Extremely Skittish Cat

[Furballsmom]

 

[rubysmama]

rubysmama Thank you!!! Jake's Purina is also vet-only and a bit pricey, so I'm sure the switch wouldn't be that big a deal.

If your vet has it, and you try it with Jake, I hope it helps.

 

[kissthisangel]

Loved reading your updates and welcome Jake!! Great progress with Rosa too. A little Hiss swat chase can all be in play and as long as no one is yelping in pain or bleeding it's all good. My cats still chase hit and swat after two years, following a slow intro. Sometimes Mojo will end up with a neck bite, when she pursues Charlie beyond his limit he will bite, her offense is very convincing but she has no defense at all and tries to run, Charlie does have a high prey drive so pursues her then and a fight ensues. We split them up on the offchance this happens but we aren't here 24/7. Mojo mostly swallows her pride and rolls over. This ends the game for both of them. Try and leave them to it once full integration is established, if you do have to intervene, go after the most confident cat. My cats will not snuggle but they do often approach eachother, they closely share meals and interchange their sleeping places, although they both have one each that is not touched by the other.

If they are taking turns in chasing it's a great sign that this is play, and not an attack. Do prepare for when play becomes more rambunctious as their relationship grows.

For Jake's sensitive tummy you can try all manner of different foods, but allow time for each food to get fully through his system before trying another. Cats do take some time to adapt to different foods. You may try and find out what the previous home was feeding, although in this instance the use of that information may be of little benefit to you just because a hoarder of animals may not have noticed if one of their many animals had a problem. Then again if he was brought up from a tiny kitten on mothers milk made from the food then the same feed itself it might be his delicate system can only tolerate that specific food or one of a very similar makeup.

 

[apparatchic]

kissthisangel Thank you, it's SO helpful to hear about other people's experiences and your fur babies sound super adorable!

Fortunately, Jake's tummy has normalized and he's doing great on increasingly larger portions of the Purina EN - my vet thinks it was just a fluke that he had diarrhea when I introduced it. I added a probiotic to his food and I think that might have helped too - I wonder if his gut bacteria was just off after so much change and food change especially.

I had the hilarious but also totally weird experience of finding Jake humping Rosa last night at 3:30am, so if anyone has any advice, I started a new thread for that. NOT what I was expecting to encounter late at night!!! But other than that question, Rosa is doing AMAZING - she comes up on the couch for pats now, and seems super happy and content. Jake is a little less cuddly than he was before, but I think that's a sign that he's also feeling more confident.

 

[rubysmama]

Good news that Jake's tummy is doing better.

But not so great, his new, uhm, activity. Funny I saw your thread title, and wondered what it was all about. Now I know. Glad to see you're getting replies, because as the "mama" of only a female cat, this is way out of my league.