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lyne16

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hi everyone,

my name is lyne and i am new to the group.  i found this site the other day while looking for some info on the net.  i am the mother to several furry monsters.  since i have ten acres it does not bother me to have so many as long as i can afford to feed them.  my girls don't know it yet but starting in oct they are going to be fixed, one or two a month til they are all finished.  the reason i joined the group is that i have some questions was glad to find a place that may be able to help. 

first is that a few of my cats like to sharpen their claws on the dinning room chairs.  i have tried the sprays that you get at the store but none have helped.  does anyone have any suggestions?

next has to do with cat enclosures.  i have a 10x20 foot enclosure at the back of the house.  the cats can go in and out threw a window in the spare room.  it has a solid roof since the winters are snowy and icy.  i put up the enclosure because i have a couple of special needs cats that would not make it out in the big world.  my problem is that since the roof is solid whatever grass there was has died and the ground is packed dirt.  does anyone have suggestions as to what i could put down.  i would like something that keeps them dry and warm but is easy for me to keep clean.  because we live in a rural area i have used stray and shavings but this summer i found a baby copperhead in the enclosure(even though i have bird netting on the enclosure) so i don't want to use it anymore for safety reasons.

next has to do with supplements.  i would like to give them l-lysine occassionally,especially during the winter.  i want to be able to mix it with their food.  yesterday everything i read said to give 500mg twice a day, crush the pills and mix in their food.  i feed my cats from a tray and they get fresh food twice a day.  how much should i mix with their food to make sure it does any good?  can i give them human supplements?

thanks in advance for all the help.

lyne
 

handsome kitty

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hi everyone,

my name is lyne and i am new to the group.  i found this site the other day while looking for some info on the net.  i am the mother to several furry monsters.  since i have ten acres it does not bother me to have so many as long as i can afford to feed them.  my girls don't know it yet but starting in oct they are going to be fixed, one or two a month til they are all finished.  the reason i joined the group is that i have some questions was glad to find a place that may be able to help. 

first is that a few of my cats like to sharpen their claws on the dinning room chairs.  i have tried the sprays that you get at the store but none have helped.  does anyone have any suggestions?

next has to do with cat enclosures.  i have a 10x20 foot enclosure at the back of the house.  the cats can go in and out threw a window in the spare room.  it has a solid roof since the winters are snowy and icy.  i put up the enclosure because i have a couple of special needs cats that would not make it out in the big world.  my problem is that since the roof is solid whatever grass there was has died and the ground is packed dirt.  does anyone have suggestions as to what i could put down.  i would like something that keeps them dry and warm but is easy for me to keep clean.  because we live in a rural area i have used stray and shavings but this summer i found a baby copperhead in the enclosure(even though i have bird netting on the enclosure) so i don't want to use it anymore for safety reasons.

next has to do with supplements.  i would like to give them l-lysine occassionally,especially during the winter.  i want to be able to mix it with their food.  yesterday everything i read said to give 500mg twice a day, crush the pills and mix in their food.  i feed my cats from a tray and they get fresh food twice a day.  how much should i mix with their food to make sure it does any good?  can i give them human supplements?

thanks in advance for all the help.

lyne
Welcome to TCS!

You may want to post your questions in the appropriate forums to get answers.  Not everyone visits this one.

For your chairs have you tried covering the seats with foil?  Do you have cat trees and scratching posts? If not they would be a good alternative for the cats.

For your grass?  Maybe an indoor outdoor rug for part of it and some plants in pots.

L-lysine Have you seen this one?   You would have to give it to each cat.  It smells like maple syrup and mine enjoy licking it off my finger.
 

elkie

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Welcome to the site! 

I give mine human supplements.. stuff for human consumption has stricter quality control than stuff made for pets, so it's safe. I have two kittens and I give them 250mg twice a day mixed in the same food dish, since I know they eat about the same amount. The gel or chews would work better if you're not sure if they eat the same amount. Lysine is pretty safe for cats so I wouldn't worry too much about them getting exact dosage.
 

lonelocust

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Hello and welcome. 

With every cat I've had, if they scratched something inappropriately (for me it's usually been the sofa rather than a wooden leg), I would pick them up and place them on a scratching post. I'm not sure how easy this is with having quite a few cats, or if they all are amenable to being picked up. The more scratching posts around, the better. I've also had luck with (as already mentioned), putting tinfoil on things I didn't want scratched. Most cats seem to hate either the feel or noise of scratching tinfoil.

Is indoor/outdoor carpet a possibility for your enclosure? Fake plastic grass? A plywood floor between something like outdoor carpet or fake grass could help insulate between the cold ground and the floor as well, and probably be less snake friendly (I admit I'm not really an expert on wild snake habits, but it seems intuitive to me that it's less snake friendly). Do you have inside of the enclosure additional small shelters, like stray cat houses made of plastic bins or foam coolers (there's a lot of tutorials for these online if not)? You could go more barebones on the floor, maybe even just plywood to keep them from walking on frozen ground, and have more warm, dry cuddle spots.
 
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lyne16

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hi,

thanks for the reply.  i will be trying the tin foil suggestion for the chairs, but think my cats are just going to look at me funny and go back to being bad.  i did get them a new scatching post today and hope they will take the hint.  i do have a variety of totes in the cat cage for housing.  in fact i had moved a tote out of the way to do some cleaning when  i found the snake.  needless to say i was not happy as they scare that @#$% out of me.  i will have to come up with something for the ground however.  while they do not mind the hard ground during the summer, our winters are to rough and i would prefer not to have a bunch of sick cats. 
 
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