I have so many questions about my new cats' health

I am a new member of this site, because I recently adopted 2 loving cats!

Their names are Gandalf and Boogie and they are brothers


I have a lot of questions because I have never had a cat before, let alone 2, and I know it is a big responsibility.

I got them last week and I tried to do things on my own, but I wanted to ask some more experienced people.

They are 1 year old, and they have been living in another house for 9 months before they were found in a box on the street.

I took a little seminar-type thing when I adopted them so I have a basic idea of how to take care of them. Like no dry food, don't declaw them, call the vet if they have any stool problems, the basics. I'm just looking for tips on how to keep them healthy. They seem to be pretty active.

About food, their old owner was giving them Friskies Chicken Pate, which I think is like the McDonalds of cat food, so if anyone knows how to get them on a healthier diet or if I even need to change it (?), that would be appreciated. I also give them greenies treats, which they LOVE, but I have hear they are bad for sensitive cats, and Gandalf has a pretty sensitive stomach. Gandalf hasn't thrown up yet as far as I know, but Boogie has had a hairball, so I thought I would start to brush them.

Also, I have work from 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM, so I don't get home until around 6 PM. I feed them early, like 6:30 AM (the same time I take care of the litterbox) and when I get home I feed them at 6:30 PM. Is this a good schedule?

At 5:00 in the morning, Gandalf comes to my door and starts meowing like crazy, I think because he is hungry. I split a 5.5 oz can of wet food between the two of them in the morning, an the same at night. When I first got them, Boogie felt right at home while Gandalf ran and hid under the couch. He is better now, but he is definitely a lot more skittish than Boogie, and I notice Boogie is eating some of Gandalf's leftovers. They get fed together. I need sleep, so this is a big issue. I love them so much so I don't mind too much.

Congratulations on your new boys!!  They are so cute!

You're doing a good job feeding them canned food.  If you want to work up to something higher quality, I suggest going grain-free and feeding something like Wellness grain-free or Innova EVO.  Both are good foods.   To help with the 5:00 wake up call, you might try having a hard play session with them just before bedtime and then feeding them a small serving of canned food (about 1 teaspoon or so, nothing major).  This mimics their natural play/eat/sleep cycle and will help them through the night. 

The twice a day feedings are fine, especially if you add the little "treat" serving in the evenings.  I prefer not to give treats as most are filled with fillers.  If you want to give them a treat, look for some freeze-dried chicken bites or something like that.  I've tried Greenies before and didn't have a problem, but know plenty of people who have had issues with them, so I stopped. 

Health-wise, be sure to keep an eye on them for any change in behavior, play, or litter habits.  It's extremely common for kitties in new homes to come down with an upper respiratory infection about 2 weeks after being in their new home.  Just get them to the vet for a check up and don't procrastinate and wait it out.

Make sure you scoop at least once a day and change their water daily.  Also, if you can feed them out of ceramic, glass, or metal bowls, that's better than plastic.  Same goes for the water dish.  I find my kitty bowls at the thrift store.

Thanks so much for your reply!

I am taking them to the vet in a few weeks just so see if they're ok. I bought them ceramic bowls, the person at the store said that the bacteria can live in scratches on plastic bowls and it can make them sick. I just played with them and I am about to go to bed, so I'll give them a little bit of food right now.

I actually just noticed that Boogie is chewing on cables. I don't mind hiding them, and they haven't penetrated through the skin of the cable yet, but I'm worried that they may get electrocuted or something. I haven't seen this with Gandalf.

About the food, how should I transition them from the Friskies that they love so much? I chose to get the Wellness Grain Free because it was cheaper and it came in bigger cans.

Thanks!

Boogie is sitting on my lap so it's hard to type on my laptop   I don't mind, I love both of them so much.

@KoolKatz  : you're good. You're tons better than my neighbor, who kept 15+ cats for more than 20 years and still thinks dry food is the way to go. So don't worry!

you might want 2 litterboxes. This just helps when they want to use them at the same time. Then you might want to give them some toys so they don't use anything else, like cables... mine love kitty tunnels to dart in and out, and scratchpads.

Also, most groceries sell wheatgrass for juicing - cats love these. Or you could just buy whole grain kernels and seed your own.

To transition to new food: try mixing it in the old food, first a little, then more, until you just need to put a spoonful of the McDonald's stuff on top. (There are those lids for cans in petstores you can put on opened cans so they keep in the fridge for a couple days).

You can also try sprinkling a few mashed treats (hammer?  ) onto the new food.

also, congratulations!

