Author Topic: New meowing furball  (Read 12306 times)

Gattopardo

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New meowing furball
« on: 03 September, 2017, 10:01:29 am »
So there will be a cat in my life  :facepalm:

It is a kitten and maybe more than one.  So food, what is the current good thing for cats and any vet recommendations near N22 in London.
 

Gattopardo

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Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #1 on: 04 September, 2017, 06:47:06 pm »
Anyone?

essexian

Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #2 on: 04 September, 2017, 07:23:13 pm »
Congrats on the new moggies. IMHO you can never have too many cats.... ;D (we currently have five and feed another five strays most days!.... no wonder why the locals hate us!)

I am sorry but I can't help with vets in your area but when you find one, I would suggest that you have your moggies vaccinated against all nasties. We failed to do so which resulted in us losing two of the five kittens we adopted to preventable but not curable illnesses (FIV). I believe that if you get them done young, that should last all their lives. As we didn't, we have to take ours in each year for a booster something which they hate! Also, don't forget to get them "done." We have four stray intact tom cats who visit us each evening for a meal. They all get into fights and have a short, unpleasant life. Not saying your home cats would turn stray, but with their bits attached still, they may, especially if there are intact female cats around.

As for food.... try not to feed them on treats.... we spend £15 a week on prawns for our pride as they were given them as a treat when they were young. Now one of them just won't eat anything (Petal) else and two others (Jamise and pixie) prefer them to "normal" food. Most cats will try it on and walk away from food they don't think is good enough for them... it's not a fight you are going to win easily but you need to stand firm or your food bill will be like ours at well over £50 a week!

Finally, I would strongly suggest you get health insurance for them... we only took this out earlier this year after Posie when down with a mystery illness. She was ill for a week and needed two days in emergency care costing us over £2K. Of course she is worth it, but that's £2K I would have rather have spent on something else. Our insurance costs around £6 a month each what with a "multi cat" discount.

Enjoy the kittens and don't forget, we need photos!


Mrs Pingu

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Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #3 on: 04 September, 2017, 07:45:52 pm »
Essexian, AIUI you should be getting boosters every year, especially if you are feeding the local unneutered stray population and bringing unvaccinated and possibly virus laden cats into contact with your cats.
Have you thought about asking your local cats protection for help trap/neuter/releasing your strays to help keep the population and spread of illness down? (Assuming they are strays and not just '6 dinner Sids'.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #4 on: 05 September, 2017, 03:18:00 pm »
So there will be a cat in my life  :facepalm:

It is a kitten and maybe more than one.  So food, what is the current good thing for cats and any vet recommendations near N22 in London.

Give this lot a ring.

https://www.woodgreen.org.uk/what_we_do/veterinary_services

Have them neutered when old enough, microchipped, vaccinated. There are specific kitten foods readily available from Pets at Home and the like.

We feed ours a mixture of wet and dry foods - generally wet in the morning, dry in the evening.  Always have water available - though they'll probably prefer the loo or a puddle! As Essexian says, they'll turn their nose up if the decide they don't like something. Ignore them, they'll not starve themselves.

If you're in N22 then get a cat flap that works off the microchips - urban cats get very stressed with more dominant ones coming into "their" territory. A safe haven is a must. Initially though they should be kept in until all the vacs take effect - the vet will advise.  And get them something to scratch on and encourage them to use it if you value any fabrics around the house.  Litter tray of course.

Our last few cats have all been rescue cats, it's been 30 years since I had a kitten. I think we used a kids playpen to keep them coralled a bit initially!
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #5 on: 05 September, 2017, 07:34:31 pm »
So there will be a cat in my life  :facepalm:

It is a kitten and maybe more than one.  So food, what is the current good thing for cats and any vet recommendations near N22 in London.

Give this lot a ring.

https://www.woodgreen.org.uk/what_we_do/veterinary_services

Have them neutered when old enough, microchipped, vaccinated. There are specific kitten foods readily available from Pets at Home and the like.

