Show us your kitty cats

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I would confine him away from noisy things for the moment whilst he finds his feet about his surroundings and you. Since he's from the shelter, and you don't know what he's been through so far, it's all a big culture shock to him hence the meowing whilst he explores. Eventually he'll be sitting at the door you come through (more likely trying to barge his way past when the door stops moving), then you can let come with you to other areas (you might want the citrus behavioural spray to keep him off things like chargers and other electrical wires).

Also, just reread, he's been in a shelter and he's possibly got fleas?! Is he even neutered?

Do you work late/long hours? Might be ideal to take time off to babysit.
Yes, he's been neutered and vaccinated. I haven't actually seen any fleas, and he doesn't seem to be scratching or anything. The vet just said he found something that may have been a dropping. He put some spot on stuff on him for fleas and worms.

I work part-time - weekends and evenings. I left him during the day, both yesterday and today and he seemed fine, though he's been with me for a week now. I decided to let him in the living room permanently and he seems to have gotten used to it. He was sitting beside me on the sofa, rubbing against me and rolling around.

He seems to have poop caked into his fur behind his back paws. I tried wiping him with a baby wipe but he hissed at me and ran away. I didn't want to grab him because 1) I was too scared :)() and 2) I didn't want to traumatise him. Any advice? Will he clean it off himself eventually?

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Look up scruffing, very gently scruff him, and see his reaction. Since you live alone, some of the tasks like clipping will be tough or impossible. I can't scruff my little girl for anything other than subduing her when she's in flight mode (stuck up on a door usually). If you are lucky he will sit still happily. If you warm the wipe up, he may not even notice. Cats don't usually like you touching their legs/paws hence why he made off.

Plan B would be to let him sit in the bath and splash some water around his legs, he will most likely high tail it out of there (soaking you in the process) and then clean himself up. Is his tray big enough for him? I was gifted the large size tray from PetsatHome, and she still comes close to standing in it.

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Soldato
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Trays with doors too keep the stink in can actually backfire as the cat won't go in it.

We found hooded trays (stops litter being flicked) with the door removed better, just have to empty them as soon as they've done their business.

And all the cat trees in the world wont save your furniture if they get into a habit.. Don't let them even start.
 
Soldato
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The lidded tray is best for us as Poppy spends ages flicking the litter around, without the lid the litter goes everywhere. The one I linked is great as it has the carbon filter which seems to absorb a lot of the smell. We then clean it out at least once a week with a disinfectant. That combined with golden grey master litter and we have no issue. If you have problems with smell I suggest you alter your routine and materials used.

As for cats scratching furniture. Both ours used to scratch the sofa when they were maturing. They've seemed to grown out of it now, I think it helps that we spray a lot of the furniture with Apple bitter spray too.
 
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I got one of these litter trays - https://www.brit-pet.com. You use wood pellet litter with it and when the cat pees it turns to sawdust and falls through the sieve tray into the bottom collecting tray. The soiled litter is held underneath so, as long as you lift the poo, there's no smell.

You can buy a hood for it too.
 
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During the day my cat hides most of the time, and tolerates some petting but runs away after a while.

In the evening it's a completely different story. He comes over meowing to get petted, rolls around and plays. Any idea why he's like this and is there anything I can do to make him more friendly during the day?

I've only had him for just over a week, so maybe he's still coming around?
 
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Just give him some time, a week is not very long so he will adjust, and if he prefers to hide a bit at the moment just let him do his thing - don't try and force him to come out if he doesn't want too. In time he'll get used to the new surroundings and you and then you probably won't be able to stop him from sitting on you when you stay still for more than a minute or so!
 
Soldato
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If he doesn't get accustomed to daytime attention, just have a treat routine when you come in from work and stuff. He will associate different points of the day with a treat and you petting him. Call his name before the treat and it wont be long till he comes for attention after just calling his name.

You cant force them though, if they dont want a treat or attention.
 
Soldato
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Thought i'd throw pics of the cat we've just bought last week.

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This is Binks our 18 month old exotic shorthair cat. The Mrs had been after a cat for a while and had been working me up to getting one for a while. She spotted her on a pet selling website where a woman was selling her due to having broken up with her partner, having 2 disabled children and working full time so didn't think it was fair to keep her as she wasn't able to give her the time anymore.

We went to visit her at her house and she was very timid at first but took a shine to us once she'd had a sniff of us. The lady was really quite upset at having to let the cat go but she provided us with all of her papers (as shes a pedigree apparently), given us all of the essentials we'd need to get going such as a litter tray, spare litter, food, food bowls, few toys, combs/brushes, throws, carry cage etc and has even kept her insurance on for another month or so whilst we get her settled.

She's been great so far. She's fully litter trained so uses her tray no issues and is eating well. Where she has come from she was being fed once a day, does that sound about right?
She is on Purina Indoor Cat food which is purely dry however have read some things online saying she should have some wet food in her meals so we have been trialing putting a little bit of wet food in with it which she has been gobbling up!

We've not had her weighed yet but she is a small cat so, again, not sure if we've been feeding her the right amount but she seems to be doing OK.

We bought her one of these which she seems to enjoy chilling out on - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cat-tree-b...=UTF8&qid=1467124278&sr=1-4&keywords=cat+tree
And have bought her a hooded basket but she doesnt really go in it much, I think she much prefers sleeping in the little "hooped" section of the above cat tree which we bought her. Time will tell though, today is the first day since last Wednesday where she will have been alone for the entire day completely as we both had time off work to make sure she wasn't completely alone but she seems to have adjusted well and we frequently find her lay at the top of the stairs sprawled out full stretch or lay on the back door mat doing the same!

She loves getting on the couch when we're on it too and sitting in our lap, "kneeding" us and having her chin scratched. Never used to like cats but this one is quite cool!
 
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