Turkish angora

Hello everyone, 

I recently was gifted a 7 month old turkish angora, Shes pure white and silky, red eyes (scary), and EXTREMELY affectionate and she's a medium sized cat. My friend told me she was  vet checked ( I have her passport and vaccination card) but shes not sprayed. My friend (breeder) told me not to fix her because her personality may change.

1>She only eats dry food. On top of that she only eats directly from packet. On top of that she ll only eat if I put my hand inside the packet and move the biscuits around. Same issue with water, I have to splash it with my fingers to make her drink it. When I am out she ll literally starve herself until I come home and shake her food around. She does not eat from my hand or any bowl/plastic/cup/thing.  I was out once for almost 20 hours and she didn't eat or drink anything, Now I have to run home multiple times just so she can eat because if I dont she meows nonstop and my parents are getting very annoyed. How can I make her eat herself?

2>She doesnt poop much, After 2 days I found two pieces of poop. But her pee is normal...3-4 times a day. Is it normal behavior? 

3> I have tried and blew a lot of money off buying her wet food: Fancy feast, whiskers, sheba,I have tried raw diet: fish, mutton, chicken, added water made it gravy warmed it etc etc but nothing worked. Any suggestions? I have tried starving her for a day but then she became very lethargic so I gave her the dry food she munched and she became normal and happy in an hour. 

4> She randomly violently scratches and chews on her hair, I checked for fleas and ticks. I combed her for almost 30 mins, she loved it though, and checked her hair but nothing. After biting herself she ll suddenly jump run around and her tail shakes very rapidly. I had a cat before so I know their tail language. Vet told me he doesnt see anything but suggested a bath at their office but he said she ll loose a lot of hair

5> She sleeps in my bed, she curls on my lap, she plays with me until I drop, she ll run and jump on me when I come home, but when I go to headbutt her she gets freaked and runs. My friend who gave it to me told me maybe because his older cat "forced" himself on her multiple times, until finally she clawed his eye out. The older cat was a maine coon and shes only friendly with me, not with my parents or sister. She chases my 2 year old niece and scares the hell out of her. Anyway I can make her more loving to others and make her stop harassing the kids? 

6>Will spraying her change her personality? I had 2 stray cats before for 3 years...and they were awesome. But then I fixed the dad and her kid, their personalities changed overnight. Unloving, cold, hissing at me and the older one ended up running away, and the younger one ran away a few days later. 

7> Last question, this is irrelevant but can all cats mate with each other? For example if an angora were to mate with a svannah/bengal? 

Thank you all in advance, Any positive feedback is welcomed, I tried to google for answers but for the first time in my life I wasnt able to find any solution from googling. 

-Ammar 

First of all a lot of what you describe may point to a health problem so she really needs to be checked by a vet. I know your friend says she was but I really think you need to take her yourself. 

Some cats are super finicky eaters, I know I have one. Here are some tips on transitioning to wet food or at least getting her to eat some more wet (http://catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf). Does she like any treats? You can try putting treats on top of the wet or a product called fortiflora which drives a lot of cats wild. Never withhold food from a cat they will develop a very dangerous disease called fatty liver disease so it is important to always have her eat. If she does have heath problems and completely stops eating syringe feed her. In my experience on a dry diet cats usually poo once a day, but every other day is not completely unheard of.  

 If she only likes to drink moving water get her a cat fountain they are available at petstores and online and really get a lot of cats to drink more. 

Your friend is very wrong to tell you not to spay her and if she was mounted by an unfixed male in her last home she is probably pregnant. Cats get pregnant very easily and it does not matter what breed they are, she will get pregnant if she is around an unfixed male. So I really think she should be taken to the vet to see if she is pregnant. 

Fixing a cat will only help their personality. She is probably aggressive with others because she is in heat. When a female cat is in heat they will drive you nuts and can be very aggressive and just try to escape all the time. Fixing her will prevent this irritating behaviour and will stop her from getting pregnant, which will happen if you do not fix her (and like I said she may be pregnant all ready if she was around an unfixed male). 

I am not sure what happened with your other cats but I have never heard of an unfixed tom described as loving before. Unfixed male cats are often very aggressive when they come of age and will spray all over your house to mark their territory. Fixed male cats are usually a lot more affectionate and do not spray, so I think what happened to your cats was triggered by something else. 

Welcome to The Cat Site.

I'll address some of your questions; other more qualified people will hopefully chime in.

First you should know that this site is strongly pro-spay/neuter.  There are too many kittens/adult cats, too few homes.  Cats who are not spayed are more prone to develop cancer.

Do you live in the United States; I'm not familiar with the terms "passport and vaccination card" when it relates to cats.

6.   Spaying generally makes the cats more docile.  And lessens the chances she'll develop cancer.  A male cat will mate with any female cat he has access to; the male cat is in heat until he mates.  Neither cat may come out whole after mating, depends on the agressiveness of the male/female involved.  Until the cat is spayed, your cat should not go outdoors or be near another male cat (unless you want kittens in 60 days).

5.  If your cat is loving in every other way, I wouldn't headbut her (do you mean petting)? She obviously has bad memories of being forced upon (see 6., above).  Let her come to you for cuddling.  Two year olds shouldn't be around cats unless they are closely supervised; what may seem fun, playful to the child may seem like torture to the cat.

I think your cat is undergoing a lot of changes right now, so I'd keep other disturbances to a minimum.  Here is an article about cat agression towards people.

1 -4:  there are a lot of additives in dry food that can cause an allergic reaction in cats, including intense scratching.  I recommend the best qualify dry food you can afford; there is a thread about 'good' dry food.

Dry food is, well, dry; cats urinate much more on a wet diet.  What is the consistency of the poop--she may be constipated on the dry food.  Cats excrete what they can't utilize, there are a lot of carbohydrates in dry food.  Cats can't metabolize carbohydrates in an efficient manner.  I'm surprised she's peeing as much as she is.

Though does your cat's spine ever twitch?  Does she bite her tail?  That may be FHS.  Ritz has FHS; in her case, it is stress induced.