Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with kittens

Can I leave kittens for a month?

forza — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:40:07 -0800

[Kitten-filter]: My partner and I would really like to adopt a kitten (or a pair of kittens). The only problem is that every year we leave the country for at least a month, and can't take them with us. Will this be a problem? Some other details:

- When we are in the country the other 11 months of the year, at least one of us will be home most of the time, so they'll get plenty of attention. I worry, though, that this might make the separation harder when it does happen.

- Generally we leave in July, so if we were to adopt kittens now (age 8-10 weeks) they would be about 8 months old when we left the first time. Does this make a difference?

- Does it make a difference if there are a pair of them rather than one? We were leaning to adopting a pair anyways, but I don't know if this matters...

- When we are gone, would it be better to have somebody come by every few days to visit them, or to house them with somebody for the month? I know cats can be territorial, making me think that a visitor would be best, but that would be a month without much companionship at all...

It may seem silly to be worrying about this now, but we don't want to get kittens if it will be very bad for them when we leave. And the leaving is non-negotiable, for various complicated reasons. We thought cats would handle it better than dogs would, but I still don't know if that means there would be little trauma involved.

While I'm at it, are there other issues we should be aware of re: cat ownership that aren't obvious? (I have used the google and gotten the basic info about vaccinations, etc, etc, but couldn't find anything about this and there might be other issues that don't obviously show up, too. I've never owned a cat before).

Is hibiscus really toxic to cats?

amtho — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:07:15 -0800

Is hibiscus really toxic to cats (not dogs)? I need to bring in our two big tree-like hibiscus tonight -- it's going to freeze soon -- but we have nowhere really good to store them, and we have kittens here. I know that hibiscus is toxic to dogs. I know that some plants, e.g. lilies, are deadly to cats. I know where there are big lists of plants that are toxic and non-toxic to cats, and that some don't list hibiscus, though at least one does -- although that list might include it just because it's toxic to dogs/pets in order to be extra safe.

Does anybody know for sure whether hibiscus is poisonous to cats? Just pointing me to a non-qualified "list of plants toxic to cats" won't help much -- I need something authoritative, or at least a personal anecdote one way the other. Please?

Of course it's safest to just keep them away, which we'll do by default, and the plants might be vulnerable to the kittens -- but we'd end up having to keep the kittens out of a fun room in the house, and it would be nice to have the "temptation" of the fun-looking tree-like plants available so we could carefully train the kittens to respect house plants (if such a thing is possible).

How to get cats to use the litterbox?

djduckie — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:51:22 -0800

How can i re-litter train my cats? We had two cats, and they were good cats. they are about a year old, litter mates, didn't fight much, used the litter box, or atleast pooped on the tile next to the litter box in their bathroom, which was easy to clean. Then one day we are walking to the apartment and a kitten that looks almost exactly like the jumps out of a bush and comes straight up to us. He let's me pick him up, he has no tags so i decide i'll feed him and see if someoen puts up signs for him. Well, no one did, and he thinks i am the greatest thing on the planet, so it's pretty much too late to get rid of him. The bad news being that the older cats took a while to warm up to him, and now that they have and everything seems ok, one of them has stopped using the cat bathroom entirely, rather opting for the carpet in the dinning room.

I found another similar question and everyone suggested isolation, but the is the problem with that (possibly). There are three of them, and we live in a 900 sq ft apartment. Their bathroom is like a glorified broom closet with bathroom fixtures in it (which as i am sure you could guess take up most of the space.

I know the question of "why three" comes to mind because it often comes to my mind. Well like i said we started with 2, the first we got, and then i realized that with my work schedule and school there were huge chunks of the day that no one was there and i wanted him to have some company, so that introduced his brother. The third was a chance encounter and probably a mistake, but i am a big softy when it comes to poor defensless kittens.

Any suggestions?

What sex for a new kitten?

CollegeNelson — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:49:36 -0800

What is the best sex for a new kitten? And should I get one? Right now I have three cats that have learned how to get a long. Two girls and a boy. Now someone at work wants to know if I want a kitten. Her cat just had a litter and if I want a cat I can pick the sex. I am not sure if I want to get a boy or a girl. The girls(14 and 11 years old) get along with each other and tolerate the boy(3 year old). Also I know I am moving out of state in three years hopefully into a new home but I am not sure so is adding a new cat into the house the best idea. I love cats and have had four cats before I just want to make sure I am not saying yes just because the whole oohhh kitty thing.

