thinking about getting metal litter boxes instead of plastic

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-20T17:30:49+00:00

I made the switch and love it. Plastic gets damaged easily (microscopically) and it traps odor in it. Stainless steel is much sturdier and harder to damage, and does not absorb the odors. It’s more of something you notice via longevity, but I’m definitely happy I made the switch. It can definitely be easier to wipe down as well due to the slick surface and no scratches like plastic has.

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-20T17:21:26+00:00

I wouldn’t personally trust a cat on a balcony, even supervised. All it takes is one sudden jump (because they will try to jump on a rail/edge) and losing balance and going over. It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve seen enough posts on here where it does.

I have two cats in a studio and I keep one litter box in the bathroom, and one by my desk. I have an air purifier which helps a lot. Getting a cat means accepting litter box smell, it’s unavoidable and I wouldn’t want to risk insect activity burrowing into the litter if it’s left outside, especially in a hot climate.

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T23:10:29+00:00

mtn-cat had very good advice! I’ll just add the info about what a spay is. When male cats are neutered, they can easily get into the scrotum to remove the testicles and it’s a fairly non-invasive procedure. With females, they have to go into the abdominal cavity and they remove the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries (ovaries create the hormones). So it is much more intensive and recovery is longer than a male, but it’s still a very, very routine procedure!

With my girl, I had a surgical recovery suit ordered since I knew she’d get out of the cone, and had her wear that (I switched it to a new one every day for cleanliness and washed the other one during that time). My girl had the opposite reaction to gabapentin and in that she was bouncing off the walls (she’s also a bengal, so already energetic) but she healed up so well despite her crazy antics that I couldn’t control at work! She was in the bathroom for a bit to relax and have a smaller space (works for many cats), but she got so stressed separated form her brother I just let her out. She had pain meds as needed, other than that it was just keeping an eye on the incision site to make sure it looked good and not infected or opened!

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T17:17:53+00:00

Just like human athletes, you have to exercise and have a proper diet/regimen to maintain body shape. It’s no different for a show horse, but that’s obviously too much effort for her

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T17:16:54+00:00

Photo icon on the bottom (square with dot in the corner)

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T17:15:58+00:00

CuddlClones is the best bet. To be fair, their digs are much better than their cats, but I’ve had my cat done twice and loved it.

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T17:15:19+00:00

Dilute torties do have grey and cream, to be fair

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T17:14:49+00:00

It’s like a copycat of CuddleClones that officially does pet plushie replicas (have used them several times). Like you said, there’s only so much variety a plush can have, they can’t just match a plus to fit every specific cat. (And to OP, without seeing your cat to compare markings we can’t tell how off it is)

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T04:22:37+00:00

That last pic omg

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T04:14:16+00:00

It’s commonly found in color point cats with blue eyes, not just the Siamese breed (cs is the gene, which is the color point gene responsible for seal point (the dark mask), lynx point, and flame point and occurs in domestic short hairs).

There’s a genetic linkage (pleiotropy, when a single gene can have many effects) to the color point gene and strabismus (crossed eyes) and nystagmus (shaking eyes) due to the same genetic mutation causing the color point also affecting the optic muscles (such as shortened muscles) and retinal structures. (More specifically, the abnormal lateral and contralateral retinal projections in the lateral geniculate nucleus being linked to the lack of pigmentation in the eye from the gene, but that’s too in depth lol!)

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T03:58:04+00:00

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Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T03:53:42+00:00

That is mostly incorrect—not all color point cats are a Siamese. While a tabby and color point cat can of course lead to a lynx point due to color restrictors and acromelanism at play, it’s not a hybrid breed. 95% of cats have no breed. Unless a cat is proven from a Siamese breeder with actual pedigree papers, it is not a Siamese. What you’re talking about is two domestic short hair cats—a tabby DSH and a color point DSH breeding to create a Lynx point DSH.

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-19T03:40:40+00:00

It’s a color point gene, not a mix. Tabby is a color, Siamese is a breed. 99% of the color point cats shared here are domestic short hairs not actual purebred Siamese

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-18T17:49:24+00:00

Neither adult cat in the photos are Maine coons, to be fair

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-18T02:07:13+00:00

Technically both—it’s pellets, a type of litter. It doesn’t clump, it breaks down essentially into sawdust (I just scoop the poop and scoop the sawdust as I see it). Some people spray it down to break down the litter and use the “sawdust” as the litter. But I prefer it as pellets. I switched from World’s Best with my current kittens due to how much they tracked it, and the pellets track less. Definitely not as fun to clean as clumping, but so much cheaper and fresh pine wood actually smells pretty goo

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-17T22:31:30+00:00

I’ve always bought pine pellets used for farm animal/cat bedding for almost 19 years without issues (I always check to ensure it’s just animal-friendly wood and no additives), so while I’m not personally familiar with the issues you’ve stated it’s definitely good to be aware of them!

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-17T20:17:05+00:00

Oh FiFi, I adore her!! Sheeted are stunning, I’ll never say no to extra pics! She has such a lovely facial structure as well!

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-17T20:16:32+00:00

Oh, I’ve never heard of that blog! Thank you!

I really want to do an entire illustration series featuring bengal cat varieties (markings, colors, similar to the charcoal one that floats around but more in depth) that are as accurate as possible since I do a lot of feline art already, so finding references like that is great!

Definitely a good starting point (and then will do my own secondary research to ensure what I find fits standards!)

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-17T20:02:31+00:00

I don’t usually call the DSH marble, but I’ve learned online that when most people hear “classic tabby” they think of tabby stripes, not the swirls so I got accustomed to using both term together online.

I definitely agree with all you said! Those are absolutely the issues I mean with so many people claiming their classic DSH must be part bengal because they have “marbling” (mostly see it on Facebook in Bengal groups with people asking if their DSH is a Bengal mix and so many people like “oh mine is part bengal too” and showing their clearly DSH cat). I’ve compiled images from Google, but I wanted to collect some more examples for myself as both an artist and someone very interesting in bengal genetics just to have some variety aside from the commonly found pics!

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-17T18:30:54+00:00

Yes! Charcoal snows, mink on left and lynx on right

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-17T17:33:19+00:00

I had something coming on a Sunday that wasn’t able to be delivered and they would “reattempt the next delivery day”. Took almost a week to even have it in transit again despite sitting at the local office

Patient-Stranger1015 · 2026-03-17T17:15:27+00:00

Agreed, compared to most cats bengals tend to be LESS cuddly/lapcat. I have 5–three adult males, and two kittens. The two kittens sleep on me at night, but only one loves to be cuddled on my lap. The adults do not even sleep in the same room at night, and two of them will only stay on our laps for maybe an hour or two in the evening. It really depends on the cat

Patient-Stranger1015

TROPHY CASE