Chrztal posted:
Chrztal - my cats would disagree with you...they love their cage.
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Too many cats?
- Thread starter jasminecat
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no offense Kim, but that doesn't qualify as a cage, it is an enclosure- big difference
LOL! OK, OK...Retraction! The chicken wire throws me off and I find myself calling it a "Cage" more often than an "Enclosure." (It's a chicken coupe to some folks) LOL!
yes i agree that to determine wheher or not you have too many cats is based on whether you can afford to provide care for it, and if you have enough space for them to live comfortably.
i found out the hard way, u used to have 3 cats in a small 2 bedroom apartment, there was enough room but i found that i couldnt afford to look after them the way i wanted to as the bills started to add up! also i found i couldn't give them all the amount of attention i wanted to give them as i was working fulltime and studying nights!
so i finally ended up haveing to give Jamie away, she was the most affectionate cat, the bad thing though, is that the friend i gave her to eventually gave her back to the CAt haven (Shelter) cuz she was moving interstate , and i think they proberly put her down if they didn't find a home for her within a month! i still feel guilty about it since i was the one who got her from the cat haven in the first place!
i found out the hard way, u used to have 3 cats in a small 2 bedroom apartment, there was enough room but i found that i couldnt afford to look after them the way i wanted to as the bills started to add up! also i found i couldn't give them all the amount of attention i wanted to give them as i was working fulltime and studying nights!
so i finally ended up haveing to give Jamie away, she was the most affectionate cat, the bad thing though, is that the friend i gave her to eventually gave her back to the CAt haven (Shelter) cuz she was moving interstate , and i think they proberly put her down if they didn't find a home for her within a month! i still feel guilty about it since i was the one who got her from the cat haven in the first place!
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Wow what a cool cage. I was picturing small cages in dark closed off rooms. What a terrible picture. But wow~! All kitties should be so lucky to have those "cages".
Ginger
Ginger
My house is 2000 square feet. I have two cat rooms, one in my bedroom and one right outside of my bedroom. The cats own the whole basement except for my brothers room! I have scrathing posts around the basement, they even have their own full size couch! They have a huge litter box area and a feeding table!
Kim, I
that enclosure! Did you buy the plans? I am going to be building an enclosure next payday. I am going to make it 8' tall, 8' long, and 8' wide. I have a huge yard, and there's not much outside except my brothers swing set! Buddy, my Golden Retriever gets the run of the whole yard!
I just painted the "new" cat room blue. My cats go into the room, and stare at the walls as if to say "What a BAD color!"
Kim, I
I just painted the "new" cat room blue. My cats go into the room, and stare at the walls as if to say "What a BAD color!"
3 of my cats are in cages right now. Granet and Marble (kittens) are sharing an EXTRA large dog training crate (the one that snowwhite was in) they come out for about a hour of play time. Laurie the feral is in two medium size dog crates (we have the joined together) so she has an area for litter, an area for food and one for sleeping) these are only tempory until laurie gets fixed then she will be outside, and moe and neo get used to granet and marble, then they will have free rein of the house. I think sometimes crates or cages are necessory for tempory use, although I wouldn't want to see a kitty in there alllll the time.
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Kim, that is a cool enclosure!!! Did you have someone make that for your kitties or did you do it yourself?? Rocky and Fluffy would absolutely love that!!!!!
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I hope noone thought that I was being mean by my comment "that is just wrong" When you said cages, I just figured an actual cage, not a huge playpen the size of a room. I said get them a room and that is what you have. Good Job. Looks like my cage for my parrot! Yes, the cats even get along with him.
Rock&Fluff'smom: We hired a contractor to build the enclosure because my hubby and I were afraid we would kill each other if we tried. It's pretty important that all of the poles are level—another reason we didn't try to build it., LOL! We can't hang wall paper together without scrappin'
The contractor is a friend of mine, he only charged me $100, dinner and a 12 pack. The materials were less than $300. I bought the blueprints from Just4Cats.com for $20.00. The blue prints show how you can build the cage in 20 different shapes and sizes—pretty cool.
If you ever decide to build one, Rocky and Fluffy would have their own little Kindom. The first day my boys walked into that cage, they rolled and rolled and rolled in the grass and dirt. They were so excited. They all look at me as if they're saying, "I deserve this mom....BTW, can we get some cable out here?" ---ya' know, that snotty little cat behavior we all love!
The contractor is a friend of mine, he only charged me $100, dinner and a 12 pack. The materials were less than $300. I bought the blueprints from Just4Cats.com for $20.00. The blue prints show how you can build the cage in 20 different shapes and sizes—pretty cool.
If you ever decide to build one, Rocky and Fluffy would have their own little Kindom. The first day my boys walked into that cage, they rolled and rolled and rolled in the grass and dirt. They were so excited. They all look at me as if they're saying, "I deserve this mom....BTW, can we get some cable out here?" ---ya' know, that snotty little cat behavior we all love!
Sam, you have to understand our perception of "cages" here in the US. When we think of this, we see the cages of animal shelters - 2 foot square cages where they can barely move around. Your runs don't sound like this at all!
Just a matter of different perceptions.
I'm gonna talk to my hubby about it, and see what I can accomplish....you got a good deal with your contracter/friend...cool , a 12 pack! I don't drink, but hubby may,,
How many is too many? Well, as long as the owner can provide for all the cats and make sure they have a very good quality of life, there's no actual number really.
To maintain the cats' welfare they need to have enough litterboxes (one per cat and cleaned at least once a day), enough food dishes and food, enough love and attention and enough space. How much is enough space? The Cat Welfare manuals (intented for people who run shelters) give you the figure of 15 square feet per cat. Of course, cats also need vertical space so you need to provide them with cat trees and cat gyms. Obviously, a one bedroom apartment is way too small for 16 cats. I can't even see how he can put 16 litter boxes in there let alone the cats themselves. Those cats are bound to have behavior problems - I bet the house reeks of cat urine with all the territorial spraying.
There are people who are pet hoarders. You read about them every once in a while in the papers when authorities come in and arrest them. They have some sort of mental problem which makes them obsessively collect pets. According to them it's done out of the kindness of their heart - they simply can't let the poor animals die on the streets or in a shelter. The reality too often is that those people cram animals in very poor conditions and harm the animals rather than help them.
As for cages and enclosures. I don't like the thought of cats in cages either, but enclosures, whether indoors or outdoors can be very good. Sam, are all 40 cats (not your pets) breeding stock? That's a whole lot of cats! I'm sure you make sure their enclosures are up to standard and roomy. Have you considered getting them an outdoors enclosure as well?
And for all of you who want more info on enclosures - we do have an article about them right here -
http://www.thecatsite.com/care/enclosures.html
To maintain the cats' welfare they need to have enough litterboxes (one per cat and cleaned at least once a day), enough food dishes and food, enough love and attention and enough space. How much is enough space? The Cat Welfare manuals (intented for people who run shelters) give you the figure of 15 square feet per cat. Of course, cats also need vertical space so you need to provide them with cat trees and cat gyms. Obviously, a one bedroom apartment is way too small for 16 cats. I can't even see how he can put 16 litter boxes in there let alone the cats themselves. Those cats are bound to have behavior problems - I bet the house reeks of cat urine with all the territorial spraying.
There are people who are pet hoarders. You read about them every once in a while in the papers when authorities come in and arrest them. They have some sort of mental problem which makes them obsessively collect pets. According to them it's done out of the kindness of their heart - they simply can't let the poor animals die on the streets or in a shelter. The reality too often is that those people cram animals in very poor conditions and harm the animals rather than help them.
As for cages and enclosures. I don't like the thought of cats in cages either, but enclosures, whether indoors or outdoors can be very good. Sam, are all 40 cats (not your pets) breeding stock? That's a whole lot of cats! I'm sure you make sure their enclosures are up to standard and roomy. Have you considered getting them an outdoors enclosure as well?
And for all of you who want more info on enclosures - we do have an article about them right here -
http://www.thecatsite.com/care/enclosures.html
Kim - that is positively awesome.
As for cages, yea, when I think cage I first think of a cage at the pet store - the ones where the cat has just enough room to lay beside the litter box, and practically has to crawl into the litter box to use it. Then I think of the humane society cages which are about 4x the size, but still it isn't much bigger. I don't get pleasant mental images when I hear the word cage. But enclosures...
Kim's enclosure for instance is probably larger then some of the apartments I've lived in in the past. I think if you can step inside of something like that and say "wow, this is pretty nice!" then heck, the cat is probably going to enjoy that too.
As for cages, yea, when I think cage I first think of a cage at the pet store - the ones where the cat has just enough room to lay beside the litter box, and practically has to crawl into the litter box to use it. Then I think of the humane society cages which are about 4x the size, but still it isn't much bigger. I don't get pleasant mental images when I hear the word cage. But enclosures...
Kim's enclosure for instance is probably larger then some of the apartments I've lived in in the past. I think if you can step inside of something like that and say "wow, this is pretty nice!" then heck, the cat is probably going to enjoy that too.
I think we have 4 pets , 20 kittens ( Which all go too their new homes soonsih ) so that only leaves 16 cats which we keep permanently , and around 4 of them are retired and haven't had a litter in years so the breeding stock goes down to about 12..
I also deleted my last post because the mods thought it was unnacceptable .
I also deleted my last post because the mods thought it was unnacceptable .