To protect the cords, you can slip the cardboard part of a paper towel or toilet paper tube over the cords. 

We also like the Wellness grain-free because of the bigger cans.  You can take half of the contents out of the can and freeze it to keep it fresh, too. 

Since they're boys, you want to make sure they drink enough water, so you might want to add a teaspoon or two to their canned food to help them with water consumption and to help keeping urinary problems at bay.  Males tend to have more problems with this than females. 

@roguethecat

Thank you! I am going to get a 2nd litterbox, the home where they used to live in had 2 litterboxes, and I only have one, so I'll get another one ASAP.

I already bought a tunnel and 2 scratching posts, and they love them. I also bought a little catnip, so I'll put a sprinkle or two on the scratching posts when I get the chance. I haven't noticed Boogie chewing on cables in the last 20 minutes, but I'll keep my eyes on him. It's 11:57 PM right now, I just want to watch my new family all night! I know they need sleep though, so I'll leave them alone (for now  )

I'll try your techniques for the food transition. I want them to live as long as possible

@stephanietx  thank you for your reply as well!

roguethecat said:

you might want 2 litterboxes. This just helps when they want to use them at the same time. Then you might want to give them some toys so they don't use anything else, like cables... mine love kitty tunnels to dart in and out, and scratchpads.

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stephanietx said:

You're doing a good job feeding them canned food.  If you want to work up to something higher quality, I suggest going grain-free and feeding something like Wellness grain-free or Innova EVO.  Both are good foods.   To help with the 5:00 wake up call, you might try having a hard play session with them just before bedtime and then feeding them a small serving of canned food (about 1 teaspoon or so, nothing major).  This mimics their natural play/eat/sleep cycle and will help them through the night. 
The twice a day feedings are fine, especially if you add the little "treat" serving in the evenings.  I prefer not to give treats as most are filled with fillers.  If you want to give them a treat, look for some freeze-dried chicken bites or something like that.  I've tried Greenies before and didn't have a problem, but know plenty of people who have had issues with them, so I stopped. 

Health-wise, be sure to keep an eye on them for any change in behavior, play, or litter habits.  It's extremely common for kitties in new homes to come down with an upper respiratory infection about 2 weeks after being in their new home.  Just get them to the vet for a check up and don't procrastinate and wait it out.

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We do the exact same thing with our cats to keep them from waking us up: they're so used to it now that they often run around on their own before bed without us even throwing toys for them! They're still very, very active. Splitting one small can of food seems to get them through the night really well.

I also second Stephanietx's advice about the upper respiratory infection: we've been through that with two adoptions over the years and it really is important to get them seen quickly. The cats we have now got light cases very soon after we brought them home. (The cats years ago took longer and were sicker; one even needed fluids and they both got medicine.)

As for food, we didn't have much difficulty at all switching these cats from Friskies to better food. The bigger issue was getting them off dry food, which they'd been getting at the shelter along with the Friskies, though once they got to like their better wet food they forgot about the dry food, which I cut back very gradually until they were getting just a few kibbles a day on their wet food.

Have lots of fun with the new cats!

Thanks @LisaHE  for the reply! We ordered the Wiggle Worm, because cable-chewing is a big problem.

Glad to see that this advice is working for others too.

I can't be mad at them, they're so adorable 

KoolKatz said:

 
Thanks @LisaHE  for the reply! We ordered the Wiggle Worm, because cable-chewing is a big problem.

Glad to see that this advice is working for others too.

I can't be mad at them, they're so adorable 

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That worm didn't completely stop Ireland from chewing cables but it does seem to have helped! I also just remembered both cats really gnawing on their Petstages pretzel. I'm not sure it really does "floss" their teeth and remove plaque but they definitely love chasing it (it flies nicely, like a saucer...) and chewing on it.

We keep saying the same thing about not being able to get mad at them when they jump on counters, wake us up by biting our feet, and all the rest... they're just too cute and sweet (most of the time,anyway!) to make us angry for more than about 10 seconds!

Have fun!

Thanks @LisaHE  !

As long as it helps I'm ok with it! Thanks for your support, I'm really new to the whole cats thing but I already love it!

Thanks for adopting these boys. They are handsome.

I can't offer much advice, I just wanted to say welcome.

@Datagrrl  thanks! I got them through an organization that was NOT no-kill, so I didn't want them to be euthanized.

On the litter box thing, you might want to get 3 boxes.  Technically, you should have one litter box per cat plus one extra.