# i want 5 mins alone



## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

i love my new adopted kitten from the rspca, she`s amazing and has fit right in. the only problem i`m having is that she follows me everywhere, cries when she can`t see me and demands to always sit on my knee. i have no problem playing with her and having her on my knee at time but there`s times when i just wanna relax and now i`m feeling guilty as she wants to be with me. is there anything i can do?? i guess she`s not used to attention so is probably craving it but i don`t wanna let this become a habit


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## Lulu's owner (May 1, 2009)

I expect she'll grow out of it before very long, she's just young and probably quite insecure at the moment.


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

i hope so, i love spending time with her but i have things i need to do and it is horrible hearing her cry (she doesn`t have much of a voice really so it sounds even worse) my partner tried to hold her and play with her (like he did in the cattery an she loved it) but she struggled and followed me while i was making tea. i`ve already given her 3 pouches of whiskas and some dry but she seems like a pig at the moment and so attached i`m starting to stress a bit, i want to enjoy spending time with her not feel it`s a chore....i hope that doesn`t sound harsh as it wasn`t supposed to be


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## Lulu's owner (May 1, 2009)

No, there are times when having animals feels like a chore, specially at the beginning (and, sadly, towards the end), there's nothing wrong with admitting it. It's especially hard when you can't seem to please them, but sometimes I think you just have to put them somewhere safe and cosy and then just get on with doing what you need to do for a while, otherwise you drive yourself round the bend and it's no good for you or the pet.


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## 1971 (Aug 16, 2008)

awwww she loves you so much. cant offer any advise sorry.


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

Lulu's owner said:


> No, there are times when having animals feels like a chore, specially at the beginning (and, sadly, towards the end), there's nothing wrong with admitting it. It's especially hard when you can't seem to please them, but sometimes I think you just have to put them somewhere safe and cosy and then just get on with doing what you need to do for a while, otherwise you drive yourself round the bend and it's no good for you or the pet.


i`m so glad you seem to know how i feel

i love this girl to bits but i still need to clean the house, prepare meals and interact with my other animals. i know she`s had a hard life and i hate the thought but i need my own time without feeling guilty. i think she`s especially needy as this is her first home (she was a stray) but i try to spend time with her as much as i can. i`ve also got my own cat and my partner`s dog who isn`t house trained and i`m being left to train. it does get a bit much and at times i wanna be alone but i`m so worried about pepsi i`m finding it hard


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## Amber Dawn (Dec 5, 2009)

How long have you had her?

She may just be nervous of her new home and feels secure with you. Hopefully in time she'll settle down, especially once she's allowed out (if she's an outdoor cat) when she'll find something more interesting to do.


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

i hope she does settle down, i got both my cats a massive activity center today so maybe that`ll distract her. she has started trying to interact with my other cat but he`s a bit of a scaredy cat and runs away lol


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## Keywin (Oct 29, 2009)

> my partner tried to hold her and play with her (like he did in the cattery an she loved it) but she struggled and followed me while i was making tea. i`ve already given her 3 pouches of whiskas and some dry


If you are the food giver I would guess you are now momma cat, and so its you she wants not your partner. Try getting him to feed her food at feeding times, even if its only putting it down for her.


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

sadly that won`t happen as he works most of the day. we seem to be having a lot of problems with this cat, she`s stealing food off us now and last night nearly bit my hand off when i was making sandwiches for my daughter`s lunch box cause she wanted the meat


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## kittykat (Nov 2, 2007)

Hiya I know how you feel my kitty Tia is like that and shes 6 months now lol it can be annoying if I'm on the phone cos she will scream her head off! In all honesty it doesnt really annoy me anymore.

What food are you feeding her and how much does she get?


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

she`s getting whiskas pouches and i give her 3 a day (more than what she was getting at the rspca) and she also steals some of my other cat`s food. i`m starting to get really worried that she`ll have to go back due to all the problems we`re having. she managed to get the food cover off our food i had left out to defrost for tea and started munching on it she`s just so desperate for food.

i almost fell down the stairs last night cause she`s right under my feet all the time, it`s really upsetting. she`s not getting on well with the dog either and constantly swiping her on the face and i`m worried she`ll either hurt the dog or the dog will stop being so friendly and attack her. we think she may have had a bad experience with dogs while she was a stray.

i love this little cat but i`m beginning to think she`d be better being the only animal in the house in order to get all the attention she needs


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## Lulu's owner (May 1, 2009)

