My tomcat bites himself like crazy

[Z...]

God tip for all the cat and dog owners regarding fleas.
If you are finding tiny dark specks( pepper like as Nancy described) on your pets skin it doesn't necessarily have to be the case of flea droppings. This can easily be checked if you put these dark specks on the white paper and put one drop of water on it. If it turns red its a digested blood, i.e flea droppings and you do have a problem, but very often it can be just dirt. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[mcb]

...
His diet is the best from all other cats i've ever had, as he did not ever ate canned cat food or briquets like prrevious did,
he should be the healthiest and yet he's the most strange cat i've ever met, with one of the most beautiful eyes too.
He eats mostly what i eat, only lower in fat and raw.
Therefore, i am confused pretty much actually.

We have two cats, and one (Cassie) only eats raw (we give her no choice -- we can't afford the vet bills otherwise) while the other (Bella) only eats canned. The raw food is turkey, lamb, or chicken (only one kind at a time), which is human grade, includes liver and heart, ground bones, and other things similar to what is recommended at catinfo.org. Cassie was close to death when we switched her to raw food, but she's still with us going on two years later.

Bella seems to be doing fine on canned food, although she never had the extreme health problems that Cassie did. She ate raw for a year or so but refuses it now. Because of the cost of the raw food, we are somewhat inclined to go along with that although the canned food we buy is anything but cheap.

Many cheap canned foods contain grains, and should be strictly avoided. At the very least the product should say "grain free" on the label, but you really need to be able to read the ingredients list as you would for your own food. As far as I know, all canned cat foods contain supplements (such as taurine) to prevent acute nutritional deficiencies.

I don't know how accurate this is, but my understanding is that while dogs have evolved to eat scraps of human (cooked) food, cats have not. If you feed a cat table scraps (or cooked human food in general) and it is not also hunting and eating its own natural diet, I think it is likely going to have problems.

I don't know about dairy, other than that the pasteurized, homogenized variety found in stores isn't suitable for human consumption and might very well be deadly to calves! I wouldn't think that raw goat or cow's milk fed to a kitten would hurt.

You can get some idea of the problem by reading about "Pottenger's cats," a topic which comes up in some of the diet & health recommended books.

 

[Aya]

Other cats are always around 'cause i feed them occasionally, cannot help myself. Neighbors dog also gets attention from my mother, brother
and myself, he's frequently in our yard.

hmm, I still think there is still something that is bothering him emotionally or something is triggrting his fighting instinct.
"pulling off their fur" can be a signs of anxiety. I cannot pay attention to my cat when I am working on weekdays, but I play with him with his special toys (feather toys and toys with catnips) every day at least 10 minutes. After I started doing his, he became more playful and he seems to become more affectionate than before.

 

[fabric]

When we took our cat to the vet for his vaccines, the vet mentioned that he had some areas where he was excessively licking, which was indicative of separation anxiety. Since you mentioned that you had him since he was a kitten, perhaps the strange behaviour is manifesting due to being apart?

I recently picked up this book: Think Like a Cat and have found all kinds of good information in it (still reading through it but so far I found it very helpful in understanding our cat a little better).

 

[Alcarohtare]

Thanks all of you.
What i'm going to say now is not directly connected to this subject, but i actually realised, as my brother confirmed just a couple of hours before, that my father, probably a psychopath, of whom we cannot rid of, is torturing my cat when he thinks nobody is looking.
Not to mention that he killed my dog nine months ago, ''accidentally''.
Poor cat is anxyous and angry very likely because of molestation.
It is better for me to stay cool.
I could say a lot more about how my pets suffered from him, just as we did, but it would be much off topic.

 

[Aya]

I am sorry to hear this lux12. If your father is tormenting your cat in some way, there is a strong possibility that the cat is acting crazy from just being around with him.
Maybe you should start observing how your cat behaves while you are with him (normal time) and when he is alone with your father (when you come back after you are away for something) and to see how he behaves differently. It is very difficult to have a happy and relaxing environment for pets at home when there is conflict or unpleasant relationsips between family members. I hope you will find a way to make the situation better, to make home happy and healthy environment for you and your cat.

 

[Alcarohtare]

My cat hates lately if some of us touches his hind legs while putting him in our arms, snarling begins immediately.
I have the felling my father is roughly stretching cats legs and tail, whereas acts like that provide fathers entertainment or just his 'plain' venting anger.
I watched a little bit past day and I've noticed my cat is nervously running away in another part of a house at the moment he hears the sound of fathers arriving/walking nearby.
Then suddenly in other room cat starts with his crazy, described behaviour. The last day cat had more than 5 episodes of his rampage, and in the meantime he's cuddling with me 'like tommorow is a doomsday'.


Thanks, Aya.