Settling in the little guy

Little Midnight is all settled in already 

I can hardly believe it, we only brought him in a few days ago(15th August) and I had this whole plan laid out where he'd be secluded and Matt would his and snarl and get depressed, and we'd have to constantly reassure him that he's top cat.......but I guess having the kitten born in the back yard and hanging out on the porch took care of that phase?

The met quite by accident after I got him home from the vet and put him back into his bathroom but forgot to lock the door behind us....Matt dropped in to say "hi" and steal some kitten food. Since then it pretty much happened a few times a day until Matt got mad at me for locking the kitten up, so I let him have it. He follows it around the house sniffing it, but doesn't like the "friendly" tail...he keeps his down as a rule and it tickles his nose lol!

I got tired of Matt stealing the kitten food, so last night I exprerimented with feeding them in the same room....and aside from having to pull the gluttonous runt off of Matt's plate and show him his own...it went great! Matt didn't even complain about the fuzzball on his plate Kitten eats more when he eats wet, and I'm supposed to fatten him up, so I'm going to feed both boys 3x daily on wet food.(with some dry in a bowl to suppliment kitten) Matt doesn't like waiting for bedtime feedings anyway. 

I'm still locking him in bathroom whenever he's not under direct supervision, and at night, when I put Matt in the basement. but he gets a few hours a day now to wander while I watch.

What can kittens play with? Matt likes paper balls, but wouldn't a kitten eat them? He destroyed my bath poof that I forgot was in the sink...must have got bored overnight lol. I thought of making him catnip pillows, but how big? I brought out the laser pointer, but Matt saw it from across the house and ran him over ran him over, and now he's afraid of it.....Matt's 14-15lbs, and kitten is 1.1 so I'm thinking play has to be one on one

Lucky you that they're getting along so quick and steeling food didn't  trigger a terminal incident!  Sounds like you've already had quite a few laughs over their 'getting to know each other' antics Poor little fella getting flattened for a laser mouse!    

Little kitten, he'll probably chew everything like most of the little terrors until he gets his 'big' teeth through.  You just have to keep an eye on toys and watch out for anything that's got string, elastic or ribbon in case he decides to chew and swallow it when you're not looking..... sadly I've got one of those cats that never learned that this was a bad idea. 

I used to roll up paper balls from when I first brought Mouse home but I didn't leave him with those ones unsupervised, he just had the softer plastic ones from the pet store that were big enough for him not to swallow at night. Any balls and catnip mice were Mouse's life and blood when he was little, he seemed to go through hundreds until I could find out where he was stashing them (under my fridge, and the media unit which is hard to move, oh and the bed of course).  He'd even play fetch to keep the game going when I was a willing playmate. If you're crafty enough to make your own catnip toys you'll save a fortune!  I'd go for any size as long as they're not small enough to swallow, and a nice big one same size as him he can battle with  might go down a storm. My boy's favourite game  when he was tiny (and still is now) is feather wands. He'll chase after them for literally hours, and at night I still  get woken up occasionally with the sound of the stick tap tapping along the floor as he drags the thing through from the sitting room (that he has to break in to to get it) and then he pounces on to the bed and drops it on top of me, soggy feathers and all.    

If Midnight's in the bathroom at night, a ping pong ball  or two in the bath can be pretty good fun going by what Mouse used to do when he was younger.

How about one of those ball and circuit toys extended to a long line or a figure of 8 so maybe Matt could play with Midnight and not flatten him in the process?  

Enjoy your baby and your more mature companion as they settle down together. 

Congratulations, it sounds like it's going swimmingly.

You can also get balls with bells in them.  And there are some toys that glow in the dark, they are specifically for cats to play with at night.

He's got the Cat-It ball track...but he doesn't seem to know what to do with it, and Matt never figured it out either...I might pick up the glow in the dark ball for it and see if that grabs his attention? I'm looking at the other Cat-It toy, as a possible for when he teeths....the one with a scratch pad in it, and a rubber thing that sticks up that cats can chew on? Then I can rub toothpaste on it for flavor and to get him used to the taste......

I picked him up a tunnel today, but Matt stole it  That's fair though, since he stole Matt's bed!

Playing seems to be something we have to teach him, perhaps because indoor play is so much different than mock-killing your wild littermates? But we got him a fluffy boa, and he's sort of getting that concept....he's drawing a blank on balls though. He watches them roll and then sniffs them when they come to a stop. No interest whatsoever. Think I'll make him a catnip pillow. Maybe he'll play with that? Matt always chews holes in his, then puts them in his water bowl 

OH! He crashed my Scrabble game today, funniest thing, I took a photo of him and captioned it.....