We feed ours a mixture of wet and dry foods - generally wet in the morning, dry in the evening.  Always have water available - though they'll probably prefer the loo or a puddle! As Essexian says, they'll turn their nose up if the decide they don't like something. Ignore them, they'll not starve themselves.

If you're in N22 then get a cat flap that works off the microchips - urban cats get very stressed with more dominant ones coming into "their" territory. A safe haven is a must. Initially though they should be kept in until all the vacs take effect - the vet will advise.  And get them something to scratch on and encourage them to use it if you value any fabrics around the house.  Litter tray of course.

Our last few cats have all been rescue cats, it's been 30 years since I had a kitten. I think we used a kids playpen to keep them coralled a bit initially!

Not sure we can go to that one as we went there looking at cats, there were a few that we liked but never took it forward.

This will be a house cat and go out on a leash  :facepalm:  Hence why I am no longer involved and the comment there is a cat in my life.  I wanted to get a FIV cat but that was over ruled and the kitten will be here.

Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #6 on: 06 September, 2017, 10:23:37 am »
get them started on dry cat food as soon as they are old enough - if you buy decent quality food it is graded by age. Make sure they always have access to clean water - change it often even if they haven't emptied the bowl.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

ian

Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #7 on: 06 September, 2017, 10:30:07 am »
Food, water, litter tray, microchip catflap, annual vaccinations, infinite patience, and lots of money.

Riggers

  • Mine's a pipe, er… pint!
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #8 on: 06 September, 2017, 10:45:29 am »
If you have a nice sofa, say goodbye to it now. The bastards used ours as a scratching post and, okay, you can 'deal' with them while your there, in the house, but when you're out the 'mice-will-play', as the saying goes. Or rather cats. So encourage (if that's the right word) to scratch on a designated post provided for them by you.

You're looking forward to all this aren't you!
Certainly never seen cycling south of Sussex

Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #9 on: 19 September, 2017, 12:29:29 pm »
I can't help with northern London vets, I'm in the opposite direction !

Generally I buy premium cat foods, on the bases that it's still a fraction of my food costs, and I'd prefer not to feed junk to Zev.

The cheaper cat foods can have carbohydrates in them, which are cheap and bulk the cat food out, but cats are obligatory carnivores and naturally have very little carbohydrates in their diet, so it seems like a poor choice to me (not that we always keep to our natural diets very well!)  Interestingly, cooked rice is generally considered to be fine in a cats diet, even though you'd think that contradicted the "obligatory carnivore" bit.  A few of the cat foods I've bought have had cooked rice, and it normally gets enthusiastically demolished with the remainder of the meal.

I mostly keep to wet cat foods which are predominantly based on meat (Sainsbury's Encore seems good for that, and appears to be a cheaper "oem" version of Applaws).  Schesir also seems good, but the only "easy" supplier for that seems to be Zooplus, who are an online pet supplier, based in Germany.  As said by others, most manufacturers seem to make specialised kitten food, which seems to be softer and easier for them to eat (and I suspect has differing dietary components, but I'm no expert on that).

I do tend to vary the brands I use, on the basis that I'd get bored eating the same food all the time, and to minimise the risk that any one manufacturer has something dodgy in their food.  If I'm home, and Zev winges for lunch, I'll normally give her a little dry cat food, to shut her up, but her main two meals of the day are more traditional wet meat cat foods.

It's the same diet that Talisker and Kai have also eaten quite happily.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Gattopardo

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Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #10 on: 21 September, 2017, 12:44:18 pm »
There are two of the furry meowing attacking gits.  A boy and a girl.

The claws are sharp and so are the teeth.  Food wise they are getting go cat and whiskas kittens nuggets as well as felix pouches.  Looking at the ingredients list I do not like the ash content of the food.  Or am I being silly.

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #11 on: 21 September, 2017, 02:24:10 pm »
There are two of the furry meowing attacking gits.  A boy and a girl.

