Things your pets do that aren't "true to type"

The Sweeper

Everybody's pets are different, yet the schools of instruction on how we care for our pets are fairly consistent. There are different schools of thought - I mean, with dogs, you either train them with the dominant method, or you train them in a reward and praise driven fashion without ever using pain or punishment - but the point is that whatever school of thought you follow, it gives the same sets of instructions whether you've a great dane or a jack russell.

Similarly with cats, there are certain sets of instructions - litter trays at a rate of one per cat plus one extra, for instance, or feeding.

Specifically with feeding, the general consensus is that you should never completely change your cats food in one go. If you want to move them between brands, substitute 10% of their usual food with the new stuff on day one, and continue to introduce the new food gradually over a week. If you feed them raw food, you should allow it to come to room temperature before putting it out for them.

This thread is about the things you do with your animals, and that they do with you, that appear to go against general recommendations.

With my cats, it's feeding. I regularly change food brands on my cats. I regularly feed more than one food brand at once. In fact, if I put the same food out for my cats (they get fed twice a day) on Monday, and on Tuesday, when I go to put it out on Wednesday morning they all run to the dishes, then look up at me as if to say "Lady are you serious? This, AGAIN?" and then they wander away, disinterested.

When I feed them raw it goes straight out of the fridge onto a plate, then the plate goes on the floor - I started doing this with the logic that it could come to room temperature on the floor and they'd tackle it then, but no, they devour it straight away. They're completely unbothered about waiting for it to heat up!

They also aren't so interested in 'human' food. If I offer my cats cooked chicken - honestly, warm, cooked chicken - they turn their noses up at it. However, if I'm cutting up raw beef shin for a casserole they love nothing more than the fatty, gristly bits I trim off.

If they're ill and off their food, I can almost guarantee I can get them to eat with finely chopped raw kangaroo meat (very gamey, like venison). They also aren't interested in milk of any variety and love their water (some more than others - one in particular will persist in sticking his head in any glass, bowl or cup of water he finds, and his sister plays in their water drinking fountain by sitting on top if it and letting the water stream run over both her front legs.)

So what do your pets do that's "weird" and doesn't fit the usual guidelines?

star-pants

Hmmm this is good

Well my pup Daisy, she prefers fresh water, like if you fill the bowl she'll have a big drink (even if she's just drunk a belly full). If she won't drink, you just need to put fresh water in and she'll knock it back.
Both her and Lily love tea, seriously, up in your face - can I have some - love tea.
We do get the looks sometimes from Lily, Daisy's always happy to be fed anything.

Both (moreso Daisy) will eat ANYTHING, fruit, veg, hot chicken yes yes yes!
Both love cuddles, the pick them up and cuddle in like a child cuddles.
They're both cat like at times, playing with things, curling up for sleep. Though Daisy sleeps on her back with paws in the air sometimes, cute!
Lily hates the water, she should be a cat, hates getting wet! Daisy loves it, plays in the rain, you can't get her in.
They should hate/chase cats, and whilst they might growl at a cat, they'd probably be scared/not notice it lol.

ghost_ie

Like you, I regularly change my dogs' brand of food and also give them food straight from the fridge. The eldest adores coffee and the middle one loves apples.

PetrovthePrat

Our brat is mad for coffee and bread! At the very moment we found out we could take him home from the pound he was nose deep in a volunteers take away coffee. It's one of the only things he'll consistently try to steal. And he sleeps in the weirdest positions. Upside down,paws up,wrapped around the legs of a table. Oh,he ignores his toys. Rope chews,rubber ring thingies,no,not for Truman. An empty bottle or discarded item of clothing and game on!

star-pants

Lol my two love clothes too, steal socks, tops whatever. Elder one Lily loves to wrap all four paws around your hand/arm and go to sleep.
She's a divil for plastic too. Gets rather possessive.
Previous owner obviously gave her coffee cuz she goes mad at the smell of it.

