silverflame137 asked:
If someone was planning to adopt a declawed cat, what changes should they make to their home and lifestyle to give the cat the best life possible?
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happyhealthycats answered:
So the best way to deal with the possible behavioral issues that may arise is to be very proactive out of the gate. It’s easier to prevent an issue from cropping up at all than it is to train a cat out of a behavior, especially declawed cats, who are typically performing the behavior either out of fear or due to pain. Here’s a couple things you can do. These aren’t all guaranteed to happen, mind you. But they’re all incredibly important to keep in mind.
1. Consider placing rugs in areas with hard floors. Just enough to provide a few pathways for the cat to navigate around the area. While it’s not always the case, declawed cats may be prone to avoiding hard wood, or linoleum. It may not be an issue for the individual cat you adopt, but keep in mind you may have to provide that for them so they can access hard floored rooms.
2. Stick with soft litters. The biggest issue that I see is declawed cats no longer using the litter box. Wheat or corn litters tend to be soft on the cat’s feet, and will encourage them to use the box. You also want to make sure the litter box is always the most positive bathroom experience available for the cat. So you may have to try a few different options before you find out what works. Litter boxes without tops are the most ideal. 6-inch high sides, as well, so they don’t have to jump into or out of the box. Be sure to offer a few litter boxes, too. If the cat will not use any of the softer litters out there, you may have to consider lining your litter box with pee pads.
3. Be prepared for more vet visits. Not an outrageous number, mind you. But when a cat is declawed, they can shift the way that they walk, which might not be an issue now, but when the cat gets older, it may start to wear on their joints and cause arthritis or other painful conditions. Essentially you just want to pay close attention to the way your cat carries itself. You may have to do some expensive testing and work with outfitting your home better for an arthritic cat well before its senior status.
4. Consider the other cats in the house. Declawed cats may not get along well with the other cats in the house. You’ll have to provide multiple places for each cat to exist comfortably. Multiple ways in and out of a room, or multiple ways to traverse around the room, and all of this while keeping in mind the possible need for carpeting. Since a declawed cat doesn’t have the ability to scratch something to mingle its scent, that’s where you have the possibility of spraying or marking with urine. Not just that, but if the cats are having issues getting along, a cat’s first line of defense is its claws. So the next thing available is its teeth, which can be lethal. Introducing a declawed cat to a household MUST be done VERY slowly, and you have to provide most of their scent mingling by yourself, wiping one cat and then the other with a clean cloth and other similar steps.
5. Under no circumstances should a declawed cat EVER be allowed outside. I have my own personal beliefs about letting cats outdoors (long story short, don’t), but in the case of a declawed cat, they absolutely MUST NOT be let outside. They cannot defend themselves against other cats, against other animals, against even their own natural prey.
Patience. Love. Respect. Adopting a declawed cat is saving them from the behavioral issues that their previous owners caused by declawing in the first place (for the vast majority of cases). These are all tips and good ideas, but each individual cat is their own. Some of their issues may be severe. Some may not be. Just knowing that your cat will be a little bit different than non-declawed cats will give you a step up. Let them tell you what they need. Listen carefully. Declawed cats have to make the rules, not because they’re bad cats, but because they’re in pain, or they’re scared, and there’s only so much we can do to help that (since we can’t put their claws back for them). Love them with all of your heart, and they’ll love you with theirs.
Anonymous asked:
Hey bluebell! Do you have any tips to keep your cats cool this summer? Thanks in advance! I love this blog
followthebluebell answered:
Heya!
So the really good news is that cats are pretty good at the whole ‘handling heat’ thing. They evolved from a desert-dwelling wild cat and still retain a lot of those features. Certain breeds are more sensitive—-any brachy breed like Persians will have more trouble coping with heat, and long-haired cats will have extra problems.
- Elevated beds help a LOT. These tend to be pretty cheap too.
- Cooling beds are more expensive and usually contain cooling gels. While very effective, these gels are toxic to cats, so check cooling beds frequently for any claw marks
- Fans. Lots and lots of fans, really? Sometimes I put a bowl of ice in front of the fan for extra cooling power.
- Water fountains. Cats are already pretty bad at the whole ‘drinking water’ thing, and a fountain helps A LOT, especially with older cats who are more prone to getting dehydrated. You might want to talk to your vet about giving sub-q fluids to older kitties too.
- Patting with a damp cloth.