The claws are sharp and so are the teeth.  Food wise they are getting go cat and whiskas kittens nuggets as well as felix pouches.  Looking at the ingredients list I do not like the ash content of the food.  Or am I being silly.

Cat soup is like crack cocaine for cats - they go mad for it.  And I imagine it costs more than crack.  I say imagine as I've never bought crack so don't know how much it costs.  But I do know cat soup is expensive and there doesn't seem to be much per pouch.  I do know that cats love it.

We have three cats in our house.  Isabella (senior cat) is about 3 years old and a wonderful animal.  A year ago we decided to get a kitten, but we got two  ::-) - apparently this is my fault.  Victor and Daisy, aka The Tabby Terrors, are still hooligans.  As kittens they were complete and utter hooligans which was hugely entertaining but actually quite tiring - sometimes it was like living in a Tom & Jerry cartoon but with Jerry being played alternatively by either of the Tabby Terrors depending which was in attack mode at the time.


Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #12 on: 21 September, 2017, 05:34:22 pm »
I'm lucky in that Pete will eat anything, but his meals are wet food, with small amounts of Thrive (90% chicken) dry food in his automatic feeder and activity feeders. If I had the freezer space, he'd be on the frozen raw meat such as https://www.naturalinstinct.com/#tab_emtabs_7bae6a66c18825355b87a0c3abbe4858_2 on the grounds that that's what he has evolved to eat.

If he had his way, he'd live on cheese and hummus.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #13 on: 21 September, 2017, 07:49:51 pm »
I'm lucky in that Pete will eat anything, but his meals are wet food, with small amounts of Thrive (90% chicken) dry food in his automatic feeder and activity feeders. If I had the freezer space, he'd be on the frozen raw meat such as https://www.naturalinstinct.com/#tab_emtabs_7bae6a66c18825355b87a0c3abbe4858_2 on the grounds that that's what he has evolved to eat.

If he had his way, he'd live on cheese and hummus.

Most cats I've known like cheese and butter.

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #14 on: 21 September, 2017, 07:56:18 pm »
I am terrified that we will do the wrong thing.  These are supposed to be my girlfriends kittens but am terrified that we will do something harmful and detrimental to their health.  Terrified of overfeeding and then underfeeding.  Worried about their teeth. Think we need to clip their nails as they have started curtain climbing and falling to the floor in a big thud.

So far we have discovered the best toys are balls of paper, and plastic or paper bags that make a rustling sound.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #15 on: 22 September, 2017, 12:28:15 am »
There are two of the furry meowing attacking gits.  A boy and a girl.

The claws are sharp and so are the teeth.  Food wise they are getting go cat and whiskas kittens nuggets as well as felix pouches.  Looking at the ingredients list I do not like the ash content of the food.  Or am I being silly.

'Ash' is the mineral content. It's not actual ash; it's the potential ash which would be left after combustion of the organic material (protein, fat, carbs and fibre).

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #16 on: 22 September, 2017, 08:17:20 am »
I am terrified that we will do the wrong thing.  These are supposed to be my girlfriends kittens but am terrified that we will do something harmful and detrimental to their health.  Terrified of overfeeding and then underfeeding.  Worried about their teeth. Think we need to clip their nails as they have started curtain climbing and falling to the floor in a big thud.

So far we have discovered the best toys are balls of paper, and plastic or paper bags that make a rustling sound.
As long as they have food and water, litter trays (three for two kittens), warmth and toys, they'll be fine. Neuter them, vaccinate them, microchip them, make sure they get their checkups, and enjoy them.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #17 on: 22 September, 2017, 08:30:11 am »
Exactly!  With 2 kittens in your life you should be more worried about yourselves, they will be fine, you might not make it!

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #18 on: 22 September, 2017, 08:31:57 am »
Oh, I should have mentioned, your curtains and soft furnishings are definitely doomed. Should you doubt what I'm saying please feel free to pop round to our place.

essexian

Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #19 on: 22 September, 2017, 09:40:58 am »
Exactly!  With 2 kittens in your life you should be more worried about yourselves, they will be fine, you might not make it!

