lol. He said no to Big Brother. How on earth did he find it up there? Does it have a light on it or something?
It's one of these guys, and it's just resting on the back of a headboard so pretty easy for him to get to. It's not a permanent solution, it was more for us to see what he's actually doing when he makes a huge racket at night.lol. He said no to Big Brother. How on earth did he find it up there? Does it have a light on it or something?
I love receiving videos of our foster kittens in their new homes. Just received a new one of our last foster Cheddar. He was a brave little toaster, but we were nervous about a small kitten being in a home with a big dog. They're getting along great though.
My cat has a bell, because last August he caught 7 birds, 3 baby bunnies, 1 mouse and 1 full size rat (everything was still living except for half the birds F.Y.I). After the bell his capture count went way, way down. His best month, post bell, was 3 birds. Also my stress levels have gone down, now that I don't have to capture what my cat releases in the house.
What's the noise level on the thing like? We have a cat toy that swings a fake fox tail around, but Taika won't play with it because it makes this mechanical/motorised sound. Unless the litter robot is silent, I think we're still stuck with hand-removing (with a scoop, obvs) clumps etc.Hi cat-era! I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know about a wonderful little machine called the litter robot. My wife and I were sick of the smell that the litter box makes in our home, so we decided to do something about it. I've had the litter robot for about 2 months now, and my house has not smelled even once. It also puts the waste into a plastic bag and notifies you via the app when it needs to be changed. I've also significantly cut down on the amount of litter we use, because the litter gets cleaned by the system after each use and keeps it fresh longer. The unit is very pricey, but well worth it if you have the extra cash.
Hi cat-era! I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know about a wonderful little machine called the litter robot. My wife and I were sick of the smell that the litter box makes in our home, so we decided to do something about it. I've had the litter robot for about 2 months now, and my house has not smelled even once. It also puts the waste into a plastic bag and notifies you via the app when it needs to be changed. I've also significantly cut down on the amount of litter we use, because the litter gets cleaned by the system after each use and keeps it fresh longer. The unit is very pricey, but well worth it if you have the extra cash.
Oh lord, one of these feral cats just purred for the first time after eating. My wife and I froze in our places. It only lasted about 5 seconds, then the purrs vanished into the ether whence they came.
We're making slow, slow progress. Last night, they were playing up a storm in the room while we were out of it. We watched on camera, and the orange one came out for the very first time to play. They still hiss when you put food in front of their face, but that is slowly dropping off. My back is also killing me because I draped a blanket over my computer chair, and they now sleep on my chair every single day. It's their new home, and I don't want to disturb it. So, now I sit on a stool staring down at my computer.
Soon I will get my pets in. Soooon......
What's the noise level on the thing like? We have a cat toy that swings a fake fox tail around, but Taika won't play with it because it makes this mechanical/motorised sound. Unless the litter robot is silent, I think we're still stuck with hand-removing (with a scoop, obvs) clumps etc.
You just need to use clumping litter. That way the cat waste can properly be sifted without making a nasty mess.
So I got a question. I think with Maze I've got her to a point where she wouldn't be considered feral. She'll jump on my lap, play with wand toys, I can pet her, she'll sit on my chest in bed for a bit, never hisses, comes into the room with her tail up, greets strangers, sleeps against my feet as I work on the computer, but I do still have some quirks with her. I was curious if anyone thinks she'd outgrow this behaviour or if I needed to do something specific to curb it.
When she does get annoyed she ramps it up to 11. What I mean by that is she never comes from nowhere and bites or claws me, but her threshold for physical attention is comically low so she'll climb in your lap, demand some chin scratches then decide to bite or claw you. And since I've never really got her to play nice she'll use her claws for real. It's kinda my only issue with her.
So, I guess the question is is her physical contact threshold likely to get longer or should I be looking at other ways to try and get her to not use her claws? Most of what I've seen has been telling me to disengage or switch attention to a toy. Disengaging and ending play is rather difficult because I don't always have a toy on hand to offer up in exchange, but regardless I have stuck with this "training" since the beginning.
