simple uses for catnip

Catnip garners different responses from different cats. Slinky is not especially fond of catnip. Sayang loves it, in food and in toys. Scooter with his keen sense of smell is also attracted to toys that have catnip in them.

Catnip can be grown as a household plant, or purchased from pet stores in packets of dried catnip or as catnip sprays. Sprays are specifically used for environment - towers, beds, toys. Dried catnip and fresh catnip can be used in food. Catnip treats are also available.

Because we didn't buy catnip plants today but rosemary and basil instead, we don't have any fresh catnip. We do however have a packet of dried catnip which has come in quite handy in many creative ways.

One way is to make toys using catnip. Just a simple toilet roll or crushed paper will be transformed into a formidable cat toy with some catnip inserted.

I also enhanced their cat tower by making a simple cat dangling toy out of a small towel, catnip within, and a piece of string - and tied the toy around the scratching post. Ever since I did that, Sayang has been hanging out in the hammock portion of the cat condo more because the toy is dangled just above it.

For their beds, I made small sachets of catnip to insert into their pillows, which can be simply paper wrapped around some catnip. Catnip is known to relax cats, and helps them fall asleep better.

For the ultimate use - I made a simple cat treat using catnip. We have run out of treats so this one is timely. Simply take a kibble of dry food, roll it on some canned food making the surface moist. Crush the catnip with your fingers into a pan. Then roll the moistened kibble in the crushed catnip. Voila! Instant cat treats. Sayang LOVES them.

You can also make similar treats with fresh meat and wholewheat flour (among other things), and baking them after rolling them in crushed catnip. I haven't tried that recipe though - no flour in the house. But I reckon I can make a simplified version using wholewheat breadcrumbs to coat the meatballs.

plants!

We just bought new plants for the cat garden!



The one on the left is basil, which is edible and in the same plant family as catnip; the one on the right is rosemary which can also be used in cooking. I actually have these same herbs in my kitchen, but of the dried variety and needless to say rather expensive. Buying them fresh is much more economical, and I can also use them in the cats' homemade food. Sayang loves them, especially rosemary.

As you can see, we placed our plants on a tray, with a rubber mat below them to prevent the pots from toppling over when being mauled by the cats. I also used them as is, in the plastic pots, as ceramic pots might break when the cats play around it.

Their feeding and watering area has been empty for a while since they killed the last few plants in their own garden. The plants we got today are much bigger than those we got before, so they will hopefully last longer and stretch the longevity of our indoor cat garden.

We bought our rosemary and basil plants from Far East Flora nursery in Bedok, where they are now having a sale. There are also other nurseries next to it, about four more. The first two nurseries even had catnip plants! We had a choice of pandan, catnip, rosemary and basil (the best cat plants) but we settled on herb plants because they were on offer at Far East Flora.

Now all we need is another pot of Angels Pet Shop cat grass - millet - that Aswat still hasn't found the time to go round making. Then our garden will be complete!

scooter's 'breed'

I spend a lot of time admiring Scooter's physical appearance, and even though he was a stray cat, I try to place his physical characteristics to those found in certain breeds of cats.

Scooter has ticked fur, similar to that of the Abyssinian, meaning that he carries the agouti gene that supports fur with several bands of colour. His ticking has white, red and blue, but gives an overall colour of lilac or bronze, with black tips forming his tabby markings. In the sunlight his fur sometimes gives off a sparkly look.


His tabby markings are mostly spotted, with stripes down the top of his back.

He has large pointed ears, which is more Oriental, as well as well defined cheeks.

His eyes are hazel in colour, and his nose leather brick red outlined with black.

His patterning is most similar to that of a tawny spotted Ocicat, which are crosses between Siamese and Abyssinian. The only exception is his white fur.

After all that, he still looks like a stray cat any way you look at it! But we always wanted a tabby cat, and one that is huge and nice to hug. We can't wait till he becomes really big!

free choice

Recently we converted the cats to partial free choice feeding, leaving their dry food out for them to eat at their own time for some of their meals. I usually do this for their nighttime snacks and daytime meals by leaving the food for them the night before.