Little one watches the chicken cooking in the oven, lies there watching, and barks at it cuz it's too slow

dee o gee

My cat, Bunty, is scared of the hamsters, she'l sit and watch them for hours, she'l put her nose up to the cage but as soon as one of them puts there nose up back at her she's gone like a bullet!!
Bunty also beats the dog, a terrier, around the kitchen, and he runs away with his tail between his legs!! And terriers are supposed to be gamey little fearless things!!!:D

watna

Our cat, Murdoch loves water. He's fascinated by it. He likes to watch us in the shower, when we're washing up, even on the toilet. He sits in the sink and puts his head under running water.

The washing machine flooded yesterday and it was like a party for him!

We also bought him salmon before and he doesn't like fish, won't even eat cat food that's "fish" flavoured. Strange!

watna

Also - he puts his face in my glass of diet coke - he has a taste for it. I remove him pretty quickly as I'm not sure diet coke is the best thing for a kitten!

Sarcastix

My Dog Maxi (Labrador) won't eat if anyone is looking at her. She'll wait until i have gone back inside or move her bowl around the corner. Strange

Bluehair

This is gonna be a cool thread. For what it's worth our two Golden Retrievers get on famously with our two cats. They play together, cuddle together while sleeping and have a cute routine in the evening about who gets to cuddle who and where

watna

Bluehair wrote: »

This is gonna be a cool thread. For what it's worth our two Golden Retrievers get on famously with our two cats. They play together, cuddle together while sleeping and have a cute routine in the evening about who gets to cuddle who and where

Did you get them all the same time or did you introduce them at different times to the house? When we get our own plae my OH has decided that we're getting a golden retriever before we do anything else - I was wondering how they'd get on with our cat, if he'd had us to himself for a few years.

star-pants

Lol Watna with the face in diet coke, i've the best image. My eldest cleans her eyes like a cat, licks the inside paw and wipes her eyes. My friends dog loves choc buttons, you have to open the pack flat out, then he sniffs and whips the wrapping out from under the choc, like a magician would with a table cloth! Also the Lhasa we had when we were younger used to be chased pound the garden by the rabbit, little sod.

mymo

Where do I start...
one cat thinks he's a dog, sits with dogs while I put on leads and will find anyway possible to follow us on our walk. He also sleeps with our pup during the day, has fallen into my daughters bath several times while trying to catch bubbles, and both cats use the dog crates to sleep in during the day.
Lhasa pup is definitely part cat, plays with cat toys, pounces on things, washes herself like cat, but loves water and lays in the river to cool down.
Both dogs are climbers, found the older fella on the window sill in the living room one day.
Both dogs love spicey food, hotter the better and also love plain rice and a certain brand of brown bread, once left roast pork and brown bread on table and dog took the bread
I have a pick here of the older dog waving the cat toy around trying to get the cats to play, I'll post it if I can find it.

watna

mymo wrote: »

once left roast pork and brown bread on table and dog took the bread

I actually laughed out loud at that!:D

mymo

Not good quality pic, but you can see the cat toy hanging from his mouth, and the cat under the table ready to pounce.

Xiney

Our cat loves water. He plays in the toilet, and back when we had a bath with a shower head, he used to sit on the side of the bath and watch us shower, sometimes jumping in for a bit.

We brought him to the vet to get his shots and he had a little accident in his box (he was still a kitten) and we were dreading giving him the necessary bath, but he was quite happy.

He also likes the tail end of my husband's tea (hubby has a habbit of leaving the last bit because of when he was growing up, tea his dad made was all syrupy at the bottom from not being mixed well enough)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPhYYdQhh7E

The dog is really pretty much all labrador. Labs do plenty of funny things already, so that's enough for us!

allandanyways

Our bunny thinks she's a squirrell. We live in a rural area of Kildare and we have 4 tall Beech trees in the back garden and Buttons loved nothing more than to jump from the roof of her hutch and climb up the chicken wire to the top of her (then unroofed) pen and jump onto the tree and try to climb it. She's a tiny Dutch dwarf rabbit but she climbs everything and anything so we had to put a wire roof on the pen and make it a bit higher so that she couldn't jump from her hutch onto the side and on up.

