Tiny Predator - Days 34 and 35

Phoenix is now over 1 pound!  He's grown so much, and it's pretty crazy to see him change.  He's more than 7x heavier than he was when we first found him 5 weeks ago.  Yes, that was 5 weeks ago!  And this blog has been around for almost 1 month.  So if you're still reading along, thank you!  We're now officially more than halfway to our 9 week milestone.

Tiny Predator

The kitten lady talks about how introducing the wet food to the kitten causes them to realize that they're a "tiny predator".  Check out her video here where she talks about this - How to Wean Kittens - Tiny Predator.

I mean, I should have known she wasn't kidding when she said that they suddenly realize they are a "tiny predator" and "go crazy".  After all, she's the kitten lady and works with a lot of kittens.  But you know... you hear something like that, and you kind of unconsciously put it into the "hah, that's a funny joke" or assume it's an exaggeration.

No.  No joke.  No exaggeration.  It's quite literally as if a "predator" switch went off in his head.  I wish I had some videos of some of the craziest moments.  It just comes out of nowhere and he'll attack his toys, my finger, or my shirt/pants.  He decided to go after my foot today without any warning.  In short, Nguyen and I are in trouble, and I've been calling Phoenix a "Little Terror".  He's started pouncing around a bit as well.  Here's a video that gives just a flavor of Phoenix's new found energy.

My sister keeps trying to convince me to get another kitten.  According to the kitten lady, two kittens are half the work.  So tempting, but I don't know if we're ready to be a 3 cat household.  Not-so-fun fact - it is recommended you have 4 litterboxes in different areas if you have a 3 cat household.  Really makes you reconsider when you put it that way, no?

Either way, we continue to feed Phoenix from the bottle, but I've increased how much of the wet food is in there.  We also prepare a dish, which he's had absolutely no interest in.  Well, that's not true.  He's stepped in it twice.  He's dipped his tail in it once.  He just doesn't eat from it.  He won't even take the wet food off of our finger yet.  The picture on the side is his new dish with some of his wet food in there; this is before I've added more liquid to it to make a better "slurry".   We'll continue to work on this as our predator-in-training grows out of the bottle.

Litterbox News

We continue to work with Phoenix on going to the bathroom.  His poop is consistently taking over 24 hours to come out, so I've been gradually adjusting the liquid in his milk to help improve the constipation.  It's been improving over the last couple of days; however, he still does not poop on his own.  Once you get him started, he'll go ahead and finish on his own.  But it seems that initial push is not something he's ready for yet.

As for peeing - well, we hadn't had much success until today.  He would sometimes dig through his litterbox and he would pee a little bit, but it never seemed like much and it was hard to tell if he actually went.  So before eating, I'd drop him in the litterbox.  After eating, I would drop him in the litterbox.  I'd then let him play a bit, and if he still hadn't tried to pee, I'd eventually go ahead and help him out.  So that's what I was doing today.  I was cleaning up while he was off exploring the area, and I had plans to help him pee after he was done his exploration.  I ended up hearing him meowing behind a plastic filing cabinet, so I thought maybe he was stuck.  So I moved something, and shortly after, out he came.  The picture on the right shows him walking out!  He then walked all the way out, and was playing around when I noticed the floor under him was wet.  He then turned around and jumped onto me, and there were wet marks on me too!  I thought he may have just been leaking from needing to go so badly, but I looked around to try to see if there were other spots.  I found a wet paw print on my desk leg, and another spot on the floor.  That's when it occurred to me that these were signs that his paws were wet... and not signs that he was leaking.  So I pulled out the plastic filing cabinet and found a HUGE puddle of pee 😩.

Now, this was simultaneously frustrating but wonderful at the same time.  Frustrating is probably obvious.  Who wants to clean that up?  I didn't, so I got Nguyen to do it 😂.  But why wonderful?  It meant the little guy was MORE than capable of peeing on his own.  So why behind the plastic filing cabinet?  I had three theories (which may all be made up):

• Despite being in the "corner" of his pen, the clear sides made it feel less like a corner, so he was less inclined to want to use that litter box.
• His litterbox wasn't deep enough
• His litterbox wasn't clean enough

So, we flipped his new clear pen around, upgraded him to the plastic litterbox I purchased for him, and put in a fresh set of litter.  We then dropped him in there... and he dug around and then peed!  (How he had more in him, I will never understand).  So let's hope the new location and the bigger size helps.  It'll be a huge relief if we can get over this hurdle!

In Other News

We continue to work on the Asher/Phoenix interactions.  Asher quite clearly is not a fan of the little guy.  I don't see a paternal instinct kicking in anytime soon 😂.

I consider this video to be an example of progress!  Asher is also clearly a little bothered by Phoenix being in the house.  So I continue to be extra attentive to him to try to help there.  Unfortunately, it seems that Asher also has a very strong interest in Phoenix's food.  Last night, he came into Phoenix's room while I was working on feeding him.  Phoenix was already done eating, but his dish was on the floor next to me.  And Asher was clearly very interested.  When I tried to keep Asher away from the food, he hissed at me and attacked my hand.

I've never had Asher hiss at me outside of when I surprised him from behind a couple of times.  Even when he's wanted my tuna fish, he was fine with me telling him no and pushing him away.  So it's definitely clear that Phoenix is making him feel a bit stressed out and edgy.  Since then, I've kept the door closed while feeding Phoenix so that I don't have to worry about reprimanding him around the kitten because he's trying to get an extra snack.

Breaking News!

I had pretty much written the entire post before our 8pm feeding.  But this just happened, and I had to throw it in here!

This was very exciting!  He ate a good chunk of what was in the dish (which unfortunately wasn't all that much).  But he was at it for a good minute or so.  I used the technique the kitten lady went over; you put some on your finger and if he starts eating from your finger, move your hand towards the bowl.  So as he continues eating from my finger, I slowly moved him towards the bowl and then put my finger into the dish.  And then he continued eating there!! We did need to supplement with the bottle afterwards.  So yay for new developments.  We're running out of KMR and pedialyte, so this is good timing 😂.

Photos and Videos

He's purring!

This is the box we've been weighing him in for weeks.  It's also one of his new favorite play things.

See what I mean about the box?

Post-meal face.

Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo!

Ghost kitten in the house? Or just a tiny predatory coming alive?