It sounds like you've got a lot on your hands, specially if you're trying to housetrain a dog at the same time. I think the cat is bound to be wary of the dog for quite some time. As you know, dogs can kill cats, and cats must instinctively realise this, mine even avoid my little yorkie and they could eat her for breakfast if they really wanted! It's taken months for them to be less nervous of her. I'd just let her eat as much as she wants at the moment, as she is young and still growing, so why add to your problems by restricting her rations? When I first got Bertie as a young adult cat he ate up to five tins a day, believe it or not (though when I got him wormed at the vets', things did improve). I would give it a bit more time before rehoming. Maybe put some music on and shut the door on the kitten for a few hours, it won't kill her and you'll get a bit of peace. Or take the dog out for a walk, that will give you a rest from the cat and the dog will hopefully do its wees outside.


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

yeah i take the dog for 3 walks a day so i do get a break from the cat but the dog goes mad on walks so it`s not very relaxing lol think i`m gonna go have a nice long bath (with ear plus to block out muffin) then i`ll ring the rspca and find out if the cat has been tested for diabetes as my cousin just said her cat was like that and turned out it was diabetes. from there i guess i`ll just take each days as it comes. i`ll avoid sending her back at all costs but if she really doesn`t settle then i have to think of her needs before mine.


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## Maiisiku (Feb 20, 2009)

I had this problem with a rescue cat I had although the reason why we had to rehome him wasn't because of this, he got viscious and bit my daughter. He would eat 3 pouches of wiskas a day and still be hungry! He also didn't like dry food so I couldn't put any down for him. He was getting really expensive to feed because he could eat between 4-6 pouches a day which is half a weeks of what Bailey eats! It's because they are growing. Has she been wormed? We thought he may have worms, but it turned out that he didn't and was just a very hungry kitty. Tesco have a special offer on wiskas and go cat dry food at the moment you can get 4kg (2 packs of 2kg) for £8 maybe that will help?

Let her follow you but see if your hubby can put her evening meal down and give her some treats. That way she'll see food comes from him as well as you.


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## Lulu's owner (May 1, 2009)

Can I just mention that four pouches only equals one tin of catfood (not three pouches, as some people believe)? If money is a problem, why not feed tinned food, I don't think nutritionally there's any difference from pouches and it's a lot cheaper. I feed tinned for convenience too, I have a couple of greedy cats and I got fed up of forever opening pouches.


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

she is very food aggressive and the more she settles the more it`s showing she swiped my daughter last night trying to get at her food an barely missed her eye  i did ring the rspca yesterday who informed me they never done any tests for diabetes and basically had a 'your cat your problem' attitude after saying if there was any problems they`d help. they also told me she`s always been like this with food but failed to mention that when they were telling us everything about her 

i`ve convinced my other half to give her a week to see if we can stop this because i cant bare the thought of her in that place again and she really is gorgeous and so nice when she`s sitting on my lap.

she won`t touch dried food either so once these pouches are finished i`m gonna buy tins as it`s cheaper. she stole twix`s food yesterday again, poor boy`s so upset he was in such a bad mood he kept hissing at the dog for no reason :frown2:


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## Lulu's owner (May 1, 2009)

I suppose the RSPCA are inundated with animals. I remember many years ago I got my first cat from the Mayhew and he was riddled with fleas but they weren't interested and I was in such a panic about them (silly, looking back, but flea products were not so good then so it was more of an issue). I suppose diabetes is pretty rare and it seems unlikely to me that that is the problem, far more likely that she's a slightly naughty, growing kitten. In fact, my friend's cat got misdiagnosed with diabetes and it did more harm than good, and I'm not sure my friend could have coped with daily injections in any case (cat turned out to have cancer, sadly). I'd definitely try letting her eat as much as she wants for a few days and see how she behaves, and of course keep your child out of her way at feeding time so she doesn't get the chance to be aggressive. If she's funny about a change of food, it can help to put some of the pouch food on top of the tinned to begin with and try her on a few different varieties if she doesn't take to to first one you get.


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

i meant she swiped my daughter to try and get what my daughter was eating off of her, she attacked me yet again this morning over food. i think she is just a really naughty kitten as she`s shown no other symptoms of diabetes. i also find it funny how she can`t meow (she opens her mouth but nothing comes out other than the occasional squeak) yet she can make this pathetic little screaming noise when she wants food. i did ring the vet just before typing this and he said to give her a while to look for other symptoms before havign her checked over.

i also spoke to my friend who`s a receptionist in a vets office and we were talking about how small she is, my friend commented that there`s a high chance she won`t grow much bigger due to all the illnesses she`s had  she`s just an itsy bitsy little thing!!!


