Quiz: bottle-feeding a neonatal kitten. Photo: Alley Cat Allies on Twitter. Here is a nice little quiz: one question, multiple answers, from Alley Cat Allies, about bottle-feeding a neonatal kitten who is less than a week old. The question is how often should she be fed? The three answers are as follows: A. Every hour B. Every two hours C. Every four hours D. Three times a day My answer (and I will be happy to be corrected) is C. For larger kittens D is the correct answer. RELATED:  Can cats drink Pedialyte? Yes . It might be useful to add a little bit of detail to that and so here it is. I'm going to quote pretty much from the paediatric section of the book Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook Third Edition . "Small, weak kittens at birth are often dehydrated and chilled. Before feeding formula, they should be rehydrated by feeding a warmed glucose and water solution (5% to 10% glucose) or Pedialyte solution at the rate of 4 mL per feeding every 1 to 2 hours until they ar

Galaxy S23. Samsung has developed a 200MP sensor for its new smart phone. This means that the sensor has 200 million pixels. Professional 35mm SLR cameras, even today, have 24MP sensors and therefore Samsung is really pushing the limits. And they chose a cat for their advert. What else? However, increasing the number of pixels does not automatically increase the quality. There are other issues to take into consideration. The advert shows a photo session of a cat and the resultant huge billboard taken from the photograph. It looks impressive but it seems to me that the sensor is better than the lens and better than the printing process.  If you're going to achieve fantastic definition and detail, every step in the process has to have equal quality. Another barrier to seeing that quality is that we all look at our pictures nowadays on a computer screen. The computer screen's quality is limited by the number of pixels. Therefore, it is doubtful you will see the improvement in qual

For years now there has been an ongoing discussion about the quality of commercially prepared cat food and how it is ostensibly stuffed with grains to pad it out and make it more profitable for the manufacturers. Cat lovers want to see their canned cat food to be 100% meat because domestic cats are 'obligate carnivores'. The phrase 'obligate carnivores' is constantly used and it conjures up an image of flesh-eating. Cats can only eat flesh and nothing else. This is a misconception. It is a misconception because the paradigm prey animal for the domestic cat is the mouse. The mouse eats 10% of its weight every day and it feeds off grain, seeds and fruit. When a cat eats a mouse, they eat the whole animal in my experience. My cat can eat a mouse in about 60 seconds and he certainly eats the stomach contents . He therefore eats grains. Perhaps commercial cat food should contain 10% grains but no more. Perhaps they put more than 10% in. It is actually more pronounced than th

Most people, male or female, don't like spiders and some are terrified of them. Cats love 'em! They are prey animals to cats. They instinctively chase and trap spiders. They end up dead due to all the smacking and poking. Although cats can be poisoned by spiders. RELATED:  Cats are not frightened of spiders but humans are. Why ? My theory for spider fear is because spiders move rapidly and can be dangerous because some are poisonous. There seems to be an inherent fear of spiders for this reason. It is almost as if the fear of spiders is inherited in the human psyche. It is handed down in the DNA.  RELATED:  Can cats get bitten by brown recluse spiders ? Weak attempt at catching a large spider. She wisely relies on her 2 cats who succeed quickly. Screenshot. And logically spiders can present a danger in places like Australia (where the video was made) as there are some dangerous arachnids there. The rapid unpredictable movement is a problem too. You don't know where they are

NEWS AND COMMENT - Montgomery, Powys, Wales : You may have heard about the Homes for Ukrainians programme in the UK in which UK citizens put up Ukrainian refugees in a spare bedroom or a second home that they might have. There have been some wonderful stories such as one family ending up with a billionaire living in a beautiful home next to his mansion! But there have been some bad stories too of breakdowns in relationships between the host and the refugee resulting in the refugee leaving the home and becoming homeless. But by-and-large it is working well it seems to me. Ukrainian family separated from their pets by Welsh quarantine rules.  Family photo. But in this instance, there has been another breakdown and it concerns domestic cats and a pet squirrel. I have read that half the refugees coming into the UK from Ukraine have a pet of some sort, normally a cat or dog. Therefore, the arrangements as to how to deal with companion animals is vital to the success of the scheme. As I unde

This is obviously completely wrong. The man is ignorant, foolish and his behaviour is immoral. I'm surprised the young cat ate fish laced with alcohol but no doubt the cat was hungry and apparently didn't mind the fact that it was dripping with alcohol. The man didn't know how the alcohol would affect the cat other than that it would put them to sleep.  He is effectively poisoning his cat and he thinks that he is being clever and making a hit video! The man is mad. According to his video the cat slept for two days. We do not know what has happened after that.  Man soaks his cat's food with alcohol to punish them. Screenshot A cat's metabolism is different to that of humans. Sometimes small quantities of a drug of any kind can have severe effects on a domestic cat. Apparently one teaspoonful of alcohol can seriously harm a domestic cat. So, this man was also reckless as to the outcome. And you should never punish your cat. His cat stole his fish and he thinks they de