This behaviour is lessened if she had a vigorous play session earlier.
So, she's not in danger of me getting rid of her, it's just a mild inconvenience as far as I'm concerned. But am I looking at the possibility of her physical attention threshold getting longer, maybe her kitten energy somewhat lessoning leading to less intense outbursts, but maybe at the same rate or is there still possibly hope to get her to not use her claws(her bite does feel like a play bite so I'm less concerned about it).
She's around 8 months old now and has had everything checked by the vet so unless she's in some kind of pain we can't detect I'd assume it's not medical related.
It might also be related to other cats outside. My door lead right to the outside walkway and there's at least 2 cats that frequent the area. I'm sure their scent agitates her at least somewhat, whenever I come home she rushes out to roll around right outside the door. May need to use some enzyme cleaner
If I could just get her to not go straight to kill mode with her claws everything would be great. As it is when people are over I have them just leave her be, which works because again, she doesn't attack ever and will come and greet a person, smell them, maybe rub some scent on them and then sit elsewhere in the room, she just seems to take contact as initiating play.
I kinda feel like I'm making progress but it's hard to tell, as she'll also bring me one of her springs to play fetch if she's wound up.
I don't think it's that.I think some information that might help you a lot in understanding and contextualizing the situation is the why of her aggression. One It turns out that cats in these cases are suffering from overstimulation, which causes the normally pleasant petting sensation to "overload" their senses and become actually painful to them. They, of course, don't have a concept of subjectivity, nor can understand you're doing the exact same thing; from their point of view you're hurting them for no discernible reason, and obviously react accordingly.
https://www.sfspca.org/sites/default/files/documents/cat_overstimulation.pdf
http://www.treehouseanimals.org/site/PageServer?pagename=caring_ccg_overstimulation
The good news is that this is both common (and therefore relatively well documented), and harmless to the cats themselves, so you need not suspect she's otherwise in pain, if this is the only occasion she reacts like this. It will just take a while to learn her thresholds, and with more confidence and bonding she'll probably grow to be more forgiving and warn you with soft bites. For the time being I would just try to err on the safe side and avoid petting for more than a few seconds.
I don't think it's that.
I'm actually pretty good at reading her signs as she's pretty obvious. She only likes two things, chin rubs and ear rubs anywhere else is off limits and even those things have their limits and she makes it obvious.
I guess what confuses me is every other animal I've ever met has retaliated in a manner meant to convey stop it, so a sudden swipe, bite, whatever. I'm not exaggerating when I say Maze legit goes for the kill. I have never had a cat truly sink all its' claws, including those higher up on the leg ones, into me and dig in like Maze will, most cats attack to get you away, Maze doesn't want you getting away. And from that moment that hand or whatnot is prey to her, it's like a switch has flipped in her mind so getting her to stop is hard. But she only does it if you touch her at this really wrong moment, she's not going to attack you while you're sitting, sleeping, walking or most times you touch her.
I mean it could be over stimulation since there's always the "unpredictable" caveat but I'd be more inclined to say that she's still being under stimulated because once that switch is flipped she can go really long during a play session.
But there's another question I have then, does me playing with her to burn off this newfound energy after she attacks me positively reinforce the previous behavior? Like, maybe she is legit happy to see me and get her chin rubbed for a second, also wants to play and the, what at other times, normal stimulation for her just gets added to her already pent up energy and she goes nuts? And then I reward her, basically, by playing with her for 15 to 20 minutes and she thinks that's ok? Should I not play with her later if she does that? Or wait ten minutes?
I guess I'm trying to find out why in this instance she'd follow the hand as all the animals I've known that want me to stop generally let me retreat.