Please help the little pussies

wv kay in ga — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:09:23 -0800

I have searched previous questions, as well as Google and can't find the answer to this question. My friend rescued five kittens, estimated to be 2 1/2 weeks old. She is at a loss as far as feeding. Her efforts with bottles, milk, canned foot, etc. are not working. Can you help? Anyone with experience?

I would like to pet your cats

miskatonic — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:40:25 -0800

I'm interested in volunteering at a cat rescue organization in New York City. Any recommendations? It's not quite the right time for me to adopt a pair of cats, as I was hoping to do this summer, but I'm still looking to get some quality cat time in my life. Consequently, I'd like to volunteer at a rescue or animal shelter here in NYC.

I'm really only interested in interacting with cats and kittens, but I'm not afraid of or allergic to dogs and other animals so it doesn't necessarily have to be a cat-only organization.

I don't have a lot of time to commit - the ideal for me would be something like one weekend day a week (probably Sunday) or one evening a week after work. I am most looking forward to playing with and helping to socialize cats and kittens, but I understand that less fun things like feeding and litter changing will be needed as well and I don't object to that. I've had several cats in the past so I have experience in most aspects of kitty caretaking.

Can anyone recommend a shelter for me to check out?

How can we help facilitate our brand new kitten and our 2 year old cat to get along (or at least tolerate each other)?

etherealclarity — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:56:59 -0800

Although we've been following the standard advice of slow introductions, our new 14 week kitten and 2 year old cat seem to have fallen into a pattern that we're concerned will negatively impact whether or not they ever get along at all! Additionally, we have time constraints and the longer we keep them separated, the more miserable the kitten seems to be. 2 years ago I got a kitten named Ellen Ripley (Ripley for short). I got her through a rescue program but she has always had a home: her mother was the one rescued while pregnant. She's about two now and is a very sweet and affectionate cat (though sometimes a bit needy). She loves settling in laps, always greets me at the door, and has never been aggressive or used her claws with people. She gets nervous and hides around most new new people but always warms up to them with enough time.

A few weeks ago my boyfriend who lives with me decided to get a kitten. We brought an 11 week old kitten home from the shelter and named him Rasputin (Raz for short). Not a whole lot of history was known about him at the shelter (though I did notice that all of the whiskers around his face were cut short and no one could explain why). He's very friendly and extremely energetic for long periods of time until he gets tired and plops himself down near you or on you to catnap.

We did some research before bringing home the new kitten about slow introductions. Raz went straight into our guest bedroom and has his own food and litterbox there (as well as TONS of kitty toys!). Once they got used to each other's smell, we started cracking the door to let Ripley and Raz see each other. At first Ripley would hiss and growl and run away, to the point where she wouldn't even approach the door. After a while (and lots of treats and wet food incentives) she was fine with the door so we started allowing short (and then longer) periods of supervised play.

This is where we seem to have gotten stuck. Sometimes it seems as though they are just playing - Ripley will chase Raz, Raz will run and hide but then "attack", they'll swat at each other, Raz will run away again and Ripley will stalk and "attack". They do all of this without noise and seemingly without claws.

At other times, it seems like bullying - Ripley will stalk Raz to some corner and growl, he'll be startled and squeak and run some other place, and she'll stalk him there and growl, until Raz gets fed up and "attacks" but chickens out when she growls again. Occasionally she'll hiss during these interactions and more recently they'll actually "fight" and there'll be some yowling-type noises. We have a water bottle on hand to interrupt aggressiveness but the "fights" are too short to break up and we're worried about creating negative associations in the cats for each other.

They're not hurting each other from what I can tell, but I know that early interactions matter a lot in getting cats to eventually get along. I'm not expecting things to be perfect yet, I just want to know when is a good time to interfere and when we should just leave the cats alone. I'm also just concerned that it seems to be a pattern and a cycle... the more he play attacks her, the more apt she seems to be to start bullying, and the more she bullies, the more he seems to get nervous and try to make her back down (and always fails). The whole situation is rather stressful and at times I'm worried we have begun to react too quickly to what seems to be negative behavior to us.