Through their friendship in this household these two disabled cats make each other happy. And the relationship has a nice balance. I called it symbiotic on Reddit.com but apparently the word "symbiotic" refers to animals of two different species and here we have two domestic cats with different coats. One of them is a tabby-and-white coat and the other has a calico or tortoiseshell-and-white coat. So, technically, this is not a symbiotic relationship but a mutually beneficial one. In order to get the video to work you should click on the start button in the middle of the video initially and then move down to the bottom-left and push the start button bottom-left afterwards!! The video will then play. Sorry for the complication. 😎. I think I'd turn the music off too! And it is sentimental. I like the friendship they have. The tortoiseshell-and-white coated cat has dead hindlegs because they're paralysed. This may have been caused by an injury to the spine or it is a co

The boy had been given a couple of birds as a birthday present. They seem to have got out of their cage and as the family had a cat and dog already, these two companion animals were intrigued, particularly the cat, and we have the incident that you see in the video. The nice thing about the video is that the seven-year-old boy, who clearly loves animals, intervenes and does his best to push away the family cat who has apparently grabbed the bird in their jaws. Please note that these videos sometimes stop working because the original version on another website is removed.

I have a problem with Royal Canin dental dry cat food. I have an open plan kitchen and therefore it merges into the living room. And if cat food is too smelly it tends to permeate my living space. And I found quite positively that Royal Canin dental dry cat food is too smelly for my liking.  Too smelly as far as I am concerned. And smellier than Hill's which is a comparable product. It might not be too smelly for my cat. In fact, I am sure that it isn't but it is too smelly for me because I can smell it in the room which is not right. And, also, it is smellier than Hill's dental, which is also a large pellet dry cat food. I just wonder whether the manufacturers have ever taken into account how cat owners react to the smell of their products. They must make is smelly to attract cats who depend a lot on the smell of food to judge if it is attractive to them. But what about the humans? Normally, I wouldn't mention the smell of dry cat food in a bowl waiting to be eaten but

Cat Coats Solid and White - Bicolor -  photo copyright fofurasfelinas This is another posting on cat coats . This time I discuss the impact of the white spotting gene on "solid" colored cats other than Tuxedo cats, which I have already discussed on this page . Tuxedo cats are very common and specific in their coat pattern so I've dealt with them separately. Both are bicolor cats meaning a cat coat of two colours, white and another solid colour. Bicolour development - white spotting gene. Image: Sarah Hartwell. The particular effect that the white spotting gene has on any one cat dictates the spread of white fur on the cat (or put it another way it restricts the spread of color). The cat fancy has given names to the patterns caused by this gene, which by the way is also called the piebald gene. It is considered a "semi- dominant " gene. Bicolour faces white spotting gene. Image in public domain. White spotted cats are one of the most common cats. The white

Cat Coats Tabby - Mackerel Tabby cat Chihiro - photo copyright fofurasfelinas reproduced under a creative commons license Introduction - history The tabby markings/color is probably the most common, in either domestic cats or wild cats (e.g. Scottish wildcat). When cats breed randomly over a long period of time, apparently the coat color and pattern tend towards brown mackerel tabbies with green eyes (the most common " phenotype " - meaning the observed expression of the genetic make-up). RELATED:  Why are tabby cats so common ? This indicates a genetic predisposition towards what is probably the most efficient coat color/pattern in respect of the cat's survival. There are three tabby patterns: the classic blotched pattern, the striped or mackerel pattern, and the spotted pattern. The Bengal cat for example can have a spotted tabby or blotched coat, while the Egyptian Mau has a naturally occurring spotted tabby coat - the only naturally occurring spotted domes

NEWS AND COMMENT: There is a Facebook page providing advice on how to import pets into Australia by air ( Petsflyingtoaustralia | Facebook ). It is called Pets flying to Australia. The reason why there is an advice page on Facebook on this matter is because it is very complicated and troublesome. And, in my opinion, it is complicated and troublesome because the Australian authorities have a great fear of the importation of wild animals which may escape their owner's home and prey on native wildlife species.  My distinct impression is that the Australian authorities are very risk averse when it comes to any importation of any non-native species, domestic or wild. The domestic cat is non-native to Australia. Kucing and Amal. Photo: Brooke and John. There is a story currently on the Internet which highlights this attitude. A couple of Australians, Brooke Jones and John Waskiw, had the temerity to apply to fly into Australia from Malaysia a couple of domestic, street cats.  RELATED:  W

A confident cat is a happy cat. Why? Why is it good to live with a confident cat? Before I tell you why I think it is a good thing, I would like to say that I am drawn to cats that lack confidence. I see their vulnerability and I want to make them stronger. That sentence gives a clue as to what I am about to say. Confident looking Bengal cat enjoying himself. Picture: Pinterest. You can apply the same rules to people and cats when it comes to discussing confidence. A confident person is less likely to be anxious about the sort of things that are around him and which affect him/her. As anxiety makes you unhappy, less of it makes you happier or more content. Also, a confident animal is more able to deal with what is thrown at him or her. This is good. The same rules apply to cats. A confident cat is a happy cat. They are able to express their views and natural instincts and behavior. This is shown in positive vocalizations in asking for food, for example. A cat that asks for food in