Cat thread

[Sjofn]

I'll have to try that, she is a sucker for treats.

[Signe]

Magenta drowns everything.  Toys, kibble, and most especially my hair ties and scrunchies.  When she drowns one of her little mice or fluffly toys, I stick it in the freezer and give it to her later.  She loves that.  Putting little wet toys in the freezer also got them both through their teething pains.  She's fascinated by water.  She'll dip her paw in her water bowl and then stare at it until the ripples are gone.  She can also spend endless amounts of time chasing kibble around the kitchen. 

[voodoolily]

Bock used to come running when he heard the toilet flush, then he'd bat at the water as it went down the drain (now we don't let him in the bathroom because he pees on the magazines and towel rack). He also drinks from his paw and dips his food. It's cuz he's so civilized. Except the whole pissing thing. That, not so much.

[Paelos]

My sis's cat Evan loves drinking from the toilet. When I take care of him, I find little paw prints inside the bowl. He's like a dog.

[FatuousTwat]

My old cat that disappeared recently (Henry) wouldn't drink from a bowl, or cat fountain... Only toilets.

[rattran]

I have a recirculating cat fountain, all the cats prefer the sinks. I leave the bathroom sink on a slow drip (one drip every 3 secs or so) and Oscar will press his head against it so the water runs into his mouth.

This does backfire once every few weeks, as the idiot twins (Otto and Fess, pictured in avatar) tend to curl up and sleep in the sink. Which means a sopping wet cat wandering around howling.

[Signe]

For some reason, I bought this for my kitties:



It was a huge hit when Righ was putting it together but afterwards, not so much.  It's a pirate ship, ffs!  How could it not work?

[Sjofn]

You bought it because it looks rad!

[Samwise]

Sjofn
Terracotta Army
Posts: 666

Grats!   

[MahrinSkel]

Anybody know a hack to get Firefox to use this for broken images?  I knew how to do it in IE, but Firefox doesn't seem to display anything for images it can't load.

---Dave

EDIT: Should check the Google before asking for help

[rattran]

I finally found a food the cats go more nuts for than grilled salmon. Grilled salmon with a masala sauce. Who'd have guessed?

[Hawkbit]

My big fat black and white cat decided he likes Cheez-its today.  He ate four of them. 

[Signe]

Lister would eat Indian food if we let him.  Maybe it's his name.  He pays very close attention when we have it and goes after the plates if I don't tidy up right away.  The main problem, aside from the fact that he's already fat and lazy, onions are toxic to cats.  Garlic, too, but to a much lesser degree.  I usually get a Biryani which is just loaded with onions, of course.  Having a Biryani with Lister around is always a trial.  For all his fat and laziness, he can be very stealthy when it suits him.

[Sky]

My boy's been eating ants. Which sucks, because I've got ant bait stations set up. So he's been vomiting the last couple days.

I've got these freakish mega ants that started showing up, like twice the size of the regular carpenter ants. He goes for those.

[Signe]

What about diatomaceous earth?  That works on ants, too, I think, and it's not harmful to the kitties mostly, although I don't think they could tolerate large amounts of it.  I've never tried it so I can't recommend it from anything but a "someone told me about it once" stand point. 

[Bunk]

Mine was out on the balcony with me yesterday, and saw her first bee. Decided it was a good idea to bat it out of the air. Suprisingly, it didn't end badly.

[voodoolily]

What about diatomaceous earth?  That works on ants, too, I think, and it's not harmful to the kitties mostly, although I don't think they could tolerate large amounts of it.  I've never tried it so I can't recommend it from anything but a "someone told me about it once" stand point. 

Diatomaceous earth works great as long as it doesn't get wet. It works on all arthropods (including ants and fleas) and gastropods.

[Sky]

Yep, did some reading on it and went around yesterday collecting the old ant bait stations. I think they were just drinking the toxins and doubling in size, since these mega ants only showed up after I baited the house. I should get a picture of them.

