For Cat Lovers Only XVI - Post Pics, Ask Questions, Comments, Etc.

[arw]

Wesley survived day 2 of being in the bathroom for a few hours. I hate that I have to pu him in there. He was so naughty yesterday that it was more of a punishment since we all had to leave so he didn't get treats. But when I left today I put a few treats for him around the bathroom so he knew he wasn't in trouble. He's so sweet and completely the cutest thing I've ever seen so I really hope he outgrows this little behavior soon!

 

[arw]

scary teeth! and soooo pretty!

 

[Jive Turkey]

YouTube - kitty riding tortoise part1

 

[Sicy]

 

[Lila64]

 

[kellyahern]

That was great. I love the expression on the kitten's face.

 

[corianderstem]

Does anyone have tips for how to handle wet food feeding while out of town?

I have someone who will come by every day to feed Phoebe next week while I'm gone, but now that she's on a mostly wet food diet, I'm not sure how much she'll eat.

Right now I feed her one 3 oz can of wet food in the morning, and half a can at night, and there's always dry food for her to nibble on. She doesn't always eat all the wet food, either because she's just not that hungry or it dries out after a while and it's gross at that point.

Since my friend will just come over once a day, I was thinking I'd just have her give Phoebe a full two cans in the dish and give her fresh food each day (dumping whatever she doesn't eat).

I know she's not going to starve, and she still can eat the dry food just fine (even with nine teeth gone!), but has anyone had similar issues?

 

[Sicy]

The only thing I see wrong with that is that two full cans will end up getting pretty gross by the next day and I doubt she would eat all of it. How is she doing with dry food even after losing teeth? She can eat it ok? I'd maybe just have her do one can a day since she can only come by once a day, and make sure there's plenty of dry and water.

 

[corianderstem]

Yeah, it's hard to tell if she leaves food behind because she just has ate her fill or if she stops eating because it's dry and gross. Worst case scenario, I'm just wasting some food.

But yeah, one can a day should be sufficient for a while. She's not going to starve.

The vet had told me that a lot of cats still will try and eat their dry food after having teeth out, if that's what they're used to eating, so I should leave some out for her. I fill it up every few days - she's definitely eating it!

 

[Drowningman]

Does anyone have tips for how to handle wet food feeding while out of town?

I have someone who will come by every day to feed Phoebe next week while I'm gone, but now that she's on a mostly wet food diet, I'm not sure how much she'll eat.

Right now I feed her one 3 oz can of wet food in the morning, and half a can at night, and there's always dry food for her to nibble on. She doesn't always eat all the wet food, either because she's just not that hungry or it dries out after a while and it's gross at that point.

Since my friend will just come over once a day, I was thinking I'd just have her give Phoebe a full two cans in the dish and give her fresh food each day (dumping whatever she doesn't eat).

I know she's not going to starve, and she still can eat the dry food just fine (even with nine teeth gone!), but has anyone had similar issues?

We sometimes have this issue with Keto when we go out of town. If we go for just a weekend, we don't get a Cat sitter since its really not worth the money. If we're gone more that 2 days then we do get a person to come by once a day.

Through some trial and error we kinda have found a system that works.

He always has a full bowl of dry food around, so there's never an issue of "running out of food"

We used to leave a can and a half of wet food out for him. when we went away for a weekend, but, we were never sure whether he ate everything in one sitting or actually paced himself.

What we would do is take out some food in his bowl and then keep the remaining food in an extra bowl and put that bowl on an ice pack.

Now, we just leave one full can out for him (still on an ice pack) and the rest of the time he can munch on his dry food. It doesn't seem to have caused any problems for him and he's been fine with that arrangement.

If you're thknking of leaving just one can out for the kitty, then maybe you can consider a slightly larger size can that 3oz. That way Phoebe can have as much food as she wants and you will also have some peace of mind.

Oh and I would highly recommend using an ice pack. We just take a large bowl, put the ice pack in there and then put the cat food bowl on top of the pack. It may just help make the food last a bit longer than normal.

 

[corianderstem]

That's a good suggestion about the ice pack! I'll try that next time I'm off on a short trip and don't have a cat sitter come by.

I'll be gone for a week, so someone will be coming every day. It works out well - this is someone I know from work who lives about a mile away, and we're each other's regular cat sitters, no payment required, just return services when we're available.

