Kitten - dogs, snakes & property???

DP and i discussed before we moved the option of getting a cat, something to grow with the girls and to be outside with them in the warmer months along with the dogs to keep watch for snakes.

So what can you tell me, there is an ad in our local paper kittens free to good home, shorthaired but no other major information.

Would it be better to get a male or a female
We have 2 dogs who i THINK would be ok with a cat once we slowly introduce it as a new part of the family.
Are cats as vigilant around snakes as we've heard?
and should they be ok on a property, we have a fenced in are for the kids i don't think the kitten would get out as our dogs don't but as it's older would there be any issues ???

not sure about the snakes but in my experience males have been better pets, especially with my kids.
the dogs will be fine with it and the kitten will be fine with the dogs once theyre used to each other. and no the fence wont keep the cat in, they like to explore.
our council law is that cats must be kept on its owners property 24/7, but our bo goes and says hi to his other human pals

Thanks hun, does anyone know if for the purposes of health is a male or female is better?

If you're getting it de-sexes, apparently a male is cheaper? Cos all their parts are more accessible lol

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I've heard they actually can stalk snakes which leads to some being bitten. The other thing is as it gets older, it will climb, so unless you have a totally contained area, it will climb over fences. Some councils have laws stating that cats cannot be out at night, so might be worth looking into that too.

A will love a kitten!

Males are more susceptible to urinary problems as they age.
I've heard the theory that males make better pets but my girl is awesome - she's so sweet and loving and she comes when you call her name.

I was told by my MIL when I was looking for my kittens, that males are a lot calmer and they are easier to desex. She's had around 10-15 cats since she was a little girl, so I trust her judgement.

My boys are now 14 months old and are outside whenever we are home although I am looking to put in a cat door so they go outside when I'm at work.

Are yard is fenced, but they go under and over it to visit the neighbors as they please. I've seen them probably a metre up a tree next door. They climb up and down the 1.8m cement retaining wall next to our driveway.

We live in a really leafy suburb of Bris, and there's quite a few snakes in the area. We had a tree python in the neighbours tree last week and the cats freaked out and hid inside...

I have a male and a female cat - both are awesome with the kids, so I would say that its a personality thing, rather than a gender based thing that makes them good with kids.

My male cat will let the kids do anything to him, and just lie there and take it. My female cat isn't quite as tolerant however she absolutely adores DS and I quite often find her cuddled up to him on the couch. She was sitting on his chest this morning with her butt on his face. He thought it was funny.

Thanks ladies... i might look at getting a boy and atleast then i wont ever have to worry about kittens right.
We are on 4 acres and the nearest house is a bit away so i don't think we will have to worry too much about him annoying anyone else, more just watching him on the road.. DP wants him to be an 'outside cat' but i said he will have to sleep inside or we will have to find a way to keep him contained at night.. maybe build him a nice little house :)

If you do get a boy and he's not de-sexed, he may spray to mark his territory. A few friends had problems with this, it stank! He also got bigger than he would have if he was de-sexed, and roamed looking for females

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hi

i live on huge property and i have a male kitten, at the moment he hangs around the house but as he gets older he will wander, cats are curious and will always explore, snake wise well i havent had any snakes this yr so far *touch wood* but if your on huge property the main reason snakes hang around are they go for mice and so do cats so yes cats do keep snakes away but also so do dogs, and your dogs if not pups just might not accept the cat as well as you would like

male cats do wander to find females if they arnt desexed and they can wander for quite some distance and be away for many days

as for sex wise, i dont think male or female make a difference, thats really up to you

Goodluck and HTH

We have one male cat and two inherited cats of each sex.
All of them are super sweet but can be vicious if provoked and DD can be super rough with the animals sometimes.

We have had cats all our life and I have to say persoanlly I prefer males to females though our inherited female has brought me round a little bit.

Sadly cats do not do much to deter snakes, infact neither do dogs or other animals. If a slithery is going to be there it will be there regardless. Last year we have a meter long tiger snake go right past our border collie have a big long drink from her bowl then go right past her again to a hole in the shed.

The summer before that we had a 30cm tiger snake in our lounge room and the cat just sat there watching it.

While cats can keep mice down, really there is little other than that they can do for snakes. If you worried about slitheries on your property pm outback girl and ask her about the boundary thing she has to keep snakes out of her yard.

If you get a male you will be wise to neuter him. aside from the territory marking which they don't really do until they get a bit older (ours was desexed at 9 months and no marking within that time) male cats will wonder to find a female in season.

Our boy was inside until he was roughly 10 months old. He knew his food was inside and I think he has been less inclined to wonder too far from the house compared to other cats I have had. We also have a cat door too so our boy can come and go as he pleases through the day now and we lock him in at night. The other cats are farm cats and while we feed them I still view them as MIL's animals so we don't do any extra care for them, none are chipped or vaxed except our fella.

On the health issue, I have had a lot of cats over my life time and really its been down to good and bad breeding. we have had females with health issues and males with none until they are really really old boys and vice versa. The surgery for desexing is easier for boys. they slit a little hole in the sack, pop the nuts out, removed them then stitch the hole back up. For girls they open them right up and, I believe, remove the whole lot.

A good cat or a bad cat comes down to personality. I have always gone with the animal that has shown an interest in me. When I have locked eyes, if it has come over then its mine :rofl: I wait to be selected so to speak LOL.