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## lizward (Feb 29, 2008)

Sorry but she sounds perfectly normal to me! Why not just feed her more, shut her out of the room when people are eating, shut her up out of earshot when you want time to yourself - after all cats sleep for about 18 hours a day! 

Are you planning to let her out or will she be an indoor cat?

liz


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## Lulu's owner (May 1, 2009)

Hopefully, if she's very small she might settle down to eating a lot less eventually! My Lulu is tiny and eats almost nothing (but she's very lazy and hardly goes out). I can't remember if we've discussed worming, but best to make sure a good quality wormer is used like Drontal as some of the stuff from the pet shop is useless. Bertie stopped eating ridiculous amounts (four or five tins a day!) only after the Drontal, not the pet shop wormer, but as I've mentioned, I honestly don't think three sachets is all that much for a growing kitten. If the kitten's going to attack your daughter over food it's best to play safe and put the cat out the room while your daughter's eating stuff she might want to pinch, presumably meat? That's what my husband used to do with our old cat when he had a Chinese takeaway, otherwise the cat would be on the other side of his dinner plate tucking in.


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## kittykat (Nov 2, 2007)

Hi again, I rarely feed the pouches now cos they really dont have enough in them and you end up giving them 4 pouches a day = expensive! My are on a dry only diet now but I think giving the tins is a good idea if she wont eat dry.

She probably had to fight for food before and think its just a settling in phrase especially as you have other pets there, she thinks they will steal it. She SHOULD grow out of the stage though.

I would also give her boundaries such as when you are eating, shut her out, if possible shut her out of the kitchen also. I wouldnt worry about the dog, most dogs are wary of cats anyway and she is just warning him to stay away which is a good thing as dogs can go after cats. I really think its just a settling phase and it should calm down once she realises shes there to stay.


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## kittykat (Nov 2, 2007)

I would also check with the RSPCA that she HAS been wormed.


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## Leah84 (Jun 22, 2009)

they gave her 1/4 drontal before she left them so i know she`s been wormed. my daughter was having pizza lol this cat isn`t fussy when it comes to food (except dry cat food)

i can`t lock her out the kitchen as it`s open plan and that`s also the other place i can keep twix`s food as he`s free fed but since it`s dry food she won`t touch that, although she keeps stealing his wet food silly girl!


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## kittykat (Nov 2, 2007)

Leah84 said:


> they gave her 1/4 drontal before she left them so i know she`s been wormed. my daughter was having pizza lol this cat isn`t fussy when it comes to food (except dry cat food)
> 
> i can`t lock her out the kitchen as it`s open plan and that`s also the other place i can keep twix`s food as he`s free fed but since it`s dry food she won`t touch that, although she keeps stealing his wet food silly girl!


My kitty used to like eating the crusts of my toast lol Even though they are alot better I still shut them out when I'm eating after one of them landing right on my plate  lol

I do think she will settle down, shes fighting for food/company at the moment.


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## bibliochic (Nov 12, 2009)

lizward said:


> Sorry but she sounds perfectly normal to me!


And to me! If she's being fed exactly the same food every day, and especially if she wasn't getting enough at the RSPCA, it's not surprising that human food piques her interest. Whatever you do, if you give her tidbits or treats, put them in her bowl in her feeding area. She needs to learn that anything that isn't in her plate isn't going to be hers, which is a long process. If you let her get away with it once, it'll happen again. (After countless 'nos' and being put on the floor, my kitten's only just getting the picture, and he's nine months old. He's a complete sweetheart, but had no qualms about swiping at you to get a bit of food, and has gone for everything, from popcorn to mashed potato.)

Fingers crossed she'll settle a bit more in time and it's not symptomatic of any underlying problems. How old is she, and how long have you had her?


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## siamesepeaches (Dec 1, 2009)

I think I know how you feel. I rescued my kitten from the shelter too. I could not leave the room, or do much of anything for more than 5 minutes without Peaches needing my complete attention. I felt like I was babysitting all day and yes, all night too. I thought what you described seemed normal. We don't know how long these little kittens were out on the streets alone as strays, or in a cage scared to death. That is a lot of stress for such a small, young animal to face. It does get better!!!! the best thing for me was getting her on a routine, just like an infant. Free feed in a private space if you can. She has a lot to adjust to, a dog, different food, new smells, maybe even new food type. I wouldn't let her have human food and never feed her from your hand. New pets need so much more work at first. In our case, its been about a month and she is just now fitting in and behaving well.
I hope you can get through this adjustment phase!!! good luck!!


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