Both these products work while you’re not around and because cats have a very short learning curve, it only takes a few times to learn what areas of the home are off limits to clawing. The other product is SSSCAT which is a motion sensor air-in-a-can. Sticky Paws are see-through strips of sticky tape to apply to furniture or rugs. There are few gentle and humane products that deter cats from clawing certain areas or items in your home. You can train your cat to use them by dragging a toy across the scratcher, adding a sprinkle of catnip, praising, and offering a food reward! Experiment with where you place the scratchers until you see your cat using them on his own. My cats prefer the corrugated cardboard scratchers in a variety of shapes and sizes. Purchase a few scratching posts, pads or other cat scratching items. Promote Clawing Behaviour Where You Want It Using an interactive toy like a wand toy that you maneuver or a battery-operated toy can help exhaust his natural predatory behaviour and reduce clawing behaviour. One of the best ways to de-stress your cat (and prevent him from becoming stressed to begin with) is to play with him a few times each day. This synthetic copy of the feline facial pheromone used by cats to mark their territory as safe and secure mimics the cat’s natural facial pheromones, creating a sense of familiarity and security. Also, in multi-cat households, cats can be more aggressive and less cooperative with one another when fed on schedules or too many hours apart.ģ.Feline pheromone products are effective in reducing stress in cats by helping them feel calmer and safer in their environment and this means less stress-related clawing behaviour. no food for several hours at a time is less stressful. Scientific research has shown that food puzzles reduce stereotypical stress-related behaviours in cats.Ģ.Feeding your cat several small meals a day as opposed to two larger scheduled meals (with the help of a timed feeder if needed) can also help reduce stress because having food more readily available vs. A food puzzle prolongs chewing and feeding while providing your cat with a foraging activity that should be part of his daily behavioural repertoire. How to Bust Feline Stress to Decrease Clawing:ġ.Incorporate a food puzzle into your cat’s daily life using his regular cat food or healthy cat treats. If a cat’s environment is mundane, his stress response system can become activated and this can lead to more clawing behaviour than what’s necessary. Stress is often underappreciated in cats and can be one of the main causes for normal day-to-day clawing behaviour as well as excessive clawing. from Mieshelle Nagelschneider’s feline science behaviour book The Cat Whisperer What to Do! De-stress Your Cat to Decrease Clawing Behaviour Luckily, you can stop all of these behaviors-humanely.” Or they do other things to annoy us, like jumping on the computer keyboard, plucking food off the dining room table while you’re calling the guests in to eat, or licking the butter you left on the kitchen counter-even though you have sat them down many times and carefully explained how the cons of such behaviours outweigh the pros. Cats will claw silk drapes into streamers, rugs into shreds, and couches into something that resembles the furniture you see at the most depressing yard sale you’ve ever been to. “It’s in the nature of animals, who have a distressing disregard for sticker prices, sometimes to just tear things up. Being hungry and having to wait for food can create stress, not just for cats, but for many other species as well. One common example many cat owners share with me during a consultation is how their cats will claw mark while their scheduled meal is being prepared. They have many ways to release stress and emotional energy- in addition to claw marking behaviour, pacing and meowing are common behaviours to reduce stress. Clawing to reduce stress: Cats are highly skilled at de-stressing and don’t need yoga or a spa weekend getaway. In addition to using their claws for exercise, cats use them for balance and climbing, which are so important to their feelings of safety.ģ. As a form of isometric exercise, cats stretch their muscles by embedding their claws into a surface and then pulling back. Cats are digitigrade, meaning they walk on their toes instead of the bottoms of their paws. Clawing for exercise and mobility: Clawing also allows cats to exercise and stretch. Clawing for nail maintenance: Cats need to claw to maintain the health of the nail and to remove old sheaths, exposing the sharp claw.Ģ.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |