bell patrol!

Ok. Day 2 on the board. Warning to one and all: Given the chance (and it looks promissing so far!), I will live up to my work nickname of "la tannante" (the annoying one)!

I have a 2 year old female DSH and a 4 month old male DLH. Both get along wonderfully, and it's not rare to see Elmo (male) snuggled up against Kermitte (female). They both give each other baths, too. Our problem is with Kermitte. During their mutual grooming, she's chew on the bell on Elmo's collar and try to pull it off. She's got teeth of steel! I've had to take Elmo's collar off and get the hammer to reshape his bell! :confused2 How can we get Kermitte to stop chewing on his bell? It can't be good for her teeth, and the "Fooey" spray (taste deterrent) I applied to the collar and bell doesn't seem to have helped at all. Whatever I do, I don't want Kermitte to reject Elmo...

Kermitte also has a collar and bell, but Elmo doesn't chew on her bell!

That would solve the problem!

Remove the bell, or have you tried the Bitter Apple spray? Sometimes it works great... and on lesser occasions the animal loves the taste of it. haha.

Does the bell have to be there? Are they outdoor cats?

they are both indoor cats, but seeing as our house is in a constant state of dissaray, and they have SOO many places to hide, :eye&mouth we like them to have collars and bells so that we can hear where they are. Besides. Elmo is so small and so quick, at least with a bell, we can get somewhat of an advanced warning when he's about to shoot between our legs going downstairs!!:laughing2 and it gives Kermitte an "ambush protection" :LOL:

Perhaps you should try a different shaped bell or get ID tags and their rabies tags on the collar together. These will jingle when they walk around. Mostly any metal dangles should work. Hope this will help!

hey! that's a good idea! I'll see what we can do! what do you think of those little metal tubes that you put the cat's information in? (name, address, age, medical notes, etc...)

Thanks!

well, first things first. I tried putting a taste deterrent spray on the collar... didn't work. Then I had the "bright" idea of smearing a thin film of tabasco sauce on the collar and bell... if anything, Kermitte seemed to LIKE the stuff, and worked away at Elmo's collar even more! , so back to the drawing board I went. I replaced the bell with a new one, one which is less likely to be subject to mangling (ha!), but since I took his collar off to wash off the tabasco sauce, we don't know what the verdict on the new bell is yet! And since I slipped on some ice and landed hard on my arm last night, I'm not sure I can handle putting a collar on right now... (nothing's broken, just really, really sore. I can't even turn the bathroom taps on with my sore arm... sad, eh? :tounge2: )

I hope your arm feels better soon!

I have a dumb question.....what is a DSH and a DLH? Are they a specific breed?

DSH = Domestic short hair, DLH = domestic long hair.

lotsocats: thank for the get well soon wish. That must have been what has done the trick! Though I still have a bit of pain when I turn my wrist, and when I 'fold' my arm against itself, the rest is nearly 100% better now! (though a part of me is sad it's better, because I was babied something wonderful yesterday! :LOL: )

My youngest cat Roger has not adapted at all to any kind of collar. The first time we tried one he freaked out and wouldn't hardly walk because he jingled! :tounge2: He managed to get the collar wrapped around his mouth as he struggled to get it off. The second one we tried had no bell but he still didn't like it. He is strictly an inside cat but how do we get him used to a collar without him trying to pull it off with his mouth? I don't want him to choke on it while we are away...We do only use the breakaway collars but they still got stuck on his mouth.

Lisa

The way we've gotten our cats used to wearing collars is by gradual, positive association. Start by putting it on him for 2 minutes. Give him treats while he's wearing it so he associates the collar with good things. Take it off. Next day, try 3 minutes, treats and remove collar. Proceed like that until he doesn't mind wearing it for long periods of time. If he starts to fight it, you've probably progressed too quickly. Go back to a length of time he tolerated, then slowly work your way up again. You might also want to put the collar on while he eats, then take it off afterwards... give him plenty of positive reinforcement for good behaviour, ignore the wrong ones.

Good luck! I'd get him used to just the collar first, then add the bell later... and make sure you can't get much more than a finger between the collar and the cat's neck. Otherwise, as you know, he'll get caught in it.