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CatEra |OT| Share your pics, read our tips, ask any questions
- Thread starter Weltall Zero
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lol. He said no to Big Brother. How on earth did he find it up there? Does it have a light on it or something?When your cat discovers the webcam setup to monitor him:
I love receiving videos of our foster kittens in their new homes. Just received a new one of our last foster Cheddar. He was a brave little toaster, but we were nervous about a small kitten being in a home with a big dog. They're getting along great though.
It's one of these guys, and it's just resting on the back of a headboard so pretty easy for him to get to. It's not a permanent solution, it was more for us to see what he's actually doing when he makes a huge racket at night.
It's black, sitting on an off-white headboard and has two super bright LEDs. I'm surprised it lasted where it was for as long as it did!
My cat has a bell, because last August he caught 7 birds, 3 baby bunnies, 1 mouse and 1 full size rat (everything was still living except for half the birds F.Y.I). After the bell his capture count went way, way down. His best month, post bell, was 3 birds. Also my stress levels have gone down, now that I don't have to capture what my cat releases in the house.
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This is lovely, thanks for sharing. <3
He drags them into your house, alive? Perhaps he just wants to give them a home. :D (I guess he's actually trying to teach you to hunt, and probably quite exasperated at the results).
Still, we would probably get a better picture of how useful the bell is, long term, if you compare, say, August 2019 with August 2020. First because it just makes sense that he'd capture less animals in winter, and secondly because the issue with bells is apparently that cats eventually learn to prowl without making them sound, which I would guess takes some time. If you still remember about this thread by then I'd like to know the numbers.
so the kittens don't sleep intheir bed at night so they must be going somewhere else. luckily they don't meow all night so thats good at least. i wonder where they go then. time to get more cameras and set it up
but during the day when im at work they sleep there but its never long so they are just playing lol
but during the day when im at work they sleep there but its never long so they are just playing lol
Oh lord, one of these feral cats just purred for the first time after eating. My wife and I froze in our places. It only lasted about 5 seconds, then the purrs vanished into the ether whence they came.
We're making slow, slow progress. Last night, they were playing up a storm in the room while we were out of it. We watched on camera, and the orange one came out for the very first time to play. They still hiss when you put food in front of their face, but that is slowly dropping off. My back is also killing me because I draped a blanket over my computer chair, and they now sleep on my chair every single day. It's their new home, and I don't want to disturb it. So, now I sit on a stool staring down at my computer.
Soon I will get my pets in. Soooon......
We're making slow, slow progress. Last night, they were playing up a storm in the room while we were out of it. We watched on camera, and the orange one came out for the very first time to play. They still hiss when you put food in front of their face, but that is slowly dropping off. My back is also killing me because I draped a blanket over my computer chair, and they now sleep on my chair every single day. It's their new home, and I don't want to disturb it. So, now I sit on a stool staring down at my computer.
Soon I will get my pets in. Soooon......
Hi cat-era! I just wanted to pop in and let everyone know about a wonderful little machine called the litter robot. My wife and I were sick of the smell that the litter box makes in our home, so we decided to do something about it. I've had the litter robot for about 2 months now, and my house has not smelled even once. It also puts the waste into a plastic bag and notifies you via the app when it needs to be changed. I've also significantly cut down on the amount of litter we use, because the litter gets cleaned by the system after each use and keeps it fresh longer. The unit is very pricey, but well worth it if you have the extra cash.
What's the noise level on the thing like? We have a cat toy that swings a fake fox tail around, but Taika won't play with it because it makes this mechanical/motorised sound. Unless the litter robot is silent, I think we're still stuck with hand-removing (with a scoop, obvs) clumps etc.
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I'm rooting for you, man! You can do it!
