Tales Of Two Cats And A Sun Conjure

Transcript for:

MR. SAM LITZINGER

12:17:33

Welcome back to "The Animal House." I'm Sam Litzinger with Dr. Gary Weitzman of the San Diego Humane Society. You can call us at 1-877-610-3647 if you have an animal-related question. You could send your question via email to animalhouse@wamu.org. Again, the telephone number is 1-877-610-3647. You could email animalhouse@wamu.org if that is your preference. Don't forget to visit our "Animal House" Facebook page to see animal news, videos, and our Animal of the Day.

MR. SAM LITZINGER

12:18:05

You can also follow "The Animal House" on Twitter. We try to be connected around here. Well, I think we're connected, Dr. Gary. How are you? You all right?

DR. GARY WEITZMAN

12:18:12

I'm very good.

LITZINGER

12:18:13

All right. Here's Joan. Let's see how Joan is doing, and maybe she has a problem that you can help solve, Gary. Hi Joan. Glad to have you with us. Question for Dr. Gary?

JOAN

12:18:21

Yeah. I have kind of a weird situation at my house. I have two cats...

WEITZMAN

12:18:25

That's our specialty, excellent.

JOAN

12:18:27

I know.

WEITZMAN

12:18:28

All right.

JOAN

12:18:29

I have two rescue cats, one is seven and one is two.

WEITZMAN

12:18:31

Okay.

JOAN

12:18:32

And the issue involves the little one who is two years old. Her name is Isabella. She has this really weird habit of whenever she goes to the litter box, she does not cover up her waste, her poop or anything.

WEITZMAN

12:18:42

Oh, her work. Okay.

JOAN

12:18:43

Yeah, her work. She jumps on top of the box and straddles the box with her four, you know, her four little legs, and paws away at the top of the box, and it's not a covered box.

WEITZMAN

12:18:52

The top of you box -- you mean -- do you have a covered -- oh, not a covered box.

JOAN

12:18:54

No. No. No, it's an open box. She just jumps on top of it and she just paws at the edges of the box. It's like she never got the memo she had to cover up her litter.

WEITZMAN

12:19:03

Yeah.

JOAN

12:19:04

I noticed that she was in the litter when I picked her out, she was kind of doing the same thing only not, I mean, when she was in the litter of kitties, you know, her brothers and sisters, she was kind of doing the same thing not in the litter box, but...

WEITZMAN

12:19:17

Yeah.

JOAN

12:19:17

...just sort of doing this sort of weird pawing thing but kind of, you know, all straddled out pawing.

WEITZMAN

12:19:22

For her, it almost sounds as though she doesn't want to touch the litter. I mean, that's -- and she doesn't like that substrate.

JOAN

12:19:27

Mm-hmm.

WEITZMAN

12:19:28

And that's a big challenge for us, and it's the first thing that we tell people when they're expressing problems with litter training their cats. You know, find a kitty litter that they actually will accept better, and that may be the case with Isabella. You know, actually describing behavior that went beyond litter box like when she was young was doing this kind of...

JOAN

12:19:48

Right.

WEITZMAN

12:19:50

...a stance and all of that. But, you know, okay. So two things. One, it could be her, and that's simply going to be her little idiosyncrasy.

JOAN

12:19:57

Okay.

WEITZMAN

12:19:57

But you want to make sure you don't contribute to it. And the ways to do that with cats whenever there's a litter box issue are one, give them more than one litter box if there's two cats, and secondly, make sure you do a different litter size -- oh, actually there's three things then. And then the third thing is getting the litter that she will be willing to use. So for the litter box, I would say absolutely no covered litter for her, because that's probably going to...

JOAN

12:20:22

Okay.

WEITZMAN

12:20:22

...not even work unless she's with Cirque du Soleil....

JOAN

12:20:25

Yeah.

WEITZMAN

12:20:25

...and can contort herself through there and stand and go to the bathroom. So that's the first thing. But maybe get something with a shorter ledge to it. We like to, you know, use the commercial litter boxes that you can...

JOAN

12:20:39

Mm-hmm.

WEITZMAN

12:20:39

...buy, you know, in a lot of cases they're the wrong size and shape. So if you were to get something that's bigger and shallower and change the litter and see if you can get her to use that a little more happily. And clay litter, simpler are the best honestly to start. And then you can move on from there. But it may be her. So I would just say at least make sure that it's not your contribution to what she's already doing.

JOAN

12:21:04

Okay. So get a box that doesn't have a little ledge on it that she kind of make perches on.

