Saturday, June 15, 2013

Adopting a Cat



Aren't they adorable?  These the kittens that we will be picking up in a week's time, as soon as they are old enough to leave the mother's care.

So you've decided to get a cat.  Here's the consumer's guide to acquiring and outfitting your home for a cat.

Fresh Cats Here!  Get Your Fresh Cats Here!

There are many folks selling kittens on Kijiji for amounts varying from free (rarely) to $1000.  Generally they seem to be around $100-150 for mixed breed cats.  Older cats are free, or if purebred, can still be sold for a pretty penny.  I did not want to pay someone in Surrey/Langley, where the majority of kittens and cats are for sale, to run a kitten mill.  It was tempting, however, because we were hoping for a specific type of cat that would be less allergenic, for the sake of guests and possibly immediate family.

In fact, one person seemed to have endless litters of Siamese-looking kittens for a special price (If you pick up, TODAY ONLY!) of $100, and a regular price of $150.  I never got to speak to a human being because "she" preferred to communicate by email and text only, although I asked many times to telephone her.  Run, don't walk away from this situation!

Craigslist had a much more limited selection of cats for sale.

Of course, I hope that you do decide to get your cat from a shelter.  Kitten mills are despicable "for profit" operations that sometimes breed unhealthy kittens for a buck.  There are far too many cats without a home, and no need to encourage non-licensed breeders to continue.

We'd heard of the SPCA.  What we didn't know is that there are many other non-profit no kill shelters for cats.  Here are just some of them:
If you want a central place to cover these shelters, you can go to Pet Finder and do a search, by location, gender, breed... Pretty nifty!

In the end, we went with the shelter we were comfortable with.  The adoption fee of $175 covers a checkup at the vet, flea treatment and deworming, spay/neuter, first vaccine, and a tattoo.  We must promise to keep the cat indoors and to have her/him spayed/neutered at five months of age.

Feeding

I've previously owned three cats, and all eventually developed problems with urination.  Turns out that it was likely due to their diet, of wet food and dry food.  Cats originate from the desert, and get their water from prey, and as such do not have a good sense of thirst, and you cannot trust them to drink enough water.  Not having enough water, and poor quality food, leads to problems with urination as crystals may form in their urinary tracts.  They end up peeing outside the litter box because they think it might hurt less to pee somewhere else.

This time I will be feeding my orphan cats wet food in cans, or raw food.  There is already a large industry of locally available raw food, available frozen at pet food stores.  You will not find healthy food for your cats at your local grocery.  Most wet foods contain grains, which they do not need as carnivores, and carageenan, which is a cancer causing additive.  You can read more detail about my conclusions here.

In fact, you will find very few canned options without grains and carageenan in specialty pet food stores as well.  Although some are "grain free", the second ingredient below meat is... potatoes.  While potato is not a grain, it is a carbohydrate, which can lead to an overweight cat.   Here is a list of local pricing, so you have an idea of how much different options cost.  The reason why I have focussed on Wellness and First Mate is that these are brands suggested by the adoption agency.  I will not be using these brands myself later as Wellness contains carageenan and First Mate has potatoes!  I'll be phasing it out and replacing with the food of my choice, which will likely be raw foods from Club Canine.

I would really like to make First Mate my food of choice, particularly because it is based on North Vancouver.  Why is it more expensive than similar quality companies in the U.S. like Great Life or Hound and Gatos?  Perhaps meat is cheaper there?  And what's with the potatoes?

If brave enough, I might make my own food.  It is a heckuvalot cheaper that way.  I'll list in order of price.
  • Club Canine, cat food raw chicken with bone, 200g x 10 for $15.05.  $0.215/oz
  • Bosley, canned Wellness Chicken, 12 x 12.5 oz for $38.17.  0.25/oz
  • wholepetsholistic.com, canned Hound and Gatos homestyle chicken, case of 24 x 5.5 oz (includes discount and shipping charge),  0.26/oz
  • Simply Natural Kerrisdale, canned Wellness Chicken, 354 g for $3.35, 0.27/oz
  • Petflow, canned Great Life Essentials Chicken, 24 x 5.5 ounce for $36, $0.27/oz
  • Bosley, canned First Mate Chicken, 5.5 oz for $1.99, 0.36/oz
  • Tisol, canned First Mate Chicken, 5.5 oz for $1.99, 0.36/oz
  • Pet Food N More, canned First Mate Chicken, $1.99 for 156 g = $0.36/oz,  $46.99 for case.
  • Bosley, canned Weruva Lickin' Chicken 5.5 oz for $1.99 = $0.36/oz or 24 for $50.81=0.38/oz
  • Simply Natural Kerrisdale, canned Wellness Chicken, 155 g for $2.23, 0.40/oz
  • Bosley, raw Chicken, 4 oz for $1.99.    0.50/oz
  • www.petonly.ca, canned Tiki Cat Koolina Luau or Puka Puka Luau (Chicken), 12 x 2.8 oz for $18, 0.54/oz
  • Simply Natural Kerrisdale, raw Chicken 4 oz for $2.82.  0.70/oz
  • Super Pet, Richmond, canned Merrick, Addiction, Before Grain, Science Diet (unwilling to provide prices over the phone)
If you want to make your own food, you can buy a Tasin TS-108 Meat Grinder for around $150.  This will pay itself off within a year, if you're planning to go the raw food route.

