My second attempt at writing this; I wrote a long ramble quite a lot and it just disappeared. Bah.
We picked up our lovely black and grey tabby on Saturday, so this is Day 6. ArchCat was found wandering on the street in early May (nb, we're in central Europe, not the UK), got taken to the vet, chipped, neutered, jabbed, wormed, de-flead and generally checked over, then spent a few months in the shelter, being overlooked because he's so shy with strangers. He disliked being with the other cats, so the shelter are happy to have him adopted as a single cat - plus I work from home so am there all day for him if he wants yet more scratching under the chin attention. Things are going pretty well under the circs: after a brief spell squashed under the TV cabinet he spent a few days glued to his bed, with brief forays to the food bowl and litter tray. Right now he's sleeping on the sofa - great progress! He rolls over to have his tum scratched and gave me a nose kiss yesterday - that's good, right? Things got better after I plugged in a Feliway. But I'd appreciate some advice nonetheless.
Food: my main concern right now. He's a big-boned chap at 5 kilos, the shelter vet estimates he's 3 years old from his teeth. But I'm worried he's a little underweight and don't know exactly how much to feed him. I don't want to take him to our new vet for a few more days until he settles in better, so can't get an expert opinion until then. Up to last night he was getting 3 x 85g pouches a day (7am, 1pm, 7pm) plus as much dry food as he wants. It all got eaten quite quickly, and the dry food polished off overnight. Last night he begged for food at midnight, so I gave him a fourth pouch, and he was hungry again at 6.30am today. But now he's not eating his lunch at all. Hmm. How can I tell whether 3 or 4 pouches is right for him? Are the back quarters of cats supposed to be sticking out a bit like a chicken? He's that bony. Can you tell by looking what the right weight for a cat is?
Litter: he's been brilliant with using the litter tray so far. But he's only using one open tray right now, set up in his 'safe space'. I have another one which is enclosed, which I'd like to get him using because he kicks litter all over the floor when covering up his poo. But I'm worried about endangering the success we've had this week. And his 'safe space' is in one corner of the living room, because that's all we have. So how do I go from the current tray to the situation I ideally want, which is a tray in each bathroom on the ground floor and first floor? And is it true that rescue cats are less likely to use a covered tray (claims employee in pet supplies shop)?
So far he's been happy with the clumping clay litter, which is what they had in the shelter. I've been scooping it out as soon as I saw it was used, at least three times a day. How often do people actually clean out and disinfect the whole tray for an outside cat? I've googled it and got an incredible range of answers - everything from 'every time the cat uses it' to 'three or four times a year'. I was thinking more of once a week, but I suppose it depends how often he poos/pees outside once he's allowed out.
Behaviour: he's the most gentle, sensitive cat - gorgeous personality. If he's had enough chin-scratching he gently bats us away without claws or just turns the other way. But are there possibly going to be any consequences from him being neutered so late in life? Is he more likely to spray inside because he remembers that behaviour? And he presents his rear end to us, which is, erm, a bit offputting when you have a bumhole six inches from your face (especially because he's still shaved from his op). I read that blowing softly on the back end is a gentle way of discouraging from that - is that true? Is he more likely to be territorial and aggressive with other local cats when they're all outside?
We still have a fair bit to organise: I've had someone in for a quote on getting a SureFlap installed, and the vet has to do a health check for the insurance I want. ArchCat just got terrified when DD2 came back and dared to open the door, and is now hiding under the sofa again, so we still have a long way to go.
I've never attached a photo before so it might go wrong, but this one of him was taken in the shelter - he's not allowed outside yet here.