She hates anybody with a deep voice and will nip them and scratch them if they try to come near her, she's actually stamped her foot at my dad, and she loves being rocked like a baby by my little sister. And she apparently likes ABBA, because we made up a song called "Bunny, Bunny, Bunny" just out of habit of talking about her and whenever we sing it near her, she starts doing this little shimmy thing, she shimmies herself to the left and to the right and then sits up and jumps backswards and does it again from the start.

And I've never seen a rabbit "chill out" the way ours does, she hates the sun, and will stretch out in the shaded parts of her pen all day until it gets cooler and then sprawls herself across the roof of her hutch until we put her in and when she's in the hutch, she pulls her legs in under her body and makes herself look really fat. Crazy bunny so she is!

mlettis

My Dalmation adores the sun he doesnt want to know you when its sunny but as soon as the sun goes down he knocks at the door to come in . He also adores apples and will only drink fresh water refuses to drink it if it was in his bowl for any lenght of time and he hates the rain point blank refuses to walk if its raining. Often have to ring the hubby to collect us if it starts raining ,trying to carry a 6 stone dog is no easy task.

Bluehair

watna wrote: »

Did you get them all the same time or did you introduce them at different times to the house? When we get our own plae my OH has decided that we're getting a golden retriever before we do anything else - I was wondering how they'd get on with our cat, if he'd had us to himself for a few years.

Bailey was first (our older GR) and Kimmy the kitten just showed up in our garage when Bailey was about 8 months old. She was quite wild but kept coming to the back door so we tried her out in the conservatory for a few days and she's put down roots since Kosmo the kitten arrived about six months after that (just showed up in the garden so we took him in). Murphy the GR came a few months later again.

None were ever bothered by the other except Kimmy who took a few weeks to coming round to the notion of another cat in the house. The dogs are best pals with the younger comically copying the older at times though he's much naughtier in personality but also even more affectionate. Kimmy is shy around strangers but otherwise she waits patiently on the two seater sofa in the evening for a Murphy snuggle. He'll wander over to the sofa in the evening but won't get up unless she's there first.

Kosmo always goes over to Baileys snooze 'corner' and tucks in there in the evening. It's weird cause he'll often be nowhere to be seen but within minutes of Bailey settling down Kosmo isn't far behind

Patience and respecting the original animal(s) bond and sense of territory in the house is key. Each time a new pet was introduced slowly with his/her access to the house limited but the other pets access to them open a few times a day for supervised play. Didn't take too long but things are getting a but full in our place now! (never short of entertainment though )

dee o gee

allandanyways wrote: »

Our bunny thinks she's a squirrell. We live in a rural area of Kildare and we have 4 tall Beech trees in the back garden and Buttons loved nothing more than to jump from the roof of her hutch and climb up the chicken wire to the top of her (then unroofed) pen and jump onto the tree and try to climb it. She's a tiny Dutch dwarf rabbit but she climbs everything and anything so we had to put a wire roof on the pen and make it a bit higher so that she couldn't jump from her hutch onto the side and on up.

She hates anybody with a deep voice and will nip them and scratch them if they try to come near her, she's actually stamped her foot at my dad, and she loves being rocked like a baby by my little sister. And she apparently likes ABBA, because we made up a song called "Bunny, Bunny, Bunny" just out of habit of talking about her and whenever we sing it near her, she starts doing this little shimmy thing, she shimmies herself to the left and to the right and then sits up and jumps backswards and does it again from the start.

And I've never seen a rabbit "chill out" the way ours does, she hates the sun, and will stretch out in the shaded parts of her pen all day until it gets cooler and then sprawls herself across the roof of her hutch until we put her in and when she's in the hutch, she pulls her legs in under her body and makes herself look really fat. Crazy bunny so she is!

