Moving House With Your Cat

Many people stress when they have to move house with their pets, especially cats as they are notorious for trying to get back to the old residence, so a little advice can go a long way.

Ideally, you need to keep your cat indoors for at least six weeks. To begin with, choose a room in the house that the cat can stay in with all toys, food, water, litterbox and bed, and that would become the cat’s safe place. Before the move, place a piece of clothing or cloth in the room that has both your scent and that of your cat on it, and just leave it in the room. If you can lay your hands on a cat pheromone such as Feliway, spray that around the room the day before the move, or at least prior to introducing the cat to the room. Humans cannot smell the pheromones and it won’t mark walls or fabrics, but it will be very calming for your cat.

Your cat should stay in this room for at least a week, possibly longer depending on the cat. Pay special attention to how well he/she is settling in. Obviously, you will need to visit him or her regularly in the room for play time, etc - the cat is not in prison. When you decide that the cat is settled enough in that room, you can open up another section of the house to him/her, just spraying a bit of pheromone to the new area - this lasts for about a month so no need to re-do the safe room.

If you have a large house, you should let the cat explore a bit at a time, and when he or she has become comfortable with the new area, another room can be made available, until the whole house has been explored and the cat seems calm and comfortable in the new surroundings. Moving into something smaller is, of course, a much easier transition for the cat.

When you let your cat outside for the first time, ideally you should be present just to keep an eye on things. Make sure that the cat is fed when it comes back inside at night around the same time - this will help it learn that this is home and where food is provided. This would also be the ideal opportunity to turn your cat into an indoor cat as it would have been living inside for several weeks already.

Generally speaking, with a bit of forethought and planning, moving house can be a smooth exercise for your cat.

Does Neutering/Spaying Affect Cat Behaviour?

This is one of the easiest questions to answer - emphatically, yes, in a positive way. Many people are still uncomfortable or undecided when it comes to neutering and spaying of their cat, but it’s a no brainer.

In the case of a female cat, once she has access to the outdoors, chances are that every time she comes into heat, she will be found by a tom cat and become pregnant. She does not need that drain on her body, nor do you, her human, need the headache of trying to find homes for numerous kittens in a society where shelters are already overflowing with unwanted cats and kittens.

Believe it or not, when a female cat (queen or moggy) comes into season, she will be advertising the fact to all who care to listen. Not only will her scent spread far and wide, but she will become very noisy with constant yowling in her attempt to attract a mate, wandering and even marking with her urine as it will be rich in pheromones. Even if the cat lives indoors, her behaviour will change during her heat.

It is healthier for the female cat to be spayed as the chances of her getting ovarian or uterine cancers are reduced significantly, she will be safer as she will be less inclined to go wandering and come to grief with a car, another cat, wild animal or any one of the numerous hazards that are out there.

The procedure of spaying is a small operation performed under aneasthesia by a vet who will remove the uterus and the ovaries. The operation is quick, relatively cheap and recovery time is short. Ideally, it should be done before she has her first heat which could be any time around four months of age, but it is safe to perform the operation on adult cats too, so don’t delay, book yours today.

For male cats, it is an even easier, quicker and cheaper operation, also performed by a vet. The testicles are removed in an operations that takes about five minutes, and recovery time is therefore very short.

The behaviour changes in the male cat are also significant. It takes a few weeks for testosterone levels to lower to their new levels, so changes are steady and can be noticed almost immediately. The cat’s need to wander and mark their territory (whether indoors or outdoors) will decrease significantly. There will be no chance of the cat getting testicular cancer, and he will be more inclined to stay close to home, which means a safer environment for him. Most neutered males also become more loving and wanting of their human’s company. There will be no unwanted kittens produced by the neutered male, whether yours or those of your neighbour. 

So neutering/spaying your cat is the responsible thing to do and your cat will thank you for it.

Cats & Aggression

Cats are not born aggressive. Experiences in their lives may generate aggression, and once these experiences continue to occur, the aggression tends to get worse as the cat gets older. Unless there is some kind of brain tumor or some such medical issue affecting the cat’s behaviour, aggression is usually in response to an outside stimulus.

A cat may be aggressive out of fear or due to pain. Cats are usually very stoic and mask any pain or discomfort that they are feeling, but some may lash out. With the removal of the pain, the aggression should disappear. Similarly, a cat that displays aggression because it feels threatened is relatively normal. The need to lash out and protect oneself is a perfectly normal response throughout the animal kingdom.

