The Chillout Zone (Off-Topic Thread)

ferretone

SillyMangoX wrote: »

I think it's the new wet food upsetting my guys tums rather than a bug... I tried them just eating dry today and they are all clear and happy! (and I'm happy as I had no bums to wipe :P) We will finish out what I got of the cosma then might try a different type of wet food, maybe one without rice might be better? I was looking at Porta21 and it seems to be the same price range, does anyone have any experience of it?

I don't know that one, don't buy wet catfood anymore. However, I wonder if you'd consider feeding them some raw instead of tinned? The past few months I've switched to giving mine raw duck hearts in the evenings rather than tinned food, as well as their high quality dry stuff they get in the mornings. And I must say I've never seen their poop so firm as it is now, and the litter boxes never even smell anymore!

SillyMangoX

ferretone wrote: »

I don't know that one, don't buy wet catfood anymore. However, I wonder if you'd consider feeding them some raw instead of tinned? The past few months I've switched to giving mine raw duck hearts in the evenings rather than tinned food, as well as their high quality dry stuff they get in the mornings. And I must say I've never seen their poop so firm as it is now, and the litter boxes never even smell anymore!

I have considered raw but my parents won't go for it at all and any days I'm not home they have to take over feeding! I do give a raw chicken wing every now and again and whenever I'm cooking I give them scraps of meat and they adore it :P

ferretone

SillyMangoX wrote: »

I have considered raw but my parents won't go for it at all and any days I'm not home they have to take over feeding! I do give a raw chicken wing every now and again and whenever I'm cooking I give them scraps of meat and they adore it :P

Yeah, parents do seem to be squeamish/not bothered/whatever about feeding fresh meat to animals :rolleyes: I can't get mine to switch from dry food for their new pup, at any stage. I think we've managed to persuade them to go for something better quality than the JWB he was on in the rescue centre tho, as the stink of him was getting to them as well :P

baby and crumble

I have such a weird hamster. He's in his holiday cage as hes off to boarding tomorrow since were off on holiday (yay!) and so he's in the sitting room rather than the hall. He keeps getting totally distracted by the tv! Maybe he likes watching me play Star Wars on the Xbox...

ferretone

baby and crumble wrote: »

I have such a weird hamster. He's in his holiday cage as hes off to boarding tomorrow since were off on holiday (yay!) and so he's in the sitting room rather than the hall. He keeps getting totally distracted by the tv! Maybe he likes watching me play Star Wars on the Xbox...

Don't hamsters have very poor eyesight though? Must be just happy to have you in the same room, and thinks the noise of your human-wheel is fascinating altogether

baby and crumble

ferretone wrote: »

Don't hamsters have very poor eyesight though? Must be just happy to have you in the same room, and thinks the noise of your human-wheel is fascinating altogether

Yeah, but I'd say he can see the colours and stuff, it's more an issue with depth perception they have apparently. It's a pity we can't keep his cage in here more, but our last hamster got super stressed with the noise of the street that she started loosing her fur, so we don't want to risk it with twitch.

I must say I'd forgotten how cool it is to just watch him do his thing. He keeps falling asleep on his wheel. Little pet.

ferretone

baby and crumble wrote: »

Yeah, but I'd say he can see the colours and stuff, it's more an issue with depth perception they have apparently. It's a pity we can't keep his cage in here more, but our last hamster got super stressed with the noise of the street that she started loosing her fur, so we don't want to risk it with twitch.

I must say I'd forgotten how cool it is to just watch him do his thing. He keeps falling asleep on his wheel. Little pet.

Move the living-room to one farther from the street? Move house? :pac:

ETA: Oh, and have a brilliant holiday, in any case

baby and crumble

ferretone wrote: »

Move the living-room to one farther from the street? Move house? :pac:

ETA: Oh, and have a brilliant holiday, in any case

Heheh, pretty much the only reason I want to buy a house is so we can have more pets!!!!