We're on a slighly more advanced stage on the trio we're fostering ourselves; they don't try to bite anymore, rarely hiss, and they let themselves be touched by my SO. We also learned of their stories and it's no surprise they were so aggressive towards humans, apparently kids threw stones at them and their mom at the village they were from. Just lovely. :(
There is definitely some noise from the unit when it is cleaning. Its not super loud, but it's not quiet either. You can change the wait time before the clean cycle begins so the cat will be done long before it starts moving.
You just need to use clumping litter. That way the cat waste can properly be sifted without making a nasty mess.
So I got a question. I think with Maze I've got her to a point where she wouldn't be considered feral. She'll jump on my lap, play with wand toys, I can pet her, she'll sit on my chest in bed for a bit, never hisses, comes into the room with her tail up, greets strangers, sleeps against my feet as I work on the computer, but I do still have some quirks with her. I was curious if anyone thinks she'd outgrow this behaviour or if I needed to do something specific to curb it.
When she does get annoyed she ramps it up to 11. What I mean by that is she never comes from nowhere and bites or claws me, but her threshold for physical attention is comically low so she'll climb in your lap, demand some chin scratches then decide to bite or claw you. And since I've never really got her to play nice she'll use her claws for real. It's kinda my only issue with her.
So, I guess the question is is her physical contact threshold likely to get longer or should I be looking at other ways to try and get her to not use her claws? Most of what I've seen has been telling me to disengage or switch attention to a toy. Disengaging and ending play is rather difficult because I don't always have a toy on hand to offer up in exchange, but regardless I have stuck with this "training" since the beginning.
This behaviour is lessened if she had a vigorous play session earlier.
So, she's not in danger of me getting rid of her, it's just a mild inconvenience as far as I'm concerned. But am I looking at the possibility of her physical attention threshold getting longer, maybe her kitten energy somewhat lessoning leading to less intense outbursts, but maybe at the same rate or is there still possibly hope to get her to not use her claws(her bite does feel like a play bite so I'm less concerned about it).
She's around 8 months old now and has had everything checked by the vet so unless she's in some kind of pain we can't detect I'd assume it's not medical related.
It might also be related to other cats outside. My door lead right to the outside walkway and there's at least 2 cats that frequent the area. I'm sure their scent agitates her at least somewhat, whenever I come home she rushes out to roll around right outside the door. May need to use some enzyme cleaner
If I could just get her to not go straight to kill mode with her claws everything would be great. As it is when people are over I have them just leave her be, which works because again, she doesn't attack ever and will come and greet a person, smell them, maybe rub some scent on them and then sit elsewhere in the room, she just seems to take contact as initiating play.
I kinda feel like I'm making progress but it's hard to tell, as she'll also bring me one of her springs to play fetch if she's wound up.
When she does get annoyed she ramps it up to 11. What I mean by that is she never comes from nowhere and bites or claws me, but her threshold for physical attention is comically low so she'll climb in your lap, demand some chin scratches then decide to bite or claw you. And since I've never really got her to play nice she'll use her claws for real. It's kinda my only issue with her.
So, I guess the question is is her physical contact threshold likely to get longer or should I be looking at other ways to try and get her to not use her claws? Most of what I've seen has been telling me to disengage or switch attention to a toy. Disengaging and ending play is rather difficult because I don't always have a toy on hand to offer up in exchange, but regardless I have stuck with this "training" since the beginning.
This behaviour is lessened if she had a vigorous play session earlier.
So, she's not in danger of me getting rid of her, it's just a mild inconvenience as far as I'm concerned. But am I looking at the possibility of her physical attention threshold getting longer, maybe her kitten energy somewhat lessoning leading to less intense outbursts, but maybe at the same rate or is there still possibly hope to get her to not use her claws(her bite does feel like a play bite so I'm less concerned about it).
She's around 8 months old now and has had everything checked by the vet so unless she's in some kind of pain we can't detect I'd assume it's not medical related.
