I’ve known groups of cats to get along fine until adults until for no apparent reason one of them becomes the butt monkey and is voted off the island.
Again, I’m sure that happens sometimes; but it doesn’t always.
Often in groups of cats there are some combinations that don’t get on well, but IME generally each of them gets on with at least one of the others; and there’s often at least one cat who gets on well with all the others. Sometimes I’ve had three cats all routinely curling up together on one chair, until they start giving out from old age.
When one is standoffish, that often seems to be that cat’s choice; not that the cat’s been driven out, but is simply the equivalent of a less-social human, who will be neutral with the others but just isn’t all that into them.
Gosh, maybe I should go back and edit out the part where I claim that it does.
True, you didn’t. Sorry if my post implied that you did; it wasn’t meant that way, but I can see how it could be read that way.
On a different note, I use cell phone cases with hand straps. I get a good isotonic workout trying to steadily read/type on the phone while a cat goes nuts attacking the strap.
Last year, I took in a feral rescue because the friend who had rescued her was dying. Then, I found kitten of about the same age. Good, both girls, which was what I wanted. Moved to my new condo where feral kitty hid for the better part of a week. Then she got more friendly, and more friendly and “Hey, that’s not a girl!” I discovered on the same day that girl kitty number 2 was due to arrive. There was no help for it, I would just have to keep my fingers crossed that the kittens were too young for trouble until the boy got fixed 10 days later. Nope. My new girl was up the spout. On December 6, my 9-month old girl gave birth, surgically, to 5 viable kittens and one why tried to be born breech but was too weak and damaged. So, I became a kitten grandma and had quite a fun winter cuddling and playing with little, enthusiastic fluff-nuggets. By July, all but one that I kept were re-housed (and fixed!) in good homes with good people. I even gave the lovely, affectionate dad cat away because he needed more space and entertainment than I could offer. Mom and shyest son are still with me. My legs have recovered from all the scratches caused by climbing and flying kitties. My curtains in the second bedroom had to be tossed out and haven’t yet been replaced because there is wall repair to do (kittens climbed jumped and pulled the unanchored curtain rod braces right out of the wall). Etcetera.
Ask me anything.
The kittens will take bites of your cactus but won’t actually eat it. My aloe regularly recovers from bored kitten bites.
As kittens grow, they are not really aware that something that easily held them at 10 weeks, will no longer hold them at 16 weeks. In general, they recover just fine.
Kittens see litter boxes as places to play. You may see eye infections, not to mention that you will have to comb litter out of hair, wash kitten butts (or cut butt hair) because of it.
As someone already mentioned, kittens can and do go everywhere. I have a lazy susan cupboard. One of the kittens loved to walk into it and then disappear. In fact, he was sitting in a corner as I turned the lazy susan around and around looking for him.
Keep rubber bands and dental floss well away from kittens. One of mine was very attracted to mint dental floss, which luckily became poop on a rope, but could easily mess up intestines.
Closed garbage cans are much safter than open ones or light flip top ones. You don’t want a kitty to fall into the trash and not be able to get back out.
Keep toilet lids down at all times until kitty is big enough to heave herself out of the toilet. My ex lost two kittens (separate incidents) to toilet lids that crashed down, thus trapping the kitten until it drowned.
If you get a weanling, you may have them mistaking the litterbox for their food bowl, and vice versa. It takes a while for them to be able to tell them apart for sure.
I’d forgotten all the scratches and bite marks from kitten days until I saw it mentioned in this thread. There was barely an undamaged patch of skin on me for a while there. The worst was when they’d bite/scratch on top of a mosquito bite.
Oh and one night Smokey tried to murder me. He was sleeping on top of my hand so I couldn’t move it and he cuddle his little body on my face covering my nose and mouth. haha
That’s good to know about toilet lids being dangerous. My ex sis-in-law always kept it down cos she was afraid her cat would drown. I’d just thought she was being paranoid. But now I know better.