Thanks, I'll try. A week camping near the beach in Wales. Lovely.

ferretone

SillyMangoX wrote: »

I have considered raw but my parents won't go for it at all and any days I'm not home they have to take over feeding! I do give a raw chicken wing every now and again and whenever I'm cooking I give them scraps of meat and they adore it :P

I'm thinking tho, perhaps you could switch it to half-and-half with raw-and-tinned when you're there, and then it wouldn't matter terribly much that your parents only use the tinned when you aren't?

ETA: If it was my cats in that situation, I'd just feed the raw when I'm there, and let the parents feed the tinned when I'm not, assuming you aren't away terribly often, but I do get the feeling yours are more sensitive than mine. Mind you, if it's a regular thing, say, 2-3 days a week or whatever, then they would probably become accustomed to that anyway, no?

Pumpkinseeds

Felix' bad ear seems to be acting up a bit again:(, I hope it's not another infection, it took 3 months to sort the last one out. He's got a hole in the membrane and it's very hard to treat him. I thought he seemed a bit cranky this week and then he started rubbing at his ears. We'll see how he is over the weekend, hopefully he's not going to have to go through another round of painkillers and antibiotics.

If I could only get hold of whoever owned him before he found us I'd probably have to be physically restrained. They could have had him treated when the problem began, instead they didn't and the polyp had grown down through the ear and the vet will never be able to get the root of it.:mad:

anniehoo

There's 2 dogs in work today with Lungworm (Angiostrongylus vasorum)....one is currently critical. 4th case in the last 12mths. It's very VERY scary to see what this parasite can do

angeldaisy

I've finally finished my undergraduate dissertation:D which now means that my poor doggies will be able to get more of my time. Tara will now be able to sit on my knee instead of trying to maneouvre around my laptop:rolleyes:

baby and crumble

angeldaisy wrote: »

I've finally finished my undergraduate dissertation:D which now means that my poor doggies will be able to get more of my time. Tara will now be able to sit on my knee instead of trying to maneouvre around my laptop:rolleyes:

Well done!!

I just dropped the rodent to his boarding for the week. Man, you get the best looks when you're carrying around a clear hamster cage with a very fluffy and curious hamster peeking out at passers-by!!!

SillyMangoX

I cleaned out the utility today, completely took out everything, washed down every last surface and inch of floor with biological washing liquid to finally get rid of the smell of cat pee... Cream comes in and decides he doesn't like the fact it doesn't smell like him anymore and sprayed everywhere. Why?!?!

rannerap

I've been away since Wednesday and left blue and umi with my mam until I get back Monday. I miss them terribly it's weird sleeping without them all over me!

Pumpkinseeds

The sun is making our 4 felines very competitive for the best sun spots. The current favourite place is the roof of the cat kennel, it's lovely and warm on it. Poppy had it, Felix wanted it, so Felix decided to go and have a howl at Toby who was happily minding his own business on the armchair in the kitchen:rolleyes:, sometimes it's like having 4 kids:D

DeVore

I didnt realise dogs also do that sun spot thing until I noticed Josh one day moving to keep himself snoozing in the sun!

tk123

GAH! Went out for 40 mins..Bailey barked for 20 and we learnt that he can howl

anniehoo

Note to self: do not think it's cute your cat is licking your forehead. It now looks like sandpaper has been run over it and it burns! :pac:

SillyMangoX

anniehoo wrote: »

Note to self: do not think it's cute your cat is licking your forehead. It now looks like sandpaper has been run over it and it burns! :pac:

Love getting cat licks at the time but I always break out in a rash on my chin when they lick me there :pac:

I brought dude out for 4 walks today and he is absolutely wrecked this evening. So much so that he is sharing the bed with Peach and I don't think he realises, he barely opened half an eye when I was passing!

Pumpkinseeds

I seem to be like human catnip to Jazzy and Poppy for the last few days. For some reason the 2 of them are taking turns jumping up on me in the early hours of the morning and rolling around on me. Not doing much for my sleep patterns though.

rannerap

I visited a cat museum today in Amsterdam there were even resident Kitty's all around the place!

