Bringing cats home

Newbeginning

McKneff wrote: »

and just for future ref. OP, you can get something called Pet Pods, they are automatic cat feeders.
If you want to go out all day, they automatically open at a set time, comes in singles, doubles and tirples.

Mine is invaluable for when we go away fro a few days, we set it to open breakfast and lunch, daughter comes up in the evening to feed and play with her a little and sets the ped pod for next day, brilliant piece of kit, we got ours from Argos.

A massive thank you to everyone for taking the time to post and give such valuable advice.

One thing I forgot to ask, can anyone recommend a pet insurance provider? I have read such mixed reviews of all of them.

The automatic cat feeder might be essential actually. To explain a little bit more we are ideally looking for a mother and a kitten as OH and I work full time and we have read this is a better alternative to two kittens for full time workers.

We have a housemate who works from home who can keep an eye on the cats but as they are our cats I don’t want him to feel he has any obligation to feed them because that is obviously not fair on him.

So as a kitten needs to be fed five times a day, is the automatic feeder a must?

Fridaycat

georgiesmum wrote: »

Ermmmmmm you might want to think again about getting those kittens. if you buy all the things here that they say you need, you will have to take out a mortgage. I'm going cross-eyed just thinking about it.

I agree. Taking on any pet involves a financial as well as an emotional commitment and if you can't afford it, the answer is to not do it in the first place! I am just curious as to what things "they" have said are needed you think are not necessary?

One thing of course not on the list is to consider the cost of vaccinations, which I think are an absolute must.

Newbeginning wrote: »

A massive thank you to everyone for taking the time to post and give such valuable advice.

One thing I forgot to ask, can anyone recommend a pet insurance provider? I have read such mixed reviews of all of them.

The automatic cat feeder might be essential actually. To explain a little bit more we are ideally looking for a mother and a kitten as OH and I work full time and we have read this is a better alternative to two kittens for full time workers.

We have a housemate who works from home who can keep an eye on the cats but as they are our cats I don’t want him to feel he has any obligation to feed them because that is obviously not fair on him.

So as a kitten needs to be fed five times a day, is the automatic feeder a must?

I would recommend PetPlan insurance - more expensive than others, but you get what you pay for in my book.

In terms of the feed, it depends what you are feeding, if it is dry food, you can leave a couple of big bowls down for the cats to graze from all day, this is what I do with my 2 kittens and 3 adults when we are out all day.

UKTigerlily

I second Pet Plan, they pay up quickly & without fuss, their only business is pet insurance so unlike the Halifax won't stop providing it & many Vets are happy to claim direct, fantastic company IMO.

I think the kitten will be fed 3x a day @ 8 weeks but my own cat didn't come to me until she was 23 months (now 13.5) & it's ages since I did have a kitten so my memory could be going there.

On top of everything you *need* be assured you will buy many things you don't need but must have! Tess has 4 beds alone plus my bed yet can only sleep in one at a time! As for the dog, I have a collar obsession & she gets many of those (NEVER the cat, too risky go for a microchip)

But, they're so worth it!

Badger_Lady

I have always found my automatic feeder really handy. It just gives you the freedom to disappear for a day or two at short notice and know that the cats will be OK. I also use it if I'm a bit poorly or don't want to keep going downstairs to feed the wee monster.

I've had this one for 6-7 years now, for occasional use:
http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=automatic+cat+feeder+5&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=13475103465952976902&sa=X&ei=y-S8TqctwffxA-3quP8D&ved=0CIEBEPMCMAI

... it keeps the wet food fresh and you can set it for up to 4 days (at a push). But it won't stay fresh that long in mid-summer :eek:

Of course, as other posters have said, if you can get them used to dry food / water it's much easier. My boy's too old for that stuff now but the young 'uns should be fine

Newbeginning

Well, we picked two twelve-week old rescue kittens up on Sunday, they are adorable and have settled in very well. One is a tortie female and her brother is a black male. There was no hiding at all and they seem to egg each other on to explore. They are both love attention and adore being cuddled which is absolutely fine with us. I promise to post pics as soon as we are organised enough to take some!

One slight problem we have is over food. The shelter said they had been given Whiskas kitten wet food and dry food and we fed them this as soon as they arrived back at our home. They wolfed it down and seemed to enjoy it.