I think it must be a dutch thing, ours used to sprawl out aswel but in front of the fire in the sitting room!!

fozzle

Our cat and dog sleep together - have done almost since the first day we brought the puupy home! When the cat was heavily pregnant (the week she was due) she had to spend nights and any time we were out of the house (as little as possible) in the bathroom with a little tent-bed set up 'cos we were worried the dog would think kittens were toys. The night before she gave birth she was heading up to bed (yes - our cat obeys commands like "go to bed"!) when she turned back and tried to drag the poor dog up the stairs by the ear! We think she wanted a birthing partner!

Our dog (a Shih-Tzu) has only sporadic interest in dog toys - 2 litre plastic bottles provide hours of entertainment, and his favourite toy of all is a bug on a string we got for the cat! Luckily the cat thinks she's too cool to chase innanimate objects so she doesn't mind.

And our cat thinks she's a parrot and rides round the house on our shoulders (she pounces from the banister when we walk in the door). It's not too bad, but the dog thinks he's a cat (who thinks she's a parrot) and randomly jumps on our shoulders when we're sitting on the couch and makes himself comfy!

metaoblivia

My cat likes to chase squishy, bouncy balls and will place them in my shoes when she's done with them (usually, it's her favorite blue ball that shows up in my black flats). She also loves to lick people's faces and hands. When she's playing, she'll grab for your hand and nip it once then lick the heck out of it. I always tell her that's not a great defense plan!
She also follows me everywhere and will come if I call her name and clap three times. I just did it - she was sleeping on the bed - and now she's made her way over to the computer desk to see what I want.

Confundor

My dog loves rubber, he eats anything made of rubber, has gone through (disturbingly) numerous pairs of rubber gloves and the other day found a big rubber turkey which they are selling in tescos and brought it home.

THe next time I saw it, it didnt look quite the same!

He doesnt like blankets and throws them out of his kennel of out of the house.

dee o gee

Confundor wrote: »

My dog loves rubber, he eats anything made of rubber, has gone through (disturbingly) numerous pairs of rubber gloves and the other day found a big rubber turkey which they are selling in tescos and brought it home.

THe next time I saw it, it didnt look quite the same!

He doesnt like blankets and throws them out of his kennel of out of the house.

May i ask what a big rubber turkey is??? Im ever so slightly confused as to why somebody would want a rubber turkey?? Unless of course its a dog toy, that'd make sense then!!:D
Have you tried kongs with him?

shanagarry

I seem to attract strange cats – nearly all of the many I’ve had over the years had non-typical attributes of some sort.

My current cat Abbie has no teeth as she had to have them all removed due to severe gingivitis/peridontitis but that doesn’t limit her in the slightest – she eats everything without a bother. She also knows exactly what my alarm means. I always hit the snooze button but I needn’t bother – as soon as she hears the alarm going off she’s in the bedroom and up on the bed biting my hands until I get up.

My parents have the funniest little cat ever, Tiger, at home. She will eat absolutely anything, including full Chinese leftovers – rice, peppers, beansprouts etc, no problem. She can open the back door even though it’s one of those three point locking ones. When she arrives she launches herself at the door once to make a bang so you will take the lock off and then she hangs off the handle until she gets the catch off and can push the door in. She can also come in the top part of the window from the outside if it is closed, but with the latch off. She somehow manages to get her head in under it and squirm through. She follows my dad everywhere and will often go for drives in the car with him. The magpies stalk her as she killed one of their little ones – they hop along about 5 feet behind her.

The cat, Gizmo, that I shared with my cousin (I left him with her when I moved) can open the door of the fridge with his paw. Even a child lock didn’t stop him – my cuz now has to put a heavy door stop in front of the fridge to stop him. Thwarted at home, he has now taken to raiding the neighbours’ fridges – mortification!