There is an Old Wives Tale that cats “draw breath” from babies. There is obviously nothing supernatural about it, but cats like to sleep on top of anything warm, so I can easily see a baby being suffocated.
My late kitty Sandstone discovered that the toy catnip mouse my friend made and sent to him - the outside was a long fleece fabric - slid beautifully in the bathtub. So I’m lying there trying to sleep and hear weird spunds. I get up, and there he is in the bathtub batting that thing and then chasing after it. I stared at him, he looked all “problem, mom?” and I went back to bed.
Remember not all cats like nip and some practically turn into addicts.
Often when I see a funny typo I google to see if it is actually a real word anywhere. This one is…interesting.
I don’t know if they have catnip in them or not, but earlier this week I walked outside and found 3 cat toys (that I never bought) in front of my porch, and a 4[sup]th[/sup] one the next day. I have burglar cats.
Our girl had a habit of bringing out old, dry poop and playing with it. Replacing the domed litter box with a more traditional one helped put a stop to that.
This is the brand you want. Solid wood, not cardboard.
A video I saw yesterday gave me a new question. I know kittens play fight and it’s usually okay when they do, but what are signs that it’s not just a scuffle and you should referee?
Do not referee. You might be on the receiving end of bites and scratches. They are determining a pecking order and your involvment only delays the determination, but doesn’t stop it. Yell if you want. Try to distract with treats or toys. Do not get in the middle.
I speak from experience.
If you really have to break up a cat fight, don’t put your hands in there, throw water on them. (Don’t do this if the fighting cats are outside and the temperature is below freezing.)
You’re unlikely to really need to break up a kitten fight. Just keep an eye on whether any of them has started to try to live entirely in hiding (not counting the first couple of days after arrival.)
– It’s not nearly as simple as determining a pecking order. I’ve known the cat that always won the prime spot on the bed to be the one who always lost the kitten fights. I’ve also known feline pecking orders to be circular: cat A dominated cats B and C; cats B and C dominated cat D; cat D dominated cat A.
I would agree with do not referee. They are just playing. Sometimes the play turns more serious but they will figure it out. If they are just insulting each other and hissing you could grab one and keep it in a separate room for awhile.
Mine, now a year and a half old, fight ALL the time. They are just having fun. Pouncing, chasing each other through the house, wrestling. I have yet to hear a hiss though. (When they’re fighting. One of them hissed when he got stepped on, and the other one hissed when he got his claw caught in a sliding door. So, having had them for a year and some change, that is one hiss per cat.) If they are doing it at night, when we are trying to sleep, we throw them out of the bedroom.
The amount of hissing, and the meaning of a hiss, can vary greatly depending on the cat. Some cats only hiss when they are Extremely Upset. Others hiss when they’re only mildly annoyed. The same is true of growling. So go by the rest of the behavior of the cat until you know about that particular cat (unless of course the question is ‘shall I pat or pick up this strange cat?’ in which case always assume a hiss or growl is a strong No.)
I had for many years a pair of littermates (one of them still surviving) who would wrestle every morning; sometimes at other times also, of course. And, once they hit around six months old and brother got larger than sister, every time they wrestled, sooner or later sister would get pinned down; and she would hiss and growl and snarl about it, and then run off swearing when she got loose. But half the time when they were kittens, and some of the time when they were older, she initiated the games; and all through their lives until his last illness they slept curled up together, and all the way to the end of his life they washed each other.
Kittens, being kittens, WILL get stepped on. Fortunately, they come equipped with a loud “stepped on” alarm. And since their little bones are made of rubber, they usually come to no harm.
You, of course, will have a heart attack and a serious case of the guilts.
Kittens’ little brains have no room for things like retaliation or revenge or permanent escape. God did permit them to be equipped with one or two learning brain cells, and they mostly will avoid the immediate “under foot” vicinity.
Or not.
Every one reading this thread is insanely jealous! We would dearly love a nest of babies to cuddle and play with.
For maybe forty-five minutes. Then you can have them back.
~VOW