Good luck hun.

We have 3 now...how did that happen? We just adopted a new dumped baby. My female cat was much calmer as a kitten my boy was nuts, but again I think its a personality. We live on acres too and my kids never leave our property. They will stalk snakes and we have seen a black get killed - hairy scary let me tell you! My girl is much better with kids but again its a personality thing :)
You will love having a cat they are less work than a dog and make you 'work' for their love rather than the other way round for a dog ha ha ha

If you get a boy make sure you get him desexed or he will roam. When I was little I had a boy cat & because he wasn't desexed he'd disappear for days and eventually one day he never came home :(

Mum's on 18 acres, and the neighbours cats frequent their house often - one even killing a rabbit and leaving it on their doorstep, so even though you may be a fair distance from your neighbours, don't be surprised if the cat does wander.

Thanks everyone, going to call the people tonight and hopefully go look at and maybe pick one up tonight :)

Ooh so cute, have fun playing with them!

Am thinking i might leave it to chance, see which one seems comfortable to come to us with the girls :)

That's what we did with our dog, and we wouldn't swap him for the world :)

Tried calling no answer, they said call after 6 in the add so will try 6:30.. went and bought a few things so hopefully we get hold of them :)

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Am thinking i might leave it to chance, see which one seems comfortable to come to us with the girls :)

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thats what you're suppose to do with cats and dogs apparantly

Goodluck with it all

No answer :( will try again tomorrow night.. i was so exicted, we bought a litter tray, some food :(

How'd you go Hun?? Is the new addition home??

We just picked him up.
He's so cute, he's white so will have to be careful with him in the sun :( but he chose Ava so i stuck with it.. little **** has already bitten me.. DP said let's introduce him to the dogs.. um NOOOOOO.
Right now he's in the bathroom, got some towels and some food and is in the shower so he can have some quiet time, then will let him have some more time with the girls.

Got to get a name yet.. totally forgot to ask the lady the actual breed though.
Any hints/tips for having anew kitten in the house?

get a scratching post and you physically scratch his paws on it, apparently they secrete something when they do this so it will teach him THIS is wher eyou scratch. You also do the same thing in the litter tray. Arm yourself with a spray bottle of water too to deter him from his kittenish behaviour of tearing off wall paper or curtains or bedding.

nawwwwwww I want another kitten

Yeah we are getting a scratching post and i will dig his paws in the litter soon.. i have heard conflicting stories about whether to give them cat milk or just water.. what do you advise?

Will try and get a pic tomorrow and upload to FB :)

They don't need milk once weaned - water is fine. One of my cats is lactose-intolerant, and trust me, you DON'T want to be near that litter tray after he's found some milk!!!!! Cat milk is a treat, that is all (it's very expensive). If your DH is handy, get some carpet and nail it onto a board, that's all a scratching post is, offcuts are fine for that. I love my boy, he's just gorgeous, and we have another cat I inherited who's a total twit but we wouldn't get rid of him either!!!

Enjoy, I wanna see photos!!!!

Cats are meant to be lactose intolerant. You can get kitten milk but really water is all they need for drinks.

Out cat Moe has a sunday treat we give him milk, he loves it but it does give him the runs :d

Thanks ladies, have bought some we kitten food, will do a dry meal and a wet meal each day along with water.

One of the local shops has a scratching post for $10 so will get that, DP is a carpenter and we do have some carpet offcuts somewhere but will get the girls to 'pick one' as his present :)

Oh he sounds lovely!!

I was told by my vet lady not to let them ever have milk or dairy of any kind.. She likened it to giving dogs chocolate.

For the first couple of days I mixed the wet and dry food with a wee bit of warm water. Slowly weaning out the wet food and then the water to just serve dry biscuits.

Oh I miss my cats being little :)

Am about to upload some pics to FB, will link them here.
I checked another thread and it said not to give them just biscuits it's bad for their kidneys so i will maybe do dry in the morning and wet food at night.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...8307.557522882 - there are a couple of pics after each other... if your not a friend send me a request with who you are :)

UPDATE: Teddy is a much loved member of the family already, he seems very happy around the girls and has already figured out if they are annoying him to take off up the stairs as the girls can't get past the gate.
DD1 likes picking him up and he seems ok with that but we are teaching her how to do it so she doesn't hurt him.
We bought him a scratching post with a little ball attached and as he gets older i will make him a scratching/climbing post.

Going to fill up a water bottle to spray him near my curtains but in the meantime he's running around the house during the day, hiding on the stairs then sleeping in the bathroom at night.
He's NOT a fan of the dogs so need to work out a way to introduce him to them.. any tips?

To be honest if you're worried about snakes with your kiddies, Jack Russels are by far the best thing you could ever have. They are fierce with snakes!

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To be honest if you're worried about snakes with your kiddies, Jack Russels are by far the best thing you could ever have. They are fierce with snakes!

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Thanks hun.. not really a fan of 'little' dogs and we def wont add to the bunch, the previous owners said we would be lucky to see 2 a year and never in the yard so we HOPE that having the 2 dogs in the yard at all times and then the dogs and the cat out with the girls if they are in the paddock that IF there is one the animals alert us first.... our dogs go NUTS at anything that moves... we don't necessarily want the dogs attacking it, just letting us know it's there.. not much gets near our girls while the dogs are around.