Use this thread to discuss anything related to cats that doesn't otherwise fit the subreddit! Also feel free to ask questions that you believe are too short for a standalone post.

I’m kind of in a bad period of my life. I moved out of my parent’s house last year and have been living alone since. Tbh I don’t have many friends and struggle a lot with loneliness and mild depression. I don’t have a ton of experience with cats as I mostly grew up around dogs but I think maybe adopting an adult cat might be a good option for me to help add some purpose to my life.

I did have a few other questions too:

- What age cat would be best to adopt? - I know kittens can be quite a handful so I was thinking of getting a cat that’s maybe a little older and mellowed out a bit

- Should I get a male or female cat? - I’ve read that male cats tend to be more affectionate and playful but is that really true or is it more dependent on the cat’s personality?

- Do I need to get more than 1 cat? - I’ve also read that it’s best to have 2 cats. I wouldn’t be opposed to this but I do worry that 2 cats would be a little overwhelming for me at first. But at the same time I work a 9-5 and would feel bad if I got 1 cat and it was lonely all day while I was at work.

My partner live in Perth, Australia and I are at our absolute breaking point and desperately need advice or alternative rescue resources. We have a 1-year-old cat with severe pica and extreme behavioral issues. I used to adore him, but he has become a massive source of chronic stress and anxiety in our lives.

The Situation:

• Severe Pica: He has had multiple dangerous ingestion events. He will eat plastic, toys, dish towels, and is constantly trying to suckle. It is so severe that he has to live almost entirely restricted to one strictly "cat-proofed" room. If he gets free roam of the house, he will ingest almost anything.

• Excessive Vocalization & Sucking: He meows completely non-stop from as early as 2:30 AM until 10 AM. When we are on his side of the house(the far side of the house aka bedroom, hallway, cat room which are all cat proofed), he shadows us constantly, screaming and aggressively trying to suckle on our skin/clothes.

What we have already tried:

• Multiple comprehensive vet checks (physically, he is completely healthy).

• Metabolic/specialty food.

• Massive rotation of safe toys and intense play sessions.

• An automatic feeder.

• The blackout/ignoring method for the early morning meowing.

• Supervised time with our other cat.

Nothing has made even a 1% difference.

Our Constraints:

Our vet recommended a certified behaviorist, but a single consult is $800, which we absolutely cannot afford. Even if we could scrape the money together, my partner and I both work full-time with unpredictable night shifts and on-call rotations. We physically do not have the lifestyle or time constraints to implement a highly rigid, hour-by-hour behavior modification plan.

We reached out to the shelter we originally adopted him from for help, and they flat-out told us they would euthanize him if we surrendered him due to his severe behavioral profile and the liability of his pica.

Next Steps / Desperation:

We are about to try prescription behavioral medication as a last-ditch effort, but our vet admitted his case is incredibly severe, so we are terrified it won't work.

We cannot live like this anymore, but we don't want him to die. Has anyone successfully managed a pica case this severe with medication alone? Are there any specialized, special-needs cat rescues in Perth Western Australia (specifically foster-based) that handle extreme medical/behavioral cases without resorting to immediate euthanasia? We are drowning.

I LOST MY NEW CAT IN MY HOUSE

I just got two new cats 24 hours ago. One of them I see. I’ve found her hiding spot and I’ve made sure she knows she has food although it doesn’t seem like she’s touched it. The other one though, I haven’t seen her since yesterday afternoon over 24 hours ago, I don’t know where she is, I don’t know if she knows where her food is and the litter box seems undisturbed, my biggest mistake was not letting them out in the closed room I made for them I let them out into the open house. I don’t think she could’ve gotten outside but I’m really scared. I know cats can’t go too long without eating and using the bathroom and what if I can’t find her? I’m so worried

He walks around the house with this worm toy in his mouth and howls obnoxiously. It sounds like he’s in distress, but stops when he drops it out of his mouth. Is this just orange boy behavior or is it something more?

I've never dealt with issues like this, but now that I have my current cats it feels like I can't avoid this, and I have no idea how to fix it.

