INTRO:

This is the article I wrote for my niece when she said her Dad won’t let her keep a kitten in the house… this addresses my ‘opinion’ on what might be best for the problems raised…

Re Smell:

Best litters to reduce the smell of stools (although smell will be strong for up to an hour while the litter absorbs the fluid) would be the litter ‘crystals’. Altho when Salem first used it, he sniffed it n the dampness on his nose caused a piece of crystal to stick to him, so i use a small amount of a powdery litter from the Bob Martin brand to prevent it sticking to him.

The raw food is a massive subject on it’s own… a feral cat would hunt for a mouse, kill it, and eat nearly the whole thing… basically the bones, it’s brain, stomach, liver, even the mouses fur, all contributes to a cats digestive needs. Anything that isn’t digested is vomited. The beauty of the raw food diet is that it contains nothing BUT all the nutrients a cat needs. It all gets digested and the cat wont need to vomit. It would become a super healthy cat that would only produce waste once a week, and it won’t smell.

The problem with cat food you buy, that isn’t raw, is that it’s full of additives to make it last longer on a shelf. The raw food diet is in nugget shapes stored in a freezer. Basically, the cat food on the shelves of supermarkets, not in the freezer, is like us living off hotdogs. It’s a slurry of meat full of additives, sometimes salt, sugar, cat food jelly sometimes contains a chemical additives called ‘cassia gum’ which can made adult cats poorly, but can kill kittens if they get too much of it.

That summarises the food section and it’s relation to the litter ‘smell’.

Scratching Furniture:

Cats scratch for various reasons… it can vary from territorial behaviour, to climbing, to keeping their claws trimmed. I suppose the easiest, and maybe slightly cruel quick fix would be to just clip the sharp ends off the claw, so that it ‘has claws’ but can’t really use them for their usual behavioural habits. There are also “claw caps” which is weird, but you squeeze the cats paw padding until it’s claws are out and pop them on.

The nicer way to reduce, maybe prevent the scratching of furniture, is to give kitty what they need for their instincts. They like to climb… so a good cat tree and a network of shelving they ‘can’ scratch and use to climb, would mean you can tell them off for scratching the furniture, reward them for using their ‘climbing’ stuff, they’ll learn to only use what’s been provided.

Yes cats can be trained… they will still try it on, but when they get used to you and your tone of voice, they’ll learn the differences and understand if you’re asking them ‘not’ to do something.

In my case, Salem loves climbing, and I’ve given him ways to do that – I have a high point in each room he’s allowed to access. If at any point I change my tone and say something like “what you doing Salem?” He’ll look at me, and I’ll usually keep the tone and indicate with my head or hand what I’d like him to do.

So if i want him off, I’ll do a sweeping hand gesture in the direction I want him to go, or tilt my head. Sometimes both lol. Sometimes I even use my eyes. But he’s got to know me, so all these things he understands. If he’s being good, I’ll give him blink kisses (looking at a cat, then slowly closing and reopening).

Basically if you stare at a cat unblinking, you’re warning them about what they’re doing. To a cat, it’s a threat. As soon as you do a blink kiss, they know that you trust them and are willingly being ‘vulnerable’. As a cat gets to know you, you’ll sometimes get ‘blink kisses’ back, which is kitty language for ‘i trust you’.

If Salems being really naughty, i will use all ‘cat’ aggressive body language. So Salems not allowed on the dining room table, he knows this… one time he was testing me. He sat on the dining room table, and i stared at him unblinking. He stared back, his pupils widening… he was getting nervous, but being defiant. I twitched towards him, usually that’s enough, but he was still telling me “no, want to be here, and I don’t think you can make me go…”. I continued to stare, then i moved so quick and suddenly, 3 large strides to stand by him… oh my god he left the table in such a hurry he ruffled and skidded on the tablecloth LOL! He’s not been on the table since, but if he puts one paw on the table, I just say ‘Salemm’ in a certain tone, n he’s like ‘ok ok’ and he takes his paw off.

Understanding cat behaviour can lead to a wonderful connection and understanding, and it’s that which makes a relationship with a cat rewarding and amazing. To understand cat behaviour more, I’d strongly recommend watching ‘my cat from hell’ by Jackson Galaxy, and some of his YouTube videos. They all teach you how to be a good cat mum, and train them to fit in with you and your surroundings x