This is so true! I ended up with badly bloodied arms once when I tried to pick up Pixie as a kitten when she didn't want to be picked up.

My one piece of advice to add to the above is get to know your kittens movements...yes, I mean both ways as funny poo's etc can be a sign of illness. Also, if your cat starts to hide or not sleep in their normal place or if they change their routine, this again could be a sign of illness. Our vet once told us that cats are some of the best actors in the world as they won't let you know they are ill so you have to spot it. Hence, if they change their eating/sleeping/killing routine, then it may be worth getting them checked out.

And vomiting...expect it! Cat use vomit to get rid of stuff which doesn't agree with them so don't worry...unless it lasts for more than a short while. If it does, get them to the vets.  As a tip (sorry about this), if you can't find the vomit, take your shoes and socks off and trust me, you will quickly find it!

Finally, if they are long haired...enjoy the furballs.  ;D

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #20 on: 22 September, 2017, 11:35:58 pm »
There are two of the furry meowing attacking gits.  A boy and a girl.

The claws are sharp and so are the teeth.  Food wise they are getting go cat and whiskas kittens nuggets as well as felix pouches.  Looking at the ingredients list I do not like the ash content of the food.  Or am I being silly.

'Ash' is the mineral content. It's not actual ash; it's the potential ash which would be left after combustion of the organic material (protein, fat, carbs and fibre).

Oh I didn't know that.  Just want them to have good food.  The girlie and I do argue over treats, like dreamies.  I say no.  Maybe prawns, fish and meat as treats.
Oh, I should have mentioned, your curtains and soft furnishings are definitely doomed. Should you doubt what I'm saying please feel free to pop round to our place.

They have learnt to climb the curtains, and try and climb the blinds.  Fear that they will hurt themselves.

Exactly!  With 2 kittens in your life you should be more worried about yourselves, they will be fine, you might not make it!

This is so true! I ended up with badly bloodied arms once when I tried to pick up Pixie as a kitten when she didn't want to be picked up.

My one piece of advice to add to the above is get to know your kittens movements...yes, I mean both ways as funny poo's etc can be a sign of illness. Also, if your cat starts to hide or not sleep in their normal place or if they change their routine, this again could be a sign of illness. Our vet once told us that cats are some of the best actors in the world as they won't let you know they are ill so you have to spot it. Hence, if they change their eating/sleeping/killing routine, then it may be worth getting them checked out.

And vomiting...expect it! Cat use vomit to get rid of stuff which doesn't agree with them so don't worry...unless it lasts for more than a short while. If it does, get them to the vets.  As a tip (sorry about this), if you can't find the vomit, take your shoes and socks off and trust me, you will quickly find it!

Finally, if they are long haired...enjoy the furballs.  ;D

Their claws are not just sharp they are razor like.  The problem is not picking them up, the problem is them jumping and using my skin as grip with their claws.  They also lick me, alot.  If I'm asleep they will lick my face and lips, or my nose or my ears. 

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #21 on: 23 September, 2017, 08:55:31 am »
They sound like normal kittens.

Try Thrive treats - they're freeze-dried meat and fish pieces.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Mrs Pingu

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Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #22 on: 23 September, 2017, 09:35:46 am »
*All* the things you describe are typical kitten behaviour.  The old human as a climbing frame is great but only if you're wearing thick jeans
:D
Be careful not to use your hands as playthings now though, or you will end up with bitey scratchy adult cats and that will hurt.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #23 on: 23 September, 2017, 11:13:00 am »
I'm lucky in that Pete will eat anything

I'm not sure I'd say that was lucky. He'd eat your arm given half the chance!  :P
Those wonderful norks are never far from my thoughts, oh yeah!

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: New meowing furball
« Reply #24 on: 23 September, 2017, 11:25:07 am »
True. But he's a good boy.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.