I just got this email from my wonderful follower Debs (Ginger’s Mommy, for those who hear her call in) and she is always lending a hand with other peoples’ cat problems. This was her question – which I threw over to Dear Sally (Bahner) the Official Behavior Consultant of Cat Chat® because she edited The Whole Cat Journal and knows ALL about products:
Here’s a bit of a stumper, Tracie: my girlfriend’s boyfriend – Kevin adopted a momma cat. No problem with her she’s an adult. But he also adopted her kitty that is still hardly a few months old. He is out perhaps 12 -15 hours a day. How can he feed the baby properly without using dry food? I gave him The Cat Bible and he loves it and totally agrees with the wet food vs. dry. But we have a problem. We can’t work around the fact that baby cats need to eat more frequently and he doesn’t have anyone around that can go to his home and do it for him. He just moved to a new neighborhood and doesn’t really know anybody yet. Grrr….what do you suggest?
So Dear Sally popped right up with the solution:
Piece o’cake: a timed feeder with ice packs to keep the canned food fresh.
Then Debs wrote back with the following concern – which Dear Sally says is pretty normal, for momma cats to reject their kittens after a while. Keeping them separated is a good idea, so his instincts were good – I would be uncomfortable with that unfriendliness, too! And yes, after spaying the Momma cat may very well mellow out and they can be re-introduced after some time apart.
Thanks. I’ll forward the product details to him. The kitty is quite young actually. It’s actually not even three months old yet. Kevin is actually freaking out because being a first time cat slave he is very nervous about the Mother’s behavior towards the kitten. He said that she is being overly aggressive with it. She is stalking it and batting at it a lot. The kitty tries to hide and she goes after it in not such a playful way… no blood or serious injury. But he’s afraid and is keeping them separated. He said that according to The Cat Bible it’s too aggressive! So I suggested he give you a call. Hopefully he’ll call today at 1 when you have a bit more time.
She hasn’t been spayed yet and told that once she’s fixed that she’ll most likely calm down. Was that correct? He’s really loves them both and I think HE needs to calm down a little bit. Fortunately Kevin is very open to your guidance and loves The Cat Bible so I’ll call into the show and get your advice.
