loving.
I bought them an upgraded litter box, one where they have to climb on top to get into it. I hope this works to keep them from spreading litter far and wide like they have been. The water fountain is nice. It wasn't expensive and I know cats prefer running water. I've yet to see either of them actually drink from it but the volume of urine in the box tells me they are utilizing it.
Divo is skinny and I try to give him his food but Delilah eats it. I put Delilah in the crate for a bit so Divo can eat uninterrupted but he wanders away from the food bowl after a few bites. Ok... so he just doesn't have much of an appetite. As long as he seems healthy, and he does, I'm not going to worry about it. Divo needs steps in between jumping up on things like window sills and the bed. Delilah can do it w/o step in between but Divo can't. So... now there are strategically placed things around windows and the bed do Divo can explore whatever, whenever. High-fiving myself for being an awesome cat accommodator.
The grooming gloves work well enough. Cats don't seem to particularly care for them, though. But when I give them a rub down with the gloves, it comes away with lots of hairs.
I think it's been a very successful week one!
I saw my trainer's cat today for first time. This thing is MASSIVE. It is so round and plump and I asked about the weight because... the cat looks morbidly obese, if adorable. Trainer said something about surgery and after that the cat gained weight. Hm. Maybe I'll ask about cat again if it's there on Friday when I go for workout. I've never known a cat that was so fat, but wasn't due to over feeding rich foods.
Moving on to my new-to-me old fella, Divo. He's quite skinny. I've been feeling along his sides as I pet him. He's thin, but not emaciated or anything like that. He does eat but doesn't seem to eat as much as the other one. I had a clear understanding with myself that in order for me to take in an 18 yo cat, I would have to be ready to draw the line if heath issues started to occur that would be too expensive. It's not a hard and fast rule, just an idea that I made clear with myself before I took them in. It's far too early to get worried about anything, but... I wonder if I should have Divo's teeth looked at...? He is quite old and he won't eat any hard food, only soft, and so I'm wondering if his teeth are ok. But what if they AREN'T ok? What am I prepared to do then, if I get that news? So maybe I'll just not worry about anything at all right now and wait a month or two and see if he puts on some weight with me. Former owner admits the cats were neglected due to having small kids to look after plus other pets in the household.
I like the idea of home made toilet paper tube toys for kitties. This seems easy enough. D & D mostly ignore the toys I bought them, but they were only few dollars.
All the other cats during my life time never put on any extra weight. I don't know if it is more so depending on what breed of cat, or not. The cat that did gain a lot of weight was a short hair tordi. She would only eat dry food, wouldn't touch wet food or people food.
It's really sweet of your husband to care about her so much too.
I will warn you though,Chloe may put on weight easily now.Mine are all fat now,with kitten heads and cat bodies.
And this morning game. I am still in bed with my kindle and you all. Ming races through the house then races back into the bedroom, flying leap onto the bed, over the top of me, races off the other side, all while doing this little growl like noise, a few times. She once landed on me leaping onto the bed. I wasn't as flat as she thought I would be. Took the air out of me. She hasn't landed on me since. Must have surprised her too. 😈
My kitten will play with anything. My adult cat (neutered male) doesn't really play. It seems to be beneath his dignity. He will lie down in bed with me at night or naptime, as long as I don't try to cuddle him too much. Oh, well....
Mine follow me everywhere,wanting me to constantly entertain them.I need all the ideas for any other cat games and things to do with them that I can get.