It might also be related to other cats outside. My door lead right to the outside walkway and there's at least 2 cats that frequent the area. I'm sure their scent agitates her at least somewhat, whenever I come home she rushes out to roll around right outside the door. May need to use some enzyme cleaner
If I could just get her to not go straight to kill mode with her claws everything would be great. As it is when people are over I have them just leave her be, which works because again, she doesn't attack ever and will come and greet a person, smell them, maybe rub some scent on them and then sit elsewhere in the room, she just seems to take contact as initiating play.
I kinda feel like I'm making progress but it's hard to tell, as she'll also bring me one of her springs to play fetch if she's wound up.
Get her some toys she can bunny/kangaroo kick is what I'm thinking. Since you mentioned she's no longer feral, it sounds like the clawing issue during play is related to not having litter mates to teach her that claws hurt. She doesn't have any issues retracting them does she?
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I think some information that might help you a lot in understanding and contextualizing the situation is the why of her aggression. One It turns out that cats in these cases are suffering from overstimulation, which causes the normally pleasant petting sensation to "overload" their senses and become actually painful to them. They, of course, don't have a concept of subjectivity, nor can understand you're doing the exact same thing; from their point of view you're hurting them for no discernible reason, and obviously react accordingly.
https://www.sfspca.org/sites/default/files/documents/cat_overstimulation.pdf
http://www.treehouseanimals.org/site/PageServer?pagename=caring_ccg_overstimulation
The good news is that this is both common (and therefore relatively well documented), and harmless to the cats themselves, so you need not suspect she's otherwise in pain, if this is the only occasion she reacts like this. It will just take a while to learn her thresholds, and with more confidence and bonding she'll probably grow to be more forgiving and warn you with soft bites. For the time being I would just try to err on the safe side and avoid petting for more than a few seconds.
I don't think it's that.
I'm actually pretty good at reading her signs as she's pretty obvious. She only likes two things, chin rubs and ear rubs anywhere else is off limits and even those things have their limits and she makes it obvious.
I guess what confuses me is every other animal I've ever met has retaliated in a manner meant to convey stop it, so a sudden swipe, bite, whatever. I'm not exaggerating when I say Maze legit goes for the kill. I have never had a cat truly sink all its' claws, including those higher up on the leg ones, into me and dig in like Maze will, most cats attack to get you away, Maze doesn't want you getting away. And from that moment that hand or whatnot is prey to her, it's like a switch has flipped in her mind so getting her to stop is hard. But she only does it if you touch her at this really wrong moment, she's not going to attack you while you're sitting, sleeping, walking or most times you touch her.
I mean it could be over stimulation since there's always the "unpredictable" caveat but I'd be more inclined to say that she's still being under stimulated because once that switch is flipped she can go really long during a play session.
But there's another question I have then, does me playing with her to burn off this newfound energy after she attacks me positively reinforce the previous behavior? Like, maybe she is legit happy to see me and get her chin rubbed for a second, also wants to play and the, what at other times, normal stimulation for her just gets added to her already pent up energy and she goes nuts? And then I reward her, basically, by playing with her for 15 to 20 minutes and she thinks that's ok? Should I not play with her later if she does that? Or wait ten minutes?
I guess I'm trying to find out why in this instance she'd follow the hand as all the animals I've known that want me to stop generally let me retreat.
You still could be correct and it just be over stimulation and trust, even when she climbs up in bed she seems not quite sure yet, any movement before she's settled in will make her leave and even then she doesn't want to be right next to me for more than 30 minutes or so even if I'm not doing anything to her, she's still iffy about being touched during feeding too so despite us being on friendly terms 95% of the time I don't think she 100% trusts me yet.
Oh, just read somewhere else that kittens under 8-12 months may sometimes switch between relaxing and playing on a dime. Fantastic. Kittens are so much work lol, I've always gotten older cats.
I really think her main issue is still stimulation. If I had to make a bet I'd say that Elora does not play with her while I'm gone(just like when I'm home), and for good reason since Maze plays violent, so it's probably basically as if she was home alone when I'm gone.