Oh man, that is TOO cute.    I knew there was a reason I hadn't had my scrabble out for a while!

Maybe the interest is in the things you're doing - you'll have to start playing circuit ball and tossing catnip mice.... (sadly I do these things even though Mouse plays like crazy without help).

What's he like with feather toys? I used to get Mouse to play fetch with these crazy catnip toys that were like little feather covered birds - he'd throw himself around like a madcat  catching them  then bringing them back for more. Only ever seemed to like mouse toys with a fur or feather texture.   Mouse met his first REAL mouse yesterday and that was hilarious - other than for the mouse (which did escape unharmed other than a good dose of panic). 

MServant said:

Oh man, that is TOO cute. 

  I knew there was a reason I hadn't had my scrabble out for a while!

Maybe the interest is in the things you're doing - you'll have to start playing circuit ball and tossing catnip mice.... (sadly I do these things even though Mouse plays like crazy without help).

What's he like with feather toys? I used to get Mouse to play fetch with these crazy catnip toys that were like little feather covered birds - he'd throw himself around like a madcat  catching them  then bringing them back for more. Only ever seemed to like mouse toys with a fur or feather texture.   Mouse met his first REAL mouse yesterday and that was hilarious - other than for the mouse (which did escape unharmed other than a good dose of panic). 

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I wonder if he'd like the catnip mice after catching the real thing? I can buy them "marinated in catnip" and use the catnip to sew into more toys that would work well!

My eldest is trying to teach him to play with a feather toy we just bought for him....he should get it soon I think. Right now he stares at it for a minute or two and then swats and goes back to staring. Apparently he caught a mouse last night for me.....I found the tail on the floor after breakfast(no wonder he didn't eat all his canned food) Good baby boy. 

Matt's gotten big and friendly, being the only cat in the house and stopped eating them a few weeks ago lol. Now he keeps them live and lets them go so he can catch them again!  I'm a little bit peeved about THAT habit.......had to put the traps back down in the cupboards   I catch them live and unharmed sometimes and put them outside. My neighbors think I'm crazy

I'm thinking may be one of the reasons Midnight isn't massively interested in toys is Matt is doing the cat-mom/dad thing and bringing him live prey to hone his hunting skills on???       Could explain why he's suddenly stopped killing them and bringing them to Midnight. (A bit of real close bonding going on?)

(Good for Matt)!  

I stayed in a house  where the landlord had 3 cats once: the only cat I've ever not liked plus a mommy cat and her daughter - even by the time her daughter was 1 1/2  mom was still bringing in live mice from the garden to show her how to hunt and to torment (why she couldn't do this outside I will never know   )   They didn't tend to play with toys at all, just each other and live prey.

MServant said:

I'm thinking may be one of the reasons Midnight isn't massively interested in toys is Matt is doing the cat-mom/dad thing and bringing him live prey to hone his hunting skills on???   

   Could explain why he's suddenly stopped killing them and bringing them to Midnight. (A bit of real close bonding going on?)

(Good for Matt)!

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They were both locked in their own rooms for the night, at the time...the critter probably assumed it was safe because the housecat doesn't eat mice LOL! OOPS fatal mistake there

I can see Matt getting a little 'put out' the first time Midnight eats one of his 'pet mice?'

Matts mom said:

They were both locked in their own rooms for the night, at the time...the critter probably assumed it was safe because the housecat doesn't eat mice LOL! OOPS fatal mistake there

I can see Matt getting a little 'put out' the first time Midnight eats one of his 'pet mice?'

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Excellent!  Mousing must be in his blood!  He'll have to show old Matt what he's meant to do so you can get rid of those mouse traps....    It is a shame you can't get mouse scented cat toys for these little hunters -     Need to find a chemist to help with the scent bit -then we could be rich!

My boy still seems a little interested in his toys but the 'laying in wait' vigils at the kitchen door and just in front of the fridge have definitely got longer  .    I don't mind as long as he's happy but I'm not sure how he's going to react to me if he realizes I've put mouse traps behind the fridge. 

Try ping pong balls!  When ours were kittens, they LOVED those bouncy balls and chased them all over the house.  If you get the neon colored ones, you can find them easily when they bat them under the couch or wherever.