To make matters more complicated, Raz mews miserably whenever we leave him in the guest room alone, and both my boyfriend and I have full time jobs AND go to school many evenings. We've been trying to let him out as often as we can and spend time playing with both cats, but the quicker we can keep them both in the same area together, the happier we'll all be. We are torn between trying to rush the introduction process so Raz isn't stuck in the guest room all the time, and keeping it slow and measured to ensure that they do eventually get along.

So the guidance I'm looking for is this:
1) When should we interfere if the cats aren't getting along?
2) HOW should we interfere (spraying water, separating the cats, playing with them, etc)?
3) Is it worse for Raz to be alone for most hours of the day, or for the cats to have more and more time together before they might be ready for it?
4) Does anyone know why Raz might have had short whiskers and if they grow back? (I did notice one long one that got short after we brought him home so I'm concerned that it's self inflicted.)

Additional Info: Both cats are fixed. We got Raz about 3 weeks ago. Pictures of both cats if you're curious... Ripley and Raz. Both seem healthy and haven't been engaging in any stress behavior like spraying or middening. We pay lots of attention to both cats whenever we are home to make sure the older cat doesn't feel jealous, and we often give them wet food while they're out together which sometimes helps temporarily. We also just purchased a Feliway diffuser a few days ago but haven't seen any results yet.

Mother cat in basement/crawl space, nursing two newborn kittens (likely less than two weeks old) soliciting solutions.

weakcore — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:50:35 -0800

I just moved into a duplex two weeks ago, and yesterday I discovered two kittens (w/ mother) underneath my unit ... I can't afford (both financially and emotionally) to care for them at the moment .... Three main questions:

1. Does anybody know how high a cat is able to jump with a one/two week old kitten in her mouth? What is the best way to encourage a mother to relocate her litter?

2. What can I expect from animal control should I choose to call them for removal?

3. What do you think is best way to handle this? Call the local animal control to have them come get them or "encourage" the mother cat to relocate her litter?

context:

The kittens are probably one to two weeks old, they look like they've just begun to open their eyes and are [clumsily] stumbling about.

There is a trap door in one of my closets w/ stairs that leads down to about a 15x8'x5' (LxWxH) hole dug into the crawl space underneath the unit that functions as a tiny basement of sorts, containing two water heaters and some other odds and ends like paint buckets, tarps, etc.

The mother cat is able to exit and enter using various objects as a step ladder (said object is some sort of large iron anchor about 3.5' tall and REALLY heavy--too heavy for even two/three people to lift by my guesstimate, unless they're recent competitors in The World's Strongest Man). I imagine that she'd be able to make the 5' jump if she really had to, but I think the height makes it difficult/impossible for her to relocate her offspring. Maybe I can give her some help by making a serious of shorter jumps for her .... What would be the best way to encourage the mother cat to relocate should I choose this path?

I'm leaning towards animal control as opposed to encouraging relocation, but can't really decide (thus my post). I don't really want to just let nature take its course (I don't want a bunch of cat pee and poo down there and I don't think my landlord would be very happy). I am open to any other suggestions (that may be more ethical/humane?) that I might not yet considered too. Thanks in advance.

Cat gave birth 12 hours ago and still seems pregnant

Melsky — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 13:00:45 -0800

Cat gave birth 12 hours ago, three healthy kittens, still seems pregnant (bulgy belly) and seems to be having contractions. What should I do? I adopted a stray cat who was pregnant. She just had her kittens at 4 in the morning, three kittens who all appear healthy and are nursing. My cat seemed fine at first but after she got up she still seems pregnant - like there might be another kitten or two in there.

It is now almost 12 hours later and she just took the kittens from the bedroom where she gave birth to them (she gave birth at the foot of the bed while I was asleep) and she took them to a box in my closet in another room. But she now is purring very rapidly, almost like panting, and she's having contractions, like she's trying to expel something.

My vet is not open right now. There is an emergency vet listed on my vet's answering machine. But is this normal? What should I do? Is there any vets who consult by phone anywhere?

Just to be clear, I fix all my cats but this is one who I found living in the basement of a property I manage and we were going to have to board up her home so I adopted her. She's a very sweet kitty.