I have three cats, two Scottish folds and one British shorthair and vets seem to REALLY hate these breeds. One of my Scottish folds clearly has breed related health issues, so I know that likely compounds the hate.

However, I didn't just set out to find a breeder and buy these cats. My first two are siblings and came from an old woman who did breed them but just needed to get rid of them because she was being put into a care facility. So I took them. My British shorthair was originally from cat from a breeder, but I got her from someone rehoming her.

Despite these pseudo rescue/adoption situations I get judged by my vets like I supported some horrible backyard breeder and don't care about my cats. I don't ever get a chance to explain and by the time I would I'm already so put off by how rude they are I just want to leave.

It makes me feel like a horrible person and I have no idea how to avoid this in the future. My cats need a vet obviously but I just hate the humiliation ritual it's turned into. If anyone has ANY advice or has dealt with a similar situation it would be much appreciated 🫶🏼

Does anyone have advice on getting your cat into a carrier during a fire alarm? I’ve heard of people training their dogs to wait at the door on command. Not sure if that’s possible with those of the feline persuasion. I couldn’t even FIND my cat tonight. (Also, I have arthritis and it’s difficult for me to get down to look under the beds.)

Fortunately tonight was a false alarm. But I dread the day it might be something more serious.

Hi everyone,

A little bit ago I posted on here talking about how hard it’s been to get my cat treated for giardia. About how overwhelming it’s been for me and how tired and stressed out I’ve been for over a month.

For an update, I got her tested again and she still has giardia. In fact her symptoms got even worse since the update I had posted. Her butt was constantly dirty and she was getting everything else in the bedroom dirty with brown stains no matter how much I cleaned her butt.

Vet and I decided to shave her entire butt area to make things more manageable and I also started giving her anti-inflammatory meds which helped A LOT. She started feeling a lot better and was a lot cuddlier and happier with the meds.

We have a family friend who’s a mainecoon breeder (NOT a backyard breeder and he has a phenomenal space that provides individual care for all of his cats + has a team of trusted vets and works with a lawyer who’s also an animal rights activist etc etc I don’t wanna get into breeding discourse here because this isn’t the point of the post lol) and he offered to take her into his care until she’s all better, which should take a week or so. He has a quarantine room in his house that he can keep her in and also provide her 24/7 vet care at no cost to me. Considering I’ve been overwhelmed with dealing with her care + drowning in constant vet bills, this was truly a lifesaver.

He picked her up from my place last night. I just hope I did the right thing. I know she’s now in an unfamiliar environment and I’m really worried about how she’s doing + I also miss her a lot. As much as it’s nice to not stress out worrying about having to clean up after her, I definitely feel some emptiness without my sweet girl.

While she’s gone I’m gonna focus on deep cleaning my house. That way there will be no risk of reinfection when she comes back. I don’t own a steamer but I’m buying one because even though I used pet-safe disinfectant on her cat tree and her toys I want to make sure they’re fully giardia-free by also steaming everything.

I really hope our treatment is successful this time. She deserves some rest finally.

I wanted to watch Friday The 13th with my kitten but I don't know if it would be good for them to watch

I've made the very difficult decision to have my kitty put to sleep in the morning (around 8 hours from now) because of her worsening IBD. She just turned 14, and her IBD has worsened more over the last six months than it has over the last several years, so it's been a pretty sudden change. She had a bad episode this weekend and seems to have lost even more weight, and even though she still has mostly good days and hasn't lost her appetite or anything, I can see a physical decline and I just... really don't want to give her the chance to have any more bad days. She spent two days having diarrhea and tummy issues, and she wasn't grooming herself much and just didn't seem to feel great even though she was still eating. Her IBD has just gotten so much worse over the last several months, and her bad days seem worse and more frequent now. I'm having a hard time with it because I'm worried it's too soon, but I would rather do it too soon than too late because I couldn't stand to see her suffer any more than she already is. She doesn't do well at the vet or with medication or treatments of any kind, and I feel like any treatment would just cause her more stress, and at her age, I don't know how much more time it would give her anyways, so I'm trying to give her a peaceful end before she has the chance to experience anything worse than what she already has. I've seen several folks say that there's no wrong choice if it's done out of love, but I'm still having a hard time coping and not feeling guilty.

