Need lots of advice about owning a cat purrrlease!

[Surfermum]

Went to the RSPCA on Friday and chose a cat. We're waiting for the home inspection, but assuming everything's OK, I'm now panicking as I last had a cat when I was a child and know nothing about having them.

Any tips, advice re beds, food, toys or anything about owning a cat that you think I should know?

the cat will probably present you with a list of what it expects when it arrives, they are like that

we have two. dont let them out for a couple of weeks (if possible, we managed 3 days before they escaped). any toys or beds you buy will not be good enough so dont bother, they will look round the house and decide whos bed they are going to take over. food is kind of personal to the cat i think, i usually buy the cheapest as long as there is no rabbit in the pack cos one of them doesnt like it. studies have shown the shops own economy brand is often more nutritious than branded!

Sounds a bit like having my step-daughter to stay then [grin}. (not really, she's lovely).

What about those scratching post things, are they an essential?

Start as you mean to go on - we got our cat when we were both childfree and working fulltime, so our cat spent an awful lot of time alone - i now feel that this prevented us from being able to 'train' it. e.g always jumps on our kitchen worksurface no matter how many times i throw it off. I have friends with cats who are 'trained' not to do this. And i guess this can only be achieved by being around a lot in the early days.

Also friends who have a sensible mealtime routine for their cats is far nicer e.g only fed morning and evening. Whereas of course our cat is used to being fed whenever it begs with food staying out in bowl all day - back to the not being around in the early years.

We kept our litter tray on the tiled floor by our back door. We don't have a catflap, so the cat has to wait to be let in or out, 99% or the time this is fine, but on the rare occasions she gets desperate she'll go in the place the litter tray used to be - so think carefully.

Catnip is great fun to watch the cat go mad over! If its a kitten it'll love chasing bits of string and or wind up mice - don't go overboard with toys though, screwed up paper does the job. Guarantee you'll buy a bed and the cat will find somewhere else to sleep . Scratching post is a good idea and whenever you see the cat go to scratch the furniture run her claws down the scratching post to teach her what to do.

ERRRm lastly enjoy it!

hth

put blankets on the end of beds and warm spots - it will help to keep the cat hair in one place. They particulary like fleecey ones. double sided sticky tape on the arms of chairs will help to dissuade the cat from ripping sofas to pieces. toys on string great fun

sorry, but rofl at thought that cat might use scratching post you bought rather then doorframe/table leg/your leg

it will be the only thing in the house it doesnt scratch. the back of my sofa is the favourite for my two

gigglinggoblin - thats what i thought, and is the reason i didn't buy a scratching post until the cat was about 3years old. But now we have it she doesn't scratch anywhere else at all. And going on the rest of my cats bad behaviour thats pretty impressive!

i stand corrected!

no cat i have been owned by has ever used one, but its good to know some like them! we bought our cats xmas stockings last year, the kids got more use out of the toys than the cats did. i have seen some fantastic cat scratching posts/play trees with loads of dangling balls which i reckon ds3 would love

This is all really helpful. Thanks! He's called Marshall, which I think is rather a good name, makes him sound like a very well behaved cat. She says hopefully. They don't know how old he is as he was found as a stray near the centre.

So what sort of food do you give them? I had a quick look in the vast aisle in Tesco today and got totally overwhelmed by the choice. There were pouches, tins and dry stuff. Do you need some of each?

its up to the cat im afraid! we ended up with tinned cat food. tried iams cos its supposed to be very good for them but one hated it and the other ate 4 times as much as she should have. my parents use pouches cos they only have one cat and dont like the tins hanging around half full. vets will often have sample packs of the iams stuff, or you could buy several tins of different brands to see what your cat does or doesnt like

Definitely agree - its up to the cat!

Everyone i know's cats have one particular favourite, and each are different iykwim. And to add more confusion, their tastes change after a few months of refusing to eat anything other than x they then refuse to eat anything other than y and so on!

Personally i think the sachets cause a lot of waste as you never can squeeze the entire contents out, unless you cut them out and lick them yuck!
Tins and foil containers are better. But yep you guessed it! my cat will only eat sachets and the most expensive ones at that.

Do give water also - my cat drinks a lot. But you have to point it out to her! Apparently cats only notice moving water and its true for mine.

Very important thing to note:

Cats get Fleas! ALOT. Have deflead our house again today. Keep up with the defleaing treatment otherwise it gets out of hand....

They will certainly do their own thing as others have said. And be prepared for your neighbours to throw footballs at them.

And if they don't behave at the vets, they get put in the 'crusher'! .

No joke, my vet has a piece of equipment they call the crusher, where they chuck violent cats (yep mine) straight from basket into this thing that clamps them and allows injections to be given. And then they spend half an hours trying to get her back into basket and they won't let me help because they say i am not covered on their insurance if i get injured! So basically my cat has never received a health check and has a great big warning mark next to her name for all vets to see before treating.

On the plus side, she doesn't get fleas - and we don't use any treatment . Probably because no flea would want to be near her!

nobody has ever owned a cat. they own you. you are the 'help'. expect a life of drudgery and no thanks.

oh, and attitude!

Lemon juice - or anything with a citrus smell like the scented polishes. Use it on anything you don't want to be scratched as cats hate the smell.

Everyones right about the toys, our cat never played with anything I bought for him, but loved pens, string, light spots, pencil erasers and xmas baubles!