RuneWeb - Cat Care

Cat Care

By: Bethyy, additions by Data/Loggy

For those of you that have completed the Gertrude’s Cat quest are able to own a furry little friend - a kitten. You can keep one as a friend, and grow it into a variety of different felines. Or, of course, you can raise it and ship it off for some Death Runes as soon as it grows up - but whatever. It's difficult either way. This guide can help you with that.

For 100 gp, Getrude will sell you a kitten. Kittens come in a variety of different colors, and if you don't get the kitten you want at first, you can shoo it away (under the Interact-With option) and buy another till you get the one you want. Your kitten will follow you around, and you'll have to take care of it.

Your kitten/cat/overgrown cat will teleport to keep up with you when it goes off the mini map. It also climbs ladders, teleports and goes on the gnome glider with you. However, your feline cannot go on the mining cart in Kelgadrim, cannot play Pest Control, cannot play Castle Wars, cannot play Trawler, cannot go diving, but fear not - the Rat Pits is more than enough to entertain your pet.

You can log out with your feline still on the floor and it will be there when you log back in. (Same for going to non-members, if you log out with it on the ground, when you log into non-members you will not be able to see it, but when you go into members again it will be there.)

Only one of your feline pets can follow you at a time, and if you die with your cat, you cannot get it back.

Kitten Basics

With your kitten come a few options. Let's go over them!

Option	Description
Pick-Up	While your cat is following you around on, you can select to pick it up - it will then go in your inventory, where you can then drop it to make it follow you around again.
Talk-To	You can, of course, talk to your pet - however all you'll get as a reply is a meow or purring of some sorts. However, if you complete the Ictharlin's Little Helper quest, you can use the Amulet of Cat Speak you obtain to speak to your pet - though you might not want to hear what it has to say. They can be quite rude.
Interact-With	With this option comes three more options: Stroke, Catch Vermin, or Shoo Away. Stroking your kitten will please it a bit more; shooing it away will, of course, make it leave you for good; and we will get into 'Catch Vermin' later.

Kitten Nourishment

Your kitten will need feeding. Please keep in mind that your kitten will not grow if it is in you bank or inventory. The kitten must be on the ground following you and it will need to be fed on a regular basis as well as played with when lonely ('Stroke' option or a ball of wool will do.)

Your kitten will be picky with what it eats, so pay attention. Your kitten should get hungry every 20 – 30 minutes, indicated by a message like "I think it's hungry" on your screen. Your kitten can eat or drink the following:

Culinary Item	Image	How To Obtain
Milk		Use a bucket on a dairy cow
Raw Fish		Fished or bought from shops/players; any kind of fish worked
Cooked Fish		Cooked or bought from shops/players; any kind of fish worked

You can also use Doogle Leaves on Raw Sardine to make a tasty Seasoned Sardine for your pet. Five or so Doogle Leaves spawn behind Gertrude's House, and twelve or so spawn by the Swaying Tree on the hill east of Relleka.

There are a lot of people that think that the more you feed your kitten, the quicker it will grow. This is not true. You only need to feed your kitten when something a long the lines of ‘I think it's hungry’ comes up on your screen. Feeding it at any other time is just a waste of food. Your kitten will take a few hours to grow into a cat.

If you do not feed your kitten you will be given three warnings before it runs away. You will not be able to get that exact kitten back - you will have to buy another from Gertrude at her house for 100 GP.

Kitten Care

Every so often you should Stroke your kitten. You should also carry around a ball of wool, and also use this with your kitten every so often so it can play with it. Your kitten will need to move around!

Furthermore, you should take your kitten rat catching, by selecting the 'Chase Vermin' option under 'Interact-With'. To catch vermin, there must be small rats close by (The Varrock Sewers are a good place to start). Select the ‘Catch Vermin’ option and your pet will go after a rat (it will not go after giant rats.) Keep in mind that a kitten only has a 15% chance of catching a rat; once grown into a cat 15% will turn into 70% and your cat will catch more rats.

Cat Info

Once your kitten has grown into a cat, you can receive your reward for taking the time and fish to bring it up: 100 death runes. Any civilian in west Ardougne by the underground pass will trade you 100 Death Runes for your cat. Otherwise, you can work towards the Cat Training Medal.

To get this medal you will need to have caught 100 rats. To know when you have caught 100 you will need a Catspeak Amulet - speak to your cat and ask how it is. If the cat replies with “I want to go adventuring”, you have got the right amount. If it says “I want to catch some rats”, you still have more to go.

Once you have 100, head to Gertrude’s house and speak to her. She will give you the shiny new medal. Wearing this medal does not help your cat grow faster. You also cannot get this medal from chasing rats with a kitten - it has to be a cat.

If you decide to keep your cat, you will also find that you no longer have to feed it. It’s big enough to fend for itself and can catch its own supper. Allow your cat to continue following you and within 1 – 2 hours it will grow into an overgrown cat. Once you have an overgrown cat it becomes useless. It doesn’t need to be fed, it doesn’t need to be played with, and it doesn’t need to chase rats. However, you can still trade it in for 100 deaths in west Ardougne.

Besides the original kitten, cat, and overgrown cat, there are a few other forms your feline can take. The table below gives you info on these.

Feline Form	Quest Required	Info
Wiley Cat	Rat Catchers	Turns your cat into a Wiley Cat; which turns into a Lazy Cat if you do not take it back to chase rats often enough; this quest also allows you to name your cat.
Hell Kitten/Cat/Overgrown Cat/Wiley Cat/Lazy Cat	Evil Dave's Mini-Quest (of Recipe for Disaster)	Turns whatever form of cat you have into a Hell [whatever cat you have].

On the subject of Cat Quests, the Tail of Two Cats quest yields a mouse toy.

This can only be wielded and doesn't affect your feline in any way. Lastly, as an ending kitty fact, if you take your kitten/cat to Bob (The Jagex Cat) they will have a conversation.

Good luck with your feline!

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