Sphynx Cat Video – Luna Goes Bananas

Here is a video of Luna the Sphynx cat

as she decides that the strap on the camera is the most fun thing in the world to chase round.  Sphynx cats and kittens are active little beggars and will happily chase a ball for ages.

Sphynx Cat Food Fight

Sun seeking sphynxes

Well Pierre the Sphynx Kitten and Luna his Hairless Cat….sister(?)

have been getting to know each other well enough that Pierre has chosen to hijack any wet food, including Luna’s, as his own. For those that have not had Sphynx Cats you may think this is no big deal. For the average Sphynx cat though, maintaining a steady diet is the key to maintaining a healthy tummy.

I frequent quite a few sphynx cat forums and one of the most often asked questions is about what to feed a Sphynx.  All cats, including Sphynxes, are true carnivores. That is, in the wild, they gain all of the nutrients they need from a diet of meat only. Even when cats “eat” grass, it is not for any nutritional value, more as an aid in digestion. Modern high quality cat foods carry all of the nutritional needs for your cat, but what of your Sphynx?

For Luna we use 5 parts IAMs Kitten Mix to 1 part IAMs Hairball Mix . Even though Luna is 2 years old, she still needs a high energy food source to ensure she keeps her body temperature up, which is why the kitten mix is used rather than a mature cat mix which has less fat and energy content.

It probably seems ironic that we use the hairball mix with hairless cats, but we find it helps give bulk to Luna’s stools. Hairball mix is high in fibre and should not be used as the only dry food for a sphynx as they will not get enough energy from their food.

Some Sphynx cats do have tummy issues and I will cover that in a later blog post. Luckily Pierre is a total greed machine and his sudden change in diet did not induce bouts of diarrhea, which could have been the nasty consequence of a new food.

Sphynx Kitten Gone Wild: Introduction to a New Home

Well Pierre the Sphynx kitten has settled into the house quite nicely

after a day of getting settled after the flight, transport, new faces, visitors and the smell of a new cat, to contend with.

As you saw in the earlier post, Pierre has a sphynx room set up for him that has his bed, heat pad, scratching post, food bowls, and litter tray. Pierre was confined to that room or my daughter’s bedroom for the first day for some settling in quiet time. The plan was to do a full 5-7 day introduction to the rest of the house and to Luna, but timing meant that Luna (and I) were off for a 4 day long weekend, so Pierre had the run of the house from day 3.

Of course that meant that he claimed everything as his, including Luna’s favourite perches and her litter tray. Luna’s litter tray sits in the bathroom and is an enclosed version, his is a corner shaped open tray. For some reason he decided that hers was better than his (or it may be some territorial thing) so they both use that litter box. We have plans for his toileting so stay tuned.

We are moving Pierre from the same food his breeder fed him to the same food that Luna eats. This also came about quicker than we were expecting with Pierre sneaking (and stealing) food from Luna’s bowl. Reports later about how to perform the food change over without bad results in the litter tray (or elsewhere!)

Sphynx Kitten Pierre Plays Catch

Sphynx Cat Luna

While the first posts have been about Pierre I must introduce you to our resident sphynx cat, Luna

. Luna is a pink and white, two year old female sphynx who LOVES to lick things. Any things!

Luna has been a little non-plussed about this new interloper into HER domain and while she is grudgingly accepting his presence, it is pretty clear that at this time she would prefer this bundle of black terror stay away from her when she is catching a few ZZZzzs in the sun.

Luna has her own Twitter account @SphynxCatLuna and she would love to follow you if you are a Sphynx cat lover. Luna is also collecting followers from all over the world and if you are looking for Sphynx cat (or kitten) tweeters you should be able to find a few in her list!

I love travelling!

Pierre The Sphynx Kitten

Yesterday evening we picked picked up the new sphynx kitten from the airport.

Of all the silly things to do, I left the good camera at home which makes his triumphant arrival a low tech event when it comes to pictures of his actual pickup.

Our first introduction to Pierre was to see him in his carrier on the other side the glass window of the freight office. His silhouette said it all, his little face was looking out of the front of the carrier, and his mouth opened and closed with silent cries as the sounds of the vans, trucks and airplanes drowned them out.

The breeders had done a good job with his carrier attaching a thick clear plastic cover to the front bars of his carrier to block out the draughts of the trip. They had also modified a man’s sock so he could wear it as a tightly fitting garment to also keep the cold winds out. (The breeders are strictly anti-cat-clothing as we found out later after sending them the picture below as proof he had made it home in good health).

After phoning the breeders to confirm we had him safe and sound we made the 50 minute trip home. The plan was to keep him in his carrier till we could take him to his room and let him out to explore and calm down. After 10 minutes in the car it was pretty obvious he was distressed and crying his little heart out. Against the breeder’s express instructions,  we took him from his cage and my daughter cuddled him all the way home, which he did not mind in the least and his crying stopped immediately on his release.

The poor little guy was tired and stressed and we spoke in low voices and let the car warm up so he was comfortable. He was happy enough to drift off to sleep and we were heartened that we had done the right thing by him.

We popped him back in the carrier for the trip from the car to his room because Luna, our resident sphynx girlie, owns the house and we needed to ensure on the first night Pierre and Luna stayed apart. Pierre had had a big enough day without having to also face another cat, a strange other cat.

We will go into the introductions with Luna in another post because that is a very important process and one you don’t get much of a second chance at.