Kitty Paraphernalia

Since the night Coco threw up onto her cat bed, I had no choice but to wash the cat bed, which won't do if I throw it into the washing machine. So boh pian, I had to wash it by hand and then figure out a way to hang it for faster drying.


Fortunately, uncle S always have strange paraphernalia around the house.

There are teeth marks and tears on the cat bed, caused by an itchy-mouthed Coco when she was younger.


When dry, the bed had a mild detergent smell, which was enough to deter (pun intended) Coco from sleeping in it. It took about 3 days before Coco finally accepted her bed. This is after all, her favourite cat bed out of the 2 cat beds.

The litter bin was also washed and scrubbed, usually once a month, or whenever I replace all the cat litter.


I think it got the stamp of approval from the bin inspector, the smell of detergent notwithstanding .


I tried something different and surprisingly, Coco does take to this canned food, at least initially.



The salmon cat treats with the kitty packaging, which ran out the other time. The contents are the same as the one with doggy packaging.



More cat grass for HRH.


I'll cut up the older, dried-up grass and pour them (& soil) over the pomergranate soil as fertliser.
Reuse & Recycle!


This is a cute plastic tote bag that I'd bought about 2 years' ago. It's cheap and even comes with a zipper. My mom likes it too, so I'd given it to her. I tried to buy it again, but it wasn't available anymore - the manufacturer seemed to have run out of this particular shade of kitty fabric!

Haiya!

Cow cat

We sometimes call Coco the "cow cat".

We think she must have been a cow in her past life, the way she loves to eat cat grass, which she gets every night. Luckily, she doesn't throw up after eating the cat grass, which is a good thing. :)

Cat bowls, etc.

Soup bowl from Daiso


Kitty bowl from PLC

Other kitty peripherals:


Cat grass for planting...looking at its content (below)...


I wonder is it REALLY cat grass...?!?

Here's a bigger view

*Eewww...*

Coco & the cat grass

No need to explain already.

:-)

Cat grass: Day 8

Photo taken yesterday (Sat). Almost ripe for eating. I've started giving a couple of grass to Coco, who lapped it up.



The grass has a pleasant herby smell with a hint of citrus. It smells so fresh that I couldn't resist taking a bite. Well, it tastes..... not like salad...

Now I know how grass tastes like. ;)

Cat grass update

Day 6



Day 5



Now that the grass is quite visible, we dare not let Coco see it, even accidently, or her withdrawal symptoms will all come back and she will start howling and crying for the cat grass!

ASAP indeed

At the end of day 4 (evening time), the tips of the new grass are gushing out of the soil.

So, there aren't any embryonic leaves at all...I forgot they are grass, not plants! *Pai-seh*

Planting cat grass : Day 3.5

By the end of day 3, the part that will become the embryonic leaves are starting to appear...cute. :)

#1:


#2:


#3:


#4:


#5:

Planting cat grass: Day 3

Was on leave today, so took a few shots of the cat grass seeds. Some have sprouted roots.

#1


#2: Closed-up of "chocolate pudding"



#3: They look like beansprouts



#4

Next: waiting for the embryonic leaves to sprout from the dicotyledons...waa, I can still remember my biology lessons from secondary school!


Planting cat grass

Planting cat grass

I sometimes do these things by instinct or by estimation, and when asked, I may suddenly forget the steps, so it's better to put them down.

The cat grass I'm using is the CattyMan ASAP cat grass which gives 2 batches of grass. There are some planting instructions given on the box but they're in Japanese. Maybe KSN can do the translation into English as part of her home assignment. :P

Anyway...


#1: The box comes with 2 packs of dehydrated soil, 2 packs of seeds, 1 tray and a small spatula.


#2: To plant one batch of grass, use 1 pack of soil and 1 pack of seeds. When grown, they will make up one full tray of cat grass.


#3: Since Coco is the only cat eating the grass, I'm planting half a pack of seeds in a smaller container (recycled from large water bottle).

#4: This is not a piece of cake!


I will need half a pack of soil.


#5: Break the block of soil into two.


#6: Put half the block of dehydrated soil into container and add water to soften it.


#7: Poke the block to loosen it for faster soaking.

#8: Add a little more water gradually till the soil is moist (below).





#9: Scoop out some of the soil, just enough to cover the top later.


#10: Add the half the pack of seeds into the container of moist soil.


#11: Spread the seeds out evenly (Note: not all of them will sprout)


#12: Cover the layer of seeds with a light layer of the soil which was scooped out earlier.


#13: Pat the soil down gently, but not too tightly.


#14


#15: This is how the seeds look like after being covered with a light layer of soil.


#16: Spray with water mist about twice a day to keep the seeds and soil moist.
Don't let them dry out, but avoid flooding.


#17: Place the container in a bright, sunny place, but avoid the harsh afternoon sun, especially in the early stage.

~ The end ~

Catgrass brand

Dear San, the brand of catgrass I'm using is CattyMan's ASAP catgrass!

I'm not sure if PLC has this, coz I believe my colleague got another brand at PLC but found the soil had worms, and threw the batch away...twice. :P

The photos from older posts:



The CattyMan's box has 2 separate batches of soil and seeds for planting, plus the box.



Easy to grow and the cats were like, so addicted to them previously.

Sunny weather

The weather is getting hot again, and it's expected to be hot during CNY, so I guess it's about time to start planting catgrass for the cat addict again.

Since there's only Coco now, I should plant them in small batches.

Chomping frenzy

This morning, I decided that it was time to release the cat grass to the "addicts", even though the grass didn't grow as tall or as fast as the earlier batch. I suspect it was due to the smaller container which is a bit cramped for the roots to grow freely.



Even though the grass is shorter, the cat grass addicts didn't mind one bit, and charged at the grass with all their pent-up hunger!

By the way, they have already had their full breakfast.



Chomp, chomp...crunch, crunch!!



Within 2 to 3 minutes, half the grass disappeared! If I hadn't stopped the cat sisters, I think they would have walloped the whole pot!




Then, I went out to the corridor and pruned the catnip plant. Yes, the catnip plant is still surviving, even though it had suffered a bout of mealy bugs infestation at one point. I plucked out the dried and withered brown leaves and held them in my hand.

Thinking there was more grass to eat, the cat sisters came to sniff my hand, and became quite excited.


I'm not sure what caused the sudden interest in catnip, but both cats tried to steal bits of the withered catnip leaves from my hand, and managed to eat bits of them.


Gimme more, gimme more!


Then, the unexpected happened. Coco started rubbing her head and neck very affectionately against my hand, which she almost never do. Usually, she would rub her body against our ankles, and that is only when she wants a snack or a cat treat, but this time, her behaviour was different.



After a while, Coco flopped her body down, then got up to sniff more of the catnip leaves, and flopped down again. Meanwhile, Snowy kept on trying to steal more catnip leaves.


Coco looking a bit "high" and blurry


Now, as I'm typing on the computer keyboard in the study room, both cats are sleeping peacefully right beside me on the table, with both their bodies curled up in the same direction. All is well. :)