Cat Behavior

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Purrfect Cat Behavior Mewsletter: Hello everyone and at long last we have finally got our Mewsletter ready for release. We apologise profusely for the wait you have all had and for your patience at remaining on our mailing list. Please remember you are on the list after purchasing / downloading one of our products or you subscribed to the mailing list on the web site. Remember this mailing is totally free and you can un-subscribe at any time, using the link on the top of the page or at the end of this Mewsletter.. After 2 long years Sarah and I have finally just about completed setting up our new cat only vet practice at SimplyCats. Please pop along to the website if any of you are interested. We have a bit more time now we are working together and the practice is opening shortly (4th May) and so we have started to produce our Cat Behavior Mewsletter. This way we can reach and help so many more people to understand their cats. Eventually this will go out to our clients at SimplyCats The idea is to select a number of articles each 2 weeks that we think our subscribers will be interested in and have a direct link to how your cat thinks and his / her wellbeing. We sincerely believe the most important aspect of living in harmony with your cat is understanding how he or she thinks. You have to get inside your cats mind. This was the real passion behind creating our Cat Behaviour Guide. Being cat vets, feline behavior is an area of continuous interest to both of us and has a massive influence on the well being of cats and the humans owned by cats ;-). This is even more important when your beloved cat is ill or sick. Knowing about cat behavior has been the centre point of the design of our veterinary practice for example CAT ONLY and NO DOGS, all kept quiet and calm with places to hide in most of the hospitalisation cages. Also very careful use and selection of disinfectants etc. so as not to disturb the cats incredible sense of smell. Remember all these facts when you are trying to make your home cat friendly, though do remember cats can get on fine with dogs once carefully introduced. Smell is your cats most powerful sense: DE-STRESS your with Pheromones. An increasingly important way to help stressed cats (especially if they are starting to show clinical signs such as spraying, hair plucking, wool eating etc) is by careful use of pheromones. We have created an article as a free download giving a simple explanation of the use of pheromones to enhance feline quality of life. Just click here to get your free download and please let us know what you think. Fat Cats Are NOT Happy Cats We are starting to see an increase in the number of obese felines in our clinic and so we are going to be covering this topic in detail in future editions of the Mewsletter. However in this issue we have filmed a short video of our cats playing with a new toy we have just purchased for them to help increase their level of activity. Increasing the exercise levels of your average feline is rather challenging and anything to help you do this can be very useful. The Undercover Mouse is just such a toy and as you can see in the video our cats love it. However remember it took them @ 20 minutes to get used to it and it works best if you keep moving the yellow cover from time to time. However setting this up each evening when we get in from work has proven a pain free and fun way to get our cats starting to exercise more. To learn more or purchase this Toy from Amazon in the USA click here Panic Mouse Undercover Mouse if you are in the UK please clikc here Panic Mouse - Undercover Mouse - Interactive Cat/Kitten Toy If you do purchase the toy please let us know what you think. We have also produced a free Podcast for download to play on your ipod or iphone or normal vanilla mp3 player all about getting your cats to play and most importantly exercise more. We are as guilty as any feline related professionals on extolling the virtues of cat exercise but not having many good ideas on how you actually do this . Hopefully this podcast wil help redress this. To get the podcast click here and then right click and save the playing with your cat mp3 file to your computer. Or if you want to listen to the file immediately just left click the came file (playing with your cat mps) Remember though you also have to reduce your cats calorie intake and this will be covered in more detail in the next edition with the introduction of a Cat Weightwatchers Plan!. Is Your Cat A Healthy Cat? How to examine your cat. A very popular question we have been asked is how to conduct a simple examination of your cat that we recommend doing weekly just to keep an eye on his or her health. Sarah has produced very short video showing you how to do this, click here to see the video, Simple Cat Examination. We apologise about the quality and it is well seen we are vets and not Steven Spielberg wannabes! In the celebrity stakes Sarah’s main claim to fame is that her grandmother had her kitchen ceiling painted by Liam Neeson (Star Wars fame) before he became famous when he was studying at college in the North East of England. To view the video please go here and we hope you find it useful. Purrfect Cat Behavior, Question & Answer Session: Each week we get lots of questions to either Gizmo our online virtual cat or by the ask a burning question form on the main web site. We will try to answer one of the most popular questions in each edition of the mewsletter. We would like to answer them all but time is not on our side and remember the core answers to all these questions are contained within one of the Purrfect Cat Behavior Guides. It is also much easier to understand the reply if you have started to learn and understand some cat psychology, as you must always try to see things from the cats point of view. This is not always intuitive to us humans!! A recent question which covers one of the most common feline problems we get asked to deal with is answered below, “..I have two female cats (both fixed & front claws removed. One is 1 yr old the other 2 yr old. Get along great!!! (No problems) Male cat very loving thrown out was starving. Took home…Was aggressive, isolated him a few days from the girls (strange..now the girls are hissing at each other) Had male neutered and front claws removed….