Whole prey - first order (1)

I'm daring the next step with raw feeding - I ordered whole quail and mice from Honeybrook, a rodent food supplier. Frozen foods delivery is not cheap, and the smallest packing box will just about fill up with 50 quail and 25 mice... no idea if this will fit my freezer (just a normal fridge-freezer) but I'm taking the plunge!

I have already tried dressed (cleaned) supermarket quail and everybody really liked it (I cut them up into half and they chomped it up with no issues, kittens included). In fact it seems to be the only meat all of them like consistently with no hesitation or reservation! So I figured this was a relatively safe bet to try whole, and then I just have to try some mice too!

training list

Here is my working list for our clicker training sessions:

What they have learned (more or less):
* go to mat * sit * high five * nose to target * jump up/down something * sit pretty * jump through my arms

What we're working on:
* come * go to crate * sit calmly in crate (even when it's locked or lifted/moved) * down * roll over * fetch/retrieve (well, we are at 'mouth/bite this' at the moment) * move through my legs (eventually weave) * walk on my shoulders * sit still to be brushed * scratch the scratching post * leave it (kitty-zen)

What I'd love to teach eventually:
(to be continued)

clicker training!

I started clicker training the whole gang about 6 weeks ago and they have taken to it enthusiastically. To the point that they all queue up outside the closed door of the room where I try to work with each separately, scratching and meowing to be let in, LOL.
Psipsina even hisses and swats at the others waiting their turn when I let her out of the training room, which worries me a bit. I have tried to let her remain in the room staying 'in her spot' while I work with another one, but this is not yet reliable enough and it doesn't always work well - depending on how keen she is on the treats I end up having to control her rather than working with the kitten, so I have to keep the training sessions separate for another while at least. (means I'll probably end up with a frayed carpet by that bedroom door)

Meet the gang: Miki

Miki (black & white boy) - he's used to be the smallest one, and he's still easily scared and somewhat suspicious of anything new. He developed a ravenous appetite a couple of months ago and has since grown a lot - he is really wiry now and the heavier than everyone else.
He also used also a bit of a 'problem child' with occasional but recurring litterbox accidents... but I'm glad to say some intuitive detective work and adjustments have solved the problem!

Meet the gang: Oscar

Oscar (tabby & white boy) - great looks with huge eyes and long hair, taking after the (suspected) dad. He used to be very shy and easily scared, but he is growing into a confident and relaxed stunner. An amazing jumper too, and my star clicker kitty.

Meet the gang: Lily

Lily (tabby & white girl) - very pretty and supremely confident, a real little tiger. She used to be the first to try everything when they were really small, but becoming more girly now. She decides when she wants to be touched, but when she does, she is super affectionate, purring like a helicopter.

Meet the gang: Psipsina

Psipsina (perfect tabby, 2yrs apprx) - the mama cat. It still amazes me how she figured that she would be safe sneaking into my house to have her little ones (I did notice her hanging out in my garden regularly for a few months before that, but lots of cats in London have outside access so I didn't think this unusual in any way) Her name is Greek for pusscat (in Greece, cats answer to the sound of pssss pssss - they do!). I just used it automatically when she arrived, and it stuck. She has been a great mum, but as the kittens are now almost 7 mo she is slowly getting her peace and own personality back. She was spayed in November and recovered well from it (though I worried myself sick).

Cats are carnivores

When Psipsina arrived with the kittens it was all a bit overwhelming at first. How on earth do you take care of a queen and her litter??
Well, first you get out a dish of milk. Then you go to the corner shop and buy a can of cat food. And then some more, perhaps in different flavours. Then you start thinking that any old cat food might not be the best, so you start researching for better, then for 'the best' cat food. You surely want the best for your furbabies.
The first 'premium' food I bought was from the vet shop: "organic chicken and brown rice" somehow sounded good and healthy (I did find it a bit odd though that the 'sales' floor at this particular local vet 'shop' occupies three times the space of the treatment rooms.)
I found more and better info online; it soon occurred to me that 'grain free' food made more sense for a cat. There is not much of that around but I tracked down some Swedish wet food, and some Canadian dry kibble. By then the kittens had started eating some solid food too, and everybody seemed happy enough with what I gave them. They always wolfed it down in seconds rather than minutes. All seemed fine to me, and it never occurred to me, not with a single thought, to feed them anything else.

Clicker training for cats?

Even as a kid, I didn't think teaching tricks to cats was anything unusual - I just gave it a go, and they certainly took to it (and they were 'just' street cats too). So I obviously I was eager to try my hand at training my new bunch of cats too!
Almost 30 years later and positive training (also known as operant conditioning) has become more widely know, and the internet makes it all easily accessible - it only took me a bit of digging to unearth a wealth of information and support on clicker training (a totally new concept to me, but it just so makes sense) and indeed on clicker training cats (see my links list).
Oh how fascinating and exciting this all is.
Bring on the clickers! (of course I ordered one today!)

Snow in London!