WEITZMAN

12:21:08

Yeah.

JOAN

12:21:08

Right. Okay. And then...

WEITZMAN

12:21:09

Yeah. We talk about this frequently. I think they're cement mixing pans. You know, I mean, I don't really like to go with the big metal things...

JOAN

12:21:14

Mm-hmm. Sure.

WEITZMAN

12:21:15

...because that's a pain. Who wants to pick that up?

JOAN

12:21:18

Mm-hmm.

WEITZMAN

12:21:18

Get something -- a nice, you know, plastic container that has a small ledge to it and fill that with the most basic litter, just clay, no scent, and see if you can get her to use that.

JOAN

12:21:27

Okay. Okay.

WEITZMAN

12:21:28

And you know what, if you can stand to put a glove on and show her what you want her to do.

JOAN

12:21:32

Okay.

WEITZMAN

12:21:32

You know, when we send cats home for the first time, we tell people, you know, get the litter there, put them in a smaller room to get them used to the litter box. If they use it, but they don't cover, cover things up for them. If they miss the litter box, and this is getting graphic, hopefully nobody's having lunch while we're talking. But take what they've made a mistake with, if you know what I mean...

LITZINGER

12:21:50

Oh, very good.

JOAN

12:21:51

Yeah. Sure. Sure.

WEITZMAN

12:21:51

...and pick it up and drop it in the litter box. So that gets the idea. And thank heaven, 99.9 percent of the time, cats pick it up pretty quickly.

JOAN

12:22:02

I mean, how do they learn that, Dr. Gary?

WEITZMAN

12:22:02

But make sure you provide all the tools.

JOAN

12:22:04

How do they learn to do that?

WEITZMAN

12:22:05

It's innate. It's innate.

JOAN

12:22:06

It's innate? Yeah.

WEITZMAN

12:22:06

It's the -- yeah. It's using the ground that they're on, and we just have to limit it to a litter pan, unfortunately, because most of our cats are inside.

JOAN

12:22:16

Right. Okay. Well, thanks a lot.

WEITZMAN

12:22:16

But let us know what happens. Do those two things...

JOAN

12:22:18

Okay.

WEITZMAN

12:22:18

...shallow, larger litter box, basic substrate clay litter, and show her what to do and let's see if it might help for her to have her own place to do it.

JOAN

12:22:28

Okay, great. Thanks for the advice.

LITZINGER

12:22:29

Report back to us, Joan.

WEITZMAN

12:22:30

Good luck.

JOAN

12:22:31

Okay. Take care.

LITZINGER

12:22:32

By the way, Gary, now, you may have heard this. I was told that cats are emulating sort of wild animals when they're covering up their stuff.

WEITZMAN

12:22:38

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

LITZINGER

12:22:39

Because the idea is they don't want to leave a trail where predators might be able to trail them.

WEITZMAN

12:22:43

I think that's absolutely true. And there are -- we know the house is full of predators. So thank heaven they're covering it up.

LITZINGER

12:22:50

Fill with predators everywhere.

WEITZMAN

12:22:52

Right.

LITZINGER

12:22:52

Our telephone number is 877-610-3647. Our email address is animalhouse@wamu.org. Let's take a telephone call from Melissa. Melissa, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?

MELISSA

12:23:05

Hi. Thanks for taking my call.

WEITZMAN

12:23:06

Hi there. Sure.

MELISSA

12:23:07

I -- my husband and I have been take of an alley cat named Tanksley for about the last eight-and-a-half years, and I really have a two-part question about him. The first is, am I being totally unrealistic and kidding myself to think that given the progress we've made we might ever be able to actually have him move inside with us.

WEITZMAN

12:23:30

Oh, okay.

MELISSA

12:23:31

And the second part of my question is, even if we can't get him fully to move in, I'd like to continue making progress, and we've kind of hit a road block that I was wondering if you could help us get behind?

WEITZMAN

12:23:41

Okay. Well, tell me a little more. So when you say alley cat, what are you actually describing? What is he like? Is he a feral cat that you can't touch, or is he outside cat?

MELISSA

12:23:54

He's a completely outside cat. He was around for probably six to nine months being fed by my neighbor before we trapped him, had him fixed...

WEITZMAN

12:24:07

Okay.

MELISSA

12:24:07

...and starting taking over.

WEITZMAN

12:24:08

Oh, good. I was going to ask you -- great work. Okay.

MELISSA

12:24:11

And at that time, we would feed him actually outside of our yard. He would never come near us or near the food when we were doing that.

WEITZMAN

12:24:21

Mm-hmm.

