Feb 13, 2016 | News & Current Events
How To Plan Valentine’s Day With Cats
Do cats make or break Valentine’s day for you? Have you ever wondered how to plan Valentine’s Day with your cats? For some couples, Valentine’s day would never be complete if it was not spent in the company of their favorite furry friends. But, for others, cats can only be a hindrance to romance. Here are a few questions to ask yourself in the run up to Valentine’s day to help you to decide what to do with your cats.
1. Spending Valentine’s day at home: do my cats and my partner get along?
If you and your partner live together, then chances are that the cats are used to them and love them! Maybe they are even shared cats that you have co-owned throughout their lives. If so, your cats are just likely to see Valentine’s day as just a normal night in for you two and you should not have any trouble.
If your cats have not met your partner before and you feel that they might be a little timid or anxious around a new human adult entering their territory, then make sure to introduce your partner to them gently and slowly. You can do this on the day, or you can invite your partner round to say hi to the kitties a couple of days before your romantic home cooked meal for two.
2. Spending Valentine’s day away: who will look after the cats?
With plenty of fresh water and food, cats will do alright on their own for a night. If you are whisking yourselves away to a romantic destination for a few days, though, it is definitely worth investing in a cat sitter, or asking a friend to drop in and feed and pet the kitties. If you have an inkling in the run up to Valentine’s day that your partner might be planning a romantic getaway for two, then make sure to drop a few subtle hints about cat care beforehand!
3. Valentine’s hazards.
Valentine’s day is not really a huge risk to cat health! But, one common Valentine’s activity can be dangerous: lighting candles. Keep candles out of the cats’ reach and make sure to extinguish them before you leave the room. The last thing you want is for your romantic evening together to be abruptly ended when one of your cats knocks over a flame onto the carpet or singes their fur on a candle. If you are buying flowers for your partner, make sure you check out our post on flowers that are poisonous to cats. You don’t want your romantic night ending with a trip to the vet!
Involving your cats with Valentine’s day.
As you can see, planning for a Valentine’s day to remember is not difficult at all for cat owners. In fact, you could even get your cats involved in the Valentine’s day celebrations by giving them sparkly red collars or simply snuggling up with them on the couch as you and your date watch a romantic movie.
And if you don’t plan to celebrate this Valentine’s day this year?
Maybe it is not your thing at all, or maybe you are just keen to have a year off for once. Nobody is saying that it is a law that you have to celebrate this day! And That is no problem when you have a kitty by your side.
Meow for now… Kristian
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Feb 11, 2016 | Behaviour & Training
Trouble Beyond the Litter Box: Easy Cat Care Fix
Even cats who are well trained in the art of the litter box can start soiling the house. No-one wants to spend time cleaning cat poop off the floor first thing in the morning when they could be sitting down to a stack of pancakes or waffles instead! So here are a few helpful tips on the ominous topic of house-soiling: trouble beyond the litter box. You may be surprised at how easy this problem is to clear up (pardon the pun!) for good.
Questions to ask yourself
If your cat is not sticking to the litter box and is instead soiling the floor, ask yourself these three questions first.
1) Is your cat stressed out about something? Cats often fall out of bad bathroom habits when something has stressed them out. Whether it is a break in, a visiting toddler who makes a lot of noise, or some building work being done in your neighbor’s attic, stress can cause your cat to soil the floor. Isolating and removing the cause of stress may be all that you need to do to solve the issue of house-soiling.
2) Is the litter box clean? Cats are fastidious animals, and using a litter box that has not been cleaned for a few days is often not a very attractive prospect for them. So, they often see the floor as their only other option. As you have probably guessed, there is a simple solution here: clean your litter box and clean it regularly! Very often, you will find that your cat starts using the litter box again right away. Remember, your kitty has a much more acute sense of smell than you do, so if you find their litter box a little malodorous, chances are it seems much worse to them!
3) Has the litter box been moved? Cats can become attached to having their bathroom in a particular corner of the house. If you have moved the litter box from the hallway to the basement, it may take them a little while to realize that they need to head down to the basement to use the bathroom! If all else fails, moving the litter box back to its original position (as long as that remains convenient for you) may be the only step that you need to take to solve the issue once and for all.