 

[meegannie]

I was just about to suggest an ice pack!

I envy all of you who can have someone come in once a day to feed your cats; mine are greedy and eat all of their food at once so I can't do free feeding and have to have someone in twice a day to feed them. We recently bought a timed feeder which should make it easier if we're just gone overnight, but I'm not convinced my cats won't just find a way to break it and eat all of the food at once.

 

[corianderstem]

Phoebe is just going to have to live with being fed once a day for a week.

In the past, I've had my friend come over just every other day, but now with the wet food that's not a great option. Especially since she doesn't mind coming over daily and always offers when I ask for every other day.

 

[Sicy]

A good cat sitter is gold.

I always make Jim stay at my place even when I just go away for the weekend because I have so many routines between the inside cats and the outside cats. Plus I dont want them to be lonely.

 

[arw]

has anyone ever heard of using citrus scented items to control your cat from going into areas you don't want them to? I read on a random website that cats have an aversion to anything citrus. So...I had some lemons in the house that I cut up and placed them around the dirt in that hideous tree that Wesley is obsessed with. That was earlier tonight and ever since then he has been afraid to go in our living room. I don't know if it's that or that he's terrified of my mom since she yelled at him the other day. He hasn't gone near her since Sunday. If this works then I'm buying anything citrus I can find and putting it in all of his spots he's not supposed to be in! He's been fine in the bathroom for a few hours each day but it just breaks my heart to put him in there.

 

[indra]

I'd maybe just have her do one can a day since she can only come by once a day, and make sure there's plenty of dry and water.

That's would be what I would do too.

The vet had told me that a lot of cats still will try and eat their dry food after having teeth out, if that's what they're used to eating, so I should leave some out for her. I fill it up every few days - she's definitely eating it!

The last couple years of his life, my Loki had no teeth at all, but once his gums healed from having his last teeth out, he would crunch dry cat food right down. I mostly gave him canned food, but I always have dry food out and he loved it. It was amazing how well he managed with it.



I haven't posted much here lately, so I'm way behind on commenting on all the adorable kitty pics and all the kitty news. Sorry about that. We have so many cute kitties -- this is a great thread. I love seeing some new kitty faces too -- Wesley is adorable and so is Wally. Makes me want to adopt another cat!

 

[MsPurrl]

I haven't posted much here lately, so I'm way behind on commenting on all the adorable kitty pics and all the kitty news. Sorry about that. We have so many cute kitties -- this is a great thread. I love seeing some new kitty faces too -- Wesley is adorable and so is Wally. Makes me want to adopt another cat!

Crazy cat ladies, UNITE!

 

[Lila64]

So is smelly poop and drinking lots of water a sign of everything? And crying for more food? Maddy & I are here, hubby is away, but I think he's getting plenty of lovin' from the girls. He woke me at 6:00am today for food, and was making noise in my bedroom a couple of hours later. He still had a few crunchies left in his bowl at the time. And he's crying now again. I removed the poops from the box.

 

[brkngrrl]

Never posted in here before but I am feeling the need to today. I have the most beautiful siamese kitty ever... has been with my sister since the day he was born and she brought him home to us a few months after. Today we had to take him to the vet and leave him there because we noticed the poor little guy couldn't pee!! He broke my heart watching him trying and then, being a very vocal siamese, he tried to tell us something was wrong! I couldn't take it! He has never been sick before and we have never had to leave him overnight anywhere. . . not even when we had him fixed! I'm so worried about the little guy. The vet wants to keep him for a few days while they try a few different things to help him go. The house just isn't the same with him not there though. I hope they can fix my kitty! They said we caught it early though, so I am trying to be hopeful that he will be o.k.

I had noticed these past couple of weeks he hasn't been really touching his water and it has been pretty hot weather wise lately but I figured since he eats his wet food regularly and occasionally has his mushed up cantaloupe (which he loves) it was o.k. I guess not. I just feel horrible!

 

[Sicy]

Urinary blockage. We had a big discussion about this and a couple of our members here in the last thread. Unfortunately semi common in male cats. Hope they can get him unblocked and be able to pee on his own. They may change his diet to an RX food, give meds and increase wet food and water intake.