VL, how much experience do you have with DE? Some folks are saying you should only buy the pure food-grade kind, without any bait in it and then add it to bait. Some are saying buy the agricultural grade stuff as it's more potent (all agreeing to stay away from the more toxic pool filter stuff). There also seems to be some debate on the best way to deploy it around the house. Some people dust it everywhere, which I really don't want to do since I don't want Bart (or us!) breathing it in and developing any lung issues. The guy that had the most sensible sounding solution was a bit over the top for me, since he had an applicator + tubing and was routing it up into all these crevices.

Wish we hadn't just had a nice dry spell that has gone rainy, won't be able to apply it for the next couple weeks due to endless rains.

[Lantyssa]

Apply it at known and likely critter entry points.

[voodoolily]

Yep, did some reading on it and went around yesterday collecting the old ant bait stations. I think they were just drinking the toxins and doubling in size, since these mega ants only showed up after I baited the house. I should get a picture of them.

VL, how much experience do you have with DE? Some folks are saying you should only buy the pure food-grade kind, without any bait in it and then add it to bait. Some are saying buy the agricultural grade stuff as it's more potent (all agreeing to stay away from the more toxic pool filter stuff). There also seems to be some debate on the best way to deploy it around the house. Some people dust it everywhere, which I really don't want to do since I don't want Bart (or us!) breathing it in and developing any lung issues. The guy that had the most sensible sounding solution was a bit over the top for me, since he had an applicator + tubing and was routing it up into all these crevices.

Wish we hadn't just had a nice dry spell that has gone rainy, won't be able to apply it for the next couple weeks due to endless rains.

Adding bait to it makes no sense to me since it works by essentially scratching the target to death. It cuts right through chitin. I use only 100% DE and apply it along the edges of where ants enter my house (inside), mostly along the base of windows. Any ants that do make it in get sprayed with an eco-friendly spray cleaner, which kills them instantly and erases their scent trails. We only have the little sugar ants, nothing destructive. However, the little sugar ants have pretty much ruined our hot tub by continuously attempting to nest under the lid - they're tropical and like the warmth and humidity. I've had to hose them with the jet spray three or four times over the past year and the water gets ruined every time I have to do that (it's cloudy with dead/decomposing ants and their larvae).

I just use Advantage for fleas and beer traps for slugs (since slugs only come out when it's too wet for DE).

Edit - I read the Wiki entry on DE, and it actually works differently than I though.

[apocrypha]

Zebedee being a sun worshipper:

[Teleku]

 

[Trippy]

Cats 'exploit' humans by purring (watch the video, if you can)

<insert overlord joke here>

[Sky]

Yeah, no kidding.

[Signe]

Continued from Useless Conversation thread:

Lister's very tidy.  He digs so much in the litter because he buries everything.  Unfortunately, he flings it out of the box.  Luckily they have their own bathroom.  Magenta doesn't even bother burying her poop.  She's such a slutwhore.  It's my fault, maybe.  I'm obsessive about cleaning the box every time they do anything.  It barely has time to stink before it's all gone.  I probably check it 20 times a day.  I'm a bit of a clean nut.

Lister wipes his teeth on everything.  EVERYTHING.  Even toes.  He's tries to wipe his teeth on my nose but I stop him.  I don't know why.  I brush his teeth regularly and his breath is always nice.  I don't understand the teeth wiping thingy.  He doesn't chew, just wipes.  I can't find anything on that behaviour.  Anyone know?  I should put this in the cat thread.  It's not completely useless.

[Lantyssa]

Gum irritation maybe?

[Ingmar]

Its a thing cats do to mark their territory - they rub their face/mouth/teeth on things as the scent glands are in and around their mouths. Which part of the cat gets rubbed most often seems to be down to personal preference, ours both seem to use the sides of their face more.