Here is a youtube video of her and one of her kittens

What disease do cats get from a lack of people food?

nzydarkxj — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:27:56 -0800

What risk does a cat take in not eating people food? A month ago I found a kitten a couple weeks old abandoned in the street. (She weighed about 1 kilo and was an estimated 5ish weeks old, if it matters)

I took her to the vet about an hour after I found her because she had an infection, and she got all cleaned up and a shot for the infection, all better now etc... Anyway, the vet stressed that it is important to mix people food with the cat food, otherwise cats can get diseases.

That sounded strange to me. What diseases is the vet talking about? If its not really that necessary I'd prefer to NOT feed the cat people food other than an occasional fish treat or something. At the follow up visit the vet said the same thing and our conversation got derailed before I got more information.

Purina Pro Plan Kitten formula was the food she recommended

Should we get a kitty?

Grimble — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:52:11 -0800

My boyfriend and I are currently living in a large-ish one bedroom apartment. My boyfriend works and I'm quite busy with school but we would really really love to get a little kitty. I'm worried we won't have enough time to care for the little thing properly. My main concern is the summer. I might be going away during the summer for a month and it's likely that my boyfriend will be gone the entire time. In case I do leave for a month, I could ask a friend to care for it, but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that.

More generally, I'm not sure how much time and attention a kitten requires. I live right by the university so I study at home all the time, but most mornings I'm gone. Can anyone tell me how big the commitment really is and how much time I should be prepared to spend with a kitten? I'm absolutely willing to spend any time that I do have available with the kitty, but I'm not sure if that will be enough and I don't want us to get a pet just to make it miserable. Thank you!

Zuzu + pee pee = Grrrrrrr

mudpuppie — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:44:46 -0800

Kitten uses her litterbox just fine. She uses the couch and the bed equally well. What to do? We got a couple of little furballs this weekend. They stay in my office for most of the day so we can slowly introduce them to my 14-year-old grouch of a tabby. At night, I've been letting them run around (supervised) in the living room or bedroom so's they can stretch their little legs.

Each time now, little Zuzu has peed on the couch or the bed.

She knows to use the litterbox when she's in the office. After the first time she peed on the bed, I've watched her very carefully. When she jumps on the bed or the couch, I immediately put her into the litterbox. This worked once -- she peed, yay. Other times, she squats but doesn't pee. Then, two minutes later, she manages to pee on the couch/bed before I can get to her. I grab her as soon as I can and put her in the box, but this usually means that she ends up peeing on me.

Other than putting her in the litterbox and scratching her paw in it, I'm not really sure what to do. I could keep her out of the living room or bedroom, obviously, but I'd rather solve the problem sooner rather than later.

Stats: She's 14 - 16 weeks old and was fixed last week. Her littermate is an angel and shows no problems, so I suspect they were taught well enough initially.

Any ideas?

Getting a kitten for a gift - what else do I need?

ghastlyfop — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:05:16 -0800

I've decided to adopt a kitten for my fiance as a Christmas gift this year. She's an absolute animal lover, and she has been wanting to get a kitten for a while now (her cat of 15 years died this summer). I'm going to arrange the adoption and then have her pick the kitten out the day after the holiday. However, I'm going to arrange an assortment of kitten necessities for her to open on Christmas morning. Never having had a kitten, what do I need?

My cats know I'm made of meat!!

Mutant — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:32:01 -0800

Potentially gross question about two cats that like the taste of human flesh. So Mrs Mutant & I adopted two kittens last February.

Black, female, affectionate, playful, keep the rodents at bay, all good cat stuff.

One small concern: both cats like the taste of my flesh.

Mrs Mutant & I both like to use our MacBooks while chilling before sleep. Perhaps three months ago we noticed that both kittens, while lying on our bed with us, would for long periods of time sniff my toes (it gets grosser).

Then we noticed (well, I noticed) a few nights later that each would try to nibble on my toe flesh. Repeatedly. Not trying to bite off chunks of flesh, but careful, small cautious nibbles of the flesh. Seems like they both pay the most attention to the space in between my toes, but each will bite and nibble and lick (warned you it was gross, but there is worse) my feet for as long as I let them.

Very insistent, very focused on my toes, I've been woken up by their behaviour.

So what's up?

I've been around cats most of my life. I've never seen this before. About the only possible thing I can think of is my time working in the Sub Saharan African jungles; I caught more than one nasty bug and did at one time have some (colourful and thus cool) fungus growing on my toes.