A mother cat may become aggressive when someone or something gets too close to her nest, and this may include her beloved human. Though all mother cats do not display aggression, this too is normal behaviour, and once her hormones return to normal levels, the aggression should disappear. However, there are instances where cat aggression becomes a problem. It may be aggression shown to another cat or animal in the household, or it may be aggression shown towards it’s human. 

Just like humans, every cat does not necessarily like every cat or animal that it must share a home with, and though outright aggression does not usually occur except for the odd occasion, it does happen. Most often, a simple hiss and a swat are enough, but some cats just don’t like each other. If it is a big problem such that the cats get injured and require a trip to the vet, this type of cat on cat aggression is not usually going to be resolved, and re-homing of one or other cat is the best solution. However, these instances are rare. Most cats will tolerate even those in the household that they don’t like once a safe distance is maintained by all. Getting too close can just provoke the cat into an aggressive act, and this will just make the situation worse.

All too often, as a kitten, humans in the cat’s life may play roughly, thinking how cute it is that the kitten attacks a finger or a toe, because at that age it’s not a problem and does not hurt, but as the cat becomes an adult, this rough play becomes distinctly unpleasant for the human and can get totally out of hand. Without realising it, the human has encouraged this type of behaviour, so the poor cat doesn’t know what is wrong and doesn’t understand why it is no longer acceptable. Therefore, a rule of thumb, is to play with your kitten (and adult cat) using toys that keep your own hands (and toes) at a distance. There are numerous such toys available on the market, plus it’s very easy to make something with an old rag and some catnip for “flavour”.

More specific instances of cat aggression will be dealt with in a later posting and in more detail. The above are generalisations that are fairly common occurrences.

And Even More Litterbox Tips for a Happy Cat

Since litterbox issues are one of the most frequent reasons that cat owners request euthanasia or rehoming of their cat, I cannot offer enough tips on how to remedy this problem. The cat cannot fix it’s litterbox issues without the human’s input. You have chosen to have a cat, so it is your responsibility to figure out the problems and to fix them. If a cat does not like the location of it’s litterbox, it cannot pick it up and move it to a more suitable location. That is the responsibility of the human.

If a cat has been declawed, what is left of it’s toes may be very tender, and therefore the type of litter can be very important. Some litters will just make it too painful for the cat to scratch and do it’s toileting, making the carpet look very attractive. Nowadays there are numerous different types of litter with variations in texture and feel, not to mention scent. Depth of litter is also important for most cats - about two inches is just right for my cat. All of these things may be very important to your cat.

The litterbox itself can be an important factor to some cats. Is it too small or is it too big? Perhaps a covered litterbox would be preferable, adding to the privacy of the cat, or maybe no cover. And, as I’ve mentioned before, some cats won’t share a litterbox with another cat, and some require one litterbox for pee and one for poo. And I cannot stress enough how important the location of the litterbox is to the cat.

With all of these variables, it’s easy to see how long it can take to get the litterbox placement to the cat’s liking, and all of this is after the vet has given clearance of the cat’s health - no amount of litterbox tweaking will help if the cat has a urinary tract infection.

Do not despair, with patience, most litterbox issues can be solved humanely, but it may take some time.

The Bully Cat

Unfortunately, bullies are not just human-kind, they are a fairly regular presence in the feline world too. Research has shown that several factors may result in a bully cat, one of which is the kitten being removed from it’s mother at too young an age…for whatever reason. However, none of the research seems to be particularly conclusive and there are probably several contributing factors in the early years of the animal.

The bully cat tends to pick on just one cat in the household. Learning the signs of when he (or she) is getting ready to pounce on the victim is key to diverting the energy elsewhere. However, there really is no reliable “fix” to the bully cat. 

In the case of a male bully cat, neutering will offer some help, and diversion will offer some help. Diversion tactics offered a millisecond too late will have little to no effect, so observing and learning the signs are very important, and then presenting the diversion just before the bullying begins. Diversion can be play, a treat, attention, anything fun and positive that appeals to the cat.

In my personal experience of bully cats, they have all been male and the victims have always been female, however I am sure that female bully cats exist too. On of my own cats was a bully cat, and he bullied our female for his entire life (about fifteen years), though once he passed about age ten, incidents became infrequent to not at all.

The bullying situation is very much about observation and figuring out when to intervene and how to intervene without making the situation worse, as “once a bully always a bully” applies in the cat kingdom.