I had a cat in college called Amber who took to doing his wees down the plughole of the bath… He was fascinated by water too and would spend hours playing with the drips from a tap. When I brought him home he would beat up our Lab all the time, she was terrified of him. His trouble was with swallows – they used to dive bomb him cos he got one of their young ones, to the extent that he wouldn’t go out if they were around, or else he would hug the side of the house so they couldn’t get close.

The cat, Trouble, that I got when I was about seven would lie flat on his back in my dolls pram while I pushed him around.

My first cat, Fluffy, was best friends with the dog (a boxer). She would sleep on his back all the time and when she had kittens she would bring them to him to mind if she was going off somewhere.

You see, I wasn’t exaggerating about all my strange cats!!

cosnochta

star-pants wrote: »

My friends dog loves choc buttons, you have to open the pack flat out, then he sniffs and whips the wrapping out from under the choc, like a magician would with a table cloth!

Does your friend know that you should NEVER give dog's chocolate? It's poisonous to them.

Please show her the following leaflet regarding pet safety: http://www.pdsa.org.uk/File/safety_indoors.pdf

Irishcrx

My husky responds to the re-call command and is pretty protective of me, both traits most don't have...

april99

This is a great thread! Stories so funny!

My cat definitely goes against the grain! He loves to play fetch, drops a toy in my lap and waits til I throw it,retrieves it and it starts all over again!This could go on for ages!!
He also is quite happy to sniff at my Degu cage, and he won't leave them alone until they return his greeting. When I'm feeding our fish, he sits on their table, takes a good drink of their water then leaves them alone too.
His other habit is dismantling carboard boxes, keeps him amused for days. All the plush cat pillows/beds don't cut it, give him a cardboard box and he'll happily sit in that instead. Gotta love him!

theonlygirl

I have a year old Newfoundland, who are naturally water dogs as they were bred for water rescue originally. I also have a slightly older golden cocker spaniel who I had before the Newfoundland. So I have started bringing them to the local lake to encourage the Newfie to swim, he's quite lazy and is putting on weight too quickly so I thought swimming would be good for him. Our golden cocker jumped straight in time after time to fetch the floaty toy, so I figured our Newfie would watch him and learn. But no, he thinks the water is solid and keeps pawing at it in confusion or licking it, then when he does actually pluck up the courage to try and fetch the toy, he grabbed it and put his head completely underneath the water while trying to swim back with his head submerged. I ended up having to drag him out as he really didn't seem to get that he had to keep his head up and started drowning. He rounded off his swimming experience by pooing in the water. Not a typically water-loving Newfie!

wexford202

My dog a staffie is afraid of the following:
- cats
- hairdryer
- hoover
- water

If we are all sitting down for dinner together and we give him what we are having he won't eat it from his bowl. He has to be hand fed.

Actually I have a very strange one. I am pregnant and now when he is on the sofa besid me he keeps his head lightly rested on my belly and licks my belly. He never did that before. It is almost ike he knows there is a baby in there.

MsFifers

My cats are pretty much archetypal cats - except for when Miss Milly eats portions of Melon - her favourite treat in the world!

Dixie Chick

april99 wrote: »

This is a great thread! Stories so funny!

My cat definitely goes against the grain! He loves to play fetch, drops a toy in my lap and waits til I throw it,retrieves it and it starts all over again!This could go on for ages!!
He also is quite happy to sniff at my Degu cage, and he won't leave them alone until they return his greeting. When I'm feeding our fish, he sits on their table, takes a good drink of their water then leaves them alone too.
His other habit is dismantling carboard boxes, keeps him amused for days. All the plush cat pillows/beds don't cut it, give him a cardboard box and he'll happily sit in that instead. Gotta love him!