Next meal time we put down some more Whiskas kitten food, this time a different flavour – they didn’t touch it and only pecked at the dry food. Next meal time, more Whiskas kitten food, different flavour and again they wouldn’t go near it.

Yesterday night we finally cracked and went to buy some other varieties of cat food to give them. We gave them Co-op gourmet cat food with salmon and tuna and they absolutely loved it, wolfed it down, growled at each other to keep away from their food; all this was really lovely to see after two days of them barely eating. So, thinking we had found the answer this morning I fed them the same brand of cat food but a different flavour and they wouldn’t go near it. Put some Whiskas tuna kitten food down as well along with their usual dry food and they wouldn’t touch that either.

I am a bit clueless as to what we should be doing here and would appreciate any advice. They were only at the shelter for two days so while they were apparently eating Whiskas kitten food there we don’t know what they were eating before that. They are extremely interested in our dinners all the time but I guess this is normal?
Also they had their first jab on Sunday just before we took them home so at first I thought their lack of appetite could be related to that. We moved their bowls in case they were too close to the litter trays so it can’t be that either.

I thought I would be a firm cat owner with a “they’ll eat when they’re hungry” attitude but they have beaten me after just three days! What a soft touch eh.

They both seem to be drinking a fair amount of water but much prefer it when it comes out of my glass obviously.

Str4berr3

Hi all,

I haven't been here for ages! But been searching back here on advice for my own cat and saw this.

Newbeginning, I have been struggling with feeding my 11 months old cat on wet food lately, at the beginning when we first adopted him (he was a unwanted litter so we had him from the age of 7/8 weeks old) We feed him Whiskers for 3 weeks and slowly weaned him to better higher quality food. Its not expensive at all probably 10p more then Whiskers. And that Brand was Bozita - you can find this at zooplus.

We bought a trial pack, gradually weaning him to bozita - he barely ate it. After 2 days, we gave in a gave him some applause for the first time - he scoffed it. But applaus it very expensive and it is not a complete diet. Went back on the whiskers - He decided he didn't want to eat that either!

Went to my local pet - shop and bought him the best dry food - Orijen - He scoffed it all up. Then it occurred to me that he prefers dry food. Which I originally didn't want to give him as cats have a urine problems with not drinking enough water. (Wet food has around 80% of water)

Biggest mistake, now he has Urine track problems and this is probably due to eating dry food only.

So I went back and bought more Bozita and also Acana wet food for him. Reluctant to eat it still. BUT I found a trick! You know when cats want your food and watches you eat your food? My cat tends to watch and dribble when I eat, and then he realises he's not going to eat my food and then goes to eat his own food.

I have been doing this for 4 days now. Serving his wet food just before I eat my dinner and it seems to work. :T

Str4berr3

Oh, we mix this with his Science Hill Plan S/D presciption dry food from Vet. I'm not discouraging dry food, they do say dry food is good for teeth. I just wouldn't recommend a complete dry diet.

LittleMissAspie

Cats don't like their water bowl being near their food bowl, keep them apart and they should drink more water. My cat gets through a cereal bowl of water every 3 days (she eats dry food only).

Str4berr3

Funny you say that, I once left a bowl of clean water in the bath tub and he was lapping it up. Noticed that he likes to drink in the bath tub, so we bought him a washing bowl and fill it up with water in there. Its only removed when we need to use the bath.

After the Unrine Track, we felt so guilty and now have started to plot bowls of water in every room of the house. He also like to drink in glass tumblers so, we have glass tumblers on the floor on every room. I can't imagine what our guest think when they see drinking glass all over the floor. hehe.

dizziblonde

Biggest thing I learnt (the hard way)... pre-screen every single room and block off ANY POSSIBLE hideyholes. Brought new bundle of fluff home, new bundle of fluff promptly holed herself up underneath the kitchen cupboards and refused to come out - even when Operation Tuna was effected.

As for claw trimmers - I have to use them on my cat, but as an amputee she struggles to get a really good "go" at the scratching post lacking the stability to balance on one back leg for any decent length of time - so I just take the absolute tips of her claws off on occasion to stop her getting them caught on things (and preserve the skin on my blooming lap)!