The reason why we tried this out is because the cats are eating less canned food now anyway. Sayang totally doesn't eat lunch anymore, which tallies with her age - she is now 9 months old - and Scooter is able to eat dry food when he wants to. I also place the food there the night before their breakfast so that we can sleep in longer, as Scooter tends to be our alarm clock at hours as early as 4 a.m.

Through this method of feeding I find that Sayang eats less, and Slinky eats more. Hence I am not keen on converting them totally to free choice feeding, as Sayang should be eating more for her energy level and Slinky less because she is already chubby. Slinky is of course a happier cat now that she has all the food she wants to eat, but her weight still needs to be closely monitored and since she is extremely greedy, partial free choice is better for her than total free choice.

It is however much more convenient for times where we are not going to be waking up at 6 or 7 a.m. to feed the cats.

I still maintain scheduled meal times for their dinners, and for Scooter's supper. On occasion when there is no need to sleep in I wake up to feed them their breakfasts too. We enjoy the interactiveness of feeding them their meals; seeing them enjoy their food is extremely rewarding. Slinky links her wet food so greedily, Scooter gorges himself and makes whining noises if disturbed, Sayang who is so picky, when she actually eats, it is a joy in itself to watch.

Here is a summary on pros and cons of free choice feeding:

Pros:

• Convenient for owners
• Cats will never go hungry waiting for food

Cons:

• Hard to monitor their food intake especially for cats with weight problems
• Only works for dry food
• Little interaction between owner and cat

Currently we (only!) have three cats and serving them scheduled meals is not a hassle when we have the time to. If we ever increase our cat family free choice feeding will definitely have to become a mainstay as in most big cat-households. But for now, as we speak, the cats are sitting with me contented with their delicious breakfasts of Royal Canin Fit 32 + Natural Balance Ocean Fish Formula. Deelish!

water fountain action!

We have had immense pleasure and success using our DogIt water fountain! Here is a video of both Sayang and Scooter drinking from it at the same time!



As you can see, spills are minimised by placing the fountain on top of a towel.

Do note that you can also buy the cat version, called CatIt. The design is almost the same, only that it is blue in colour. You can also get a bigger size, meant for big dogs.

snappy tom ultimates

Aswat gave us a can of Snappy Tom Ultimates to try on our cats. It is a gourmet version of Snappy Tom canned food, retailing at a rather steep price of $2.80 per 105gm can ($3.05 @ PLC). Angels will not be carrying this range of food because the Ubi clientele does not respond very well to premium cat food brands - and prices.

The food is very similar to Seeds: chunky flakes of meat in very little jelly. The ingredients have no colouring or flavouring unlike the usual Snappy Tom 400gm canned variety. The packaging is nice though, but of course that is inconsequential. We don't think this brand will take very well considering there is very little value-for-money for us as customers.

review on pet mobile

Three days ago I decided to patronise Pet Mobile: an online pet store that does delivery. The upside to the services provided by this store:

• Minimum order for free delivery is only $35.
• Competitive prices for some of their cat food brands
• Variety of brands available
• Canned food sold in packs of 6 instead of 12 or 24, allowing greater choice
  

The experience using their service is mixed. I ordered 12 cans of Natural Balance @ $2.80/can - Ocean Fish and Ultra flavours - and 6 cans of Wellness Chicken flavour @ $2.55/can. The prices were good, and we were down to our last can of food, hence the decision to order. We are also still waiting on the large cans of Seeds canned food to hit Angels Pet Shop next week, and for variety's sake we still feed our cats Natural Balance and Wellness anyway.

However, the turnaround between order time and delivery is 3 days, which is not as fast as other delivery services that usually deliver the next day. Also, there were some mix-ups: Firstly, they forgot to pack the Wellness into our delivery package. Secondly, they charged us a higher price for the Natural Balance as their price had increased after we ordered. Thirdly, they mixed up one Ocean Fish can for a Tuna with Shrimp formula. While all problems were rectified immediately and our cats are okay with the Tuna flavour, there is still definitely room for improvement.

Thankfully, Rick from Pet Mobile is very friendly and quick to resolve the issue on the overpricing. We don't mind the 3 day time lag even though it was not stated on their website, as we still had enough food to last us the 3 days - just make sure you have some food left before you order, else your cats might have to go hungry for a bit while waiting for the delivery response. Another good point is that they email you a summary of your order within the next day, so you have a record of your orders, which came in handy for us since the price on the delivery order had a discrepancy.