But the fungi have long been evicted as I took the cure (which made me pretty sick as well) so I'm not sure if fungus is a viable hypothesis.

Any ideas? Oh yeh, both cats like my toe nail clippings. So much so they come running when I unzip the manicure kit. Now I've gotta clip my nails behind closed doors, otherwise they push each other out of the way in an effort to consume my clippings (final grossness).

As they get larger do I have to be even more concerned? Or is there a simple explanation beyond, "secretly in their primal hearts, your cats know you are made of meat" ?

Do I have something to worry about and if so, what can I do about it?

10ch — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:13:41 -0800

What to do about the woodstove and our new kittens? We've recently added two kittens to our home (one's 5 months, the other's 11 weeks). One of their frequented hiding spots is under and around the woodstove.

I've only ever had one cat and she wasn't very frisky. She didn't go near the stove very often... and I didn't have her when she was a kitten.

What is your opinion? Are cats/kittens smart enough to realize the stove is hot or should I barricade it somehow? (I have no idea how I'll do that at this point... suggestions are welcome, here is a pic of the area.)

We're obviously discouraging them from going under there every time they get near it, but they're going over there at dozen times a night, at least.

Opinions/advice?

You can lead a cat to water...

odayoday — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:53:47 -0800

I have two energetic one-year-old cats who love to knock over their water dish. I've tried several different types (at first they had a standard ceramic dish, into which they'd drop their stuffed toys until the toys absorbed all of the water (and got extremely gross), so I switched to a water-cooler-style dish, with a jug on top that fills to a dish in the bottom. That worked for a few weeks, but now the just play with it until it tips over, leaving my rug wet and them thirsty. What can I do to keep them from doing this? Is there a better (but still inexpensive) cat-watering system?

One abandoned cat, four nursing kittens, and a billion fleas... Help!

stefanie — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:41:58 -0800

I need flea advice for a momma kitty and her 3-week-old kittens. I've just taken in an abandoned cat and her four kittens (probably about 3 weeks old at this point; their eyes are open and they waddle around fairly unsteadily) and although they seem healthy, friendly, and nourished, they are covered in fleas. Huge ones.

I understand it's ok to give Advantage to nursing cats, so I'll look into doing that for the momma, but the big problem is the kittens. I'm told it's best not to bathe kittens when they're so young, so instead I went to work with the flea comb. Hours of combing later, I'd estimate that I've only got half of them. Every time I look at their bellies, I see at least three monster flees running away.

So what are my options now? Is there a safe way (or safe age) to bathe them? Can I just dunk them in tepid water and drown the fleas, without using soap or detergent?

I haven't seen any evidence of worms (yet) but one of them has massively stinky farts and super runny poo. Is this normal for kittens of this age?

Clearly, I've never dealt with kittens before, so any other important advice I'd need for nursing kittens would be welcome. (Also, if you know of anyone in San Diego who wants a kitten or a super-friendly (and soon to be spayed) young cat, please MeMail me.)

Kittens, vaccinations, etc.

ndicecco — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:34:59 -0800

What is the best/cheapest way to get shots / spay and neuter 4 kittens and a mother cat in Toronto? No father to worry about... he left shortly after the young ones were born. The kittens are 8 weeks old. The mother is quite young... but we're not sure how old she is. As far as we know, it's her first litter.

We're just concerned for the well-being of the kittens but can't necessarily afford to do everything through a vet.

The whole situation caught us a bit off guard... when the mother cat first started coming around, we thought she was a he. Then he got fat. Now there's kittens.

Two Cats are Better than One?

By The Grace of God — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:17:55 -0800

I want two kittens. My husband wants one. Help me win this argument. I think:

The cost of having two kittens/cats isn't much more than one (barring vet bills - is this the case? We're in the UK.)
Mess from shedding, hairballs, stray vomit and poop, etc. isn't much more from two than one.
They will be indoor kitties and will be fitter and healthier with playmates.

Husband thinks:

It will be spendier, messier, etc. by a factor of two if we get two kittens.

Looking for an explanation behind the steep "rehoming fee's" for adopting pets.

ShootTheMoon — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:37:38 -0800

Looking for an explanation behind the steep "rehoming fee's" for adopting pets. Can anyone explain the reasoning behind the "rehoming fee" when adopting animals. This seems to be extremely popular on craigslist. I understand covering the cost of younger animals, and would not mind paying $25-$50. But many of these people want 200-300+ for puppies that have not even been spayed/neutered or given all of their shots.