My fella is the same with the cardboards boxes, literally breaks them down to little bits over a few days, his favorite is for me to stick a birds feather through the holes he has made in it, literally he goes mental!

fozzle

Oooh, another one! Our little dog Satsu will drink out of any puddle full of muck he finds, but if there's a bit of dust or hair in his water bowl in the house he won't drink it. :rolleyes: Wouldn't mind only his method of eating is to stick his head in his food bowl and smoosh it 'round, then lick his face clean. But what he can't reach to lick he washes off in the water bowl and then, suprise! he doesn't want to drink from it! If tried putting out multiple bowls but he's having none of it!

The Black Oil

My dog likes strawberries, prunes, brown bread, banana, Ryvita, etc.

:rolleyes:

He adores cushions as well. Sometimes you have to arrange them at his insistence, same with his bed! He loves the car, too.

mymo

In addition to all the stuff in my previous post, my two dogs have eaten every single pea from our garden, pulled them neatly off the plants and ate them pods and all. They also pulled the carrots and ate them too.
Lucky I planted the strawberries in a hanging basket;)

fishfoodie

The Black Oil wrote: »

My dog likes strawberries, prunes, brown bread, banana, Ryvita, etc.

:rolleyes:

He adores cushions as well. Sometimes you have to arrange them at his insistence, same with his bed! He loves the car, too.

S/He's nice and regular then

summer_chic

my childhood cat was afraid of birds... used to hide when she saw one in the garden.. to be fair to her, she ended up at the vets with a swollen paw which apparantly was an infection caused by a bird peck .. she also as a kitten, saw off the local bully dog..

the cats who live with me now, refuse point blank to drink water from a bowl, it started when they were kittens and they'd take a break from storming around the house like elephants in the middle of the night to sip my partners glass of iced water he'd taken to bed. Or from the coffee table where we always have dinner, I tried a pint glass by the food bowls but no joy, until we came up with their very own glass of water on the coffee table . thats the only place they'll have a drink. We'll be watching Tv and one will jump up, go for the wrong glass and all I have to do is say "not that one" and they'll turn around and drink from their own !!

One of them also throws her tummy up for a rub all the time too !

Shewhomustbe...

april99 wrote: »

My cat definitely goes against the grain! He loves to play fetch, drops a toy in my lap and waits til I throw it,retrieves it and it starts all over again!This could go on for ages!!

Two of my cats do this as well. Rufus loves to play with pasta, he knows when we're having some for dinner and HAS to be given a piece to play fetch with (uncooked!!)
Zeke used to take paper lollipop sticks and walk around with them in his mouth like he was smoking! Now he loves the top of the cat food container, its a long piece of tetra pack, I think!! He'll find one, bring it in and drop it in front of you. He jumps up to some amazing heights in the air to catch it, would make a great goalie!

Pixie is our Matrix cat, she's our smallest but sounds like a panther when playing with her brother. She does this side bounce off the wall when you play chasing with her.

Rufus also likes to swim when having a drink, he'll lie across the bowl and splash at the water, then have a drink, comes back to you soaking!

Himself and Hughie loves going for walks and hang off the back door to let you know they want one, only grateful they can't get it open.

Sonny loves to be fed grass and will sit beside the bowl waiting for you to come in and hand feed him. He also loves to find toys and will walk around calling to let you know he's got one so you can come and give him a love.

The Sweeper

summer_chic wrote: »

I tried a pint glass by the food bowls but no joy, until we came up with their very own glass of water on the coffee table . thats the only place they'll have a drink. We'll be watching Tv and one will jump up, go for the wrong glass and all I have to do is say "not that one" and they'll turn around and drink from their own !!

I'm relieved I'm not the only disgraceful human being who allows the cat drink from a glass. One of my guys is so bad he pesters me if I have a glass of water, until I give him a drink. I end up gulping most of the glass down and then holding the end of it at an angle so he can drink it. The whole scene is reminiscent of how toddlers demand a drink from an adult's glass - it's weird. If I won't give him a drink he'll sit and yowl at me for some - and it's only water! He won't touch things like tea or cola or milk, just water, except it has to be MY water.