38
Loss of a pet, for some people can be no different than losing a family member. The effect may be more intensely felt by children and teenagers compared to adults. Therefore, grieving after a pet is no different than grieving after losing a family member. Anything you can find online about grieving your parents or your children is relevant.
As a disclaimer, ...
24
The article "Integrating Kittens with Cats" (W.V. Cats) provides intricate details on a procedure for introducing kittens to adult cats. According to the article, the paraphrased steps (backtrack to the prior step if there is an issue) are:
Keeping the new kitten / cat separate from the household for multiple days.
Providing scents from each feline ...
21
You have a cat, you both are going to be working more and you have an allergic roommate? I'm sorry, but are you sure it's a good idea to get a second cat?
I understand it looks like choosing between two evils here, but I'd ask you to reconsider. I'd definitely wait till the move is complete. Moving is already stressful for a cat, I doubt it will be easier ...
18
I'm not a professional trainer, but training is what I would do if faced with such a condition:
Take the cat into my lap while the dog is watching and caress him (the cat) to make it clear to my dog: he's one of us.
Opposite direction: when the dog bites the cat's tail, yell at him to stop. If he repeats it many times, say "bad dog" and ignore him for few ...
18
I'm sorry but the answer is no, you shouldn't have them meet yet. In fact, non-vaccinated young puppies should be kept away from other dogs as much as possible until they have received all of their vaccinations.
The risk is that the other dog, who is an adult and has a stronger immune system, could be carrying some illness without showing symptoms. Your ...
18
This is natural behavior for cats. The kittens are now old enough to live on their own and the mother chases them away for several reasons:
This is the territory of the mother. If she doesn't chase the kittens away, she has to search for a new territory. Female cats sometimes live together, but male cats are not social and if she doesn't chase her kittens ...
17
It’s a difficult question; neither choice is clearly right or wrong.
I would lean toward getting him a friend now, and the same age or younger. The smaller the newcomer, the less your existing cat will see it as a threat in his territory. I assume your cat is already fixed, but if not, I’d do that first.
Having a small space is a challenge, but remember that ...
16
One way that might work while there's a significant size difference is to place the kitten's food in a location that the larger / older cat can't physically get into. If you're a DIY type person you might be able to come up with something elaborate but a simple and cheap way that comes to mind is to use a document storage box such as the following:
You ...
15
The solution has two parts. First, tire out the kitten so she's less likely to view the adult cat as a plaything. Wand toys like Da Bird are pretty effective for most cats (though I have one who prefers snake toys, so we have a wand toy with a feather boa instead of a "bird" attached for him).
Second, make sure that the older cat has enough pathways to ...
14
I wouldn't recommend it.
The advice on how much space you need per cat is pretty variable, from one bedroom per cat to various square footage per cat. And even then, you might have trouble with getting some cats to share space no matter how big it is.
However, one bedroom and bathroom sounds very small to me, especially when you consider that the advice on ...
13
I would say that in this case, letting the cats sort it out for themselves is your best bet since it doesn't seem that there is any physical harm being done. The older cat will let the kitten know that he/she is not in the mood to play, and eventually the kitten will realize that.
However, giving the older cat a place to retreat to would help, somewhere ...
13
Because that is the natural behavior of cats. A cat family will not live together after the kittens grow up.
The reason is that every cat wants to have their own territory, especially the male cats. A tomcat will allow a female in his territory (he wants to make his own kittens), but not another tomcat, because he could steal his lady.
A mother will chase ...
12
Add a second litter box to the house.
It is not unusual for any animal to get overly protective of 'their' litter box. I have seen this behavior in both cats and rabbits. It is generally solved by adding a second litter box some distance from the first. While the more aggressive pet might want to protect both boxes, it is logistically difficult to do ...
11
Is it true that ferrets don't get along with other pets?
The answer is a qualified "no".
I had two ferrets. The oldest was always, always happy to make new friends, regardless of the species. He was very excited to play with any new dog or cat he met, and would do the ferret "bounce" that typically indicates play.
My other ferret was more curious than ...
11
I think your cat may be bored. Bored cats find things to do, including chasing other cats, knocking things onto the floor and destroying them.
A good way to discourage this is to get the cat a good big cat activity centre, which it can enjoy using to climb on, play with and scratch, and load it up with different kinds of toys, such as pingpong balls, ...
10
I can't speak specifically for the cat and the bird, but based on my limited knowledge, they should be ok as long as they have sufficient food and water, and access to their respective toilet facilities.
The dog however, needs to be managed separately.
Food - you should not leave food out all the time for a dog. They need designated feeding times, ...
10
The second easiest way of eliminating fights is increasing their space i.e. give them a bigger cage. How big depends on the guinea pigs in question, but it needs to be big enough to fit at least one house per pig, and preferably one food bowl and one water bottle per pig as well.
The easiest way to stop female guinea pigs from fighting is to introduce a ...
10
Dogs in a pack tend to seek security, predictability, and everybody playing a role. One of these roles is that of the pack leader which undoubtedly at least one dog will claim. The pack leader owns everything and everybody in the pack. He or she will assert on other pack members by displaying acts of dominance:
Guarding a particular toy
Always eating ...
10
I'm afraid to break it to you but I think the Chessie is the real problem. Dominance hierarchy theory has been comprehensively debunked, being based on studies of captive, unrelated wolves in zoos, which bears no resemblance to the familiar pack structure wolves adopt in the wild. There is also a big question mark over how much wolf behaviour can tell us ...
10
The first problem that you need to solve is to take stock of the locations in the house where the older cat is getting cornered and stop that from happening. The older cat should always have the option to escape rather than fight.
This may mean clearing clutter, or installing wall shelves, or rearranging your own furniture. Jackson Galaxy's Catification ...
10
It shouldn't pose a problem for cats and dogs living together to share the same water bowl(s).
As they live together they have in any case a lot of opportunities to share potential diseases in many ways.
The important point is that they should be able to chose not to share the same bowl. My two cats and my dog share 2 different water bowls, the cats have ...
9
Strongly advise against it. Cats need space. Research how much territory a cat has in nature (male and female differ a great deal here) and you'll realize just how tiny even a large house is to a cat's instincts.
One room? Seriously, that is cruelty to animals. Putting two cats into one room is insanity. Like humans, they sometimes get along and sometimes ...
8
Aggression in a dog is usually not a natural behavior but an attitude and frame of mind within the dog that they learn as a potential way to deal with a situation that they find highly uncomfortable. When feeling uncomfortable with a situation a dog usually lets out a number of warning signs to let others know that they do not like the situation, such as ...
8
Give your cat a high place where he can observe the dog and feel safe in that the blasted canine can't reach him. This will serve as a safe haven. Also make sure there are at least 2 different ways to get out of that safe haven so the dog can't lay in ambush.
During feeding time use put the food on 2 sides of a door opened to a gap, and let the cat start ...
8
You may need to split the cats up to feed them. Try putting the senior cats in a different room with their food dish there, and leave them in there until they finish. They'll already be used to the basement, so that's probably a good place. When our cat was sick, we needed to feed her downstairs and our other cat in an upstairs bedroom so the non-sick cat ...
8
The reason you confine cats to a small room initially is to not overwhelm them with new (new objects, new scents, new movement, etc). A smaller room has less new and so is less overwhelming. Ultimately, the choice of where to confine a new cat will depend on
number of new cats
if there are multiple cats, how well bonded they are
any potential health ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