Additionaly, it appears that some of the people doing this may be doign this as a business. Adopting pets from the shelters, and turning around and selling them for a couple hundred in "rehoming fees".

Anytime anyone tries to ask this kind of question on craigslist, it is quickly flagged for removal, making me further believe something unethical is going on.

Do cats have the "terrible twos" phase as well?

jlweber — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:14:33 -0800

CatFilter: I know there are a lot of posts on weird cat behaviors, and I understand cats will be cats... but WTF how do I correct some of these problems? I have two growing healthy kittens that are 10 months old now, brothers and neutered. They live with my roommates cat, female and about 3 y/o. We also have one other roommate who doesn't have a cat but loves the ones we have.

The boys are very active and acting very much as I would expect toddlers to. Most of the time they are well behaved, they even come or stop what they are doing when I call them. They do have some weird habits at the moment and I'm completely unsure of how to break them.... For example (and what prompted this post) Sammy for the past 4 days has started screaming at 8 am at nothing in the living room. I thought it was food, but there was plenty in the dish. He also has access to my room/bed so if he wanted attention he could try a more focus approach.

Secondly, Carmicheal, likes to dig in the groups water dish cause it makes a cool sound. We have one of the watercooler water dishes so there about half a liter of water on the floor some mornings.

Other things: Jumping and scratching the shower curtain, begging for table scraps. Probably least stressing, Carmicheal likes to suck on his tail. When he is done there is about 3/4 inch of slick wet tail flipping around the house. Its more gross than anything else, I've very careful to check hes not hurting himself.

We do use the water bottle method but its for behavior that we can catch and really want to discourage. Are these all just things cats do? Is there any other way to curve their behavior?

What are some non-English words meaning "bastard"?

UbuRoivas — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:18:54 -0800

What are some non-English words meaning "bastard"? This is for the purposes of naming my kitten.

I mean "bastard" literally. I had no luck with sites for foreign-language swearing - none I could find allowed me to input a certain word & get its translation in multiple languages.

Stop molesting my nose!

qz — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:22:31 -0800

Why is my kitten so hell-bent on pestering me when I'm trying to sleep? How can I get him to calm down? I recently adopted two 12-week-old kittens - a Siamese and a Maine Coon. They both sleep with me. Recently, the Siamese has developed a pathological desire to lick the tip of my nose in the early hours of the morning. At precisely 4 a.m. every day, he will start maniacally trying to get to my face. Attempts at fending him off and hiding under pillows usually fail, as he tends to sink his claws into my head to prevent me from escaping his ritual. After a five-hour, stop-and-go battle with him this morning, this is no longer particularly endearing. Much to my dismay, he lets my boyfriend snooze away undisturbed during all of this.

First of all, is there any way I could encourage the kitten to sleep peacefully? I usually pet him and hold him for a bit when he does this, as it makes him settle down for a while. I have a feeling I'm reinforcing the crazed nose licking. The obvious answer is to not let him sleep with me. However, if I close the bedroom door, he'll start meowing hysterically and scratching to be let in. It's as disruptive as the nose obsession and I feel bad. So I'm kind of at a loss. If he's just being annoyingly affectionate, I don't want to harshly reject him and scar him for life or anything. I've made both cats their own little beds, but they prefer sleeping with me. Should I bother buying a proper cat bed?

Secondly, out of curiosity, any thoughts on why a kitten would be so eager to do this? I figure it's simply a gesture of affection or a grooming thing. Why only in the wee hours of the morning? I don't use any creams on my face at night, so I don't think he's attracted to a scent, and it's not a matter of begging, since I leave food out for both of them 24/7. I've never owned cats before this, so perhaps this is less mysterious than it seems to me.

Ukelele joke goes here.

dhartung — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:36:22 -0800

Two apartments. Three kittens. And a whole lot of fleas. No, it's not an MTV pilot ... We have a tenant whose cat had kittens. Of the brood three remain (one of them is to be mine), but they are just 9½ weeks. The mom and the kittens have fleas, but she has been trying to manage by combing and bathing until they are old enough for flea treatments (nominally 12 weeks). Unfortunately, the tenant above is getting fleas in her apartment now, and as a non-pet owner is freaked out.