You may also not have the right AMOUNT of litter boxes – we have a short and easy video for you here
Location, location, location
Choosing the best location for your litter box is essential if you want your kitty to use it religiously. A good litter box location gives your cat some privacy and is nice and quiet too, so it is situated in a corner or someplace where humans aren’t always hanging around. It is also best not to put the cat’s litter box right next to their water bowl or their food either – no-one wants that! Choose soft litter that traps odor and isn’t too harsh on your kitty’s paws so that they do not find using the litter box annoying or even painful. Clean the box regularly and if needs be replace the box completely (you should do this at least once every year as a minimum anyway).
Do you have any extra suggestions for litter problems? If so, leave us a comment with what has worked for your cats!
Meow for now … Kristian Taylor
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Feb 9, 2016 | Cat Care & Health
Easy Cat Care Tips: How To Fight Fleas
A friend of mine who has a cat was recently complaining that her cat was suffering from fleas. Why do I mention this? Well, her cat is a real lap-cat, who loves staying indoors getting plenty of attention from her human owners and never spends time with other kitties. So how could she have got fleas?
This story just goes to show that good flea prevention tactics are important for all cat owners, no matter what habits your kitty has! Humans with cats rarely suffer from cat flea bits, which is due to the fact that cats’ bodies are hotter than humans’ and fleas will always go for the warmer body. But still, flea bites can leave your cats irritated, listless and in pain whilst severe cases can lead to weakness and the loss of fur. No-one wants that for their cat. So here are some easy cat care tips: flea treatment style.
Treat your cat regularly!
Three months is the minimum period between flea treatment doses. If you have many cats or if your cats go out socializing a lot, then you might want to give them top-up flea treatments every 5 weeks or so.
Make sure to only use flea powders and other flea prevention medicines that have been provided by a reputable pet supply store, or from your veterinarian. The last thing you want is a poor quality flea powder that leaves your kitty with a rash! Doing a spot-check (i.e. dabbing a little of the flea gel or powder on your cat’s fur to check it does not cause any side effects) is always a good idea when you are starting a new type of flea treatment!
Make the flea treatment fun!
Understandably, many cats can feel apprehensive around medicines or vet visits. So make sure to give them a lot of love and affection around flea treatment time so that they do not end up running away and wedging themselves under the couch whenever you open that package of flea-killing gel! Flea treatments are very easy to apply. As well as traditional powders, you can now get gels that you simply squeeze onto the back of your kitten’s neck and which then spread naturally throughout their coat.
Do not just treat your cat
Fleas and flea eggs can be brought in to the house on your shoes or your clothing: if you visit a friend who has cats and they weave around your legs, then they can transfer those pesky critters and their eggs to your pants. Flea eggs can lie in wait on your carpet and in your cat’s bedding too. The fleas themselves can survive for months without a host, so even if you have treated your cat, all your good work will be undone if your carpet has a family of fleas living in it.
Luckily, you can also get flea treatments for carpets and bedding too, so why not go the whole shebang? Treat your home as well as your pet with flea powder, and wash your cat’s bedding regularly in a nice hot wash as well.
Meow for now… Kristian Taylor
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Feb 4, 2016 | Cat Care & Health
How To Keep Your Cat Happy While Working At Home
So, you’ve got your dream job: working from home! Roll straight from bed to the couch, settle down with a home brewed coffee and get to work still in your PJs. Bliss!
But wait, who’s that crawling onto your laptop and turning your neatly typed business report into a string of random characters? Who is that batting your pen every time you attempt to write and jumping all over your carefully filed papers and getting them all in a mess?
I think we all know the answer…
When their owners start working from home, cats sometimes feel like Christmas has come early! They feel like they now have the opportunity for extended playtime with their owners. So, how do you keep your cat amused as you work at home, ensuring that you can both live in harmony whilst you work productively and efficiently? Here are some tips!
How to keep your cat happy while working at home
Cats love the warmth of laptops and they love being the center of attention. So, they will often snuggle up on top of the report you are reading or sit right on top of your laptop keyboard, obscuring all those important work emails from view. In order to stop cats from doing this, all you need to do is create someplace that is even more attractive to them. A snuggly basket filled with their favorite toys close (but not too close!) to the warmth of the radiator is a great example.
Of course, part of the fun of working from home is the fact that you get to spend more time with your kitty. So creating them a little den where they can sleep right next to where you are working would be perfect!