Equipment

Here is a list of what I bought, all of which I thoroughly researched for best prices and best reviews:


You also need to buy:
  • Litter pan: sifting is better, for easier mess cleanup.  I have a litter box that I put together myself: the sifting top was to be thrown out by the shelter.  They said that the sifting boxes are useless, so they let me take it home, at least the top half of it.  I fit it into the bottom plastic pan, which was used 15 years ago for another cat's litter.  It works well with the pine pellets, so you stir the pellets around and the sawdust falls through the grid to the pan below, and the pellets are kept clean.  Awesome.
  • Litter: Clumping litters are no longer recommended as they have been found to clog your cat's internal plumbing.  An environmentally and health safe alternative is wood pellets, called stove pellets.  The same thing you use to heat your wood burning stove is what your kitty will poop and pee on.  It is available at Rona, $5 for 18 kg (Firemaster), at Canadian  Tire for $5.50 (Firemaster), and perhaps Lowe's (item 87059) when it's in stock, and possibly Home Hardware for $6.29 if it's ever in stock.  You see, I called all of these stores, and while they appear to be selling them online, the actual stores don't have the product.  Could be a seasonal thing.  Home Depot used to carry them but alas, no more.  Wood pellets are also used for horse bedding, so you can check horse suppliers, like Vanderveen Hay Sales in Surrey if that happens to be close to you.  The price is $4.99 for 40 lb bags of Eagle Brand, and $4.75/bag for a skid of 50!
  • Grooming brush/rake
  • Nail clipper: try to buy one that won't crush the nail--this one is good:  the Ultimate Touch Cat Claw Clipper for $5.50.
  • Scratching post preferably with a perch on top

And you know, silly person that I am, I also looked into toilet training cats, for later.  There are three possible alternatives:  Citty Kitty, Litter Kwitter, and... a tin foil roasting pan with duct tape.  You can guess which system is the least expensive.  The cat should be at least three months old.  So we'll re-visit this in the future.

I had a difficult time choosing grooming equipment.  In the end I chose the Zoom Groom, because it's easier for the kids to use without hurting the cat.  Here are the top three recommended alternatives for my medium haired cat, with the suggestion that you may need more than one:

  • Kong Zoom Groom, an innovative "brush" not made of plastic or metal, but of a rubber-like tactile substance that creates static to attract hair, and acts as a massager, available at www.well.ca for $10 and Bosleys for $11.  Main criticisms are the static charge it creates, shocking the cat in the dry air of winter (wet it down), not as effective as the furminator for removing hair, and that some cats do not like it (minority).
  • Furminator (new version) Deshedder, large or small for long haired cats, available on eBay for $30 (includes shipping), Petsmart for $42, or Bosleys for way too much--there are the original and improved versions of this, so watch out which version you buy because the new one with the fur ejector is 30% more expensive.  This is a blade embedded in a comb which supposedly pulls out the fur in the undercoat like nobody's business.  The main criticisms are that the fur flies all over the place, some cats don't like it, and you can accidentally cut the fur instead of pulling it out.  
  • Safari Slicker Brush with Ejector for cats, $8 at petland.ca, $20 includes shipping at amazon.ca, $29 at ebay.ca.
Okay, and now we're into the "you really don't need this, but if you love gadgets then..." section.

Here is what else I bought:

  • Pioneer Pet Big Max Ceramic Drinking Fountain, $48.82 at amazon.com.  I was making a trip down to the border anyway to pick up hiking purchases, so I used the American Amazon site.  The thing that stood out to be from the customer reviews was this: "easy to clean."  I thought about buying the Drinkwell 360 Fountain from costco.ca for $72 and buy the Forever Filter (re-usable carbon filter) but decided against it since the inner workings are plastic and it is more difficult to clean.  I just hope to golly that it doesn't break down, as so many reviewers claimed.  But it seems that the pumps really didn't stop working, that they just needed to be cleaned properly.
If you so much cash you don't know what to do with yourself:

  • The "Catsomat" is a new automatic feeder that works with wet food.  It not only keeps your food cold, but also heats it before serving!!!!  You can put in 7 or 10 compartments.  It is a slick German invention, for the cool price of... wait for it... $547 CAD, plus tax... I didn't even bother checking the shipping cost.  I would think the Catsomat would look good in a kitchen with your Subzero Fridge and your solid gold taps (but solid gold would probably be too soft... so may be a gold metal mix).
ID Tags

Even if yours is an indoor cat, you should have an ID tag around the collar.  If your cat wanders away or escapes as you're transporting her/him, the ID tag helps you get her/him back.  After I'd spent a long time finding engraved ID tags at stores like Petsmart or cute high quality Red Dingo tags at homesalive.ca, I found out about free tags you can get from:

  • Hartz Pet ID Tag Offer:  Free for US and Canada, and pay $3.25 for shipping.
  • Humane Society of Canada:  Free with registration of your pet.  Tag only says "Humane Society of Canada" and gives a telephone number and toll-free number.  Your pet's information is kept in perpetuity and you call them to make changes to your address or other details.  I like this because you have less work if you move, and your personal information is not on your pet's tag.
Another interesting alternative is the GPS trackable tag from pethub.com.  It allows smartphones to scan the tag and get your information.  The cost ranges from $13 to $40.  I don't know why I would need to pay that kind of money for a high tech tag when a simple ID tag with a phone number provides the same result.

In fact, today we found a stray dog wandering around the park near my home.  The dog had a city license tag around its neck with the city's telephone number and its ID number.  We simply called the city and less than an hour later, a truck picked up the dog and returned her to her owner. 


Pet Insurance

 The shelter recommended that I buy pet insurance at the first vet visit, specifically Petsecure.  While reading a cat forum, another poster alerted me to this article.  In a nutshell, don't bother buying pet insurance because it is useless.  The insurers will find reasons to deny coverage, or the coverage will be inadequate and less than the premiums you put in.

Best course of action is to set aside some money yourself as if you were paying the premiums, so $30-50 a month, to pay for future expenses.  The insurer bases premiums on statistics, so if the insurer suggests these amounts, then likely it will cover any eventuality on the balance of probabilities.












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