- Keep their coats in good order! Mats trap a LOT of heat, so brush out long-haired cats daily to remove mats (see here for a guide on desensitizing cats to brushing). If your cat HAS to be shaved during this season, be sure to keep it out of the sun to avoid sunburns. PLEASE DO NOT USE SUNSCREEN ON YOUR CATS. They’re usually toxic to kitties if groomed off. Consult your vet!
- Offer cool treats! I make ice cubes with tuna, salmon, or chicken broth and some pureed wet cat food. It’s disgusting, but the cats love them. Be careful of high sodium content!
- Give them a super cool place to hide. Like literally. Just put a cardboard box on its side and put frozen water bottles next to it and on top of it. It’ll stay nice and chilly for kitties.
- Honestly wrapped ice bottles are hugely useful in general.
- Encourage them to be inactive. It’s literally time to chill out.
Signs of heat stroke:
- Excessive grooming
- Rapid breathing and heartbeat
- Stumbling/difficulty walking
- Drooling
- Vomiting
- Very red tongue and mouth
- Lethargy
Sweaty paws (this one isn’t a SERIOUS serious sign, but it’s something to be aware of)
Thank you and I hope this helps your cats this summer!
Anonymous asked:
Do you have any advice on introducing kittens to a resident housecat? We lost one of our cats about a year ago and wanted to get company for our current lady but we want to make sure we do it properly! Thank you!
happyhealthycats answered:
Well congratulations on your new family member! We’re about to do this as well (foster fails, oops). The good news is that kittens are pretty pliable and work themselves well into an existing cat social structure, unless there are underlying behavioral issues. Once I get more caught up on some questions I’ll visit this again in more detail.
First thing’s first. Make sure the kitten has their own room. I always recommend bedrooms, because that also gives you a chance to bond with the kitten personally (and I mean come on. Have you seen how cute kittens are?). Give them a few days to get accustomed to it, and let the resident cat get accustomed to not having that room available. Of course, make sure all of the kitten’s needs can be met inside of that room, and the resident cat’s needs can be met outside of the room. Keep an eye out for signs of stress from both of them. If you haven’t already, try adding a Feliway pheromone diffuser to try and ease the transition.
First, start with petting the kitten with a clean cloth (I use a clean sock. It fits easily over the hand). Try to focus on petting in front of the ears and the cheeks where their whiskers are. This will pick up the kitten’s pheromones (and should just feel great). Now take the kitten-stinky sock to the resident cat, and let them smell. This might be your starting point for a few days. That’s fine. Just let the cat smell it. They might hiss, but that’s okay. Keep letting them smell it a few times per day (after freshly re-pheromoning the sock). Once you get little to no response, move on.
It’s important to note that at any point, if either cat shows signs of stress, or are upset, or anything, take a step back. Think of this like climbing a ladder. Maybe you climbed up one rung too high before you got your balance. Just go back down to the last rung until you feel solid.
Next, try rubbing the kitty-pheromone sock on the resident cat in the same fashion. Ears and cheeks. Then give it to the kitten. You’re probably going to have a better response here. Do this a few times per day for a few days before moving on.
If the kitten has a blanket or a towel they just LOVE (you don’t have to give them a new one. Just a clean towel they can borrow for a little bit). Let them snuggle that blanket for a couple days (while still doing the sock-smelling). Then, take that blanket/towel and put it somewhere the resident cat just LOVES. Near a windowsill, on a specific couch, wherever they like lounging and spending time. If you can get a towel/blanket that smells like the resident cat, take that and give it to the kitten too. Switch every few days.
Take the kitten out of their room into a different safe room (it only has to be a bathroom for the time required). Let the resident cat into the kitten’s room and let them just sniff to their heart’s content. Feel free to play with them a little with some of the kitten’s toys. Observe the response and let the cat leave when they want to. Don’t close the door on the cat or else they may become stressed, and you don’t want them more stressed than they may be with introducing a new cat! Return the kitten to the room once the cat is done. Let the kitten explore the room and smell. After a break, put the resident cat in the same safe room the kitten was in earlier (or a different once if you have room options). Now, let the kitten out of the room. This is more exploratory for the kitten, but they’ll also be able to smell the resident cat where they spend the most time and explore their new home! Just be sure the cats don’t see each other during this stage.
Schedule feeding time on opposite sides of the door. Try for the same time if you can. You may need to transition the cat to timed feedings if you’re feeding ad libitum (I usually say pick up the food bowl about 2-3 hours prior, and tempt them with their FAVORITE food). Just give feedings on the other side of the CLOSED door. When this occurs with no problems, Try cracking the door open just the tiniest bit. Preferably while both cats are still eating. If they see each other and hiss, you can close the door and let them keep eating. Try this a few times before moving on.
