Cats enjoy the company of others; some are just not that good at showing it. While some cats love attention and physical affection, others can be less keen and like to appreciate things from a far. Cats especially like climbing up onto a high perch and monitoring what is going on below. Plenty of perching positions around the home will give them pleasurable places to relax and rest.

Cats are hunters and enjoy short bursts of activity often throughout the day. They evolved by eating 20 small meals a day made up of mice and other animals they could catch.

When feeding a cat consider getting multiple treat toys to dispense their food in rather than putting it all in a bowl once a day. This can keep them busy throughout the day and help reduce boredom and obesity.

Understanding Cat Scratching Behaviour

Scratching is a normal essential behaviour in cats to keep their claws healthy and mark territory. The problem occurs when they scratch your nice furniture. The best way to prevent this is to offer your cat a scratching post taller than they are when on their back legs. They must have something to dig their claws into and get traction on. To prevent the damage from scratching, you can keep your cat’s nails trimmed or get claw caps that can be glued over the claws. Removing the attraction to your furniture is important and you can use deterrent sprays or place hard smooth surfaces that claws can’t get into over the furniture and protect it. Ideally every area the cat has access to should be equipped with a place to perch and scratch.

Playing with your cat

Cats are hunters and love to chase and pounce and chew. TV commercial breaks are perfect for a quick play and not long enough that they get bored and lose interest. Some cats love to chase moving spots of light, or ping pong balls on hard floors. Best toys are often made from common house-hold items. Look for toys that encourage their natural instinct to hunt. You should try to have at least 4 daily, 5 minute interactive play sessions with your cat, especially if he or she is often left alone.

Toilet Training your Cat

Cats love to be clean and hygienic. They need multiple clean litter boxes spread over the house to allow them to feel comfortable to toilet frequently and reduce the risk of urinary tract disorders. Litter trays should be as large as possible to give plenty of room to scratch around. The under bed storage tubs are a great size for cats and gives them plenty of room to scratch and hopefully keep everything in the box instead of on the floor. Daily removal of faecal matter and clumped litter is appreciated by cats as well as removing the risk of toxoplasmosis in people. A wash with mild detergent once a week will be keep litter trays hygienic. Cats can be very fussy about what type of litter they like to use. It is easiest if you provide a selection of litters and let the cat choose. This will hopefully make using a litter tray more attractive to them and reduce the chance of them toileting elsewhere.

Understanding Urine Spraying in Cats

Spraying urine over an area is a natural cat behaviour for marking territory. Non-desexed cats display this behaviour routinely. It becomes more intense and even desexed cats will begin to do it in multi-cat environments where cats are competing for space. The fewer cats there are the less urine spraying will occur, and if they are desexed then it can decrease it further. Cats hate change in their lives and can spray urine or get disease breakouts due to anxiety and stress. Anxiety can be treated so come into the clinic and talk to the veterinarian about helping your cats relax and stopping stress related disorders.