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It does seem like you're unintentionally reinforcing the behaviour rather than curbing it, hahah. "If I want to play all I have to do is to attack dad". You should probably just tell her "NO!" loudly when she attacks you, then ignore her (often this is the worst punishment for them). Schedule your play sessions so that they have nothing to do with her behaviour, and use long-range toys like fishing poles.
About the other cat not wanting to play with her, have you witnessed Maze trying to initiate play with her? How did it go?
Good advice. Ignoring them works really well with dogs too. When they're trying to get attention the wrong way, getting ignored is the best way to stop that bad behavior.
The opposite of praise is not punishment. The opposite of praise is no praise.
Man...this introducing two cats thing is going SLOWLY. I posted before Xmas about thinking about getting a second cat and we did over the Xmas break. He's a great little black kitten (about 11 weeks old now), named Ringo. He's a great, loving, playful and super affectionate kitty. So is our cat Mei (18 months old), who we just adopted in October. We've gotten to the point where they are eating together, and we can play with them separately in the same room, but sooner or later they just become fixated on each other and then the hissing and fighting starts. So we separate them and try again.
It has gotten better over the last few days where, so long as I'm holding Ringo, or have him right near me, Mei will kind of ignore him and go off and do her own thing, but as soon as he goes near her there is always a commotion. I know we're doing this right and doing it as slowly as possible, but it sometimes feels like I'll never be able to just let them run free around each other. We're just super hesitant because the first time we decided to "just see what happens", she got him really good, to the point where he wouldn't do anything for two or three days and just seemed super sore and out of it. If they were closer to the same size I'd feel a lot better about testing the limits a little more. I know people say you can't go too slow introducing new cats, but I'm worried that if we do wait too long to allow them to just get to know each other that maybe they never well.
We are doing everything by the book though. Again, feeding together, swapping spaces at least two or three times a day, sharing toys, blankets, etc. We've got two big cat trees and a bunch of boxes and things for them to play around in. We've even gotten the pheremone devices (two of them), which seem to have had a lot more of an impact on her than him. Just seeing if there are any other tips. Anything we should try out that we're not doing, or just stay the course?
EDIT: Felt like I should have posted some pics of Ringo. The first one is the day we got him, so I just brought him straight to work.
It has gotten better over the last few days where, so long as I'm holding Ringo, or have him right near me, Mei will kind of ignore him and go off and do her own thing, but as soon as he goes near her there is always a commotion. I know we're doing this right and doing it as slowly as possible, but it sometimes feels like I'll never be able to just let them run free around each other. We're just super hesitant because the first time we decided to "just see what happens", she got him really good, to the point where he wouldn't do anything for two or three days and just seemed super sore and out of it. If they were closer to the same size I'd feel a lot better about testing the limits a little more. I know people say you can't go too slow introducing new cats, but I'm worried that if we do wait too long to allow them to just get to know each other that maybe they never well.
We are doing everything by the book though. Again, feeding together, swapping spaces at least two or three times a day, sharing toys, blankets, etc. We've got two big cat trees and a bunch of boxes and things for them to play around in. We've even gotten the pheremone devices (two of them), which seem to have had a lot more of an impact on her than him. Just seeing if there are any other tips. Anything we should try out that we're not doing, or just stay the course?
EDIT: Felt like I should have posted some pics of Ringo. The first one is the day we got him, so I just brought him straight to work.
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Cat era - my floofy cat (one of two) is developing a bald patch around the base of her tail and the fur around there is becoming more coarse. My thinking is it's a case of overgrooming.
When I search online for potential causes it references fleas a lot but our two cats are exclusively indoors and are both on preventative flea medication so that's not an issue. In two minds about a vet visit so thought I'd ask?
She likes to groom a LOT and is regularly slurping away atop her cat tree perch
When I search online for potential causes it references fleas a lot but our two cats are exclusively indoors and are both on preventative flea medication so that's not an issue. In two minds about a vet visit so thought I'd ask?
