Loki & Freyja

[Tessian]

In case anyone else aside from Shellie wanted to see, I have pics of my new kittens Loki and Freyja whom I adopted on Friday. They're freakin adorable and awesome, I just hope they let me sleep a full night sometime soon x_x

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26947638@N05

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Haha, they're pretty adorable, man.

[Eric]

Adorable on the outside, plotting world domination on the inside. Darn cats.

[RentCavalier]

I...I...

I wanna kitty!

[Imakeholesinu]

Those kitteh's need cheezburgers! STAT!

[Tessian]

Those kitteh's need cheezburgers! STAT!

Loki is a runt, he definitely could use some cheezburgers.

I'm free feeding them (no scheduled meals, food is just out all day) but I'm afraid that Freyja's eating more of the food and if she turns into a fatty it'll make my life more difficult.

I didn't mention it, but Freyja's 9 weeks old and Loki's 11 weeks. Insanely young and crazy, I need to pick up those Soft Claws today so they don't start tearing up the place. Bad enough the buggers chew on everything.

[Zeus]

When I got my kitten and she decided she wanted to play at 3am, I would toss her off. When she came back, I tossed off, except this time all the way to the end of the bed. She decided it was fun and came back again, so I tossed her off onto the floor. She seemed to like that so I tossed her off onto the floor again, but a bit further. Having a wild time, she decided to come back again. This time when I tossed her off, it was a little further and she hit the wall then the floor (no, she wasn't hurt). She hasn't bothered us at night since :-)

You may want to invest in the auto feeders if you're finding one of them is a glutton. They're pretty neat but I'm not sure if that'll cause even more issues or fighting between them. I'm fortunate that mine ain't a glutton so I can leave her food out at all times. Of course, it has to be hidden from the dog or she'll eat it all. Ironically, my cat loves my dog's food (I get my dog a specially formulated Shepherd food) and she actually eats the dog's food rather than the other way around.

My wife and I are looking into covered garbages since the damned cat knocks them all over and gets into what's inside. She's not brutal but every can she can reach is knocked over. Same with my cricket keeper, she loves knocking that over so I always have to have it out of her reach.

And I know it's cruel, but I had to get the front claws taken out. Really didn't seem to bother the cat much at all and it's far more cruel what they end up doing to your furniture if you don't declaw them. It's a lot easier when they're younger since it's more ligament than bone, too.

[kali o.]

It's a lot easier when they're younger since it's more ligament than bone, too.

It's also an asshole move to remove the claws when they are any older than ~6 months. At that point, the claws have become an important tool...it would be like removing someone's fingers. I don't know if the ligament/bone statement you made is valid (that's the first I've ever heard that) but the main reason it isn't done is because it is psychologically damaging to do it when they are older.

[Zeus]

It's a lot easier when they're younger since it's more ligament than bone, too.

It's also an asshole move to remove the claws when they are any older than ~6 months. At that point, the claws have become an important tool...it would be like removing someone's fingers. I don't know if the ligament/bone statement you made is valid (that's the first I've ever heard that) but the main reason it isn't done is because it is psychologically damaging to do it when they are older.

That's what we were told by our vet (we got ours done at 2 months). I assume he's correct but doctors ain't exactly known to be infallable

[Tessian]

I am really, really trying to avoid declawing. By now Loki's almost 4 months so I'd rather not have him go through it even though it's not 6 months yet. I bought the soft claws this afternoon and will go through the "fun" of trying to put them on tonight. I just hope Freyja's are long enough to put the claws on. In actuality so far it's the CHEWING that is destroying some things around here, not the claws, and I don't know wtf to do about that. I hope it's just a teething phase or something for the most part. Freyja loves to gnaw on my fingers and Loki.

One thing that caught me off guard is how HUGE adult cats now appear to me. Both my parents' cat and my ex's cat look GINORMOUS to me, I barely recognize them! I know it's just because I'm used to looking at cats that are no longer than a sheet of paper but damn, that was eery.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

Do try not to declaw them. Have you got scratching posts for them?

[Zeus]

I didn't really want to declaw but really, there's nothing stopping them from using your couch as a scratching post, even if you buy the best scratching post money can buy. It's a crap-shoot and when you have a $3000+ couch like I do, it ain't a risk I'd be willing to take.

My cat likes to nibble a bit on the fingers as well. Been told that's a leftover from feeding as a kitten. Dogs and cats tend to stay in their "child" phases 'cause they're not trying to survive or hunt or anything. So doing something that's a "kitten" act is relatively normal for an adult domesticated cat.

As for the chewing thing, I found the only real way to get a cat to stop doing what you don't want it to (only really guaranteed to work when you're there) is to get a small spray bottle and SOAK the cat when it's doing something "bad". They seem to get the idea pretty quickly it'll just depend on how adventurous they are in whether or not they'll keep doing it.

They're cats, not dogs, they don't listen just 'cause you want them too. Bribing with food don't work so you basically have to make the consequences greater than the reward.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

There are means of discouraging a cat from scratching precious items of furniture. Declawing is definitely easy and infallible, but I'd rather either invest the time in training the cat or have furniture scratched all to hell than get them declawed.

The spray bottle is an excellent, excellent idea, and especially if you can start on your cats young. It got to a point for us with Rumble that she would cease naughtiness if I even gestured towards the bottle.

[SineSwiper]

Heh, Rumble Pack.

Anyway, kittens are cats on acid. Sometimes they just see shit that isn't there. It really makes you wonder what goes on in that little kitten brain of theirs.

[Zeus]

There are means of discouraging a cat from scratching precious items of furniture. Declawing is definitely easy and infallible, but I'd rather either invest the time in training the cat or have furniture scratched all to hell than get them declawed.

The spray bottle is an excellent, excellent idea, and especially if you can start on your cats young. It got to a point for us with Rumble that she would cease naughtiness if I even gestured towards the bottle.

But if you have a brave cat like mine, who doesn't even run away from my big white Shepherd when she comes running at her, it don't work quite as well. And it definitely don't work if you ain't at home (ooo, double negative :-).

Basically, it's a crap shoot with cats, they ain't obedient like dogs. Declawing is the only way to be sure