You still could be correct and it just be over stimulation and trust, even when she climbs up in bed she seems not quite sure yet, any movement before she's settled in will make her leave and even then she doesn't want to be right next to me for more than 30 minutes or so even if I'm not doing anything to her, she's still iffy about being touched during feeding too so despite us being on friendly terms 95% of the time I don't think she 100% trusts me yet.
Oh, just read somewhere else that kittens under 8-12 months may sometimes switch between relaxing and playing on a dime. Fantastic. Kittens are so much work lol, I've always gotten older cats.
I really think her main issue is still stimulation. If I had to make a bet I'd say that Elora does not play with her while I'm gone(just like when I'm home), and for good reason since Maze plays violent, so it's probably basically as if she was home alone when I'm gone.
Good advice. Ignoring them works really well with dogs too. When they're trying to get attention the wrong way, getting ignored is the best way to stop that bad behavior.It does seem like you're unintentionally reinforcing the behaviour rather than curbing it, hahah. "If I want to play all I have to do is to attack dad". You should probably just tell her "NO!" loudly when she attacks you, then ignore her (often this is the worst punishment for them).
One of mine had that same issue, in the same spot too. We figured out she had some allergy to eggs. She's a vacuum cleaner who loves all food, and she loved lapping up raw egg whites too. I realize that's not the safest thing, but it was just a very small amount and not even once a week, just a little bit left over in the shell. Once we stopped giving her that, no more bald spot issue. If it's not egg in your case, maybe it's some other food allergy?Cat era - my floofy cat (one of two) is developing a bald patch around the base of her tail and the fur around there is becoming more coarse. My thinking is it's a case of overgrooming.
When I search online for potential causes it references fleas a lot but our two cats are exclusively indoors and are both on preventative flea medication so that's not an issue. In two minds about a vet visit so thought I'd ask?
She likes to groom a LOT and is regularly slurping away atop her cat tree perch
I play with her as soon as I get home and so the few times she exhibits this behavior it's around an hour or so later. I only use long range toys with her because I already know what she does, so wand toys and the springs I can play fetch with are my main go tos. She's not a fan of much else. Maybe crumpled up foil, lol. She's cheap though, even when all the feathers have been ripped out of the wand toy she's just as happy to chase the piece the feathers went in instead, so I get a lot of uses out of 1 wand.It does seem like you're unintentionally reinforcing the behaviour rather than curbing it, hahah. "If I want to play all I have to do is to attack dad". You should probably just tell her "NO!" loudly when she attacks you, then ignore her (often this is the worst punishment for them). Schedule your play sessions so that they have nothing to do with her behaviour, and use long-range toys like fishing poles.
The best worst case scenario. Elora doesn't seem to want to play at all, Maze doesn't know how to gently play. So if Maze tries to start with her Elora will basically pat her a few times, hiss and retreat. If Maze follows her Elora then will stand her ground growl really loudly and go for some good bits and pin her to the ground, lasts around 30 seconds. I say it's the best case despite Elora really not enjoying it because Elora will try and disengage first but once it's apparent Maze doesn't get the hint and will keep instigating Elora puts an end to it quickly and then drives Maze off. She won't leave again after that. I was afraid if one of them hated playing that one would fear the other and hide but they're always both out in the open in the same room so Elora's not really afraid of her at all but she has no desire to play. She may also not know how to play to be honest, Elora and Reggie never played either, I don't know anything of Elora's history before I adopted her and she was about a year or so old when I did, and Reggie was got by my old room mate around 10 months old, mistreated by my old room mate and hated everything that moved for 6 months(Elora wasn't in the picture yet then) and then finally turned into a super chill lap cat once he(old room mate) was gone but neither of them engaged in any feline play as far as I could tell once I got Elora as well. But she doesn't try to play with Elora much any more.About the other cat not wanting to play with her, have you witnessed Maze trying to initiate play with her? How did it go?
I've surrendered to it.
