@chienfou@JohnQ118 We have a brother-sister pair of cats (now 9 years old). They were both pretty fat and lazy (18 and 16 lbs), so we recently started cutting back on their food. They both lost some weight, but now the formerly lazy-sleep-all-day male has taken up hunting. He insists on prowling around outside most of the day now (on our rural acreage) and we often find partially eaten mouse carcasses in the yard. Total change in personality.
@JohnQ118@macromeh
Sounds right. We have a cat door (chipped to our cats). We are frequent recipients of cat gifts as well. Bandit (the male) is still a big cuddle baby though.
@chienfou@JohnQ118@macromeh Around here that’s a good way to lose a pet. One horrible incident recently - a couple was walking their little dog in the early evening, on a leash, and a mountain lion appeared, seized the dog, and ran off with it! And my sister’s neighbor had her dogs out (leashless) and a coyote grabbed one behind her - luckily when she ran at it screaming it dropped the dog, but it had to have surgery to survive. I’ve heard of owls and foxes grabbing pets too.
@chienfou@JohnQ118@macromeh Hopefully you won’t find a partially eaten cat and a fat owl, fox, wolf, coyote or other critter looking for more feline prey.
@chienfou@JohnQ118@Kidsandliz@Kyeh Yeah, we do have coyotes around here, (though I haven’t seen/heard any nearby for quite a while). We’ve lost several chickens (and at least one cat) to them in the past. Best we can hope for is that the current cats are wily enough to avoid them (they’ve managed for 9 years and counting) - we bring them in at night, but they certainly aren’t going to stay inside all the time.
@chienfou@JohnQ118@Kidsandliz@macromeh I’m very lucky with Toby - he has no desire to go outside. He was about 3 when I got him from the Humane Society, and I wonder if he was forced to stay outside more than he wanted to in his previous life.
(He’s also super concerned with having fresh water all the time; I have 4 water bowls for him and he’ll stand by them and stare at me if the water’s not fresh. I keep meaning to set him up with a fountain.)
The first one is two simple pieces of light stainless steel. No corners/extra bits/tubes. Easy to get back together. Little aquarium pump with a mesh washable piece to keep hair out of the pump and a carbon filter cartridge/plastic housing. If you have hard water a little vinegar or citric acid soak in the sink takes care of that. It’s very easy to clean compared to the others I’ve had.
I will probably get another if I see it on sale but I have filters for the other two I should use…
@chienfou@JohnQ118@Kidsandliz@macromeh@unksol I was looking at that stainless steel one! It was on sale just a little while ago - I guess I should have gone for it. Maybe it’ll go down again. I actually have a plastic one, from that jerk who was going to give me his Bengal cats but reneged and left me with a bunch of stuff; it turned out okay though because the enormous cat tree has been useful.
Armakat from… 2009? It made it through last year but was getting unstable being 15 feet off the floor. Some particle board shelves failing. Shredded rope. More pieces in the garage.
They don’t make the 9 root ceiling braced trees anymore. Have the roap to rewrap and the staple gun out. Just need to get to it. Lol.
@JohnQ118@Kidsandliz@Kyeh@macromeh@unksol
Both our cats mostly drink outside (they like the fish pond for that) there is a fountain inside (and a simple plastic gravity feeder) they can use if the mood strikes them.
@chienfou@JohnQ118@Kidsandliz@Kyeh@macromeh well again. Inside cats vs outside cats. Not about to litigate that mess. I have a book by James Herriot that has a bunch of cool farm cat stories.
I feel like with the deer in the yard they’d have to get monthly tick treatments at least. And it would be chaos if I just left a door open and checked who made it back.
Had kitkat get out before and he panicked and hid. Took a week to get him(and a raccoon, another cat, a woodchuck I think) in a haveaheart trap and then he was spastic and couldn’t stop running between his food and grabbing onto me for an hour.
Couple got out here too he was one again. And he got freaked out and didn’t want picked up when I normally carried him around. Chased another back in. One went 40 feet up a tree… Spent a few weeks raising food and water up in a basket/got her close to coming down a few times… Then she finally disappeared and I found her dead across the yard. Guess she finally got desperate but climbing down took so much of our her it killed her…
@chienfou sorry wasn’t meaning to be a downer. Just saying. When they have been inside only they get a little weird about outside. If I could get all the girls spayed and had a barn… Some would definitely be outside and maybe happier
Grocery Outlet has a special run on grain free cat food at the moment, so spread the word!
I prefer cat free grain food.
What does it taste like?
Any advice on litter?
What’s best yet affordable for 2 cat household?
@edsa If you live in Texas and have HEB stores available, their 20 lb bag of scoopable litter is absolutely the best value out there.
Can there be restraint on litter food jokes?
The cats seem to like the pine pellet kind and you can just dump it out in your yard when they’re done (after you scoop out the solids of course)
@chienfou Mine hate that kind.
Cats eat meat. Period. Their prey eat plants. Cats should not be fed grain it’s just a filler for them.
