If you’ve decided to get yourself a cat, you’ll likely have a relatively good understanding of the level of care it will require. Whether you’re relatively experienced as a newcomer to cat ownership, you’ll want to make sure you’ve done your research to better understand how to care for your furry companion. To help you out, we’ve put together some useful tips to ensure you’ve got the basics down, along with a few more advanced suggestions to better prepare you for a positive, happy, and fun experience of being a cat owner.
Spend Time With Your Cat
Everyone knows that sometimes you can get a cat that’s just standoffish and at best keeps to itself. In a worst-case scenario, this cat could even be aggressive and territorial. The chances are, this can have failed to get enough human companionship in their early developmental stages. Luckily, if you’ve adopted a cat at this stage for example, with enough patience and love, you can train this attitude out of them. All they need to know is that they’re safe around you and that you are a source of love and kindness. Most aggressive reactions in animals come from fear and uncertainty. Be patient and find ways to bond with your cat to bring them out of their shell and accept you as a friend.
Feed Them Well
Providing your cat with quality, tasty food, is an essential part of caring for them. There are plenty of cheap, mass-produced foods out there that may provide a basic level of recommended nutrition, but oftentimes the quality of this food is lacking. Many pet owners are turning their attention to higher quality, slightly more costly food alternatives to make sure their cat is getting a healthy and balanced diet. Cats can be especially picky with their food too and love to just stop enjoying their regular meal choice out of the blue. This can either be a sign of boredom, or that they’re getting enough food elsewhere in the form of treats, or they’re getting food from other people if they’re an outdoor cat. Try to monitor their diet and even try changing up your choice in cat food to see if they just want something new and fresh.
Provide Mental Stimulation
For your cat to truly thrive, you need to make sure they’re not getting bored. A cat that is lacking in stimulating activities, especially those that are indoor cats, can turn their attention towards creating their fun such as knocking things off of shelves, scratching furniture, and generally being a nuisance. Provide them with toys that you can find from online stores like Time For Paws to keep them occupied when you’re unable to play. Toys with treats in them are a great way to give them a problem-solving task and scratching posts will give them something to sink their claws into when they’re trying to work off some stress.
Grooming Sessions
Keeping your cat well-groomed is another way for you to bond and also has some great benefits for the health of your cat. Certain breeds require regular grooming, especially longer haired cats, and while you can get some of the more complex grooming tasks sorted by a professional groomer or vet, it’s worthwhile getting you and your cat acquainted with you handling some of this too. You can get yourself a quality brush to keep their fur free from knots and also if they’ll let you, you can carefully trim their claws with special clippers if they’re getting too sharp.
Spaying And Neutering
Responsible pet ownership requires us to make sure our pets cannot breed. Having pets for the sake of breeding them and selling their offspring is well-known to be unfair and sometimes cruel to these animals that we are meant to be caring for. The physical stress that animals go through during insemination, pregnancy, and labour, is entirely unfair on the animal and shouldn’t be pursued. Instead, spaying and neutering your pets is the most responsible thing to do. Not only is it unfair to force your pet to have babies, but it’s also bad for the general population of these animals as there are hundreds of thousands of animals in the UK alone that need a home, and breeding reduces the chances of those animals ever getting adopted.
Vet Care
Another important aspect of taking care of your cat is by taking them to see the vet regularly for check-ups. Your cat needs to get acquainted with the vets to help reduce anxiety when going for specific problems. Your vet will provide your cat with essential jabs and medication to ensure they’re fit and healthy and will also give you care advice or instructions on if you should be feeding them more or less. They’ll also be able to identify any signs of serious illness or disease, so make sure you don’t avoid those regular checkups to ensure your companion is healthy and full of vigour.