MELISSA

12:24:22

And we've just been slowly trying to gain his trust.

WEITZMAN

12:24:25

Okay.

MELISSA

12:24:25

So now when we go out with the food and crouch down, he will approach us and we can pet him, rub his belly. He's actually very affectionate under the right circumstances.

WEITZMAN

12:24:33

Oh, okay. All right.

MELISSA

12:24:36

And then we've started feeding him just inside the door. If we open our door, put the food inside and walk to the other side of the room, he will come in and eat there. He started sniffing around. We have catnip toys, and he'll play with them, and he can actually seem quite content and happy and comfortable inside...

WEITZMAN

12:24:55

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay.

MELISSA

12:24:56

...as long as we don't approach him. The problem really is that we have a housecat who doesn't like the situation.

WEITZMAN

12:25:03

Oh, you have another cat. Okay.

MELISSA

12:25:05

And she will chase him out when he does that, and he's very skittish, so she really doesn't need to do anything but look at him the wrong way and he takes off running.

WEITZMAN

12:25:14

And he takes off. And what does she do?

MELISSA

12:25:16

Then she's happy. She doesn't pursue it.

WEITZMAN

12:25:18

Oh, okay. She doesn't take off after him or anything like that?

MELISSA

12:25:20

No. No.

WEITZMAN

12:25:21

Okay. That's good. Well, a couple things. First of all, I'm -- I think you've got a hybrid of a feral cat who's not quite a feral cat, and an outdoor cat who's not quite a docile outdoor cat, but that's not so uncommon. But the fact that you can actually pet him means he's really not a wild animal. But getting him inside, the first thing I was going to say to you is if you really want to do that, and that's commendable, is to just open the door. That's as simple as that.

WEITZMAN

12:25:46

I didn't realize you had another cat, so I am going to caution you, be careful of doing that. If your other cat isn't really that thrilled about her own species in general, you really don't want to be inviting this guy in, and honestly, you don't need to, and I'd caution you. Your girl's not going to be very happy about it, and you've already, you know, said that. And the second thing is, you have to be careful of a lot of the things that this outside cat can bring in, not the least of which is feline leukemia virus. You know, I really wouldn't feel like -- I wouldn't feel too guilty about it. That's what I'm saying, Melissa.

MELISSA

12:26:19

Okay.

WEITZMAN

12:26:19

I would let him -- keep doing what you're doing, which you're doing with a wonderfully, you know, open heart. Keep giving him food and take care of him if for heaven's sakes if he does get sick, but provide him shelter, but not necessarily opening that door. Maybe play with him on the porch or deck or wherever you've been able to do it, but I wouldn't mix him with your other cat. Honestly, I wouldn't do that if you can help it.

MELISSA

12:26:41

Okay. Great. Well, thank you for your advice.

LITZINGER

12:26:43

Thank you very much, Melissa. Let's take a telephone call from Katerina. Katerina, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?

KATERINA

12:26:50

Yes. I actually recently took in a Sun Conure, and he has grown very protective of me over the past few weeks. He won't even let my mother come near either of us.

WEITZMAN

12:27:03

Oh, boy.

KATERINA

12:27:03

Because he can fly, and whenever me and my mother hug, he even comes over and tries to attack her.

LITZINGER

12:27:10

Oh, my.

WEITZMAN

12:27:10

Okay. Wow.

LITZINGER

12:27:11

Okay. This is getting a little serious. Now, I don't know how much you know about Sun Conures, Gary.

WEITZMAN

12:27:15

Well….

LITZINGER

12:27:15

Probably something, but do you want to bring in an expert here?

WEITZMAN

12:27:17

I'm hoping you were going to offer that. Thank you, Sam.

LITZINGER

12:27:19

All right. Good. Let's bring in Sally Blanchard of companionparrotonline.com. Sally, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House."

MS. SALLY BLANCHARD

12:27:27

Thanks.

LITZINGER

12:27:28

Any suggestion for Katerina? What can she do?

BLANCHARD

12:27:30

Well, I think first of all, she said the bird flies, and sometimes they become really independent. While I like for birds to be flighted in the house, there are some times when they might need a little gentle attitude correction. And when you trim a bird's wings, they become more dependent on us, and consequently they listen to us a little bit more, and of course trimming a bird's wings mean that they will grow out. So sometimes -- and Sun Conures, this is not unusual behavior for a Sun Conure.

