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 resharing 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.
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 wurk in today's fast paced wurld?
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. Though we have had times where we've been down to only three, and we've also been as high as eight indoor plus feeding several strays too that visited our garden daily.
So how does this wurk for us?
Having six cats is quite a bit of wurk and here's why:
Everyone needs to have one to one time with the P.A. and/or 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 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 dad wurk Mon - Fri this means we only get outdoor time when they get back from wurk.
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 not so much. For instance, Parsley will let mew brush him 24/7, there is neffur enough brush for him; he will sit, stand or lay down and take as much as mew can give.
While Pandora our hairy little Ewok/Sasquatch cat, hates being brushed and the P.A. has 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 going to try and combat this issue. Though the one she likes the best, well tolerates better than anything is actually the P.A.'s Tangle Teaser brush, which is now Pandora's.
Pandora's Tangle Teezer
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. Though we have had times where we've been down to only three, and we've also been as high as eight indoor plus feeding several strays too that visited our garden daily.
So how does this wurk for us?
Having six cats is quite a bit of wurk and here's why:
Everyone needs to have one to one time with the P.A. and/or 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 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 dad wurk Mon - Fri this means we only get outdoor time when they get back from wurk.
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 not so much. For instance, Parsley will let mew brush him 24/7, there is neffur enough brush for him; he will sit, stand or lay down and take as much as mew can give.
While Pandora our hairy little Ewok/Sasquatch cat, hates being brushed and the P.A. has 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 going to try and combat this issue. Though the one she likes the best, well tolerates better than anything is actually the P.A.'s Tangle Teaser brush, which is now Pandora's.
Pandora's Tangle Teezer
When this post was furst written in August 2018, Pandora as just previously mentioned was really hard to brush, however aftur 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 less 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 you would like to purrchase one of these brushes, a google search will bring up a selection for mew.
Smooch likes a bit of brush as does Melyvn, Amber also doesn't mind, although Fudge is not keen, though he is getting used to the pet mitt. 2021 update; Fudge is also getting to like being brushed more, and his preferred choice is Pandora's tangle teezer.
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.
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 counter top to the right out of shot. We all eat together and we have a couple of snacks a day. Plus if we get hungry we go and put in a request for an extra meal; this entails [pardon the pun] finding the P.A. meowing a lot and then leading her towards the kitty kitchen, this method wurks 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 as 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 place-mats and we use kitchen roll too, so clean up is easy if there's any spills, or someone starts 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.
Kitty Bathroom
The B Teams Bathroom Habits... we have at the moment several trays that all get changed daily fur a completely clean one, this is the system that wurks for us due to Smooch's inappropriate widdling issues. Some days a tray may last a little longer but generally it's all change once a day.
Until recently we used 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 the 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 inadvertently widdles over the side. To try and combat multiple widdle rivers the P.A. has employed an extra tactic to keep the widdle rivers to a minimum. She places our regular tray on a grow-bag tray, although if Amber gets on an angle, a widdle river is inevitable but it does stop a lot.
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 post/cat trees.
We love a windowsill 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 sofa's.
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.
There's somewhere for effurypurrdy, and nopurrdy gets in anyone's space unless they're invited! MOL
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.
See how to make our Happy Grass Pots in our latest Crafting with Cats post.
Kitty Bathroom
The B Teams Bathroom Habits... we have at the moment several trays that all get changed daily fur a completely clean one, this is the system that wurks for us due to Smooch's inappropriate widdling issues. Some days a tray may last a little longer but generally it's all change once a day.
Until recently we used 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 the 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 inadvertently widdles over the side. To try and combat multiple widdle rivers the P.A. has employed an extra tactic to keep the widdle rivers to a minimum. She places our regular tray on a grow-bag tray, although if Amber gets on an angle, a widdle river is inevitable but it does stop a lot.
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 post/cat trees.
We love a windowsill 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 sofa's.
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.
There's somewhere for effurypurrdy, and nopurrdy gets in anyone's space unless they're invited! MOL
Parsley and Fudge sharing the Snuggle Mat.
In summary, The B Team live a most harmonious life. There are very few spats, as everyone seems to get along, so we are extremely fortunate in that respect.
Looking after 6 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 wurks great, before that we tried other brands but they didn't have the power.
If there's any questions mew have about how we organise things, cleaning, routines, etc... feel free to ask.
A lot of our epic blogging furriends 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 a new Cat-Formation post in the meantime
Keep calm, and snooze on
Join us again on Wednesday when we're here with a new Cat-Formation post in the meantime
Keep calm, and snooze on
Epic purrs
The B Team
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