She likes to groom a LOT and is regularly slurping away atop her cat tree perch
One of mine had that same issue, in the same spot too. We figured out she had some allergy to eggs. She's a vacuum cleaner who loves all food, and she loved lapping up raw egg whites too. I realize that's not the safest thing, but it was just a very small amount and not even once a week, just a little bit left over in the shell. Once we stopped giving her that, no more bald spot issue. If it's not egg in your case, maybe it's some other food allergy?
I play with her as soon as I get home and so the few times she exhibits this behavior it's around an hour or so later. I only use long range toys with her because I already know what she does, so wand toys and the springs I can play fetch with are my main go tos. She's not a fan of much else. Maybe crumpled up foil, lol. She's cheap though, even when all the feathers have been ripped out of the wand toy she's just as happy to chase the piece the feathers went in instead, so I get a lot of uses out of 1 wand.
My problem, and it might be an easy problem to fix, is how to really ignore her? I can't ignore her if she flips a switch because then that unleashed energy will get directed towards Elora or accidental destructive behaviour. So while I do say "no" and set her down, usually because that's the only way to free my hand, there is a period of time that goes by as I get her toy again but I have been playing with her again because otherwise it'll be chaos. The only thing I could do further is put her in the bedroom alone for a time out and I have no idea how to handle that kind of punishment, like for how long would I leave her there if I did that? I really don't know. But I can't just ignore her and let her run around and attack Elora or try and climb the back of the PC cables and crazy stuff like that.
The best worst case scenario. Elora doesn't seem to want to play at all, Maze doesn't know how to gently play. So if Maze tries to start with her Elora will basically pat her a few times, hiss and retreat. If Maze follows her Elora then will stand her ground growl really loudly and go for some good bits and pin her to the ground, lasts around 30 seconds. I say it's the best case despite Elora really not enjoying it because Elora will try and disengage first but once it's apparent Maze doesn't get the hint and will keep instigating Elora puts an end to it quickly and then drives Maze off. She won't leave again after that. I was afraid if one of them hated playing that one would fear the other and hide but they're always both out in the open in the same room so Elora's not really afraid of her at all but she has no desire to play. She may also not know how to play to be honest, Elora and Reggie never played either, I don't know anything of Elora's history before I adopted her and she was about a year or so old when I did, and Reggie was got by my old room mate around 10 months old, mistreated by my old room mate and hated everything that moved for 6 months(Elora wasn't in the picture yet then) and then finally turned into a super chill lap cat once he(old room mate) was gone but neither of them engaged in any feline play as far as I could tell once I got Elora as well. But she doesn't try to play with Elora much any more.
If the play session I already have scheduled with her isn't really doing it for her I need to find something else. I have left the blinds up in the old room she was quarantined in in the hopes she'd like chilling on the sill and watching people and cars go by but it's not the best window since it's a room I'm not in and she wants to be in the room I'm in. I can't leave that one open though, especially while I'm here because I have to block the sun because I sleep during the day. The other toys like the turbo scratcher, crinkly tunnel, kickeroos and crap I can hang on stuff don't do anything for her, they're not energetic enough.
I'm hoping the weather clears up and I can continue taking her out for walks. On TV it said that that can be a good exercise for a cat if they want to go outside but since she'd be harnessed and leashed I'm not sure really how good of exercise it'd provide. But the few times I was able to get her in the harness she did enjoy being outside and rubbing her scent on everything. Not sure how to handle the other cats outside, they're docile enough, one's an angel that I'd adopt in a heartbeat if she had any desire at all to be indoors and I could have a 3rd cat but their scents clearly annoy Maze, she's always at the door when one's even near. I don't know if walking her and expanding her territory will be good for her if she thinks these cats are intruding on it, on the other hand maybe she'll get on friendly terms with them and not be annoyed when they're around. Or maybe she'll want to go outside and see them! Need this freezing weather to pass though before I cant test it out. But she's all vaccinated up and current on her flea and tick treatments.