SillyMangoX

A friend of mine is doing an online photo competition on facebook, I've entered way too many pictures of my guys but I really want to win a rosette, they are so pretty! At least it's for a good cause :pac:

SillyMangoX

I am so so sick of Dude's leaky bum. Nothing is working for it at all. Tried antibiotics, probiotics, fasting, not fasting (though this had best results). There is no trigger whatsoever that we can avoid, just every week or 2 he gets diarrhoea for no reason, okay I know the reason is probably the nerve injury but still, before he would only get it if he had eaten too much grass or drunk water from a dirty bucket but today nothing what so ever has been different, he hasn't eaten any more or less than usual, he hasn't eaten anything weird. And it is really getting draining for both me and him, he gets it all over the place so I have to follow him around with baby wipes and he hates it. If I don't wipe it up straight away it matts into his fur and then we have a marathon struggle of trying to work it out and clip off that bits that are too bad. He cries, I cry, he screams and scratches me and I hate having to do it! I thought everything would get easier once he pulled through the initial period but things are just getting so hard now and I don't know what to do

SingItOut

Typical! After I hand out €60 for the dog's food on top of a spay fee the food goes on offer at €15 less the week after! Just my luck

tk123

SillyMangoX wrote: »

I am so so sick of Dude's leaky bum. Nothing is working for it at all. Tried antibiotics, probiotics, fasting, not fasting (though this had best results). There is no trigger whatsoever that we can avoid, just every week or 2 he gets diarrhoea for no reason, okay I know the reason is probably the nerve injury but still, before he would only get it if he had eaten too much grass or drunk water from a dirty bucket but today nothing what so ever has been different, he hasn't eaten any more or less than usual, he hasn't eaten anything weird. And it is really getting draining for both me and him, he gets it all over the place so I have to follow him around with baby wipes and he hates it. If I don't wipe it up straight away it matts into his fur and then we have a marathon struggle of trying to work it out and clip off that bits that are too bad. He cries, I cry, he screams and scratches me and I hate having to do it! I thought everything would get easier once he pulled through the initial period but things are just getting so hard now and I don't know what to do

Would the vet be able to offer any advice or is it just a case that it's the nerve damage? Have you tried Rapid Response powder - it'll at least make the cleanup a bit easier.
Can I stress out too? Not the same as poor Dude but had a crappy day on Saturday with Bailey and felt a bit helpless/fed up too. Every time I think I've made progress leaving him we end up back at square one to the point I consider a bark collar for a second then come to my senses. I can't leave anyone holding his lead and walk away without him going nuts so don't think I'll ever be able to leave him somewhere and have a holiday again - it's been 2 years with knowing I was going to lose my job, then losing it and then last year we got Lucy so I used the bulk of my leave then.

SillyMangoX

It's basically just the nerve damage but they said stress could be a contributing factor, I think I'm going to get a behaviourist out to see if it will help de stress him even though I can't see any obvious stressors but there has to be something! And poor bailey must be so awful to have a dog with separation anxiety! Hopefully we will all fell less stressed over our pets soon and they will all be fine and dandy

SillyMangoX

Dudes bottom is behaving itself today thank god, don't think I could have taken another day of him giving out to me for wiping his bottom and fighting with my mam over who's turn it is to clean up after him! But these days where his health is good and he's back being a lovely cuddly kitten make the stressful days worth coping with

SingItOut

My chinchilla gonzo is still really sick, he had a horrible amount of diarrhoea about an hour ago. He has a vet appointment for 5pm today but as I thought they said he may need to be referred to a specialist, he's fast asleep now after having a little nibble on some toast. Chinchillas can't vomit so it's going to be difficult finding out what's wrong

Pumpkinseeds

Poppy is driving me nuts for the past few nights/mornings. I sleep on my side and she's taken to coming into our room and climbing up on my side by my shoulder and purring at me. She stays for a while then goes off then comes back and does it again and again.

Our cats all sleep on the bed when they want to and it's fine as long as they don't keep us awake but she's just too much, I'm waking up exhausted. I'm just trying to ignore her, I wouldn't shut them out of our room.

Toby has a routine now of having a nibble of food and then coming up to bed with us every night, we have to beckon him with a finger, then he meows once and trots up with us. He sleeps at my feet for a few hours then wanders off:)