I play with her as soon as I get home and so the few times she exhibits this behavior it's around an hour or so later. I only use long range toys with her because I already know what she does, so wand toys and the springs I can play fetch with are my main go tos. She's not a fan of much else. Maybe crumpled up foil, lol. She's cheap though, even when all the feathers have been ripped out of the wand toy she's just as happy to chase the piece the feathers went in instead, so I get a lot of uses out of 1 wand.
My problem, and it might be an easy problem to fix, is how to really ignore her? I can't ignore her if she flips a switch because then that unleashed energy will get directed towards Elora or accidental destructive behaviour. So while I do say "no" and set her down, usually because that's the only way to free my hand, there is a period of time that goes by as I get her toy again but I have been playing with her again because otherwise it'll be chaos. The only thing I could do further is put her in the bedroom alone for a time out and I have no idea how to handle that kind of punishment, like for how long would I leave her there if I did that? I really don't know. But I can't just ignore her and let her run around and attack Elora or try and climb the back of the PC cables and crazy stuff like that.
The best worst case scenario. Elora doesn't seem to want to play at all, Maze doesn't know how to gently play. So if Maze tries to start with her Elora will basically pat her a few times, hiss and retreat. If Maze follows her Elora then will stand her ground growl really loudly and go for some good bits and pin her to the ground, lasts around 30 seconds. I say it's the best case despite Elora really not enjoying it because Elora will try and disengage first but once it's apparent Maze doesn't get the hint and will keep instigating Elora puts an end to it quickly and then drives Maze off. She won't leave again after that. I was afraid if one of them hated playing that one would fear the other and hide but they're always both out in the open in the same room so Elora's not really afraid of her at all but she has no desire to play. She may also not know how to play to be honest, Elora and Reggie never played either, I don't know anything of Elora's history before I adopted her and she was about a year or so old when I did, and Reggie was got by my old room mate around 10 months old, mistreated by my old room mate and hated everything that moved for 6 months(Elora wasn't in the picture yet then) and then finally turned into a super chill lap cat once he(old room mate) was gone but neither of them engaged in any feline play as far as I could tell once I got Elora as well. But she doesn't try to play with Elora much any more.
If the play session I already have scheduled with her isn't really doing it for her I need to find something else. I have left the blinds up in the old room she was quarantined in in the hopes she'd like chilling on the sill and watching people and cars go by but it's not the best window since it's a room I'm not in and she wants to be in the room I'm in. I can't leave that one open though, especially while I'm here because I have to block the sun because I sleep during the day. The other toys like the turbo scratcher, crinkly tunnel, kickeroos and crap I can hang on stuff don't do anything for her, they're not energetic enough.
I'm hoping the weather clears up and I can continue taking her out for walks. On TV it said that that can be a good exercise for a cat if they want to go outside but since she'd be harnessed and leashed I'm not sure really how good of exercise it'd provide. But the few times I was able to get her in the harness she did enjoy being outside and rubbing her scent on everything. Not sure how to handle the other cats outside, they're docile enough, one's an angel that I'd adopt in a heartbeat if she had any desire at all to be indoors and I could have a 3rd cat but their scents clearly annoy Maze, she's always at the door when one's even near. I don't know if walking her and expanding her territory will be good for her if she thinks these cats are intruding on it, on the other hand maybe she'll get on friendly terms with them and not be annoyed when they're around. Or maybe she'll want to go outside and see them! Need this freezing weather to pass though before I cant test it out. But she's all vaccinated up and current on her flea and tick treatments.
One cat that's outside is legit the sweetest cat I've ever met, she'll run to you from across the street to say hello, everyone in the building loves her. 3 different units have tried adopting her but she just has no desire to be inside.
I wonder, has anyone seen like an internal bay window type thing? Something that'd be kind of enclosed but inside so that I could limit the light coming inside but a cat, or two, could chill inside and see out the window? That might be a good compromise.
Ringo looks like a troublemaker, lol.
I've surrendered to it.
