I adopted my cat, Betty (6 month old female cat), 3 days ago. I like her a lot - very sweet, playful, and affectionate. It seems like she's warming up to the house pretty quickly, and I think she's basically starting to feel comfortable with most of the house.
I'm 22 y/o, and I had many cats when I lived with my parents (some kittens, some adult rescues). I helped raise them, but this is my first time really raising a cat by myself, trying to make sure I do everything I possibly can right to ensure she's safe and is raised well. I do have some questions with how I've gone about this so far, and what I can start/keep doing to ensure everything goes smoothly from hereon out:
- One really tough hurdle I'm trying to get through is stress. I live with two roommates, and I'm REALLY REALLY stressed about her potentially destroying their things (couches, coats, shoes, computer cables, etc.), and my roommate has spoken up about his concern with this as well. As far as the couch concern goes, I bought Betty a scratching post and some cardboard scratchers, and she seems to use the scratching post well. I put her string toy above the post so that when she goes to play with it, her claws go into the post and she uses it to scratch. This has worked pretty well. So far, she's only showed minor interest in playing with my computer charging cable. But I still feel like I can't keep my eyes off her - I know she'll probably get into something she shouldn't, and I feel like I need to be there every second to let her know she's not allowed to do that. (p.s. anytime she does something she shouldn't, I usually just speak up and say "no" loudly and she usually quits). I've been working in my living room for the past two days just to monitor her, but I'd love to start transitioning to spending more time in my room during the day - and of course, she's welcome to join me, but for now, she seems to like the living room better. I'm just really stressed about this, so any tips you can provide to me about avoiding destruction and de-stressing would be awesome. I ordered a Feliway cat diffuser to help her cope even more just to be safe.
- When Betty first arrived, I closed the door to our dining room and kitchen area, as well as all the doors upstairs, to give her a smaller space to get used to before roaming. On the second day, I started letting her explore the dining and kitchen areas, and on the third, I opened the doors completely to let her roam. She seems to do pretty well with this, but is this too fast? Should I continue to section her off for a few more days?
- When I adopted Betty, I made the mistake of not getting the name/brand of the exact cat food she ate. For the first two days, I bought a brand of Purina (as that's what her Fosters said she ate), but she didn't seem to like it too well. She'd eat occasionally, but she's barely clear a bowl of food in a day. I learned which brands they bought on the third day, and I learned that they still mix kitten food into it, so I bought both exact brands today. She seems to like it better, and as the days go by, I plan to section off the kitten food bit by bit until it's just the regular, "teen cat" food. Should I be worried about Betty getting sick from the two days of eating non-regular food, following by the switching back and forth?
- One other main challenge, really, is Betty's "demon mode." In the mornings, and during the night (so far), Betty gets REALLY energetic. I haven't gotten much sleep over the last 2 days. She runs around like a beyblade and you never know what she'll get into. I've recently created a plan to play with her for 30 mins to an hour before bed to tire her out, and each time she gets playful (not quite demon mode) during the day, I take time (10-25 mins) to toss her toys around and play. Note: I bought quite a bit of toys for Betty, like play mice, an "elastic string stick thing" with attachment toys, bell balls, a crinkly tunnel, and one of those toys with a scratching post in the middle and a ball that rolls around in a circle. I have a few more toys on the way too. After playing, she usually eats and drinks a bit, then comes in for some cuddles and sleep. I'm curious what else I can do here to help regulate her schedule to ensure she knows when to calm down and when it's time for bed - any help is much appreciated!
- Currently, Betty's litter box is in the living room - but as we like to spend time there, the smell when she goes #2 can be quite interesting. I usually take the litter out immediately after it happens so my roommates can stay there in peace, but I plan on moving the litter box to a different location soon. If you have any tips for how I can make that process as smooth as possible, it'd be much appreciated. Thank you!
Apart from those (and even considering those), Betty is doing well in my opinion. I plan on playing with her paws a bit more to get her comfortable with me doing that so the nail clipping phase can be a bit easier, I'm ordering more toys, spending all day with her, and continuing to research the best methods for raising a cat. Again, my main issue is just the stress in the mornings and nights, and the trust. I'd love any advice you have for what I can do better, or how I can change to make Betty's life and future even better. Thank you!
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/mb4z98/first_time_cat_dad_am_i_doing_a_decent_job/
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