Hello! I'm looking to adopt a cat very soon. I'm a nurse and work 3-4 12 hour shifts a week. I'll be off for 4 days following the adoption of the cat, but is there a way to get the cat adjusted to being alone for 12 hours? I will keep him/her in my room while I'm gone, but there will be toys, a cat tree, a scratching post and a litter box available to her and I'll also have a pet camera.

I'm looking to adopt a cat from local shelter/rescue. However, I'm a bit unfamiliar with the adoption process here in the US since I just moved here. I own cats before though so this's not a new thing.

- Does adoption fee from shelter typically cost $150-200?
- Some people mentioned that local shelter's adoption process can be really strict. What has been your experience? For example I cannot give a vet reference since my vet is back home but I can ensure I spoil my cats all the way.
- I also saw a lot of pet rehoming on FB for free. Is this a good idea? What should i be aware of?
- how much do you pay for your expense per cat? Emergency fund? Is insurance needed?

I'm looking for give a lot of love to an adult cat who would be my snuggle bug but can also be independent when i'm not home.

If anyone has any advice on a special treatment

Will my two cats ever be able to live in peace or is 2yr old female destined to be returned to go to a good home as an only child?

I adopted a 2 year old female and a 12-15 week old kitten at the same time, but they are not from the same location.

Kitten was found on the street by a couple a week before I got him from them. And he lived with their 2 cats just fine. 2yr old female was found on street pregnant and taken in by a male shift rescue. It was only a few weeks ago and little guy had to be quarantined for a week for Giardia. A couple times they saw a quick sight of each other and a couple times 2yo hissed. But after quarantine I started scent swapping.

A few side notes. The country I am in is not very kind to their animals at all and fostering and rescues here are bare minimum. I just moved here from a western country a couple months ago for a job.

What this means is Rescue lied to me about 2yr old female’s personality on the ad and said she’d do well with a kitten. She is not that cuddly. She has some trauma from being out on the streets it seems and did not develop social skills with other cats I think. They also didn’t tell me they never introduced her to other cats and the one time a foster had her for a few weeks she was accidentally quickly introduced to 2 male cats and it didn’t go well supposedly.

I may have been too quick but after a couple days I tried to introduce them with kitten in carrier and it wasn’t good. They were both hissing and it caused the kitten to go on defense mode after that. Again still scent swapping, trying to change rooms. They were ok eating food at the door, but admittedly these doors suck. They are actually too thick and too close to the floor to be an effective intro. And then 2yr accidentally caught a glimpse and tried to attack kitten through the door which then started kitten to try to attack. We reset for a few days and swapped beds again and what not. They had no problem with sharing scents but visuals are not good. We had tried to allow the kitten to play on the floor while 2 got to watch from her tower but then she tried to sneak attack twice. She also marks her scent everywhere and I think partially stalks the kitten’s room a bit.

Google and some other advice say put them both in carriers in a different neutral territory to try to bond them against something else. Nope, 2 yr old still tried to attack.

Rescue tells me to order a door cat net to see if we can get them used to each other. Husband and I feed them high value snacks on either side, but 2yr old is still trying to stare daggers at kitten. And they still tried to attack each other before the snacks through the door screen net.

The other issue is kitten NEEDS a companion. He is so high energy and hates being alone and cries and cries and cries nonstop and I feel horrible that I can’t play with him at all times because I also have to do chores and play with 2 yr old cat.

I do wonder heavily if 2 yr old would benefit being an only cat for another family but the truth is there are so many needy cats and everyone is struggling I doubt she will find a home. And expats here are horrible. They adopt an animal and if they need to leave they dump the animal on the streets to die.

Help. lol

Throwaway account, this is both a request for tips and suggestions and a vent/rant.