Now at this point, it depends ENTIRELY on the cat. If you have a super social cat, you may already be fine to just open the door for introductions. If you’re having a hard time moving forward, try introducing them through a baby gate while they’re feeding (if that’s not entirely in the budget, just anything that will block them from getting at each other, but will still allow them to see each other). Just pay attention to how they’re each responding. Hissing is honestly normal for fresh introductions, but let it be a meter for how “used to” the new kitten the resident cat is.
This can take anywhere from two weeks to two months, depending entirely on the individual cats. Two-three weeks is usually a more accurate timeline, but be ready to spend longer on it if things aren’t going so smoothly. Like I said, just take a step back and let the cats set the pace.
At this point, be ready for supervised introductions! Be sure to watch both cats. And I mean watch them. Stay off your phone for this, because while you shouldn’t expect trouble if you’ve done the previous steps, you should always be prepared for it. Allow sniffing around. Try to distract them with two different toys. I go with the wand-toy in each hand. You don’t want the cats to be competing for the toy, but giving them both the option to play with something while they’re near each other is always good. This doesn’t have to last long at first. A few minutes of sniffing, and then they’re on with their days. Let these monitored periods be extended slowly. If you notice a snag or a bit of a fight, take a step back to between-the-door introductions.
Once this is fine, I like to do a 9-5 business hours sort of situation if I’m home. Still separate them if you’re sleeping or out, or no one is available to supervise, but it’s a “rather safe than sorry” situation.
If things are going well, full integration is totally fine by now. I made this super detailed just to err on the side of caution. But I’ve had resident cats eagerly sit outside the door to meet new cats and kittens. So this is a good groundwork to base introductions on, but as always, listen to your cat!
Anonymous asked:
Are there any reasonable alternatives to barn cats that you know of?
catsindoors answered:
I quite like the method of promoting predation by native fauna. There seems to be a lot of Us vs. Them when it comes to farmers and wildlife, but this method isn’t saying “Let wolves waltz around on your property,” it’s more about snakes and birds of prey. Here’s an article on installing perches and nest boxes.
These may pose some risk to smaller livestock, like chickens or rabbit, but so do cats. Even if the barn cats aren’t intent on preying upon them any contact can end with disaster, cat saliva is full of bacteria that birds are especially sensitive to and can cause fowl cholera. Cats are also an intermediate host for S.neurona, which can cause EPM in horses.
Another option I love is the use of ratting terriers, that’s what they were bred for! I know in the city cats tend not to be effective predators of rats, that may be different in more rural areas but we know terriers are effective predators of rat.
Working with ratting terriers tends to be different than utilizing barn cats, it’s less just releasing the dogs to do as they please and more cooperative. Dogs can also be trained recall more reliably, trained not to cross certain boundaries, have a good leave it command and to ignore livestock, etc.
Note that I consider “barn cats” to mean working cats in an agricultural operation, not “I live in a rural area and have, like, one pet goat and let my cat free-roam.”
squish-this asked:
So I know you don’t like this topic and avoid getting into specifics about it but I have a quick question about vegan diets for cats. (1st: I agree cats should ever be put on vegan diets) I have heard the argument cats can get all their taurine needs from synthetic taurine, is this true? My cat has intestinal problems and he’s on a special homemade diet with extra taurine but also gets plenty of meat, eggs etc. Is there credible evidence to suggest artificial taurine alone is enough for a cat?
drferox answered:
So if we’re going to have the vegan cat food discussion, a topic I’m not overly fond of because I consider the matter absolutely closed and find it bizarre that the internet still seems to think it’s possible or up for debate, one should first read the following by @why-animals-do-the-thing:
- The basics of the vegan cat (and dog) diet
- Follow up discussion about how the supplements in ‘vegan’ pet food don’t actually seem to be vegan in most cases.
You don’t actually know most of the time whether taurine supplements are vegan or not, certainly within pet food. Most cat food, and increasing numbers of dog food, supplement taurine in the recipe, but don’t specify whether this is synthetic or biosynthesised taurine.
So typical cat food diets supplemented with taurine certainly seem to do the job well enough. When it comes to vegan diets with completely artificial taurine supplementation, I don’t know of any studies that have been conducted for more than a year, which isn’t long enough for me.
Certainly the molecules of synthetic and biosynthesised taurine should be identical, but the nutritional picture doesn’t start and end with taurine.
