pets for cats

[babyharley]

Originally Posted by Luvmysphynx

Harley is toooooooooooooo cute!!!!! I love seeing pictures of him!!

Awww...thank you so much! I love your babies too, they are so unique!

Thanks again, I feel so proud of my little terror!

 

[babyharley]

Originally Posted by Mirinae

My old roommates decided to get a pair of gerbils to act as "Kitty TV." Things we learned from this experience:

1) Habitrail is not intended for gerbils. They chew right through the plastic tubing.
2) Don't believe the pet store when they tell you that you're purchasing a same-sex pair.
3) Gerbil babies look like jellybeans.
4) Gerbils become sexually active around the same time it's possible for you to determine their gender. This means that once you can reliably figure out what sex your gerbil is, she's probably already pregnant. And so are her sisters. And so is Mom ... again.
5) Gerbils are very stupid, and may not run away from your cat.
6) Your cat is faster than your gerbil, anyway.
7) A gerbil's spinal cord looks pretty much the way I thought it would. Ewwww.
8) It turns out that despite owning hamsters and rats, I don't really like gerbils.
9) Cats don't really need "Kitty TV." At least, not this kind of Kitty TV.
10) You certainly don't need the hassle. I know I didn't.

Wow, sounds like you had quite the hassle here, thanks for the warnings!

Note to self- never get a gerbil! I used to have hamsters, 2, same thing with the gerbils, they got pregnant...2 times...ate the babies that looked like jelly beans, I felt so bad, we seperated them all that were still alive and gave them away to loving homes. I never owned a hamster again!

 

[littleraven7726]

Originally Posted by babyharley

Note to self- never get a gerbil! I used to have hamsters, 2, same thing with the gerbils, they got pregnant.

guess i'm lucky my gerbil was alone when i got him...and a boy!

i like my gerbie, but i don't recommend getting one if you don't like rodents.

 

[solaritybengals]

I want to get a 40-50 gallon aquarium. I actually can't wait to get one! What we do for our cats

. Well I used to have a 10 gallon but it was awful - very messy and I only had really cheap equipment that broke all the time. Anyway I'm ready to embark on this adventure and I heard bigger aquariums are easier to maintain and this time I've done my research and I'm buying high quality equipment to go with it.

I like fish anyway. I can sit there and watch them with the kitties

.

 

[semiferal]

Originally Posted by Mirinae

My old roommates decided to get a pair of gerbils to act as "Kitty TV." Things we learned from this experience:

1) Habitrail is not intended for gerbils. They chew right through the plastic tubing.
2) Don't believe the pet store when they tell you that you're purchasing a same-sex pair.
3) Gerbil babies look like jellybeans.
4) Gerbils become sexually active around the same time it's possible for you to determine their gender. This means that once you can reliably figure out what sex your gerbil is, she's probably already pregnant. And so are her sisters. And so is Mom ... again.
5) Gerbils are very stupid, and may not run away from your cat.
6) Your cat is faster than your gerbil, anyway.
7) A gerbil's spinal cord looks pretty much the way I thought it would. Ewwww.
8) It turns out that despite owning hamsters and rats, I don't really like gerbils.
9) Cats don't really need "Kitty TV." At least, not this kind of Kitty TV.
10) You certainly don't need the hassle. I know I didn't.

That's a Top 10 list to rival David Letterman's! Sounds like you had quite the experience.

 

[semiferal]

Originally Posted by abnihon

I've heard that cats love to look at aquariums, so I'm thinking of getting a beta fish (in a covered box!) to entertain my cat while I'm gone. Will she really be interested, or is this just a waste? (I'd really be getting it for her, cause I don't particuraly want a fish)

Rule #1 for getting any kind of a pet: don't do it unless you want it.

Fish are definitely not hassle-free pets. Just like cats, they require care. And unlike a cat, who will be merely annoyed by a dirty litterbox, a dirty fish tank means dead fish. So you have to be 100% on board with the upkeep of the tank before getting a fish.

I know it's not something I would want to be bothered with.

They do make special videos/DVD's designed to entertain cats. It might be worth trying one of these. And $20 for a video is probably a lot cheaper than a setup for a fish tank, and the video isn't going to care if your cat hates it and it ends up in the trash!

 

[nakoruru]

good luck if you decide to keep a fishtank! i used to have a 55 gal one too, filled with tropical fish and plants, and it was great... and i did a half-cleaning once every two months, and had a good filter running 24/7 so the tank was really quite clean. it wasn't until after an attack of fish disease and complications with my going on vacation, where i came back to find my 4-year old pair of angelfish floating belly up, that i decided i didn't want to keep fish anymore.

i have a few baby turtles in a 10 gal tank at my apartment. pouncer's never been around them- i don't know how she'd react. i think they might be too slow to be entertaining. she doesn't like television either... she's a nerd, and prefers to swipe at the mouse pointer on the computer monitor, especially when i'm trying to play games. lol

 

[sibohan2005]

We used to have a tank of tropical fish the cats loved it... so much that one of them steped on the heat control, The next day I could smell fish. The cat's had boiled the fish to death.
The moral of the story don't get tropical fish to entertain the cat and make sure the tank or bowl is secured to whatever serface it is on.
My cat's now just watch my Hampster from a distance, he lives on a high shelf. But every day he gets to torment the cat by going into his little ball and running after the cats.