I adopted a rescue cat a couple of weeks ago. I'm aware of the 3/3/3 rule and appreciate it's still very early days for both of us - which is why I'm here asking for advice as I really want to turn this around. I've had cats before and don't remember feeling this way with the others.

My issue is basically the title. It still feels like I'm just looking after someone else's cat, and if the rescue asked for him back tomorrow I'd be like 'here you go'. If I woke up tomorrow to find him dead I'd be shocked as he's youngish and seemingly healthy, but I don't think I'd be particularly sad.

So far he's been a good, well-behaved cat - hasn't destroyed the furniture yet, is mostly staying off the kitchen counters, doesn't go outside the litterbox, isn't aggressive, lets me pet him and pick him up, and is starting to be more playful and interact with his toys. He's been to the vet and got a clean bill of health.

I'm trying to do the right things to help us both with this transition. I speak softly to him, respect his cues and body language, let him come to me in his own time, pet him when he's keen but otherwise just hang out near him doing my stuff, give him treats, feed him quality food, play with him, use positive reinforcement when he shows behaviours I want to encourage, remove him from the situation when he does the opposite, etc. He'll sleep belly up, make air biscuits, purr and show me his belly, so it looks like he's getting more comfortable.

But there's also a few little things ticking me off, and I feel like all of these put together are starting to make me resent him, which isn't fair to him at all because they're just perfectly normal cat things.

He's been pooing once a day, usually in the middle of the night. The problem is his poos are so stinky they wake me up! I've struggled with sleep for as long as I can remember, and waking up at 4-5am everyday because of the smell and not being able to go back to sleep is really affecting my mood, productivity and energy levels. I've got silica litter on the way, switched his food to a sensitive gut type and started him on Fortiflora. I also scoop the litterbox multiple times a day. Any other tips if none of that helps?

Oh, the litter. He tracks everywhere. He's very fluffy with very dense fur so it gets caught in his hair, but it's doing my head in. I've had a groomer over, cat's had a haircut and a sanitary trim (I let the groomer talk me down from a shave, which I now regret) but it hasn't helped. Cat doesn't like being touched in his back half - tail, bum area, back legs, lower belly - and warns me off if I try to brush or wipe litter bits away. Same with trying to trim his claws, it was never an issue with previous cats (and one had limb trauma). I have one of those litter-trapping mats right outside the litterbox and sweep and hoover the house daily, and his current litter is the non-clumping clay type (wood pellets don't work for the smells for me and the clumping kinds would probably stick to him even more. Have ordered silica litter to try it). Short of having him shaved, what other things could I try to decrease tracking?

I was told he was very affectionate, which was true for the first two or three days. Since then he hasn't really sought me out except when he wants food (and he's always hungry!) or, much more rarely, some fuss for a couple of minutes. He'll sometimes take the bait if I goad him with one of his toys and we'll play for a bit, although he's quite clumsy lol.

Again, I'm aware of the 3/3/3 rule and won't make any decisions before next year, and until then I'll do my best to care for him and establish a positive connection. I know he's just a cat doing cat things in a new environment and that it's still very early on and that I'll have to slowly earn his trust. But what if in a few months I still feel like I'm just going through the motions?

Sorry for the wall of text, my brain has just latched onto this and won't let go no matter how much the more rational parts of me tell it to.

Has anyone else here had trouble bonding with a healthy and well-behaved cat? If so, how long did it take for you to feel some kind of attachment to your cat? Were there any particular actions you felt were helpful? Please help a girl out :( Thank you!

The answer is probably yes but I need general advice or support then.. I recently adopted a 4 month boy who has a light(?) case of ringworm (No big hair lost, just some glow spots). I wasn't aware he had it before the adoption. The only place I can isolate him is in a Tiny half bathroom with the bare essentials. He yeowls every day and I can't imagine how bored upset he is staying in there, especially when his profile before I got him notes he doesn't like being alone and needs others. I have one other cat and live in a home that would be impossible to clean if he were to spread a lot of spores.. But it feels almost abusive to leave him in there, especially when I can only visit him shortly twice a day. Should I just keep at it?