Nutrition is complex. More so than the typical pet owner would believe (even the ones that parrot “Vets don’t learn nutrition!”), but because all of us dabble in it on a daily basis we tend to think we understand it.
Taurine is a well known amino acid which when deficient is also associated with dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs. So is carnitine, another amino acid found most plentifully in meat, and no surprise deficiency of carnitine is also associated with heart failure in cats, and predisposes them to hepatic lipidosis. Cats have different requirements for arginine and lysine, and I haven’t even talked about any fatty acids yet.
The bioavailablility of non-animal products to a species highly specialized to consume animal flesh is also a major issue, even with macronutrients, which is something we know more about. Plant proteins typically are only 50% used by cats, and the rest are detected unchanged in stool, compared to 90% of more of animal proteins being utilized.
The point I am trying to get to, is that nutrition is more than a list of supplements. We don’t know how everything interacts, and this is still being studied. Some components complement each other, some inhibit each other, and these effects happen slowly so it often takes a while before you notice.
So artificial taurine is probably perfectly fine, in conjunction with a reasonable base diet, which should contain plenty of animal protein. The cat in particular (and ferrets even more) is highly specialized to consume animal flesh as a major component of its diet, so it has actually lost some metabolic pathways required for a non-meat diet, and we probably don’t know all of them yet.
And before an argument starts in the comments: Feed cats and dogs meat. You don’t get extra Vegan Points by forcing these artificial diets onto your pets, and compromising the welfare of the animal directly under your care over philosophy about livestock, from whom the waste products end up in pet food and for whom your choice of pet food will have absolutely zero impact.
i was telling my sister the thing about how cats that don’t grow up around humans only meow when they’re kittens, but housecats retain the habit of meowing to communicate with humans bc we don’t get the other signals that cats use to communicate, and she was like “so basically cats are always speaking baby language with us. they’re like, let me put this very simply so you’ll understand. basically they’re incredibly condescending”
I read an article where some expert said that they view us as very large, very stupid kittens.
Every time I see people like “cats are evil and will never love you” I’m like bro cats are adorable losers, they rub against you and head butt into your hand when you pet them and they make a dumb vibrating noise when they’re happy and chase after moving lights and shoelaces and tuck their feet under their bodies to become a fucking cat loaf cats are great ok.
lol our society is so structured on binaries that people think cats are the opposite of dogs
we also regard dogs as “masculine” and cats as “feminine” to the point that it’s “weird” for men to love cats, women and gay men are stereotyped as liking cats, and creepiest of all, cats are stereotyped as “sexy” animals
Im 100% grossed out by this
this fits into my confusion as to why it’s perfectly acceptable to hate cats but blasphemy to hate dogs
That last comment just fucked me up
cats don’t understand what it means when you give them kisses ):
good news tho!! they understand it 2 a point (i was distraught about this post so i looked it up)
cats don’t kiss like humans but they do appreciate human touch and feel loved when u kiss and pet them
they don’t understand kisses but they accept them as forms of affection n love
ur cat knows u love them
You can also help them understand by mixing kisses with rubbing your cheek/nose/forehead over the top of their head, their cheek, or down their shoulders, just like cats rub against each other and humans to show affection. Also gently bonking foreheads to imitate the ‘I love you please pet me’ headbutt. Brushing & scratching at itchy spots for them imitates the grooming that cats who live together in colonies do for each other. Basically just try to find hygienic ways of imitating cat social behaviors, short of actual licking, lol.
My cat will touch her nose to mine & rub her cheek across my face, which allows me to plant a kiss on her cheek. When she’s sitting in my lap, she’ll tip her head back until I lean down and kiss or nuzzle the top of her head. I’ve even found her occasionally trying to imitate the “mwah!” sound of my kisses, where she’ll nuzzle my face and make little chirping “mah! mah!” sounds. Cats are pretty smart little social creatures; they’ll figure out how to speak your language, especially if you put in the effort to speak theirs.
One of my cats started coming up to me and basically knocking his muzzle dead-on into my face. Not nuzzling, more like a head-butt using his mouth.
…I started trying to give him more gentle head-smooches after that.
lol our society is so structured on binaries that people think cats are the opposite of dogs
we also regard dogs as “masculine” and cats as “feminine” to the point that it’s “weird” for men to love cats, women and gay men are stereotyped as liking cats, and creepiest of all, cats are stereotyped as “sexy” animals
Im 100% grossed out by this
this fits into my confusion as to why it’s perfectly acceptable to hate cats but blasphemy to hate dogs
That last comment just fucked me up