- Joined
- Aug 13, 2014
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Hi there, new poster here!
We're having some issues with our youngest cat. She doesn't seem to follow the "guidelines" that people always talk about.
A bit of a backstory: we moved into a new apartment about 2 months ago, joint us was our 10-month old tabby named Mustard. Not too long after the move, we noticed a 11-week old kitten seeking a home at the vet and decided to adopt her, enter: Ketchup. The introduction went smoother than expected, Mustard growled and hissed the first day, only growled the second day, ignored Ketchup the third day and the fourth day they were playing together.
Anyway, fast forward a few weeks to today (she's roughly 4 months old now): they're best friends, often sleep together, groom each other and they play with each other often. But we're having some small issues (nothing too major, but I'd rather act now instead of when/if it boils over): the kitten doesn't seem to do what everyone tells us they should do:
Anyone here that has had similar issues with their cats? Or does anyone have some ideas or tips that might work.
Additional notes: Mustard is sterilised, Ketchup isn't yet (we intend to do that once she weight roughly 4-5lbs, which should be soon-ish). Mustard is a lot lazier than Ketchup, she barely reacts to toys, only the Cats Da Bird and a laser pointer interest her slightly).
Kr,
Sverre
We're having some issues with our youngest cat. She doesn't seem to follow the "guidelines" that people always talk about.
A bit of a backstory: we moved into a new apartment about 2 months ago, joint us was our 10-month old tabby named Mustard. Not too long after the move, we noticed a 11-week old kitten seeking a home at the vet and decided to adopt her, enter: Ketchup. The introduction went smoother than expected, Mustard growled and hissed the first day, only growled the second day, ignored Ketchup the third day and the fourth day they were playing together.
Anyway, fast forward a few weeks to today (she's roughly 4 months old now): they're best friends, often sleep together, groom each other and they play with each other often. But we're having some small issues (nothing too major, but I'd rather act now instead of when/if it boils over): the kitten doesn't seem to do what everyone tells us they should do:
- We should play more with our cat to avoid her chewing on wires or furniture or towels etc
Ketchup likes to chew on wires or corners of tables and books. Apparently cats start doing this more often when they're bored. The popular solution: play more. So we did. Ketchup loves it when we play with the Cats Da Bird toy or the mice (with -and- without catnip), but the moment she catches it, she runs off growling and hissing (not at us or Mustard, but at the toy) and hides/runs away whenever we approach. This makes it very hard to play with her.
Even with Cats Da Bird, where the feathers are attached to a wire, she just runs off, even if she can't get far. She simply does not let go unless we can scare her off by surprising her. We also tried ignoring her, but after 2 hours she's still holding onto that toy, all growly and hissy at the toy (though at this point she usually doesn't run and we can just take it away from her)
To make things worse: she's still chewing cables, even after 2 or 3 play sessions of 20-30 minutes a day. We've gone through great lengths to make the living room and kitchen wire-free, and have managed to have a grand total of 1 (one) visible cable in the living room (which can't be hidden at all, but is slightly too thick for her to chew on). But if we accidentally leave headphones or charging cables laying around at night, they'll be destroyed by the time we wake up.
- End playtime with treats to keep the cat happy
When we do end up getting the toy to end the play session, we were told to give the cat a treat they love to reward her for being a good hunter. She takes the treat, but she then runs off with it, as if she's afraid we're going to steal it.
The oddest part here is that with her regular food (in the shared bowl), she doesn't do that at all. Mustard can easily come close to Ketchup whenever the latter one is eating or even eat from the same bowl together, but with treats she's super protective.
- Have multiple litter boxes to avoid unwanted elimination and stressed out cats
According to people and books, you need multiple litter boxes when dealing with multiple cats in your household. So we ended up placing 3 litter boxes for 2 cats: 2 in opposing corners of the living room and one in the storage room next to the kitchen.
However, both cats -only- visit one litter box. The other 2 haven't been touched in weeks. The problem here is that whenever Mustard goes into the litter box, Ketchup waits just outside of the box to "ambush" her when she comes out. After the "ambush", Ketchup goes into the box to pee and/or poo. Even if Ketchup is sleeping, the moment she hears some noise coming from the litter box she jumps up and runs up to the box to prepare her poorly thought-out "ambush".
I have no idea why they both decide to go to that one box. All 3 boxes are the exact same (same type, same model, same size, same litter and pretty much in a similar spot (easy to reach, but just around a corner for maximum privacy) and they know where the other boxes are. They both just stick to that one box.
If I was Mustard and there's some little twerp swatting at me whenever I leave the loo, I would just look for some other loo.
Do note that I wrote "ambush" with quotation marks, because all she does is raise her paws while Mustard calmly walks away as if Ketchup isn't even there.
Anyone here that has had similar issues with their cats? Or does anyone have some ideas or tips that might work.
Additional notes: Mustard is sterilised, Ketchup isn't yet (we intend to do that once she weight roughly 4-5lbs, which should be soon-ish). Mustard is a lot lazier than Ketchup, she barely reacts to toys, only the Cats Da Bird and a laser pointer interest her slightly).
Kr,
Sverre