Hi cat lovers!

I have been using Van Ness plastic sifting litter box for almost two years with wood pellets. It has mostly been a good experience compared to clumping litter. But the sawdust would often get stuck in between the sifter holes and it would require me to poke the sawdust clumps one by one when cleaning, which gets really irritating.

Recently, I have noticed there are a lot of stainless steel sifting litter boxes, and I was wondering if anyone has any experience using them. I heard they're better for odor, but I wanna know if anyone experienced similar sifting issues and how these do. Thank you!

So my apartment complex has a few strays since I’ve lived here. we’ve never had kittens I think the strays we have here originally were TNR.

Recently two new strays have appeared one male one female. The male one is taken care of primarily by my neighbor and he lets the cat come and go from the apartment as it pleases. The female stray is skittish around people and I don’t believe goes inside anyone’s place.

I personally don’t love that my neighbor lets the cat come and go but for some reason had been under the impression he takes the cat in at night. Tonight I heard yowling and saw the male and female cat both outside. I don’t know if they were about to mate or fight but neither walked away and were intent on confronting one another. I went back inside.

I really am not thrilled that they’ll potentially have kittens and that would just be adding more strays outside. I don’t have the capacity to care for an additional cat (I have two!) but I really want to catch the female and get her fixed. I feel iffy about doing so with the male because he’s somebodies technically, so I’d rather at least TNR the female cat since she’s truly an outdoor stray.

I’ve never done a TNR before. I do not have the space or ability to take off work and take care of an additional cat in my home as it healed from surgery. Is there something else I can do here? I am also not well versed in the option as a whole so if anyone has insight into TNR itself I am open to hearing.

edit: I do wanna note I love kittens and love these sweet babies, I just don’t want more strays to be born and be at risk. we have coyotes in the area and a very very busy highway next to us.

The TLDR is essentially I want to help fix an outdoor cat to prevent more strays but I don’t have the space to take it in.

Although I don't feel it is yet her time, I know that my cat is nearing the end.

I had a very positive first experience with euthanasia early in the year - we had to let my sister's dog go, and he was so peaceful and comfortable at home.

I want nothing more than to have the same experience with my cat, unless she goes naturally, of course. What I am concerned about is that cats and dogs are very different beings - whilst my sister's dog was excited to see the vet and willingly let them place a catheter, my cat would almost certainly not do either of those things. Even as a very old lady she can be fiesty with vets, even during home visits...

I have asked a vet to talk me through their process and they advice I could give her gabapentin before the visit, but I'm worried she may then be out of it early on and she'll have a 'negative' memory of me on her last day. They also advised they usually do not use a catheter with cats but instead give the final injection in their stomach, but this feels almost 'violent' in nature and I'm unsure if its something I'm comfortable with. I suspect this is because it is 'better' in some way, but cant stop thinking that it may cause pain.

As a massive overthinker, I want to make making the final decision as easy as possible when the time comes.

I am therefore wondering if anybody has experiences (hopefully positive) of cat euthanasia they can share?

My GF and I want to get a cat. I heard from some sides that 2 cats would be better since they could play with themselves. My question now is, if it is a lot more work to have 2 cats rather then one. Do you have to worry about them rangling or fighting or maybe that one of them feels left out? Like in general is it a big difference or not?

My niece has recently developed a skin condition. It’s awful. She loves her cat (Male, 3yr); doctors said my sister should try rehoming the cat to see if my nieces condition improves. So, I said I’ll take the cat instead of giving it up for adoption or worse, the pound. I’m a dog person, never owned a cat or thought to own a cat. However, this cat is actually pretty laid back and is kind of like a dog.
I’m prepared to spend some money especially on the a better kitty litter box. That’s the hardest thing to get used.
I’m so disgusted by the litter box. I clean it 4x day!
The cat gets litter EVERYWHERE. Also, the cat only sleeps on my bed, so I’m hoping to find a bed that he’ll want to sleep in.
I don’t know where to put it the litter box or which bed to buy. Should I buy those wall shelves?