EDIT: I did go look it up after this and there are some random comments saying it might also be some kind of dental discomfort, but if he's been doing it for a long time and the vet has checked his mouth out at some point, its probably fine.

[Hawkbit]

Yep, check with your vet the next time you have your cat in just to make sure the mouth and teeth look good.  Otherwise, he's just marking you.  Cats mark things they like by rubbing their cheeks and mouth on you.  Incidentally, cat saliva is the most potent carrier of Fel D1 (cat allergen). 

My cat Ivan rubs his teeth on me daily so I'm leaning towards this behavior being normal.  It's just his way of saying that he's happy you live in his house. 

My mom sent me this video today:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMxGvam5Ros

[Trippy]

God I hope they didn't waste all that water.

[Hawkbit]

Water is never wasted when cats being cute are involved. 

[Sjofn]

I really do not understand our cats. They SEEM to like each other 90% of the time (maybe a little less), but every day at least once a day they have a wrestling match that I am pretty sure is going beyond "whee, playtime!" and into "I WILL CUT YOU." I mostly suspect this because Gilly, the smaller, newer one, starts crying and meowing and (if I haven't broken it up already for some reason) hissing. Lizzie is always silent in these wrestling matches, so I don't know if she's just playing too rough or if she's a SILENT KILLER.

At the same time, if I seperate them, Gilly gets all  . And the second I let them back near each other, she rubs against Lizzie and Lizzie is all, "Hey, 'sup."

Lizzie also grooms the fuck out of Gilly, but that seems to mostly be a YOU BELONG TO ME NOW BWAHA thing.

[rattran]

Dominance fighting never really ends. My roommate's somewhat stupid cat periodically starts wrestling then goes into full blown  attack mode against Oscar. Once he fluffs up and starts actually fighting, she loses some hair and blood, and runs and hides for a bit. Then she beats up one of the other cats. Happens about once every 2 weeks, but in 6 years she's never managed to win the fight. Sometimes Oscar runs to the second fight, breaks it up and beats her up more.

It's pretty amazing once Oscar is fluffed. He's a huge cat, who manages to look huger and completely ridiculous. Huge mane and tail like a bottle brush.

[Signe]

No, Lister's teeth and gums are lovely.  It's not discomfort at all.  I think the scent thing is probably it.  When ever I wash his beds and blankets, he goes nuts with his teeth.  He does it when I wash our stuff, too.  I really believe that he has now wiped his teeth on everything we own.  On us, too. 

Ours play fight a lot.  Even when it seems to go beyond normal, I know it's play fight because the claws never come out and the teeth ever break the skin.  Lister could easily kick Magenta's ass - he's easily twice her size - but he doesn't.  I only break it up when someone cries a little. Lister is doesn't always remember how big he is.  They mostly just tear around the house and roll around on the floor.  Neither one of them have ever bit, scratched or even hissed at each other or any one else.   

[Sjofn]

Lizzie used to play wrestle ME. I have scars up and down my arm because of it (I wouldn't fight back but it would still take her a few swipes to really notice I wasn't responding). She wasn't really trying to hurt me, she just ... thought I could take it like a cat could. Now that we have Gilly, I only get scratches when they decide to use me as a launching pad to somewhere else. I'm a mess. 

I also sometimes wonder if Gilly is just a noisy damn cat. She'll make little "mrrt!" noises when she jumps up on something, and does mew and such a bit when she's wrestling a toy. That's why I can't say for ABSOLUTE CERTAIN it's actual FIGHT fighting. Damn cats!

[Signe]

Lister makes that sound, too.  A lot.  He's extremely vocal and makes all sorts of sounds.  You can almost always tell exactly what he wants.  He has a weird, deep, very loud meow when he calls Magenta to play.  I don't think I've ever heard Magenta actually make the "meow" sound.  She's pretty vocal, too, but she makes a very soft, high pitched "ah-ah-ah" sound.  It's sweet.  I love my cats!