First time cat owner

RebelButtMunch

Hi
I've been a long term dog owner but now I'm a newbie cat owner.

Background; A neighbour nearby doesnt want their 6 month old tabby any more. It's been over to my house a lot and seems to like it there. My kids love it.

The owner has said if we don't take ownership he'll go looking for a new owner, so we've agreed.

A couple of questions if anyone knows
1. It's a male and not neutered. Should I get that done?
2. When it plays it can break the skin with claws and teeth. Should I knock that on the head?
3. Feeding? I've no idea how much food and what type to feed it. Can they overfeed like dogs can?
4. Letting it out at night. Should I let it do that or perhaps build a bed in the shed?

Thanks in advance.

Muahahaha

Regards letting it out at night- highly likely he will get into fights with other cats or could get attacked or even killed by other wildlife. Definitely get him neutered. Also a good idea to get him microchipped and place a collar on him, make sure it is a collar that snaps off if he gets stuck in a fence or briars.

RebelButtMunch

Muahahaha wrote: »

Regards letting it out at night- highly likely he will get into fights with other cats or could get attacked or even killed by other wildlife. Definitely get him neutered. Also a good idea to get him microchipped and place a collar on him, make sure it is a collar that snaps off if he gets stuck in a fence or briars.

Thanks for that.
He's already chipped so that's one thing less for me to do

sillysmiles

Vaccinate and neuter.

I feed our cat a mix of wet and dry food. She is semi feed on demand and she'll stab your legs and use your legs are a scratching post if you ignore her when she's hungry.

Personally I wouldn't let him out until he is neutered. Our cat is an inside outside cat, but in the winter tends to sleep inside most night.

aonb

NEUTER!!!!!!
Apart from the fact that you will be preventing potentially hundreds (yes!) of unwanted kittens, if your male is neutered it will help to prevent all sorts of other issues - marking territory, fighting with other toms, chasing females etc...

Do you have a dog in the house - if not, I would leave the cats dry food out for it to feed on demand - I give my cats wet food in the morning and the evening.

You say its breaking the skin - you mean when its being played with?? You need to get used to the fact that cats claws HURT - get some toys that keep your hands out of reach - strings with something attached etc - there are lots of cute cat toys that they will love to play with. Im not sure how you would 'knock this on the head' - other than stopping play when the cat gets too excited - scratching/biting - when I 'squeek' my cats knows they've hurt, and will immediately stop :rolleyes:

If your kids love the cat, you want it to be safe - dont let the cat out until its neutrered. Are you town or country? Letting it out at night (unneutered) its going to roam, and may not come home. Its a risk that you take, and you have to weigh up the whole issue of indoors/outdoors cat....

Good for you for taking this cat on -

Latatian

There is a great book by John Bradshaw called Cat Sense which I would strongly recommend getting. They're quite different to dogs in how they think.

And sure how will it perform its important nightly hot water bottle function outside?

Graces7

Good for you, OP!

I just took in three new rescues so am relearning old skills..

NB you can keep food safe from dogs by feeding cat on a spare work surface


Above all. enjoy... would not be without cats. Ever.

EdgeCase

You have to teach the cat that hurting people = results in you walking away and ignoring him.

If the cat scratches you make plenty of noise about I mean yelp, cry it and genuinely express that it hurts and just walk away and do not interact and be aloof for a while.

He will get the message. Cats are more empathetic than people give them credit for and they so actually recognise a reaction like that.

Cats don't really do hierarchy and if you yell or become disciplinary they also don't understand or respond. You can either cause serious fear or the cat will just wander off or you can literally get into conflict. The cat might respond fairly violently.

They also don't generally see rules like a dog does. Eg if they know they they're not allowed into a particular room they'll just wait until you're not looking and do it anyway. They see it more like you are a road block to be gotten around.

They will also do charm offensives to get you to do things. For example our guy would always thank you for food with big rubs and purrs and great displays of affection.

Also you can't engage in "horse play" with a cat as it will inevitably turn into being scratched or bitten, especially with a young cat who hasn't any cop on. They play VERY rough. You have to encourage more gentle and cuddly behaviours not scratchy ones.

Play with the cat with toys don't ever encourage them to see your hands or legs as toys.

Give him plenty of access to things like scratching posts and so on.

With regard to letting them out at night. It depends on where you are and what's around.

We just had our 16+ year old neutered tom pass away due to a short illness but he always had access outside via a cat flap and there was never any issue. Seemed like he'd a bit of a happy go lucky charmed life.

The other thing to remember is they hunt and can sometimes bring things (not always dead) back to the house either to eat or to present to the family as a lovely gift... that can become very annoying.

We had a few months of him bringing in undamaged live field mice and just standing there meowing basically going : look what I got!!!

Also, unlike dogs, they're fussy eaters. If there's roast chicken in the house (and the cat will know this) they will often just want that and refuse cat food & look at you like you're trying to give them substandard muck lol

Generally though they make great pets just always approach it with the view that the cats more like your housemate.
You never "own" a cat, rather you've a cooperative relationship based on mutual respect and friendship.

They're very different from dogs and have quirkier personalities but they're genuinely extremely intelligent and very friendly social animals.