To help cat lovers across the country celebrate feline friendships onInternational Cat Day (8 August), PETstock VET Dr Emily Chan has compiled alist of care tips to keep kittens and cats happy and healthy.
Fun training for your cat
Cats are intelligent animals and can be easily trained in a similar way to adog to learn new tricks such as sit, shake paws and more. There are manybenefits to training your cat: You are providing them with positive mentalstimulation, improving your relationship with them, encouraging positivebehaviours, such as coming to you when you call them, and discouragingnegative behaviours, such as jumping up on tabletops.
Playtime
Indoor cats need a lot of environmental enrichment. Cats love chasing toyshowever owners need to be careful of toys that are attached to string or toysthat are small enough to swallow, as they can get obstructions from chewingand eating them.
Cats love to sit up high so they can overlook their ‘kingdom’. A large multi-level scratch post, especially located with a window view, is a great way tokeep your cat happy and to give them a nice spot to snooze during the day. Anautomated laser pointer for your curious cat will provide lots of fun.
Fresh water
Cats love running water– a pet friendly water fountain is a great way toencourage cats to drink more water, as well as multiple water stations aroundthe house.
Grooming Cats need regular brushing and grooming to prevent hairballs aswell as matting to the fur. Long hair cats need daily brushing.
Stress and anxiety can affect your cat in similar ways that it can affecthumans. It is important to ensure you give your buddy time to adapt to changesand keep an eye out for any behaviour that may be telling you that your fur-baby is suffering from anxiety. If in doubt visit your local vet
Feline Fun Facts
Cats conserve energy by sleeping for an average of 13 – 14 hours a day, whichequates to about 70% of their lives sleeping.
Cats have powerful night vision, allowing them to see at light levels sixtimes lower than what a human needs in order to see. Cats also have excellenthearing and a powerful sense of smell.
Cats spend a large amount of time licking their coats to keep them clean.
The richest cat in the world according to Guinness World Records is Blackie.When his millionaire owner passed away, he refused to recognise his family inhis will and instead gave his 7-million-pound fortune to Blackie.
An orange tabby cat called Stubbs was the Mayor of an Alaskan town for 20years.
You’ve heard of monkeys and dogs in space, but in 1963 a cat known as‘Astrocat’ was the first and only cat to go to space.
House cats share 95.6% of their genetic makeup with tigers.
A cat can hit speeds of around 30mph which is so fast that they could beatOlympian Usain Bolt in a 200-metre dash!
The most tricks performed by a cat in one minute is 24! Didga completed aseries of tricks from rolling over, to even jumping a bar whilst on askateboard!
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