Urinary Blockage - THIS IS AN EMERGENCY

 

[Sicy]

So is smelly poop and drinking lots of water a sign of everything? And crying for more food? Maddy & I are here, hubby is away, but I think he's getting plenty of lovin' from the girls. He woke me at 6:00am today for food, and was making noise in my bedroom a couple of hours later. He still had a few crunchies left in his bowl at the time. And he's crying now again. I removed the poops from the box.

He could be just missing your husband and wants attention. Increase in water intake could be a sign of diabetes but you said he was pretty young. Is he gaining/losing weight?

 

[Drowningman]

Do Any of your cats eat their food so fast that they throw it right back up??

Keto does this from time to time and I was wondering whether its just him or do other cats do it sometimes.

Did it this morning as I gave him a fresh bowl of his canned food and also topped off his dry food.

a few minutes later I heard him meowing so I went to check up on him and he had thrown up some of the just eaten canned food all over the dry food so I had to throw it all away and start over.

He tends to eat his wet food so fast as if somebody's going to come take it all away. Sometimes I just pull him back from the bowl so he can take a breath between chomps

 

[corianderstem]

Phoebe's thrown up undigested food in the past, just once or twice while I was in the process of transitioning her to mostly wet food. Based on the .... uh ... condition of the little pile, I just assumed she'd eaten too fast.

 

[meegannie]

Do Any of your cats eat their food so fast that they throw it right back up??

My cats both do this sometimes, especially Jasmine (and if I don't get to her in time, Biscuit eats it ).

 

[Drowningman]

hmmm he does this more often then I'd like. I know he's not sick or anything because his other activities are all normal and no other changes in behavior.

 

[Drowningman]

chillin' on a nice hot summer day....

 

[indra]

Do Any of your cats eat their food so fast that they throw it right back up??

Keto does this from time to time and I was wondering whether its just him or do other cats do it sometimes.

Did it this morning as I gave him a fresh bowl of his canned food and also topped off his dry food.

a few minutes later I heard him meowing so I went to check up on him and he had thrown up some of the just eaten canned food all over the dry food so I had to throw it all away and start over.

He tends to eat his wet food so fast as if somebody's going to come take it all away. Sometimes I just pull him back from the bowl so he can take a breath between chomps

Oscar will do that sometimes. He also tends to scarf his food down quickly and when he's eaten a lot quickly is when he tends to vomit the most. What I have found helps is to feed him small amounts of food at a time (just over the few minutes he gets fed), instead of giving him all his wet food at one time. I have several cats, so I give Oscar a small chunk of canned food, then give everyone else a small chunk, then Oscar, then everyone else...and so on until they all have their food. It really does seem to help.

Oscar does have hyperthyroidism, so he tends to be very food oriented anyway, but this method has helped keep his vomiting under better control.



brkngrrl -- I've had several cats that have had blockages over the years, and with treatment and then a special diet, they have all done well. It's good you caught it early -- that will help. And luckily cats seem to like the special diet (at least the Hills Perscription stuff) they are often given to keep the problem at bay. Hope your kitty does well!

 

[Lila64]

He could be just missing your husband and wants attention. Increase in water intake could be a sign of diabetes but you said he was pretty young. Is he gaining/losing weight?

We've tried more attention. Anytime we walk out near/past him, he heads straight to the bowl. Who could tell if he's gaining/losing weight. He's a fatty at probably over 20 pounds, LOL, and eats any of his food I put in front of him. I'm sure he misses hubby. And I noticed the water since I know how high I fill it up to. He'll just need to chill

And BTW, he eats the RD stuff from the vet. Rarely will eat human food.

 

[Sicy]

hmmm he does this more often then I'd like. I know he's not sick or anything because his other activities are all normal and no other changes in behavior.

Try switching to wet food for a while and see if that works. My parents cat was throwing up every day and once they switched to wet food only she stopped. Some cats have a harder time digesting dry food.

 

[indra]

We've tried more attention. Anytime we walk out near/past him, he heads straight to the bowl. Who could tell if he's gaining/losing weight. He's a fatty at probably over 20 pounds, LOL, and eats any of his food I put in front of him. I'm sure he misses hubby. And I noticed the water since I know how high I fill it up to. He'll just need to chill

And BTW, he eats the RD stuff from the vet. Rarely will eat human food.

Have you ever had him checked for hyperthyroidism? Increased water consumtion isn't usually one of the symptoms, but being very food oriented and personality changes such as being more spazzy or pushier than usual, are. Could be something to look into.