One of mine had that same issue, in the same spot too. We figured out she had some allergy to eggs. She's a vacuum cleaner who loves all food, and she loved lapping up raw egg whites too. I realize that's not the safest thing, but it was just a very small amount and not even once a week, just a little bit left over in the shell. Once we stopped giving her that, no more bald spot issue. If it's not egg in your case, maybe it's some other food allergy?
That could help. In the meantime, if this is a recent thing, can you think of any change recently which may have triggered it? If not food, or bowls, or litter, it could be environmental such as pollen. Some suggestions here, and a potential easy fix is cleaning her fur with a damp cloth.Thanks for this! It might be time to get her along for an allergy test. She's the sweetest little cat and I hate to think she's in any discomfort
Did a double take when I saw this. She looks just like my Jonesy.
I love white cats. And blue eyes too. Is she deaf by any chance? I heard someone say white cats, blue eyes, have a high chance of being deaf. Never really knew if that was BS or not.
These long-hair cats are starting to get to my allergies, but we're making a lot of progress, so I just have to deal with it. My air purifier is working overtime. A combination of not allowing these two to free feed, and brushing while they are eating, has done wonders. We bought some Inaba Churu treats, and they allow us to feed them tasty snacks from a distance they're comfortable with, and build trust. While snacking, we sneak in the ole' cat brush. Just a few days ago, we were excited by a purr. Today, the orange one was actively rolling over and showing his belly for us to rub after being brushed. The orange one still scares easy, and they're nervous when we first come into the room, but they've opened up a lot. Even as I write, the black one is at my feet playing with toys. Since my wife and I are serious about starting a non-profit foster care when we buy our new home, she's been reading a lot of books on fostering and cats in general, and the advice she's found throughout has been great for these rascals.
I love white cats. And blue eyes too. Is she deaf by any chance? I heard someone say white cats, blue eyes, have a high chance of being deaf. Never really knew if that was BS or not.
I've just adopted two of the most social cats I've ever seen. Haru and Nemu arrived yesterday at 11am already purring, playing with the toys we put in the living room and wanting to sit on our laps at all times.
Haru had a very strong pooppy smell, so I had to give her a bath and... she just let me. With lots of purrs and no fighting.
At night, we had a party at home with 10 people and Haru and Nemu just loved everyone.They are both so special I've already cried 4 times.
This is Haru:
And this is Nemu:
They're sisters, but I did want to adopt two for them to have some company when I'm at work.Beautiful! Were they related or you just wanted to adopt two Cats?
They're sisters, but I did want to adopt two for them to have some company when I'm at work.
I've just adopted two of the most social cats I've ever seen. Haru and Nemu arrived yesterday at 11am already purring, playing with the toys we put in the living room and wanting to sit on our laps at all times.
Haru had a very strong pooppy smell, so I had to give her a bath and... she just let me. With lots of purrs and no fighting.
At night, we had a party at home with 10 people and Haru and Nemu just loved everyone.They are both so special I've already cried 4 times.
This is Haru:
And this is Nemu:
I feel flattered, thank you.It's 100% true, most white cats with blue eyes are deaf; @Rory can probably explain it better, he's a veritable expert on the topic. That said, the cat you quote seems to be a siamese (a red point if I had to guess), rather than a "common" white cat, so it's less likely that she's deaf. :)
I love white cats. And blue eyes too. Is she deaf by any chance? I heard someone say white cats, blue eyes, have a high chance of being deaf. Never really knew if that was BS or not.
It's 100% true, most white cats with blue eyes are deaf; Rory can probably explain it better, he's a veritable expert on the topic. That said, the cat you quote seems to be a siamese (a red point if I had to guess), rather than a "common" white cat, so it's less likely that she's deaf. :)
She got super power from the spider now she can seeNo, she's not deaf. She is missing a toe though; she was bitten by a brown recluse as a kitten and they had to amputate. She's still very agile though and gets in places she shouldn't. >:)
oops. just exposed your Super Cat