Toys galore
Giving your kitty plenty of toys to play with is the ideal way to keep them happy whilst you are working at home. Toys filled with catnip are perfect as they are simply irresistible to felines. Rotate toys to keep them fresh and fun.
Let the cat out!
If you can watch the backyard with one eye through the window whilst you work, you can let your kitty play in the garden during the daytime. That way they can frolic to their heart’s content as you finish off that big project.
Take advantage of cats’ crepuscular rhythms
Cats wake up as evening draws in (that is what a ‘crepuscular mammal’ is). So, they are likely to be sleepier during the daytime. Cats sleep for around 15 hours a day on average as it is, so take advantage of this and schedule your working hours so that they coincide with your cat’s usual sleeping hours. Then, you can time the end of your working day to coincide with the twilight hours when your cat is just starting to wake up properly and getting ready to play.
So, how to keep your cat happy while working at home? Give your cat a nice place to hang out and some toys (especially catnip toys) to keep them amused. Let them outside if you can, and plan your working from home schedule so that it coincides with your cat’s most inactive periods. Simple!
Meow for now… Kristian Taylor
Got some ideas I missed? leave a comment below and tell me how you keep you furriend happy while you’re at work.
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Feb 2, 2016 | Cat Care & Health
Easy Answer Why Your Cat Sleeps So Much
We’ve all had it happen: we get home after a long day at work and your kitty is still asleep in pretty much the same position that you left them in in the morning. They open one eye, close it – and go back to sleep.
You might be forgiven for thinking that cats sleep all the time. In fact studies show that they need to sleep for between 16 and 20 hours a day which is (more than) double the recommended sleeping time for an adult human. Other studies argue that cats sleep 15 hours a day on average, but can manage to sleep for the entire 24 hours of a given 24 hour period. Whatever study you go with, there is no denying that cats sleep a lot!
So why is this?
First and foremost, cats probably sleep so much because they are predators. Predators need to conserve as much energy as they can so that they can grab a bird out of the sky or a mouse running along the grass at lightning speed. Though the most your kitty may be doing by way of predation involves leaping up and catching their catnip toy when you dangle in front of them, or weaving between your legs to entice you to put food in their bowl, they still have the physiology of a predator. So, in sum, cats are hard wired to sleep for a long time so that when the hunt is on they can be at the top of their game.
You probably see your cat asleep more than you see it awake
Unless you are a total night owl, you will probably go to bed just as your kitty is waking up. Cats are ‘crepuscular’ animals. This does not mean the same thing as nocturnal (animals that are active at night) but rather signifies animals that wake up and are most active during the twilight hours. You may have noticed that your cat prefers to have breakfast then sleep during the day, before wanting to play in the evening? Totally crepuscular!
So, if you are someone who wakes up early and goes to bed when it starts to get dark, you will probably see your cat asleep most of the time. But, if you are someone who stays up a little later you will get to see that your cat has a little more energy as the world gets darker.
Cats take cat naps!
OK this sounds tautologous, but we all know what a cat nap is: a little light sleep. Oh, YOU know, that sleep we are all fond of taking with our heads resting on the desk when we know no-one is looking. Well, quite a lot of cat sleep is light like this: to all appearances your cat is sleeping, whilst in reality they are ready to jump up and respond to a threat or a tasty treat at a moment’s notice. Cat sleep goes in cycles, with perhaps 5 minutes of deep sleep followed by around 15-20 minutes of cat napping. Watch your moggy as they sleep and you might even see these cycles in action as they become unresponsive during the deep phase of their sleep and a little more alert during their cat nap.
So, though cats do sleep a lot, they do not always sleep very deeply. This is, after all, not that dissimilar to human sleep, which also goes in cycles. It is best not to disturb cats during the deep phase of their sleep. Again, this is similar to humans: if our alarm clock wakes us up during deep sleep we are likely to feel very groggy, whereas if we wake up during a period of light sleep we normally feel just fine.
So there you have it: cats sleep a lot! OK, we all knew that, we’ve all seen our cat bedding down on our laptop when we want to sleep, in our suitcase as we’re packing for holidays or simply on our lap when we had sat down for a couple of seconds to put our shoes on for work. It seems that a cat can sleep in any situation. But, now we know that it is because they are crepuscular predators that cats need so much sleep, especially during the hours of daylight.
Meow for now … Kristian Taylor
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