Monday 2 September 2024

Meowing on Mondays ~ In The Sandbox with The B Team and Today's Chat is **What's It Like Living In A Multi-Cat Household**

Meowing on Mondays ~ In The Sandbox with The B Team ©BionicBasil®

Happy Monday Fluffies

Meowing on Mondays ~ In The Sandbox with The B Team 

Welcome to the sandbox for a quick chat session, and today we're sharing a popular post as we've had a number of requests for what it's like living in a multi-cat household and what's involved.

Meowing on Mondays ~ In The Sandbox with The B Team ©BionicBasil® Sandbox Graphic

By the way, no hissing, no spitting, no smacky paws or swiping, no flicking sand and definitely no widdling or pooping in the sandbox either! MOL 


 Living In A Multi-Cat Household


Now we know that some hoomans may have only one kitty.  Some have two or maybe even three. But how does having even more kitties work in today's fast-paced world?

At BBHQ, we usually run at six cats constantly. That seems to be the magic number for us, our Goldilocks number—not too many and not too little, the 'just right' ratio. However, we have had times when we've been down to only three, and we've also been as high as eight indoors, plus feeding several strays that visited our garden daily.

So, how does this work for us?

Having six cats is quite a bit of work, and here's why:

Everypawdy needs to have one-to-one time with the P.A. and Cat Dad. It's very impawtant that all B Team memfurs have this time daily. So if we each get only 10 minutes, that's an hour minimum.

Plus we like to have playtime and outside time too. We're only allowed outside if the P.A. or Cat Dad are on paw to snoopervise us. Usually, the P.A. will do some gardening while she keeps an eye on us, and as she and Cat Dad work Mon - Fri, this means we only get outdoor time when they get back from work. 

So kitty entertaining takes up a lot of free time.

Next, there's the grooming/brushing.

Now, some of us like being brushed and pampered, while others do not so much. For instance, Parsley will let mew brush him 24/7. There is never enough brush for him; he will sit, stand or lay down and take as much as mew can give.  

Pandora, our hairy little Ewok/Sasquatch cat, used to hate being brushed, and the P.A. had to literally walk around the house while trying to brush her. She gets mats in her fur because she's such a hairy beast, and we have every type of grooming implement to try and combat this issue. The one she likes the best and tolerates better than anything is actually the P.A.'s Tangle Teaser brush, which is now Pandora's.

Pandora's Tangle Teezer Brush @BionicBasil® Meowing on Mondays BBHQ
Pandora's Tangle Teezer

Pandora, as just previously mentioned, was tough to brush. However, after much perseverance and a lot of dedication, guess what? She now loves to be brushed, which the P.A. is thrilled about, as it means fewer mats, and Pandora doesn't look like she's just spent a week in the wilds or been dragged through a hedge backwards anymore! MOL

If mew would like to purchase one of these brushes, a Google search will bring up a selection for you.  

Smooch likes a bit of brushing, as does Melyvn, and as time goes on, Melvyn is becoming more like Parsley. Amber also doesn't mind, although Fudge has never really been keen, though he is getting used to the pet mitt, and he doesn't mind the Tangle Teaser, either.

None of us like ear cleaning, eye cleaning or nail clipping and will do anything to avoid these activities.

Feeding Time At BBHQ and Watering Holes

We're very lucky to have our own kitty kitchen, aka the laundry, and we all know which bowl is ours. This is our regular line-up.
Feeding Time At BBHQ @BionicBasil® Meowing on Mondays
From the top:

Pandora
Smooch
Fudge

[a bowl of dry food stationed between Parsley and Fudge]

Parsley
Amber

And young Melvyn, who is more like his Great Uncle Basil than we could have ever imagined, eats his on the countertop to the right, just out of shot. We all eat together and have a couple of snacks daily. Plus, if we get hungry, we go and put in a request for an extra meal; this entails finding the P.A. meowing a lot and then leading her towards the kitty kitchen. This method works 90% of the time.

We also have dry food available 24/7, which is topped up as needed and stationed around the house in various locations, along with clean water.

We use stainless steel bowls because they are more hygienic. Plastic dishes are a no-go here and can cause chin acne in some kitties, so be careful. We have clean bowls for morning and evening meals, so that means lots of washing up. Also, all our bowls are on placemats, and we use kitchen roll, too, so clean up is easy if there are any spills or some heathen decides to start throwing their food about.

Our water bowls are many and stationed around the house. These all need changing/cleaning daily, as food debris and dust can collect. We have Brita-filtered water, too, as our tap water is hard and doesn't taste that nice. Plus, we use a couple of water fountains.

 Click here to see the water fountains we use and have reviewed. 