@JohnQ118
And since they are naturally hunters you shouldn’t feed them at all. Let them out to hunt.
@chienfou @JohnQ118 We have a brother-sister pair of cats (now 9 years old). They were both pretty fat and lazy (18 and 16 lbs), so we recently started cutting back on their food. They both lost some weight, but now the formerly lazy-sleep-all-day male has taken up hunting. He insists on prowling around outside most of the day now (on our rural acreage) and we often find partially eaten mouse carcasses in the yard. Total change in personality.
@JohnQ118 @macromeh
Sounds right. We have a cat door (chipped to our cats). We are frequent recipients of cat gifts as well. Bandit (the male) is still a big cuddle baby though.
@chienfou @JohnQ118 @macromeh Around here that’s a good way to lose a pet. One horrible incident recently - a couple was walking their little dog in the early evening, on a leash, and a mountain lion appeared, seized the dog, and ran off with it!
And my sister’s neighbor had her dogs out (leashless) and a coyote grabbed one behind her - luckily when she ran at it screaming it dropped the dog, but it had to have surgery to survive. I’ve heard of owls and foxes grabbing pets too.
@chienfou @JohnQ118 @macromeh Hopefully you won’t find a partially eaten cat and a fat owl, fox, wolf, coyote or other critter looking for more feline prey.
@chienfou @JohnQ118 @Kidsandliz @Kyeh Yeah, we do have coyotes around here, (though I haven’t seen/heard any nearby for quite a while). We’ve lost several chickens (and at least one cat) to them in the past. Best we can hope for is that the current cats are wily enough to avoid them (they’ve managed for 9 years and counting) - we bring them in at night, but they certainly aren’t going to stay inside all the time.
@chienfou @JohnQ118 @Kidsandliz @macromeh I’m very lucky with Toby - he has no desire to go outside. He was about 3 when I got him from the Humane Society, and I wonder if he was forced to stay outside more than he wanted to in his previous life.
(He’s also super concerned with having fresh water all the time; I have 4 water bowls for him and he’ll stand by them and stare at me if the water’s not fresh. I keep meaning to set him up with a fountain.)
@chienfou @JohnQ118 @Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh
This style is my preference. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088RLTP1Q?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1
Granted I didn’t pay that, was on sale for $25 2 years ago.
I’ve Had two of these
https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-Drinkwell-Platinum-Fountain-Drinking/dp/B000L3XYZ4
Which I originally liked. But so much to clean/doesn’t fit in the sink. Plastic. Corners.
Ceramic but didn’t pay near that 10 years ago. It’s filter system sucks, but it is pretty easy to clean other than that.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004673GXQ?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_19
The first one is two simple pieces of light stainless steel. No corners/extra bits/tubes. Easy to get back together. Little aquarium pump with a mesh washable piece to keep hair out of the pump and a carbon filter cartridge/plastic housing. If you have hard water a little vinegar or citric acid soak in the sink takes care of that. It’s very easy to clean compared to the others I’ve had.
I will probably get another if I see it on sale but I have filters for the other two I should use…
@chienfou @JohnQ118 @Kidsandliz @macromeh @unksol I was looking at that stainless steel one! It was on sale just a little while ago - I guess I should have gone for it. Maybe it’ll go down again. I actually have a plastic one, from that jerk who was going to give me his Bengal cats but reneged and left me with a bunch of stuff; it turned out okay though because the enormous cat tree has been useful.
@chienfou @JohnQ118 @Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh must have missed the Bengals story.
Armakat from… 2009? It made it through last year but was getting unstable being 15 feet off the floor. Some particle board shelves failing. Shredded rope. More pieces in the garage.
They don’t make the 9 root ceiling braced trees anymore. Have the roap to rewrap and the staple gun out. Just need to get to it. Lol.
@JohnQ118 @Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh @unksol
Both our cats mostly drink outside (they like the fish pond for that) there is a fountain inside (and a simple plastic gravity feeder) they can use if the mood strikes them.
@chienfou @JohnQ118 @Kidsandliz @Kyeh @macromeh well again. Inside cats vs outside cats. Not about to litigate that mess. I have a book by James Herriot that has a bunch of cool farm cat stories.
I feel like with the deer in the yard they’d have to get monthly tick treatments at least. And it would be chaos if I just left a door open and checked who made it back.
Had kitkat get out before and he panicked and hid. Took a week to get him(and a raccoon, another cat, a woodchuck I think) in a haveaheart trap and then he was spastic and couldn’t stop running between his food and grabbing onto me for an hour.
Couple got out here too he was one again. And he got freaked out and didn’t want picked up when I normally carried him around. Chased another back in. One went 40 feet up a tree… Spent a few weeks raising food and water up in a basket/got her close to coming down a few times… Then she finally disappeared and I found her dead across the yard. Guess she finally got desperate but climbing down took so much of our her it killed her…
@unksol
@chienfou sorry wasn’t meaning to be a downer. Just saying. When they have been inside only they get a little weird about outside. If I could get all the girls spayed and had a barn… Some would definitely be outside and maybe happier