Hello, my name is Mim! I'm new here but I have some questions about my baby cat (baby cat is the 8 year old male) and his two new sisters. Baby cat was raised his whole life with my older boy, Yeager, who had to be put down 3 months ago. Baby seems to have transitioned well with his passing (much better than I have) but he needed someone to play with. In come two, 9 week old female kittens. Due to my husbands fast pace nature the kittens met Baby and walked around the home the same day they arrived. Baby has always been a nervous cat, never liking when people came over ect. Lately that has gotten better. He meets better with people and being with the kittens he seems okay. He will play around them (not with them fully yet) and will follow them and make squeaks at them. He has always been vocal, that has not changed. He watches them move around and likes to be in the same room as them. The kittens were slightly malnourished when we rescued them, so I have to feed them more than baby. Baby has always loved food, but yesterday he didn't eat much. Since then he has eaten less than normal (honestly I think his food schedule changed that is my fault because I feed the kittens more) but he is still interested in the food. So the main thing I am worried about is that he isn't eating like normal, but tomorrow I am going back to the regular schedule and not letting the kittens in until he has had a chance to eat something. Also, my husband is not understanding and is trying to change his sleep routine by making him sleep out there with the kittens. I am nixing that and just not letting him in the bedroom (Baby cat snores really loud). Is this normal? Is he okay? He isn't aggressive and he isn't peeing all over. I did buy Comfort Zone Feliway Diffuser and Nature's Miracle No Stress Cat Calming Spray. I will try those out, not sure it is needed but I want him to be as happy as possible.
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8 Year Old Male Cat Has Two New Sisters. Need Advice
- Thread starter Mim
- Start Date
Welcome to TCS
Mim
You got very lucky with such a fast introduction going so well. I'm glad to hear baby cat is doing ok with the new kittens. His loud snoring worries me though. When was he last seen by a vet? He could be having some medical issue in the background which may also affect his eating. He's not a young cat anymore so I think a visit to the vet is a good idea.
And generally speaking, you're right that you should not try to change too many things in his life right now. The kittens are enough of a major change for him so if possible, let him keep his old routine where it comes to sleeping and eating. How does it go with the new feeding routine? Is he eating more these days?
Mim
You got very lucky with such a fast introduction going so well. I'm glad to hear baby cat is doing ok with the new kittens. His loud snoring worries me though. When was he last seen by a vet? He could be having some medical issue in the background which may also affect his eating. He's not a young cat anymore so I think a visit to the vet is a good idea.
And generally speaking, you're right that you should not try to change too many things in his life right now. The kittens are enough of a major change for him so if possible, let him keep his old routine where it comes to sleeping and eating. How does it go with the new feeding routine? Is he eating more these days?
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- #3
Hello Anne, thank you for the reply! Baby is now eating at least one meal a day and seems to be doing better overall. I believe one of the reasons he stopped eating was, he got super excited after playing then he ate and threw it all up. He had accidentally eaten the kittens food that he had never had before. After that he hardly ate. That was a Thursday, so from then till Sunday it was little or nothing (he was still using the bathroom). Now he is better. He recently had a vet visit and he was fine, about a week before we got the kittens. Baby has always snored, he is a very loud sleeper. The only thing that is different is he isn't meowing like normal. He is still making his cooing noises and talking to the kittens, but he no longer will meow for food (he makes it sound super soft like the kittens?) and he isn't as vocal. The tone and sound make it seem timid or dry. There is no breathing issue, the only other time he had something like this was when I thought he had a breathing issue but it was a panic attack from his anxiety after my older cat, Yeager, got sick. He would sound like he was dry heaving slightly but nothing came out. He has super high anxiety, my vet wants him on Prozac but I'm not so sure.
The dry heaving sounds like it possibly could have just been coughing, like from a hairball. Several of my cats do that on occasion.
As far as the lack of vocalizing... I read somewhere recently that cats don't generally meow to other cats (other than yowling to play with someone); they reserve their meows for us people. Now they do communicate by lots of other noises with other cats (trills, chirps, growls, etc). It was an interesting thing to think about!
The lack of meowing is probably just because there is a lot of changes going on right now. Lots of adjustments! He may not feel bold enough to be meowing just yet. When we introduced new kitties into the house, our fairly vocal cat was a little more silent for a few weeks. But after about 2 months, he adjusted, and he was back to being his beautiful meowing self.
(An interesting side note: we have a cat who literally never vocalized *anything* until he got used to being around the other cats... then it's like he learned how to meow! It was so cute to hear his little baby squeaks... at almost 2 years old lol)
Try to keep Baby Cat's schedule and routine normal. Actually, give him some extra love. Let him eat by himself in another room, making him feel special. The cat I was just telling you about (the late meower) wasn't too pleased with some of our new additions to the house, and he lost a significant amount of weight. So I started feeding him a different flavor of food from everyone else, in a different room. He feels so special! I give everyone else their food, so they are distracted, and then I walk down the hall with HIS food, and he dances all the way, baby meowing at me <3 . It was a real confidence booster for him, and he immediately became more relaxed and started gaining weight. He just needed some extra love and confirmation that we still love him, haha.
Sorry for the LONG reply! Hopefully something I said helps
As far as the lack of vocalizing... I read somewhere recently that cats don't generally meow to other cats (other than yowling to play with someone); they reserve their meows for us people. Now they do communicate by lots of other noises with other cats (trills, chirps, growls, etc). It was an interesting thing to think about!
The lack of meowing is probably just because there is a lot of changes going on right now. Lots of adjustments! He may not feel bold enough to be meowing just yet. When we introduced new kitties into the house, our fairly vocal cat was a little more silent for a few weeks. But after about 2 months, he adjusted, and he was back to being his beautiful meowing self.
(An interesting side note: we have a cat who literally never vocalized *anything* until he got used to being around the other cats... then it's like he learned how to meow! It was so cute to hear his little baby squeaks... at almost 2 years old lol)
Try to keep Baby Cat's schedule and routine normal. Actually, give him some extra love. Let him eat by himself in another room, making him feel special. The cat I was just telling you about (the late meower) wasn't too pleased with some of our new additions to the house, and he lost a significant amount of weight. So I started feeding him a different flavor of food from everyone else, in a different room. He feels so special! I give everyone else their food, so they are distracted, and then I walk down the hall with HIS food, and he dances all the way, baby meowing at me <3 . It was a real confidence booster for him, and he immediately became more relaxed and started gaining weight. He just needed some extra love and confirmation that we still love him, haha.
Sorry for the LONG reply! Hopefully something I said helps
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- #5
Hello and thank you! Baby cat is now eating much better, I also have a better description of his cough/whatever it might be. He had done it years ago, but he will do the little cough and just have regular saliva in it. I've only seen it twice, definitely is not foam and I think it's only after he has been with the kittens. I did wonder for a few days if it could be something stuck in his throat, but he is not gagging on hard food or soft and not constantly clearing himself, it did start after I had explained he threw up everything he ate after gorging himself when the kittens were eating. Then I wondered asthma because I heard a change in his breathing but I did not. When we were playing or he's running around he is never out of breath. The only difference is his horse meow if there is one at all. I was hoping someone would have thoughts on if these two symptoms sound like stress. Any replys are very appreciated!
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- #6
