Mary Allen
The welfare of the beloved cat is the top priority for most cat owners. And yet, even experienced cat owners still make mistakes. An expert reveals which five mistakes are made particularly often when keeping cats.
Cat owners make every effort to ensure that their velvet paws have an all-around fulfilled cat life. But even experienced cat owners make mistakes. The American animal trainer Mikkel Becker reveals which five mistakes cat owners make most often.
Mistake 1: Feeding Dry Food From the Bowl
In many cat households, it is a completely normal picture: a bowl filled with dry food is available to the cat. In nature, however, gathering food is one of the main tasks of the cat. So instead of giving your cat a full bowl of dry food, let it work out its food. There are various possibilities for that:
- intelligence toy
- Snuffle pillow (you can easily make it yourself)
- small portions of dry food hidden in different places
Mistake 2: Food is Always Available
Veterinarians complain that every second domestic cat is overweight or even obese. Supposedly funny and cute videos and pictures of fat cats are successfully circulating on the Internet, but the extra pounds have a fatal effect on the cat’s health.
Overweight cats are particularly prone to diseases such as diabetes and have a shorter life expectancy than cats of normal weight.
If you constantly offer the cat large amounts of food, you also lose track of when and how much the cat is really eating. So the cat owner does not notice so quickly when the cat eats less due to illness.
Ideally, the cat should be given several small portions throughout the day. An automatic feeder makes this task easier.
Mistake 3: Thinking Cats are Independent and Don’t Need As Much Attention
Cats are not the loners that many still think they are. Most cats are very social and enjoy spending time with their human or with other cats. Time to play and cuddle together is just as important for the cat as regular feeding and regular cleaning of the litter box. No cat should be left alone for long hours on a regular basis.
Mistake 4: Forgetting Regular Check-ups at the Vet
Cats are masters at hiding pain and illness. Preventive examinations by the vet are therefore all the more important. This is the only way diseases such as diabetes or renal insufficiency can be detected and treated early enough.
A visit to the vet is often associated with stress for the cat and owner, but that is no reason to postpone the visit to the vet. Adult cats should be presented to a veterinarian every year, and senior cats over the age of seven even every six months. Positive experiences in the transport box make the visit to the vet less bad.
Mistake 5: Believing Training is Only Important for Puppies
Cats are very sociable, friendly, and intelligent. Just like puppies, young cats need to be socialized and trained. The mother cat already makes an important contribution to the socialization of the young cat. It is therefore important that young cats stay with their mother and siblings for as long as possible (but at least 12 weeks).
Young cats are incredibly capable of learning. Loving consistency is required, especially in the first few weeks together. A cat can certainly learn that a certain area is taboo for it – but only if this is communicated to it consistently from the start.