(while he was at vet’s 1 1/2 days girls went back to normal activity-no problems)after about 8 hours after returning from vet, tried to introduce him once again…He immediately attached & chased the one yr old..broke them up and isolated him….How do I stop this….Is there any hope? Should I get ride of the male? Help!!!! I will not tolerate my girls from being attached or living in fear)…” First of all we suggest if you have not already done so is purchase a copy of the Purrfect Cat Behavior Guide or the mini guide on Feline aggression and even more important read it especially the introduction, relevant problem chapter and the question and answer session in the appendix. It is important you try to understand what we are trying to achieve and why your cats(s) are actually behaving in this way. In general cats will tolerate the presence of another cat (even ones they do not particularly like) if there are sufficient ‘resources. It is possible that adding another cat to an established household has just tipped your 2 resident cats over the toleration threshold of feeling their resources are threatened. Your other two cats may have a higher threshold or better coping strategies. But the introduction of this new cat has brought out some problems present you were not aware of. Such as lack of resources etc, see further down. You’re certainly doing everything right as regarding taking things slowly and allowing your new male his own area; however has this limited the other cats territory? We feel you must give quite a bit more time to introducing this new cat over some weeks rather than days. Also remember it takes some time for the neutered cat to lose his natural masculine characteristics post surgery, as this may also have a role to play here. Problems can become a lot more exacerbated with indoor cats as limited space means pressure on the territory resource. So what do you do NOW: 1. One thing we would try would be increasing the amount of resources to accommodate each cat plus a spare (for example have 4 litter trays if space allows and one the mail is out at least 3 all separated so each is in a stress free location. 3 scratching posts, 3 feed stations, 3 lots of water (all separated) , 3 resting areas. However in some properties this is not possible, due to lack of space. 2. Install a feliway diffuser in all areas where conflict may occur ie corridors/passages, make use of 3 dimensional space so put some rest areas up a height ie on top of cupboards, distract your female cats as much as you can with positive experiences when the male is in the room (you will need to start with him in a cage so he cannot attack the females)- ie play with your resident cats, give treats etc so they learn that when the male is around nice things happen. 3. Gradually progress (and this may take some weeks) until the females tolerate the sight of him then start letting them out together in a large space where the girls could get away and hide if needed. 4. Let him have his own room in the house so he can relax and is not in the cage all the time, then from time to time let the females in to this room when he is caged to smell and get used to his presence. 5. You have already neutered the male (well done) which is often useful as mentioned earlier. 6. Rub the female’s facial pheromones along with your other cat’s facial pheromones over the male so he smells as if he belongs to the house. As you can see with all these incidences of problem feline behavior you have to look from the cat’s perspective and the situation is rarely straight forward. In the clinic we would spend 45 minutes on a case such as this and then monitor the response to various changes over the next month as all these take time and patience. However the core values of adequate resources make sure your cats feel secure and loved, have no medical problems, and have places to hide and an enriched environment are always important. Despite doing all this remember fundamentally some cats just take an absolute dislike to another cat be it because of their different smell, colour, body shape/size or way they move and act. Unfortunately this may be what’s happening between your cats and it may not resolve but it’s certainly worth persevering at present, as we feel these cats can live in harmony given time and patience and above all understanding your cats point of view ;-). We hope this is helpful and at least gives you all a guideline to follow in such cases. In the next edition we will cover spraying problems. Paul and Sarah MRCVS www.purrfectcatbehavior.com The end… It is very difficult to know how much to put into a newsletter but for the next edition we will show you the first chapter of our new book on Cat First Aid, discuss more aspects of feline behavior, and new ideas on Idiopathic Feline Cystitis. Be creative, live long, be happy and follow your own path. …And the emperor said “Let the party begin!” Paul and Sarah M’s RCVS Purrfect Cat Behavior and SimplyCats 12 Front Street Fencehouses, Durham. DH4 6LP UK

Hi this caught my eye recently regarding all us people owned by cats!

A survey comparing cat and dog owners showed that cat owners were more likely to be upmarket, well educated, physically active, socially active, more high tech and more modern. Just what we all knew anyway

Welcome to the ongoing saga of Marisha and her inappropriate peeing and defecation episode. From the last post our investigation has given us loads of clues.

From all the evidence so far it seems that this cat has suffered some sort of fright associated with the litter tray. This was probably something coming through the letter box and landing on her or in the tray while she was nearby, this scared her and made the litter tray and area seem to be a dangerous place. She thus now intends to do her business in a new safe place as far away from the litter try as possible and the best option seems to be behind the TV. Problem solved and we would now get the adverts in CSI

BUT what do we do about this ??

It is important once the cat’s normal soiling procedures have broken down to try and get them back to normal as soon as possible. So the easiest way is to put down one litter tray per cat (at least) and one extra tray. Make sure they are in safe areas and try to review such areas from a cat’s perspective. For example we put a wire mesh basket on the door to catch the post and the extra litter tray put in the spare toilet was put well away from any shelves where items may drop on the cat. Make sure the trays are kept clean and use a litter material the cat likes and ideally is used to.

Remember cats also have very sensitive hearing and for example in the hall way it may be worth putting some draught excluder on the door and letterbox to reduce the clatter as post comes through.

We also got the owner to bond again with the cat by stroking and some playing cat games with a feather on a stick. These are very inexpensive but great fun for owner and cat! Ping pong balls are also a great way of bonding with your cat.

After all these changes were ut in place Marisha was back to normal in 48 hours. However remember this problem was corrected very early on and Marisha on the whole was a fairly laid back cat. With chronic behavioural problems and sensitive cats this can all take much longer ;-(

Thus again the main message is to learn cat and try to think like one as much as possible.

After the stress related posts I thought I would run small set of blog posts helping you to act as a mini CSI investigator for your own cat problems. In the E-book we actually give a lot of clinical examples to show how we actually apply the knowledge of cat behavior to many different situations.
Marisha had started to urinate and defecate behind the television. We call this inappropriate urination / defeacation and she had previously used a litter tray with impeccable manners and this new turn of events was perceived as a wicked crime and almost personal insult by her normally very responsible and nice owners.

Marisha ws presented at the surgery and had given her a clean bill of health so her owners were even more convinced that she was just being naughty.

This is a very important point; that on occasions this type of behavior can be caused by a wide range of often subtle medical problems so it is important to have the cat checked out by a good feline vet.  Obviously if any problems are found they need sorted first

The carpet behind the television was becoming very smelly and in our experience if carpet has been peed on more than 3or 4  times it is very hard to get rid of the smell no matter how hard you try and what you use!! The couple’s social life and all dinner parties had disappeared for fear of being judged for the persistent foul smell.

This is a very common occurance that abnormal feline behavour wil affect the whole family in  a serious way and again prevention if possible is better than a cure, learn to speak CAT

So let us start as in all the best CSI Programs of a thorough investigation of the so called crime scene and any important history that may be elevant.

Your feline investigators have been out and reported back with the following important facts:

Marisha is an indoor cat. Litter / toileting facilities are extremely important for the housebound cat as they cannot go outside . The facilities have to be safe, secure and attractive with a litter tray and litter and a cleaning regime that makes a cat want to go back, time and time again. If that goes wrong in some way then the cat feels obliged to look elsewhere. This is a very important part of cat psychology and in the wild it is one of the periods when they are most at risk of attack and hence the evolutionary need to be safe.

The change in behavior had happened very suddenly and was not a gradual decline in behavior.

Marisha had been punished!

Please NOTE cats do not do dirty or bad behavior in this way. It is never a feline protest to inappropriately urinate or defecate, cats are not little humans ;-(. It is very important to undersatand this as it can play havoc with the normal human feline bond in a household if the cat starts getting punished. As one would say a dog (though this is often wrong also). This will seriously affect your cat and will mean you have a much harder job to restore normal behavior. Do not do this under any circumstances.

Further facts from your cat CSI team were:

1. Marisha’s litter tray was placed in the passage near the front door

2. Marisa was jumpy and nervous — this was quite a significant change in her behaviour since the problem started

3. Marisha jumped to an alarming degree when the post came through the letterbox or anything was dropped suddenly on the floor. This was not her normal behavior.

4. My clients had not changed her litter material, tray or cleaning regime in any way

5. The corner behind the television that Marisa had adopted as her new toilet was just about as far away from the hallway tray as she could possibly go

6. My client had reported that on the ‘fateful day’, when she picked up the post on returning from work, she noticed some litter spread over the passage carpet. This was very unusual.