One cat that's outside is legit the sweetest cat I've ever met, she'll run to you from across the street to say hello, everyone in the building loves her. 3 different units have tried adopting her but she just has no desire to be inside.
I wonder, has anyone seen like an internal bay window type thing? Something that'd be kind of enclosed but inside so that I could limit the light coming inside but a cat, or two, could chill inside and see out the window? That might be a good compromise.
Ringo looks like a troublemaker, lol.
I've surrendered to it.
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It does sound like she needs a bit more play to burn her energy. It doesn't necessarily mean more time; you can just play with her in a way that tires her more. Typically this means moving the wand in a way that she needs to run around a lot to catch it (this is easier with longer wands, but a rotating chair can also help), and also teasing it higher up so that she needs to jump up to catch it. Jumping in particular needs a lot more energy from cats than just running, so after a few minutes of this they are often out of breath and need to take a break. A couple sessions like this and they're often ready to sleep.
But yes, you need to reinforce that attacking you is no way to initiate play. I think we can split it up in stages:
- If she attacks you, say "NO" and ignore her.
- If she starts being destructive or bothering your other cat, say "NO" too.
- If she persists on the above, pick her up and lock her in a room for a while (it doesn't need to be longer than 20 mins).
As usual, immediacy is key so that she associates the action with the negative reinforcement. You may need quite a bit of patience until she gets the point, just rinse and repeat the above. Try this for a few days and let's see how it goes.
Thanks for this! It might be time to get her along for an allergy test. She's the sweetest little cat and I hate to think she's in any discomfort
That could help. In the meantime, if this is a recent thing, can you think of any change recently which may have triggered it? If not food, or bowls, or litter, it could be environmental such as pollen. Some suggestions here, and a potential easy fix is cleaning her fur with a damp cloth.
Ignoring doesn't have to be long term. If he's biting while playing, say no, break eye contact, and just stay still for a few seconds until he settles down. Just a few seconds of ignoring sends the message that biting means no play.
If the biting isn't too painful you can let him bite until he stops, then reward him for stopping. Or wear gloves. If you keep pulling away suddenly then he considers it play and keeps doing it.
If he still isn't getting the message from temporary ignores, then yeah, it's time for a longer time out.
If the biting isn't too painful you can let him bite until he stops, then reward him for stopping. Or wear gloves. If you keep pulling away suddenly then he considers it play and keeps doing it.
If he still isn't getting the message from temporary ignores, then yeah, it's time for a longer time out.
Did a double take when I saw this. She looks just like my Jonesy.
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She decided to hate the name collar I gave her after moving, now she has to wear this cone for a week.
These long-hair cats are starting to get to my allergies, but we're making a lot of progress, so I just have to deal with it. My air purifier is working overtime. A combination of not allowing these two to free feed, and brushing while they are eating, has done wonders. We bought some Inaba Churu treats, and they allow us to feed them tasty snacks from a distance they're comfortable with, and build trust. While snacking, we sneak in the ole' cat brush. Just a few days ago, we were excited by a purr. Today, the orange one was actively rolling over and showing his belly for us to rub after being brushed. The orange one still scares easy, and they're nervous when we first come into the room, but they've opened up a lot. Even as I write, the black one is at my feet playing with toys. Since my wife and I are serious about starting a non-profit foster care when we buy our new home, she's been reading a lot of books on fostering and cats in general, and the advice she's found throughout has been great for these rascals.
I love white cats. And blue eyes too. Is she deaf by any chance? I heard someone say white cats, blue eyes, have a high chance of being deaf. Never really knew if that was BS or not.
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You guys are beyond amazing. <3 <3 <3 Let me know when you set it up so we can publicise your page on my SO's Facebook. Probably not going to be a lot of overlap regarding potential adopters due to location, but hey, can't hurt.