I've bombed before (for this tenant and others), and it's a nuisance to prepare and clean up but it generally works pretty well. But we've never had to deal with kittens before. (I've had cats, but never a kitten.)

Also, both these tenants go back a long ways and it would be socially awkward to favor one or the other or put the hammer down on the cat-owner. The cat-owner is already on discounted rent and paying for the bombs and/or kitty kenneling is not feasible.

* If I bomb just the upstairs, some will survive but hopefully stay out of there for a couple more weeks. Due to the porous walls (renovated building), I think maybe we should get the kittens out of the downstairs, but for how long?
* If I then arrange for a full building bomb (four apartments and a crawlspace), is there a way we can do this before the end of October? If we do it, how long do I have to keep the kittens out of the apartment?
* Kitten-safe flea sprays. Do I need a vet scrip, or what can I get? We have a pet "outlet store" in town.
* Alternative medicine. I've read about alcohol baths, tea tree oil, and stuff like that. Any recommendations that will get us through this while keeping both human tenants happy and all non-human tenants healthy?

Is the way I'm feeding my cats making them sick?

Deathalicious — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:51:57 -0800

How can I avoid killing my friend's cats? I'm taking care of them and I'm terrified that I'm doing a very bad job. Sorry for the length, but I want to give as much detail as possible. Clues and key facts are in bold.

Okay, so I agreed a month and half ago to take care of a friend's 9-10 month old kittens while he was away. Mostly they've been great, although they were serious scratchers for a while and still are occasionally.

The thing is, I am worried that I am doing something wrong when feeding them. I was trying to feed them kitten food since apparently they need different nutrition. However, they would not eat it and occasionally puked it up, so I gave up on trying to get them to eat kitten food and have been feeding them normal cat food instead.

About a week and a half or so ago, I bought a bag of high quality cat food that they seemed to like very much, and so I was able to go through the whole bag (on the kitten food I fed them 1/4 of the bag before I gave up on it. So, they seemed to really love it. The thing is, when I went back to the store to buy some more, the bag said it was supposed to last for 30 days. With the two cats, it lasted maybe 8 or 9 days so I think I'm overfeeding them? They poop a lot -- more than I remember my cat back home pooping. They can completely fill a kitty litter with poop in 2 days.

They really really love carob, so sometimes I add a few pieces of carob to their food (crushed pod pieces, not processed carob) to induce them to eat it I read somewhere that carob is what's used for pet treats, so I assumed it was okay, and they've eaten it in the past with no ill effects.

The Problem:
Okay, so now one of the cats is puking. I don't know if it's because of the new cat food (When I bought the new bag, I switched from "Active" to "Housecat" since they're indoors all the time), the bug spray (see below), or if the cat is just sick. His eyes look sort of red (as if they were irritated) and he seems unhappy.

There was an ant infestation (the ants decided that cat food was some kind of highly desireable commodity and both bowls were swarmed over by ants) so I washed out the bowls, moved them elsewhere, and I sprayed their old eating area with lots of ant killer. The spray floated a bit but the cats weren't close to it at all -- the one who got the heaviest dose was me, and I'm fine.

Another possibility is plastic. The one who's sick now loves to chew on plastic and is a master of finding it in the house, even when I put it inside of boxes high on shelves. Is it possible he's ingested plastic and this is what has made him sick? Again, he hasn't seemed to get sick from it in the past, and indeed recently I did a "sweep" of the apartment and threw away all of the bottles, etc littering the floor (I'm something of a slob, especially with the cats around).

Is heat a factor? I'm in Cairo and it's in the low to mid 30s C (Around 90-90F). But they're Egyptian cats and they've gone through much hotter days without a problem.

Finally, they have only ever used clay kitty litter without scent, and yesterday I put in Fresh Scoop kitty letter which is scented. I assume that they would make it safe for cats to ingest accidentally, right?

The other cat appears healthy and also seems to be a less voracious eater.

I will head to the vet tomorrow if necessary, but it's something of a risk since I don't actually know if the vets here (in Egypt) are any good, how much it will cost, or if they will be able to help or will just say I'm imagining things.

Please, hive mind! Help me regain my cat sanity.

I've lived with cats most of my life, but never had to take care of kittens. Maybe that's the problem.