So reviewing the information so far we would be beginning to suspect a single traumatic event had somehow caused a complete aversion to the litter tray. Something had scared her sufficiently to view her previous toilet area as dangerous.

So till my next post have a think of what you would do next, and review your knowledge of cat behavior especially the sections on spraying and inappropriate urination etc if you have the guide

We have covered in the last few posts the issues of cat stress and as mentioned the most important point of all this is to teach you all how to recognise a stressed, and remember this can be very subtle.
So learn all you can and above all try to get a normal pattern of behavior for your own cat, this is obviously very hard if it is already stressed!

Remember what a cat finds stressful is dependent on both its temperament and its experience from kitten hood right up to the present day. What seems to make one cat a highly stressed feline may have absolutely no effect on another cat. Examples are visits to the vets, and going to a cattery.
So you need to be able to see and recognise the stress signs as mentioned in the earlier posts. However this can be much easier blogged about than done

With my professional hat on I can say that a good cat vet and nurse would recognise the major physiological signs, such as increased blood pressure, a nervous cat, medical problems related eg cystitis, aggression, cat scratch damage etc. It is equally if not more important however for the owner to recognise the early signs of stress, such as change in normal behavior, cat more quiet than normal, increased or decreased use of litter tray, inappropriate urination, defecation etc.

All of this is set out in the Cat Behavior Guide available for purchase on the web site, and actually purchasing and most important READING this guide could save you lots of money and emotional stress in the long term. A lot of other information is also available on the various aspects of cat behavior on the web site.

Well a quick post on the cat stress theme before going out to the day job after a bank holiday weekend in the UK. I heard a very good analogy the other day about stress in cats. This is to think about the cat as a pair of scales, like the kitchen scales for weighing food ;-). Remember though each set of scales is unique as regards the various tipping pints. So if we stress the cat a little bit and tilt the scales slightly then with the correct weights we can put the cat / scales back in sync. For example short term acute stressors like going to the vets (much less at a cat only vets), going on a car journey, going to the cattery, giving a pill, can all be corrected both by the cat and often with a little bit of help from us.

However if we tilt the scales too far then it becomes very hard to find enough weights to bring them back into equilibrium. Thus the cat becomes stressed for long periods of time and we end up with chronic problems which are much more difficult to sort especially in the cat.

Remember the idea is to correct the imbalance very quickly with little weights but you have to have the knowledge to be able to know exactly when the scales are starting to tilt. Because these are cat scales this is not always obvious! The whole idea of the Cat Behavior Guide, this blog and website is to try and give you the knowledge and education so you understand your own cat scales perfectly

A perfect example of chronic stress is the indoor cat being bullied by another cat. To humans the signs are very subtle unless you know what you are looking for. Yet to the cat this causes major stress,  physiologically you get  increased heart rate, increased glucose production etc yet the cat cannot run away and fighting will not stop the bullying. As the cat is unable to tilt the scales back it becomes chronically stressed and we get all the symptoms of the stressed cat in various combinations. The signs can vary from just being a bit quiet to full blown idiopathic cystitis etc. This is chronic stress.

This actually in many cases then brings on stress in the owner and the household in general. Once started this cascade of stress as I call it can be very hard to stop.

I will cover all the stress signs in subsequent posts and hope you have found this useful

Hi all just a quick post today as I am at the day job looking after some of my feline patients.

Please always consider what impact any life style changes will have on your cat(s) . With many cats prevention is so important. Over the years it has astounded me how many cats cope with almost anything BUT many do not. It is difficult to predict which type of cat you have, though the nervous ones are obviously over represented as being particularly susceptible to stress.

However the number of times I have seen a relaxed happy cat become stressed with all the resultant problems (many of them major issues) from one seemingly minor life style change is very sad. Many of these cases could have been prevented or at least managed correctly early on before they became a chronic problem.

For example the Siamese cross cat that started to spray after a room was redecorated by noisy and to the cat smelly decorators and he continued to spray for @ 12 months till we actually got the cat destressed!!

So educate your selves, learn how to talk and think cat and just consider your feline boss in anything you do around their home

Have a great weekend it is a long bank holiday weekend here in the UK but I am trying to get our new cat first aid book finished for publication on the net.