It's 100% true, most white cats with blue eyes are deaf; Rory can probably explain it better, he's a veritable expert on the topic. That said, the cat you quote seems to be a siamese (a red point if I had to guess), rather than a "common" white cat, so it's less likely that she's deaf. :)
I've just adopted two of the most social cats I've ever seen. Haru and Nemu arrived yesterday at 11am already purring, playing with the toys we put in the living room and wanting to sit on our laps at all times.
Haru had a very strong pooppy smell, so I had to give her a bath and... she just let me. With lots of purrs and no fighting.
At night, we had a party at home with 10 people and Haru and Nemu just loved everyone.They are both so special I've already cried 4 times.
This is Haru:
And this is Nemu:
Haru had a very strong pooppy smell, so I had to give her a bath and... she just let me. With lots of purrs and no fighting.
At night, we had a party at home with 10 people and Haru and Nemu just loved everyone.They are both so special I've already cried 4 times.
This is Haru:
And this is Nemu:
I've just adopted two of the most social cats I've ever seen. Haru and Nemu arrived yesterday at 11am already purring, playing with the toys we put in the living room and wanting to sit on our laps at all times.
Haru had a very strong pooppy smell, so I had to give her a bath and... she just let me. With lots of purrs and no fighting.
At night, we had a party at home with 10 people and Haru and Nemu just loved everyone.They are both so special I've already cried 4 times.
This is Haru:
And this is Nemu:
Beautiful! Were they related or you just wanted to adopt two Cats?
I put some fake grass in their sleep quarter. Not as soft as advertise. Not harsh like artificial Christmas tree but still.
Anyways checked in on them with the cam. Seems that sleep music signals them it's probably time to sleep and they actually are sleeping in their area instead of running off somewhere. They'll get some much needed rest as no one is there unless it starts to rain or something else that might wake them up lol
They're sisters, but I did want to adopt two for them to have some company when I'm at work.
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I've just adopted two of the most social cats I've ever seen. Haru and Nemu arrived yesterday at 11am already purring, playing with the toys we put in the living room and wanting to sit on our laps at all times.
Haru had a very strong pooppy smell, so I had to give her a bath and... she just let me. With lots of purrs and no fighting.
At night, we had a party at home with 10 people and Haru and Nemu just loved everyone.They are both so special I've already cried 4 times.
This is Haru:
And this is Nemu:
Congratulations! Siamese, especially female ones, tend to be a bit more aloof than other cats, so you've got something very special there. :) They're also beautiful and contrast each other, hahah.
I feel flattered, thank you.
White cats and Deafness is pretty much (deep) into genetics. Now for those who are interested, I will go into that a bit. First of all: White cats are no albinos.
The W-Gen
There is one locus that is responsible for the cats (white) fur color. This can be either: W (white, dominant over all other, also it masks other fur colors), ws (responsible for white spots e.g. cow cats) or w (no white, the fur's color is then decided by other locus). We do not only have these 3 options. The w-gen is not only pleiotropic but also epistastic. This leads to the following possible combinations:
W dominates ws und w
ws dominates w
w is recessive
W/W - homozygot white (white cat)
W/ws - herterozygot white, white spotted (white cat)
W/w - heterozygot white, non white (white cat)
ws/ws - homozygot white spotted (white spots)*
ws/w - heterozygot white spotted, non white (white spots)
w/w - homozygot non white, non white spotted (not white - other locus decide the color)
*A cat with ws/ws also may develop the same side-effects as a cat with W.
Side-effects of the W-Gen
The W-Gen causes other side-effects which occur irregularly: For one the cat might be one or both sided Deaf. This is caused by the the cochlear not developing properly.