BLANCHARD

12:28:07

They do have a tendency to develop this kind of one-person bond, and very exclusive bond. It can be because they perceive the favored person as a mate. It can be just because they can be very territorial of nesting. So I would kind of recommend maybe not, you know, whacking all the flight feathers off, but taking a few of the flight feathers off to make the bird just a little bit more dependent for a period of time. Teaching him some behavioral, you know, teaching him to be a better bird by establishing things like making sure he steps on your hand with the word up, you know.

BLANCHARD

12:28:56

Teaching him that, you know, and teaching a parrot is not really that difficult because they're pretty smart birds, and Sun Conures are no exception. And then as his wings grow back, he might be more apt -- he probably would be more apt to follow, you know, the behavioral guidance has been established.

LITZINGER

12:29:16

Katerina, quick question from me to you. What's the bird's name, by the way?

KATERINA

12:29:20

Rojo.

LITZINGER

12:29:21

Well, so Sally, it sounds like as you suggested, Rojo has picked Katerina as the buddy there, and...

BLANCHARD

12:29:27

Right.

LITZINGER

12:29:28

...and maybe everybody else needs to keep a little distance?

BLANCHARD

12:29:31

Right. Well, and I think the thing is also that would be really important -- I've had this question actually many times in regards to aggression towards other birds and other people, and it seems to be a prevalent problem with Sun Conures that fly, is that if you know your mother's coming over, or if you know your mother is going to be, you know, in the room and interacting with you, I mean, that's when Rojo should probably be in his cage.

WEITZMAN

12:29:59

Mm-hmm.

BLANCHARD

12:29:59

Because otherwise he will take that as an opportunity, and the only way to train that out of him is to really work with him. But I think, again, sometimes trimming those wings will take a little bit of the macho, I guess you might call it, out of him. But, you know, I'm not saying to keep the wings trimmed forever. I'm saying to sort of kind of get a little bit better control of him when, you know, when the wings are trimmed. Does he ever regurgitate for you, like, you know, when he's on your shoulder?

KATERINA

12:30:32

No.

BLANCHARD

12:30:33

If they actually regurgitate for you, it's what they would naturally do for their mate in the wild. And so consequently, it probably means there's a little bit of a, you know, a mate bond there.

LITZINGER

12:30:44

Wow. Well, Katerina, so if you don't mind, as Sally suggested, there may be a little wing trimming in your future, and then please report back if that changes his behavior. And if it doesn't we'll get Sally back on the line and try something else. Sally, thank you very much for being with us. Excellent advice.

BLANCHARD

12:30:59

Sure.

WEITZMAN

12:31:00

Thank you.

BLANCHARD

12:31:01

Thank you.

LITZINGER

12:31:01

Sally Blanchard of companionparrotonline.com. Dr. Gary Weitzman will return with answers to more questions later in the program. Our telephone number is 877-610-3647.

MS. KAREN MUNSON

12:31:15

I'm Karen Munson, and this is "The Animal House" Dateline. When a hundred pound shipment of lobsters arrived at a Maine restaurant last month, it contained a surprise. Six orange crustaceans that have been said to be a one in 10 million oddity. In Maine, the lobster catch has grown four fold in the past 20 years to nearly 105 million pounds last year. And when Nanotech researcher Luke Lee is looking for inspiration for the next generation of optical gadgets, he ponders the lobster and the housefly and the octopus.

MS. KAREN MUNSON

12:31:47

Lee and other bioengineers are borrowing ideas from all corners of the animal kingdom to design artificial vision systems that could be used for high-tech cameras, motion detectors, navigation devices, or perhaps even synthetic retinal implants. You may barely notice when a raindrop lands on your head, but if you were a mosquito, you'd definitely notice. It would be like a bus falling on you in midair. But a falling raindrop doesn't spell doom for the plucky mosquito, says scientists behind a new study, and when a raindrop lands directly on the bug's back, the mosquito gets taken for a wild ride, but not a fatal one. You can find out more information about these stories at wamuanimalhouse.org.

LITZINGER

12:32:25

Coming up, the story of an organization that uses airplanes to deliver shelter pets to new homes in "The Animal House."

Transcripts of WAMU programs are available for personal use. Transcripts are provided "As Is" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. WAMU does not warrant that the transcript is error-free. For all WAMU programs, the broadcast audio should be considered the authoritative version. Transcripts are owned by WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio and are protected by laws in both the United States and international law. You may not sell or modify transcripts or reproduce, display, distribute, or otherwise use the transcript, in whole or in part, in any way for any public or commercial purpose without the express written permission of WAMU. All requests for uses beyond personal and noncommercial use should be referred to (202) 885-1200.