Paul

So how do you know if your cat is feeling stressed. Well as usual the clues are there you just have to understand “Cat Talk” and look for them. Remember there are no more blind than those who will not see..”
Look at your cat’s body language, look at position of the eyes, ears, tail paws, whiskers, body and head position.

Often stressed cat will adopt a defensive posture, so the body will be close to the ground, often leaning away from the stressor, head will be lowered, all 4 feet firmly planted on the ground. Also the ears and whiskers are folded back over often flattened to the head and the pupils will be fully dilated, so they can get as much information as possible about the real or perceived threat. Finally the tail is often wrapped very close to the body. Obviously the greater the threat the more obvious these changes ion body language will be. However it is important for you to see these changes when at their most subtle as it is here you are most effective at preventing behavioural problems later on.

Thus behavior and body language are very important indicators to wether your cat is stressed or not. The signs are always there in cats they are just often so hard to see if you do not know what you are looking at.

It is also very important to learn what is normal for you cat. As like humans they all differ and some are very bold and laid back while other a are typical nervous cats, that jump at their own shadow. ;-). This is often linked to how they were brought up at the critical kitten stage of under 7 weeks but also the father has a strong influence. If the Tom is a bold outgoing cat most of the kittens will also be like this and obviously vice versa will apply.

In the cat often the only way of recognising stress is to identify changes in your cats behavior. Thus the importance of knowing and having at least some understanding of cat behavior A good reason to buy and actually read our behavior book

This can often mean recognising excessive behavior patterns such as grooming to excess or excessive visits to the litter tray etc. Sometimes though the opposite can occur and your cat will show inhibited normal behavior patterns, no one said cats were straight forward.

It seems that cats can express stress behaviourally in 3 main ways:

1. Inhibited Behavior: many cats become inhibited in their normal behaviour patterns, such as grooming, eating, urination, defaecation etc. Again you must know your normal cat’s behavior to spot these often subtle changes. This is especially important in the early stages when we stand the best chance of correcting the problem. So make sure you look for what is absent in your cats behavior as much as the overt signs of stress you would expect.

2. Disruptive Behavior: some cats will try to rearrange their environment and move feed bowls, litter trays toys etc to different places. In some cases they will shred up paper or blankets, especially seen in caged cats but can also happen in the home. The idea is to make a new hidey hole they feel safe and comfortable in.

3. Defensive Behavior: This behavior is quite common in the stressed cat, for example hissing, flattened body posture, ears back, hiding and withdrawal. It is important to realise that cats feel hidden if they cannot see you, e.g. head under a blanket or towel. This is very useful in our surgery as we can often make very nervous insecure cats feel much more relaxed by hiding them under a blanket and examining them under this. An acquired art but very effective at times

Remember cats will stay with you as long as the relationship is mutually beneficial if not they will often move on Thus your dog will not mind you feeding it less or changing his or her bed, your cat might!

I will carry on this overview in the next few days, Paul

This article caught my eye in one of the vet journals on feline medicine I was reading as it related to many of the behaviourally challenged cats we are seeing. It comes from FAB the Feline Advisory Bureau a collection of experts all dedicated to the well being and welfare of the cat.  It also ends with a topic close to our hearts learn to speak cat!!

Over-attentive owners are a top cause of feline stress, according to the Feline Advisory Bureau’s (FAB) feline behaviour expert panel. The behaviour experts are warning the owners of the UK’s estimated nine million cats that their pets could be suffering from stress which can result in behaviour problems.
According to the FAB’s feline behaviour expert panel, who regularly tackle the nation’s growing number of unhappy cats, some of the top stressors for cats include:

feeling exposed because of lots of other cats in the garden or looking in through glass doors;

having over-protective, over-attentive or inconsistent owners;

living with another cat or cats which are unfriendly;

living in an environment where they get bored, don’t have good feline facilities, or where there are no escape opportunities (from people, other cats or dogs).

These are just a few of the stressors which have been identified by feline behaviourists. This stress can be exhibited as a number of behaviour problems, such as spraying or soiling in the house. Stressed-out felines can also turn into attention-seeking pests or may retreat into their shells.

Vicky Halls, FAB panel member and author of several cat books, said: “Cats are by nature solitary creatures and cannot be expected to provide emotional support for lonely owners.

“If we understood basic cat needs, problems such as indoor spraying or soiling, nervousness and aggression would not occur nearly so frequently.

“Cats are highly adaptable and have lived alongside us very successfully. However, there is no doubt that most of the problems we see are caused by the environment into which we place our pet cats, and sometimes the expectations we have of them,” she said.