Cat thread

[voodoolily]

I've always trained my cats to respond to finger snaps and hand claps.  Cats have sensitive hearing and the concussion of clapping your hands together hard is generally punishment enough to get their attention and make them stop what they're doing.  Then they learn that finger snaps come right before the headache-inducing pop, and it gets a lot easier.

--Dave

The booming clap is for the really bad behavior, like when I catch Bock in act of spraying.

[rattran]

From what I've seen, boy cats either spray or don't, and nothing short of removing their balls will affect it. At least with housecats the volume of it isn't quite so much. I got sprayed by a tiger at one point. Worse than a skunk's spray, and harder to get rid of.

My cats are trained for 'Oy!' being the "you're doing something bad" noise. And golf claps to get them running for play time or catnip.

[Miasma]

That's right, just leave an "I got sprayed by a tiger" anecdote hanging.

[rattran]

Meh, it happens when you're around big cats for any amount of time. It's disgusting and smelly and clingy. All boy cats mark things. Baby tiger poop is marginally worse, but comes out slowly so you can dodge or shift them to avoid it.

[Cyrrex]

So which one are you:  Siegrfried or Roy?

[voodoolily]

Bock was neutered at 6 months (or whenever they're old enough) and didn't spray until he was about 5 years old, when my then-kitten Desmond reached full size. It's been off and on since then, but lately (over the past year or so) it's been pretty much on. We're installing a cat door to see if unfettered access to the outdoors helps (he seems to mostly mark areas around windows and doors, where he can see other cats outside), then putting him on Paxil as the last resort. He's been on it before, and it's the only thing that works, but he's so sad and mopey when he's on it.

[Sjofn]

all I have to do is say "Lizzie!" in an annoyed tone and she stops immediately.

I read somewhere that you shouldn't scold them with their name, so I've trained Bart to respond to a firm "No." Sometimes, when he's being a little bastard on purpose, just the "Nnnnn" is enough to set him off running.

Of course, this backfires when I'm goofing off with my fiancee and suggest something ridiculous and she screams "NO!" and the cat takes off running and hides out. I find it funny, but she gets wicked guilty. He even picks up on the word in normal conversation, "I don't even know!" will get him nervous.

She seems to understand the different tones. I've taught her to come and sit (I'm working on speak but it is not going well because if she knows I have a treat she won't shut up long enough for me to TELL her to speak), and I use her name in those commands too. Maybe we'll work on "No" instead though.

EDIT: Oh, and I've tried the clap thing, she could not give less of a fuck when I do it.

[rattran]

Bock was neutered at 6 months (or whenever they're old enough) and didn't spray until he was about 5 years old, when my then-kitten Desmond reached full size. It's been off and on since then, but lately (over the past year or so) it's been pretty much on. We're installing a cat door to see if unfettered access to the outdoors helps (he seems to mostly mark areas around windows and doors, where he can see other cats outside), then putting him on Paxil as the last resort. He's been on it before, and it's the only thing that works, but he's so sad and mopey when he's on it.

Oh, I've always waited on boy cats until/unless they start spraying to get them neutered, except one who came pre-snipped. Good luck with it, Petzyme seems to do a good job cleaning up spray and urine at least. One of the neighborhood cats seems to have started spraying our front door, and the enzymes get rid of the smell.

[Rasix]

Never had a problem with cats spraying, and I've only caught it outside in planter where I don't really care.  We did have a problem with one of our cats pissing all over tile floor in the kitchen for a period of a couple months.  It stopped magically one day.  I think it was due to the giant neighbor cat coming up to the door/window and taunting Max, who considers himself the alpha male.

All of our boy cats have been pre-snipped. It's worked out well.

My cats are pretty well trained.  A raised voice from me is pretty much all that is necessary for them to stop whatever they're doing.  They ignore my wife as they don't think she's serious. As kittens I'd physically remove them from areas they aren't supposed to be on, so just standing up will pretty much get them off a counter they're not supposed to be on. 

They get supervised outside time and are really easy to get back in. Loud claps will send most of them inside.  Our female cat will sometimes ignore it and hang out under the pyracantha.  I've got a bamboo pole (plant stake) that I can use to herd her in.  The boys no longer require herding at all.

We're installing a cat door to see if unfettered access to the outdoors helps (he seems to mostly mark areas around windows and doors, where he can see other cats outside), then putting him on Paxil as the last resort.

Are your cats outdoor cats? If not, they will be.  That's not really an option here as outdoor cats quickly become coyote food and there's a fair bit of other nastiness in the desert behind our house. 

Max has gone a bit bonkers lately and has been fastidiously grooming himself.  Rips giant chunks of fur out and eat them. His tail, normally bushy, is pretty thin at the moment.  Nothing physically wrong though, but the cat has always been prone to acting a bit weird (he used to lick the walls).

[voodoolily]

Heh, yes, my cats are indoor/outdoor. Scott's cats are strictly indoor cats, but the door we got has the special collars for both in and out access.

[Yegolev]

In Soviet Russia, cat is sprayed by owner!  Also this happens in my house.  There's no "NO" or clapping, it's a stream of water in the face and it works.

See how I merged the two topics?

[Sjofn]

Yeah, we have a compressed air thing for when she's really being bad in a way that needs to stop Right Now.