One or both eyes lack pigmentation: All kittens are born with no pigments in their iris, those of you who have raised kittens know that the true eye color will start developing at the age of 4 to 10 weeks. This process won't take place in those cats who are affected by the side-effect. This may happen to one or both eyes. This is something breeders actually try to achieve. Odd-eyed cats do look unique and special after all. Brown is a very pigmented color, and the closer it gets to blue the less pigments the cat has in its iris. Possible are Copper, orange, gold, yellow, green.
The eye-color is not decided by one locus only, that's why many factors must be considered here. Blue eyes can be caused by C^sC^s (Siam) this has no iris stroma pigmentation and a pigment-less tapetum. Siam eyes have side effects too. It may happen that the cat suffers from strabismus.
W-gen related blue eyes do not have iris stroma pigmentation, pigment-less tapetum and no fundus pigmentation.
S-gen it is identical to the eyes of the w-gen as it is part of the spotted gen.
Odd-eyed cats with a blue eye often have no tapetum in the blue eye. The problem with the blue eyes are not only because of (potential) deafness but also strabismus. It is possible for an odd-eyed cat to have 2 different causes for the blue eyes. One caused by the W-gen and one by the C^sC^s gen.
What are the odds?
75 % W/W white cats are Deaf
25 % W/W white cats are hard of hearing
60 % W/w white cats are hearing
21 % W/w white cats are Deaf
17 % W/w white cats are hard of hearing
33,3 % (W/ws) white spotted cats are hearing
33,3 % (W/ws) white spotted cats are hard of hearing
33,3 % (W/ws) white spotted cats are Deaf
According to a study by Bergman and Brown homo-zygote WW-cats always have blue eyes. Two blue eyed WW cats produce most likely also blue eyed kitten.
More interesting facts: Most white deaf cats are blue-eyed. Deafness is less spread among white cats with pigmented eyes. Odd-eyed are less often deaf than blue-eyed.
So you say I must be hearing? Nope sorry.
Deafness is unrelated to breed, however long haired cats are more likely to be Deaf. A contradiction? No. The cause does not lie in the breed but rather in its popularity. Therefore are less Deaf short haired cats breed than long hair.
This is all based on research done in the 1960/1970s.
White cats with blue eyes must be possible without risking deafness
1960 Turner has taken this problem and developed a breeding program. As Siamese cats weren't known to suffer from Deafness they tried to eliminate it by breeding in the recessive C^sC^s gen from Siam. "Foreign White". As the Deafness related gen has nothing to do with the eye color but rather with the fur color, this experiment failed. Siam cats can be Deaf due to the W-gen as well.
Interesting to know:
Ryudo used to have 8 black hairs on his forehead as well as a shadow pattern. Gone. :( They outgrow over time.
It is possible for a WW cat to actually have a spot on their forehead for example. This does not mean the cat is (not) Deaf. The spot will slowly disappear over time.
Now I can't recall where I read it, but I have heard also that odd-eyed cats are often Deaf on the blue-eyed side.
Albino cats exist, they are more common among oriental/Siamese cats and have red eyes.
To return to the beginning question:
Can white cats with blue-eyes be yet hearing? Yes. Ww is very well possible. Also normally white cats are breed by adding in other shades such as FAWN-SILVER-SHADED or LILAC-SILVER-SHADED. The blue eyes can be added by using the siam gen. CREAM-SHELL-CAMEO would be another option.
What you should keep in mind is, that the white fur itself is not the best choice for the cat. Pigments are meant to block UV-light, the lack there of leads to more problems with long exposure to sun. So additionally to hard of hearing, deafness, eye defects they are more likely to develop skin cancer.
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No, she's not deaf. She is missing a toe though; she was bitten by a brown recluse as a kitten and they had to amputate. She's still very agile though and gets in places she shouldn't. >:)
She's a red point, yeah! My gf found her as a kitten in a shoebox; she had been abandoned by mom so she was taken in by the family and nursed back to health. :)
She got on top of the fridge once and I was like "......HOW"