Entomologist Anyone?

[OperaTenor]

Blech.

:puke:

Everything goes into her mouth. She also seems to be attracted to everything you don't want her to be(electrical cords[only if they're plugged in], plastic bags[as long as they're big enough to fit over her head], curtain/blind drawstrings[only if they're on a pulley - continuous loop so she can hang herself], anything glass).The trick seems to be controlling availability. We've managed to keep snails/slugs out of reach so far, but the darn varmints are proliferating.

I sure wish I could use the Corry's.

<small>[ 05-24-2005, 03:07 PM: Message edited by: OperaTenor ]</small>

[barfle]

So what's the big deal about a little fresh escargot sushi?

I have a cat who eats virtually everything in sight. He'll be walking on the carpet, stop and sniff at something, and all of a sudden he's eating it. I never have a clue what it might be. I saw him catch and eat a fly the other day. Knocked it down from across the room.

[mmichaelson]

barfle - my cats and your cat would be fighting for the eating rights. They eat EVERYTHING. (and Ty pukes everything right back up). People think it's funny to watch me dive across the room to take whatever he's found away from him. . .cleaning up kitty puke is not so funny.
Ick

[OperaTenor]

It's one thing for the cat to eat anything(BTW Barfle - MAKE YOUR BED, WILL YA?!), but I really feel the need to draw the line somewhere when it comes to Altoid. As it is, I need to vacuum(why does "vacuum" have two u's?) daily to minimize the amount of cat fur she consumes. The cat sheds, leaves small clumps on the carpet, and Altoid promptly comes by and chows down. Beemer chews on his perch, drops some of the shavings outside his prescribed drop zone, once again, Altoid comes by promptly and pops them into her mouth. The other day she teased me with a piece of bark. Every 5th or 7th chew it would stick out enough for me to think I might be able to grab it out of her mouth, and she'd suck it back in before I could nab it. This went on for close to half an hour, on and off. I have no idea if she eventually spit it out, or if she finally swallowed it. If she swallowed it, we'll probably have evidence tomorrow.

:puke:

[DavidS]

Cats are carnivorous hunters - I wonder if there is any authoritative explanation of why they eat grass?

[treebeau]

Maybe this kid needs baby jail ! (playpen with toys inside)

Regards,
Tim "been there" B.

[treebeau]

BTW, I have my own entomology need now. The other day I noticed a tremendous amount of bees flying around one corner of my house near azaleas. Normally there are a few, but this was not normal. Then I noticed they were crawling between the brick and the vinyl siding. Now it appears they have set up inside there.

I called a mellissafier (thanks SB) who is coming out tonight to see if he can remove them. He has his doubts. I'd rather go with the live removal if possible and he recomnmends another guy if he can't do it.

Regards,
Tim "buzz" B.

[OperaTenor]

"Maybe this kid needs baby jail ! (playpen with toys inside)"

We have one of those, actually the flexible, expandable fencing that can be snapped into various shapes/sizes. We use it to cordon off parts of the house to keep her contained in the "Baby Green Zone".

Whenever we have her in the back yard, it would be nice to let her crawl around in the grass, so the playpen kind of misses the point.

As for why cats eat grass, is "because they're stupid" a authoritative explanation?



<small>[ 05-24-2005, 04:22 PM: Message edited by: OperaTenor ]</small>

[mmichaelson]

NO way OT! It aides their digestion. (well, I DO work at the Vet School, you know)

TB - Thanks! I thought they were called beekeepers, but glad you are getting it taken care of!

baby prison, baby leashes, etc = GREAT inventions!

[OperaTenor]

Then why does our cat puke every time she eats grass?!!



The prisons and leashes are great, but ya gotta let 'em roam once in awhile!

<small>[ 05-24-2005, 04:25 PM: Message edited by: OperaTenor ]</small>

[mmichaelson]

He pukes when he eats everything. . .not specifically grass. He eats strings, plastic, paper, kitty food, kitty treats, dirty, grass, ivy leaves, etc. but NOT people food. He will not touch ANY kind of people food. Such a weird cat. She eats everything too, but doesn't puke like he does.
Usually fibers make him barf. We don't really know why. I think he has allergies. He's always sneezing too.

I really thought he was going to pack his bags and run away this past weekend - we ran out of wet food on Thursday and they got no wet food at all until this morning. Just a dry food diet. Poor Ty (he's large) really was miserable.

[DavidS]

Originally posted by OperaTenor:
[i

As for why cats eat grass, is "because they're stupid" a authoritative explanation?

Aw come on, we mustn't judge poor dumb (in the British sense) animals by our own standards.

[DavidS]

Originally posted by Saxy Buff:
He eats strings, plastic, paper, kitty food, kitty treats, dirty, grass, ivy leaves, etc.

I think goats do that as well.

[Trumpetmaster]

[quote]Originally posted by DavidS:
[b] [quote]Originally posted by OperaTenor:
[b] [i

As for why cats eat grass, is "because they're stupid" a authoritative explanation?

[DavidS]

Originally posted by Saxy Buff:

Usually fibers make him barf.

I think that is what is behind my dietician's instructions

[DavidS]

Originally posted by TrumpetMaster:
Dave,
Those animals are smarter than us!
Regards,
TM [/qb]

You are absolutely right!

<small>[ 05-24-2005, 11:52 PM: Message edited by: DavidS ]</small>

[barfle]

Originally posted by OperaTenor:
Barfle - MAKE YOUR BED, WILL YA

Why?

[Schmeelkie]

OperaTenor - don't know how old Altoid is, but the eating everything is sight phase does decrease over time. My son - at 20 months - is more interested in crushing things (Cheerios, goldfish and crackers all over the floor) and ripping up plants these days than eating everything. Although, for some reason, he thinks rocks might be eadible... But at least now, if he tries to eat something and it doesn't taste good, he remembers the next time he picks the same item up (pinecones, for instance) and doesn't try eating it again. Lucky for us, when he was just crawling last summer he didn't like being on the grass, so we were saved that constant vigilance. His fascination with electrical cords and blind cords seems to be over now, too. Of course, now we have to worry about him crawling up the bookcases, other furniture and out of the deck. Yes, I know, we can babyproof the deck, but it needs a good cleaning, sanding and refinishing sometime this summer first. The previous owner obviously didn't do anything with the deck for at least a couple of years. My son's averaging a splinter a day when he's playing on it. Arg.

[treebeau]

Howdy,

First "mellissafier" came out yesterday. He is an older guy, very friendly, who admits to being old and wanting to retire ("Every time I want to get out they pull me right back in !!")

He felt he could remove the bees with a little difficulty, but asked if I would contact some younger guys first, and gave me a list of contacts. We agreed that if none of the younger guys would do it, then he would come back and do so.

Nice guy! He stuck his head and hand within INCHES of those bees. They were flying all around him. Seeing that alleviated a little of my worries over getting stung. I got CLOSER, but would never get as close as he did. But now I have something fun to demonstrate to my son. Famous last words ("Hey y'all, watch this !!").

Regards,
Tim B.

[mmichaelson]

Sympathetic 'OUCH' for when TB gets stung!