Our canned food consumption is going down because Sayang and Scooter are growing up already, hence we may not be buying much canned food in bulk in the future. This means that we may not use this service again. But do take a look at their website anyway; good to have a bookmark handy on a large variety of cat food available online.

rehoming a pet cat

Sometimes, to the best of your efforts, you may need to re-home a pet cat you own. A good example of this is Orket, who despite the best of intentions did not live well in Aswat's home.

While you may feel like you have failed as an owner, sometimes re-homing a pet cat may be the best solution for both you and your cat.

Before you make a decision whether or not you ought to re-home your cat, think these few things through:

• If the problem lies with the cat, research on cat behaviour and try to understand the source of your cat's behavioural problem.
• After isolating the main causes of the problem, try out the prescribed means to solve the problem. For example, if your cat is stressed and excretes around the house, find out why, and how you can eliminate this source of stress. If your cat is making cat calls, she may simply need to be sterilised. If your cat is shedding a lot of fur, changes to his grooming and diet may be the straightforward solution.
• If the problem lies with changes in your household, for example moving to a new home, or a new job demanding more time, then research on ways to balance your situation with your cat's life. For instance, you may be able to simply place your cat for boarding at a cattery until your personal affairs are settled.
  
• After trying out feasible means to solve the problem, assess the situation to see if the solution is sustainable. For example, if your cat is stressed because of a new member of the family, assess to see if this situation improves after trying out means to integrate the new human with the cat. This could mean spending more time with your cat for instance. However, if your cat demands much more attention than you can afford (in the case of a new baby for example) then you may not find the extra time needed to be spent on your cat a long-term viable solution.
• If the solutions are not sustainable, the best solution will be to re-home your cat. The best gauge I feel to see if re-homing your cat will be better for her, is to compare yourself to another prospective owner and visualise which home will be better for your cat. If you can see your cat doing better in another home, then re-homing will very well be a good idea for your cat.

Just remember, there are humane ways to re-home your animal - through animal charities, the internet, friends and family. Dumping your cat in public place is never the right thing to do.

slinky's current toilet - hardware store variety

A few weeks ago we upgraded Slinky's toilet. This is largely because we wanted to use pine pellets for her toilet as we are already using that for the other two cats.

Because a PeeWee tray will be too big for our bathroom where Slinky likes to use as her litter area, we decided to get an alternative from a hardware store instead. This took much thinking, as we needed to find a system which mimics the PeeWee system; we cannot just use an open pan - the dust will trail all over.

After much thinking, I had an eureka on the perfect hardware store solution: Two trays, one of which has holes, the other which acts as a bottom tray. We searched our neighbourhood hardware store for the right trays. We found one tray which was meant to be a vegetable sieve - meaning that it had holes at the bottom and not just at the sides like most plastic baskets - and a bottom tray which was a perfect fit for the sieve. Both trays were perfect in size for our toilet and for Slinky to use - small enough, steady enough.

And it only cost us $9.80.

Here is how it looks - and you can make one too.















Here are the two trays I am unloading in our kitchen.
















This is the bottom tray.
















This is the top tray, which has holes both at the sides AND at the bottom to filter out the dust.
















Fitting the two trays together - make sure it is a perfect fit - with a 'litter pan liner' (actually a tze char box liner bought from SKP) in between.
















And here is how it looks in our bathroom. It fits right into the corner, which eliminates the floor area where stray litter might hit, and right next to the pipes where we can hang our litter scoop. Perfect!

So far Slinky has immensely enjoyed her toilet, using it stress-free every day. Sometimes Sayang and Scooter sneak in to use her toilet still, but as long as I clear the poo for her before she uses it, she is okay. Because it is only used by one cat the plastic liner containing the pee and dust does not have to be cleared every day. In a drier environment, say a kitchen, it would only need to be cleared once a week but because our bathroom has a lot of moisture, it would be ideal to clear the liner once every two to three days otherwise there will be a lot of dust build-up.

If you have adopted a cat from Ubi Kuching Project before, do share your story with the rest of the readers by emailing me at avalon.apart@gmail.com.