If you want to make your cat happy; you should know it's exigent and you shouldn't underrate the commitment when you are welcoming the little creature into your home.
So here is the list of 'must to do':
- The cat needs to live in a stimulating environment, however if the cat can't go outside you have to create a cat-friendly space in your apartment.
- Good substrate litter: use a good quality substrate for the cat litter. Cats prefer fine grained material. The litter should kept in a separate space, far from any form of noises and far from prying guests eye .
- Isolation points: create more isolation points; where the cat has the chance to be alone and rest without interruption.
- Visuals of the outside world: create visuals of the outside world to stimulate the cat; e.g. using shelf on windowsill of windows (closed or with the net).
- More scratching posts: locate more scratching posts in strategical places; near the couch or armchair.
- Many games: give the cat opportunity to play many games. The most useful for the cat are the games with water or food to search. It i extremely important for cats mental cognition to be physically active.
- Sleeping baskets: create comfortable basket in quiet room so the cat can sleep happily.
- Gym: you can treat your cat by giving some nice and posh; great way to make you cat feel very special, however you are going to keep the cap in great physical shape. The only disadvantage of this great idea, can be the cost. Thinking - expensive? However your cat is worth it especially when the cat is left alone at home.
Things to avoid:
- Avoid too many changes, don't change continuously the substrate of the cat litter. Cat like routine, so they don't love too many changes in general.
- Cat litter should be far from the food bowl, don't put them next to each other.
Would you eat in the toilet? - Beware of the relocation: the cat is a very territorial animal, so very dramatic changes can easily upset the cat. If you are people who frequently relocate please think twice before adopt a cat
- It is better to have big bowl of water; don't use the small ones. Cat is an animal that tends to drink very less, but finding a bigger source of water will find more stimulative to drink more.
- Play sensibly, don't play with the hands; to avoid being scratch or bite. You need to remember cat is a predator, and doesn't need to consider hands as prey.
- Respect cat privacy, don't disturb when is alone. Cat loves to spend time alone; if they don't get the opportunity they will express distress in many ways.
- Never force cat to be hugged in your arms. Remember, animals are not a things, but a living being, and you need allow the way to express it. Cats have emotions, please respect it.
- Teach them the recall: they are not able to understand humans words. If you want to teach them to recall or other commands, they will understand. If you want cat to obey you, if they trust and love, they will answer to the recall.
- Make food always available: keep the food always on the line, always available to his mouth. They love to have small lunches/breaks during the day. If they are obese or shows us symptoms of bulimia will be needed to give him 3 or 4 times food at specified times, keeping the food dosage from the veterinary's suggestion. Please make sure you pay attention to the quantity and quality of the food. A bad diet can cause real health issues.
- Don't separate they in a room. Cat needs stimulating stuff, however not too much. It can be very stressing experience and remember - cat is a free animal and doesn't love impositions.
How do you know if your cat is happy?
Cats greets by moving around human legs, and scratching his head and the purr on them. This means people are being marked to greet and to tell nothing strange happened during the day.
If the cat is angry and gets away from and and hiss, it's like saying "Stay away there are stuff in the area that irritates me".
When a cat licks, it's a show of pure affect and sincere loving over us. If he licks us, he considers us like part of the family, and it's usually the most beautiful showing of direct love from him.
This is the way cat feels good around us, and it's a way of expressing it. The purr is another way to tell us that what we are doing to him it's a very pleasurable moment for him, since it's something he's loving.
Licking himself means clean himself up, and it's absolutely normal for him. Cats are animal that doesn't like to have bad smell on themselves, so this is a good thing for them if we help them to his disposal tools that helps him to wash,scratch or hide his "trash" in their cat litter,, since this is the behaviour when they are free.
Cats are hunter by nature, so it's possible they hide stuff around in the house or in the food bowl. Cat has the instinct to hide important stuff to protect them and evade to have them damaged.
When cat rubs himself on the floor, he wants to tell us he wanna play with; they are 2 general things of this behaviour, the first comes from his sexual instinct, but most often because they want to attract us for playing.
If the cat runs away don't go hunt him, in fact he won't go anywhere far, but if he runs does couple of minutes of run and then he goes hide. That's the best moment to search them and call them with soft voice to make them give us attention so they can come back home.
Sometimes you can see a cat close to a faucet to drink water, or jumps on the furniture or even makes some mess or similar. In realty this behaviour is not against the food or the water, the truth is, he love challenges and these stuff entertain him.
Cats are a nocturnal animal, when is free he hunts at night, and it's usually more active at night hours; often you see them walk on the windowsill of the windows. It's a way to see other cats, if they aren't castrated, male cats walks by their own instinct.
Do you own a dog? Here's an article for you [Mr Vet part 1]
If you like it... follow me :)