[idiot grin]

Someone taught me to hiss at a cat... seems to work well, and my cat grew up feral and crazy.  For me it helps to start the hiss with a "k" sound instead of the classic "h" so it can be more forceful, abrupt, angry-sounding etc.

[Viin]

I just tell the dog to 'get him!' if the cat is being bad. Seems to work, as we don't see him for a couple hours after that.

[Yegolev]

That would be great if I could do that.  Stupid shiftless dogs.

[Mrbloodworth]

[voodoolily]

Are you making a silly face, or is what your mother said true?   

The human's eyes are the same color as the cat's. 

[Mrbloodworth]

That's not me, lol, that bubbles. Hes a cat lover to extreme, so i thought he would kinda need to be in this thread. (Hes from the series Trailer Park Boys)

[FatuousTwat]

Been a hectic cat day today... I come inside after digging those fucking holes and Lilly has her entire right rear foot covered in deadline. No idea at all where it came from, we don't have any. So I have to wrap her up in a towel and torture her (clean the shit off her foot in the sink) so she doesn't kill herself trying to clean it. Then I go downstairs and Charlie is sneezing like crazy.

[voodoolily]

We started Bock on Paxil. He just lays down all the time now, but no spraying. Win?

[Signe]

How does that work on a cat?  Is it a forever thing?  Does it change their personality much?

[Rasix]

My vet has recommended Rescue Rememdy for my cat (Max) that's over grooming himself. He recommended the same thing when one of the cats was pissing all over the tile.  That behavior went away and we never used it.  We're considering trying it because Max is getting pretty close to stripping part of his tail of all hair.

Plus, the newborn is going to freak them out pretty bad.

[rattran]

My cat Random was overgrooming down to bare sores, seems to have been a combo of stress and diet, a shot of cortizone and getting a less grain food has done the trick.

Currently all 6 cats are madly attacking my boots, apparently while weedwacking along the fence I found a patch of catnip 

[voodoolily]

How does that work on a cat?  Is it a forever thing?  Does it change their personality much?

The effects are only as long as they are on it, it ceases aggressive and obsessive behaviors like overgrooming, urine marking, fighting, etc. Rescue Remedy has never worked for getting Bock to stop spraying, and neither has Felaway. Paxil doesn't really change his personality so much as it makes him mellow. He's still affectionate and comes when I call him, but he doesn't pace around all the bushes (and walls) spraying every 10 feet, and he's more apt to stay in one place for longer (instead of always wanting to be let in or out).

[Ingmar]

Lizzie finally figured out how to get up onto the kitchen counter. 

[Sjofn]

My cat Random was overgrooming down to bare sores, seems to have been a combo of stress and diet, a shot of cortizone and getting a less grain food has done the trick.

Currently all 6 cats are madly attacking my boots, apparently while weedwacking along the fence I found a patch of catnip 

Lizzie is one of those cats that is completely indifferent to catnip. She'll notice the smell, find where it is coming from, satisfy that curiousity, and then go back to what she was doing. It's sort of disappointing, but we'll always have plastic ring things from milk containers. She freaking loves those. <3

[apocrypha]

MY cats aren't interested in catnip either, but they love cat grass. We plant pots of it and they happily spend ages sitting there munching it - a sight I find incredibly satisfying for some reason :)

[Sky]

Bart's not into the 'nip, either. His thing is water bottle caps, I can just scratch the top of one and he goes into full psycho mode. Makes it funny when people come over and drink out of a water bottle.

[Signe]

Neither of my cats noticed catnip for the first year or so that and now they go nuts with it at least a couple times a week.  There's still hope.

[rattran]

Most of them here go nuts over catnip, they all love to play fetch with the milk-ring pulltabs, and if I open a bottle of water, Oscar comes running and demands to drink from the cap. A habit he picked up when we used to go for long walks of hiking. He'll drink an entire bottle of water, one capful at a time if you keep refilling it.

Cat grass is an occasional treat, but when we kept some in the house all the time they were uninterested in it.

[Trippy]

Neither of my cats noticed catnip for the first year or so that and now they go nuts with it at least a couple times a week.  There's still hope.

Yes apparently even if a cat has the genes to get "excited" by catnip, young cats and old cats still might not react to it.

[Sjofn]

Most of them here go nuts over catnip, they all love to play fetch with the milk-ring pulltabs, and if I open a bottle of water, Oscar comes running and demands to drink from the cap. A habit he picked up when we used to go for long walks of hiking. He'll drink an entire bottle of water, one capful at a time if you keep refilling it.

Cat grass is an occasional treat, but when we kept some in the house all the time they were uninterested in it.

Lizzie, for whatever reason, likes to drink from her water dish by dunking her paw in it, then licking the water off. I wish I could figure out how to get her to fetch, she loves when I throw stuff for her to chase, but she never brings it back to me. >:(

[Engels]

Our girl kitty does something similar. She scoops up a kibble with her paw and dunks it in the water bowl, swishes it around and then eats it. She will eat a whole bowl in this painstaking manner. I believe she spends half the night doing just that.

[Sjofn]

Ha! That's hilarious. I would totally watch my cat do that for hours if she did. Of course, I  used to enjoy watching my rabbit eat parsley ... apparently I like watching animals eat.

[rattran]

I taught Random to fetch by throwing the milk ring, waiting until he picked it up, then calling him. If he came to me, he got pet, if he brought the milk ring he got pet and a treat. Didn't take long, and the other cats seemed to pick it up from watching him.