The Guru’s Guide To A Healthy Kitty!

Cats are both incredi­ble and incredi­b­ly fini­cky. From par­ti­cu­lar diets to nail clip­pings at vet visits, you need to take care of a lot of dif­fe­rent issu­es when you own one (or more). The fol­lowing arti­cle will offer you expert tips on how to give your cat ever­ything it needs.

When con­si­de­ring a new pet, make sure you visit the area shel­ter first. Shel­ters usual­ly have many cats who need a home, and the fees typi­cal­ly inclu­de their shots and spaying or neu­tering. When you bring home a shel­ter cat, you will be saving its life and you will be doing your part to help out.

Don’t use items on a cat that are meant for a dog. Some can be qui­te dan­ge­rous, and even dead­ly, when used on a cat. This is par­ti­cu­lar­ly true when it comes to flea tre­at­ments. Using dog flea pro­ducts on your cat can kill them. Your cat needs to be away from the dog after your dog has recei­ved a flea treatment.

Cat claws are one of the worst enemies of your home and fur­ni­tu­re. If your couch is star­ting to look like it’s been put through a shred­der, it’s time to invest in a nice scratching post or cat tower. This can encou­ra­ge cats to scratch some­thing other than things that are off-limits. Soo­ner or later, they’ll love to use it.

It can be tough to keep cats off the coun­ter­tops. Cats instinc­tively want to be at a high van­ta­ge point so they can sur­vey their sur­roun­dings. Give them an alter­na­ti­ve. Some­ti­mes stra­te­gi­cal­ly pla­cing a tall cat tower near your kit­chen will help.

Boundaries Ahead

When you buy a small kit­ty for your child­ren, set the bounda­ries ahead of time. Let your child­ren know which rooms their cat can be in. If you’­re plan­ning on kee­ping your kit­ty insi­de full time, make sure your kids know their pet should­n’t go out­doors. Estab­li­shing the­se bounda­ries ahead of time pre­vents any confusion.

Brush your cat often. Brushing spreads natu­ral oils throughout a cat’s fur, and also hel­ps sti­mu­la­te blood flow in their skin. It can also get rid of hair that is loo­se. This hel­ps pre­vent hair­balls, which can lead to cho­king and other health issues.

Car­ri­ers are gre­at devices for you to have as a cat owner. While punish­ment is a good stra­te­gy to train dogs, it is not adap­ted to cats. They pre­fer encou­ra­ge­ment ins­tead. You should place a toy or a blan­ket insi­de the car­ri­er and place it in an area whe­re it will be noti­ced by your cat. Cats are natu­ral explo­rers and soo­ner or later he will check it out. A cat who is used to a car­ri­er will not mind tra­ve­ling, mea­ning it will be a much less stress­ful expe­ri­ence for them.

You may want to try dif­fe­rent types of cat food. Cats can easi­ly beco­me fini­cky eaters. If they eat the same food all the time without chan­ging it, that may be the only one they’ll eat later on.

Buy your cat a foun­tain to drink from. Cats nor­mal­ly look to drink from run­ning water. This is true in the wild or at home. Cats gene­ral­ly respond bet­ter to a stream of water. Run­ning sink water is ano­t­her alter­na­ti­ve that you can use. A foun­tain will allow your cat to have the hap­pi­ness of drin­king from run­ning water.

Feed can­ned food to your cat. It some­ti­mes has more bene­fits over dry. They have more water, pro­te­in and fat too. As a cat ages, it has a har­der time chewing. Talk to your vet, but can­ned food is gene­ral­ly supe­ri­or for your cat.

Are you having a hard time get­ting rid of cat hair? Cats are big shed­ders, so you should brush them fre­quent­ly. If your cat is a big shed­der, you defi­ni­te­ly want to brush him often. This keeps the coat from mat­ting, too.

Litter Box

If you are having pro­blems get­ting the cat to use the lit­ter box, move it. The cat instinc­tively feels vul­nerable when using the lit­ter box, so make sure it’s in a loca­ti­on tha­t’s total­ly quiet and safe. A base­ment or laund­ry area might be a good option.

Dogs wag tails out of joy. Cats wag their tails, but defi­ni­te­ly not for the same rea­son. A cat wags its tail when it is upset. If you hold your cat and it starts wag­ging its tail, you should put your cat down right away.

Give your cat a col­lar that fea­tures your con­ta­ct infor­ma­ti­on. Even an indoor cat can get out. If that hap­pens, you want to be sure that the­re is a way for them to make it back home.

The­re are things you can eat that your cat can­not. The­se foods inclu­de gra­pes, oni­ons green tomatoes and gar­lic. If your cat eats the­se, it may cau­se him to get real­ly sick or even worse. Milk upsets a cat’s sto­mach, too.

Cats do best on a diet high in dry food. Kit­tens need wet food sin­ce they have tiny teeth. As an adult, the har­der tex­tu­re of dry food keeps their teeth strong. A picky cat might like dry and wet food mixed together.

If you want to do your best to keep your cat free from ticks, rabies or ani­mal bites, keep him indoors. Some of tho­se issu­es may affect indoor cats, but cats that are out­side have a hig­her chan­ce of dealing with them.

Alt­hough caring for a cat might sound easy, this is not the case. All cats need a lot of care in order to be hap­py and healt­hy. Use what you’­ve just lear­ned to make wise cat care decisi­ons. The effort expen­ded will be well worth it, and will be rewar­ded in many ways.