Episode 6: 5 Ways to Meet the Needs of Your Cat

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to PET | TAO.FM, I’m your host Dr. Marc Smith, practicing veterinarian and co-creator of PET | TAO Holistic Pet Products.

For the people out there who love kitty cats such as myself, and relish our feline friends, today we are going to talk about meeting your cat’s environmental needs.

Cats are unique, unbelievable animals, and one reason, and one thing that amazes me, is how cats don’t require a lot of physical care, yet they tend to stay pretty happy, and pretty healthy.

I think this is a huge misrepresentation, because I do think that cats require a lot of environmental care, and emotional care that sometimes we tend to dismiss.

I want you to think about it, somewhat in the context of the same emotional care that you may give your kids, your husband, your wife, or whoever it may be, but I want you to think about meeting your kitty cat’s environmental needs.

Many of you may be asking, “Why is it so important for me to meet my cat’s environmental needs? Heck! I have enough trouble meeting my own environmental needs.”

The main reason why is because behavior problems in cats are a leading cause of pet surrender and euthanasia.

These problems often occur because your kitty cat’s environmental needs are not being met.

There are five ways that you can meet the environmental needs of your cat, and have a happier, healthier cat, without the risk of unwanted behavioral problems and other things that plague many kitty cat owners.

The first way is to provide a safe place. Every cat needs a safe and secure place where it can retreat.

Many times, this place can be a simple as a cardboard box, or cat carrier, or a cat perch.

It doesn’t have to be real complicated, but it’s important for a cat to have a place where only the kitty cat can go, or the kitty cat can feel comfortable, secure, and protected.

The second way of meeting the environmental needs of your cat is by providing multiple and separated key environmental resources.

These resources would include the litter box.

In a house that has multiple cats, provide one litter box in different places throughout the house to meet the needs of each individual cat.

This advice also applies to water bowls, have multiple water bowls, and food bowls, and play areas.

When cats feel threatened or feel like they don’t have their own place, then often times, it causes stress, and that stress leads to disease.

The second way is to provide multiple and separated key environmental resources.

The third way to meet the environmental needs of your kitty cat is to provide opportunities for play and predatory behavior.

Cats like to chase things, and one way of encouraging this behavior is small little play toys around the house.

For the outside kitty cat, maybe they’ll chase a mouse.

Cats, unlike a dog from the standpoint of it, won’t chase cars, but they will chase other things, bugs, mice, birds.

Anything you can do to encourage the natural instinctual behavior of your cat, will help your kitty cat be happy and be healthy.

The fourth way of meeting thee environmental needs of your cat is by providing positive, consistent, and predictable human interaction.

Cats’ preferences vary, however most cats prefer a good grooming, a good petting, or just being talked to on a regular basis.

The last way to meet the environmental needs of your cat, is by providing an environment that respects the importance of the cat’s sense of smell.

Cats use their sense of smell to evaluate their surroundings. Many times, cats mark their scent by rubbing their face and body on furniture, on your hand, on your bed, and many other places around the house.

This helps cats feel safe and feel secure.

When introducing another kitty cat into the household, avoid cleaning the scent of these areas.

When pets, other pets, people, or environmental changes in the home occur, pay particular attention not to disrupt your normal cat’s environment. This can lead to severe, relentless, time-consuming, not to mention financially draining kitty cat behavioral problems.

Many of the problems that I see each and everyday in practice.

Thank you for listening today and joining me on the PET|TAO FM podcast.

By the way, if you have time it would be so nice to do so- will you please leave us your review on iTunes?

Until next time, take care of your kitty cat, and think about these five environmental needs that your kitty cat has, and practice them each and everyday.

We will see you back next week for episode 7, so long.