The P.A. also grows us fresh cat grass weekly, and she grows us catnip too, so we've got an endless supply of fresh greens.
Cat Grass in Happy Grass Pots @BionicBasil® Meowing on Mondays BBHQ
See how to make our Happy Grass Pots in one of our Crafting with Cats posts.

Kitty Bathroom

The B Teams Bathroom Habits: We currently have several trays that get changed daily for a completely clean one. This system works for us due to Smooch's inappropriate widdling issues. Some days, a tray may last a little longer, but generally, it's all changed once a day.

We used to use Bob Martins Cat Litter—non-clumping. It was like the Catsan white litter, but the dust was getting quite intense, and the ever-escalating price made the P.A. look for an alternative. She decided to revert back to recycled newspaper litter, which she buys at Amazon and has delivered to the house. There's no dust and minimum odour when soiled.

We have our trays in various locations downstairs so that everyone can use a tray somewhere without being bothered by another kitty or feeling vulnerable. 

Amber, our elderly matriarch, suffers from arthritis and finds it difficult to squat fully, so she sometimes accidentally widdles over the side. To try and combat multiple widdle rivers, the P.A. has employed an extra tactic to keep them to a minimum. She places our regular tray on a grow-bag tray. A widdle river is inevitable if Amber gets on a corner angle, but it does stop a lot.

Litter Tray At BBHQ @BionicBasil® Meowing on Mondays
To eliminate widdle rivers altogether, we need a tray like the one above, but a square one! MOL

Beds and Scratch Posts/Cat Trees

We have multiple sleeping places around the house and several tall scratch posts/cat trees. 

We love windowsills, and each one upstairs has one of our funky Snuggle mats on, as they're our favourite. The P.A. has spent a fortune on funky cat beds over the years, only to discover that we don't like them. What we do like sleeping on is the bed, the cat beds that she has made, and sofas.

So, at no time is there any need to squabble for space.

We are also exceptionally lucky to have a catservatory with some really high cat shelves accessible from our tallest cat tree.
In The Gods In The Catservatory @BionicBasil®
There's somewhere for everypawdy, and nopawdy gets in anyone's space unless they're invited! MOL
Parsley and Fudge on the Snuggle Blanket @BionicBasil®

Parsley and Fudge sharing one of the Snuggle Mats on the P.A.'s desk.


In summary, The B Team live a most harmonious life. There are very few spats, as everyone seems to get along, so we are incredibly fortunate in that respect.

Looking after six kitties does take a lot of work, and planning is vital to running a smooth oppurration, but as the P.A. says, she wouldn't have it any other way. 

**Top Tip** 

Get a really good cordless vacuum for your daily clean, as there's a lot of cat hair which mew won't want building up, and a regular brush is useless as it just makes everything airborne. We use a Dyson stick vacuum and find it works great; before that, we tried other brands, but they didn't have the power.

If mew have any questions about how we organise things, cleaning, routines, etc., feel free to ask. 


Many of our epic blogging furiends have as many if not a lot more kitties than us, so for all those that exceed our number of kitties per household, purrhaps mew could tell us about your experiences and top tips?

Join us again on Wednesday when we're here with more Midweek News

In the meantime

Keep calm, and snooze on, and don't forget to...


Wing Commander Basil and  The B Team 








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Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com  

9 comments:

  1. Such a good post and yes, lots of kitties can be lots of work but it's a labor of love with our nine. Hey, we have a Dyson stick vacuum and it's the best and I couldn't tell you how many times we use it during the day.

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  2. Wow, you have it down to a science! Could you put a second tray next to the first one by the litter box? If Amber manages to get her river going outside the first tray and there's a second right against it, maybe it would mostly land in there.

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  3. You have everything well organised. When my MIL died we took on her 10 cats who got along with our own. We were lucky that they all got on well together although the three littermate brothers would suddenly have a screaming argument with fur flying! Five minutes later they were in a nap pile grooming each other.

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  4. Am seriously impressed!
    Our inside count has never gone over three, but we depend on The Cat Distribution System to bring the next feline(s).

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  5. You rock. You have everything covered and then some. You're such a good kitty mom. Lucky cats.

    Have a fabulous day and week. Scritches to all the kitties and a big hug to mom. ♥

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  6. Wow, sounds like you have everything going really smoothly! We have a bit of a wild time with our bunch, but we somehow manage!

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  7. You are 6 of the luckiest kitties I know. I wish I could brush all my cats, but Tuffy won't even let me touch him let alone brush him. XO

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  8. Mew guys really have things planned out, and all kitties taken care of! We only have Ava and Target here, so we manage pretty well. :)

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