F5 Warming up to new home

[Andrew Wit]

Hello, I did my introduction in this thread here http://www.savannahcatchat.com/threads/new-savannah-owner.3294/#post-49776. My sv has been here for almost a month now. He is warming up to his room and when I am in the living room at night I let him have free roam around the house. The issue I am having is that once he feels comfortable and I am not around he will come out from under the bed and start making some strange noises, it is almost a sad howl mixed with a meow. The second he notices me he runs. I have had him checked at the vet and he is in perfect health. The only thing is that he is two and still intact. Maybe he is looking for a mate? I have found a neighborhood cat outside his window at night listening to him. I do have a 3 year old spayed female DSH in the house. She is very small but I have a feeling he may "like" her. This also happens when the lights go out at night, he walks around the bed room and won't stop making these noises, when I try to pet him he just runs and hides. I just want to make sure this is normal and see if there are any things I can do.

 

[Pam Flachs]

Hi Andrew, you need to get your boy neutered asap...I assume he is not going to be a breeder? Since you have had him only a month, was this a retired breeder cat? The odd noise he is making is him calling for a mate, or responding to the outside cat. If that outside cat is also an intact male or in-heat female, he is going to start spraying if he is not already, and perhaps fighting through the window with the other cat, and that may make it more difficult to introduce him to your spayed DSH girl as he may try to attack her, thinking she is the outside cat. This is called Redirected Aggression.

It sounds to me like he may not have had much socializing and will take some time to settle in with you, but it will happen on his own terms.

Please get him neutered as soon as possible before he starts other undesirable stud cat behaviors....spraying and fighting....

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I completely agree! He NEEDS to be neutered! Firstly because otherwise you will have every neighborhood female in heat hanging around your home... but also an intact male cat is not a great pet. Their pee stinks, and their focus in life is NOT being a great pet but instead to search for a female cat to breed. Their focus is entirely on mating... and then as Pam relates there really could be some aggression issues towards your female cat but also possibly to you when it is redirected aggresssion, say he sees another male cat through a window hanging around. Intact male cats can be very unpredictable!

I'm sad to think that maybe he wasn't well-socialized to be hiding from you almost a month after you've had him there in the room... but neutering is going to help the process of making friends with him so I'd get that done asap!

 

[Pam Flachs]

Brigitte, glad you added that! Andrew, there is also the very real possibility your unneutered boy could attack YOU because of the outside cat. I have one cat here...an older spayed fat DSH, who occasionally displays Redirected Aggression if a stray cat happens to be outside our home and she can see them from the windows. She HAS attacked ME in the past after going after my other cats (quite viciously, I might add) when I tried to intervene....

 

[Andrew Wit]

I will say that if I go down to his safe place and give him a chin or belly rub he is very submissive and rolls over on his back while purring. The appointment is made for his vet to do the surgery, she mentioned something about an iv catheter. Should I do this?

 

[Pam Flachs]

I will say that if I go down to his safe place and give him a chin or belly rub he is very submissive and rolls over on his back while purring. The appointment is made for his vet to do the surgery, she mentioned something about an iv catheter. Should I do this?

That is a very good sign he accepts your touch and purrs, and really glad to hear about his appointment Remember that it may take a few months for his hormones to subside. You should see a difference soon after neutering in his behavior.

Did your vet say what the IV catheter was for?

 

[Andrew Wit]

They said the IV catheter was so that they can administer life saving drugs in the event something goes wrong it is roughly 80 dollars extra. I am just trying to figure out if it is something other people opt for or if traditional methods of drug administering would be fine.

 

[Pam Flachs]

I think if he checks out healthy beforehand...has no heart issues, etc...then he will be just fine with the traditional method. Then again, $80 is small peace of mind if something DID go wrong.....

 

[Wyldthingz]

A cat neuter only takes 10 minutes. There is no legitimate reason to have an IV cath unless they have general anesthetic. If it were me, I would rather spend the $80 on a blood panel to get a baseline on his health via his bloodwork.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Good point, Kelly!