BECOME CAT SMART

A Cautionary Note About Catnip

By drsigne · Comments (0)

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

How do cats tend to respond to catnip? Like it’s playful kittenhood all over again. They rub their faces in it, roll their bodies all over it, lick it, and eat it. They appear a little drunk.

Catnip (Nepeta cateria) leaves and blossoms contain the chemical nepetalactone which targets the cat’s pleasure center in the brain. Catmint (Nepeta faassenii) which has small silver-green leaves, blue flowers, and spreads rapidly in the garden also contains nepetalactone. Some cats like one more than the other. Read More→

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Categories : addressing cat's emotional needs, cat behavior, cat psychology, catnip, determining cat preferences, picking cat toys

Tags : addressing cat's emotional needs, aggression, choosing toys, using catnip

Trust Is Not A Given

By drsigne · Comments (0)

Sunday, December 19th, 2010

It’s so distressing. Over and over I’ve seen people adopt a cat from a shelter or rescue organization one day and want to return it the next. Why? The cat didn’t become best buds with them overnight. Say what? Would you expect a human stranger you had just invited into your home to become your best bud that fast? I don’t think so! Read More→

Growling Is A Purr Turned Upside Down

By drsigne · Comments (0)

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

How can a cat show its feelings of displeasure, anger, fear, pain, or insecurity? It can growl or hiss. It can reach out to touch someone … and scratch. Like humans, cats mirror their circumstances and respond as best they can to communicate that they feel things are going badly … or well.

For the cat who arrived at its new home growling, hissing, scratching, and generally saying, “Get the h*ll away from me,” there may have been a lot going on previously to precipitate this response. The “Hissing, Growling, and Scratching, Oh My!” post covered many of the pre-arrival factors that could have contributed to the cat’s negative behavior. But what if none of those factors has played much of a role in the growling, hissing, and scratching?

Hissing, Growling, and Scratching … Oh, My!

By drsigne · Comments (0)

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

A “burning question” was sent to me about a 7-month-old cat who won’t stop hissing, growling, and scratching one of his two new cat-mates and his kitty mom. What’s going on? He was just flown in so why so “aggressive”? What can she do? Read More→

All That Dangles Is Not Safe

By drsigne · Comments (0)

Sunday, November 28th, 2010

Cats love things that dangle. The motion is intriguing and the playability is attractive. This goes for ties on robes, toys on strings, venetian blind cords, plant leaves, and electrical cords, for example. Of all of these, however, by far the most worrisome is electrical cords.

Kaz, my 16-year-old, battle-scarred, football-shaped black cat, was always on the lookout for any kind of hanging electrical cord. Any cord inert on the floor held no fascination for him whatsoever, but if it were hanging, he salivated with anticipation. Read More→

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Categories : cat behavior, cat psychology, cats like things that dangle, distraction, environmental changes, human psychology, preventing biting electrical cord, removing dangerous danglers, replacing bad habit with good habit

Tags : environmental change, modifying cat's behavior, prevent chewing electrical cords and cables, removing dangling electrical cords, use of distraction, use of re-direction

Cat Problems May Require You Both Change

By drsigne · Comments (0)

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Your cat has a behavior you consider problematic. You call in an animal behaviorist, cat whisperer, or animal communicator. This professional works with your cat and your cat soon seems cured. Hurrah!

Well, that’s “cured” until your cat is back in its old environment. Before you know it, the problem has reappeared. You’re aghast. What is going on here? Didn’t the cat professional do its job properly?

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Categories : addressing cat's emotional needs, cat behavior, cat psychology, cat-human relationship, communication, determining cat preferences, environmental changes, factors contributing to behavior problem, human behavior, human psychology, human-cat relationship, providing emotional support, supporting behavior changes

Tags : addressing cat's emotional needs, modifying cat's behavior, understanding cat's behavior

Are You Consulting Your Cat on Toys?

By drsigne · Comments (0)

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

Most people lavish their cats with toys and then are disappointed that many of those toys end up being ignored. A natural reaction is to be a bit disgruntled and assume the cat is ungrateful. But your cat isn’t being ungrateful. Your cat has preferences—just like you—and it’s up to you to experiment to discover what they are.

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Categories : addressing cat's emotional needs, cat behavior, cat psychology, determining cat preferences, picking cat toys

Tags : addressing cat's emotional needs, choosing toys, making toys cats like, prey toys

But the Cat Scratches the Furniture!

By drsigne · Comments (0)

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

In an e-mail Robert said, “You say don’t punish your cat. Get serious. How am I supposed to get rid of the cat’s bad behaviors, like scratching the furniture?”

Punishment is generally thought of as rough handling or mistreatment. This is never an appropriate response to what your cat does. There are all kinds of ways to change a cat’s behavior for the better. Your objective is to replace a bad habit with a good habit. Any show of physical anger or meanness will tend to have the opposite effect. What does your cat want from you?

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Categories : addressing cat's emotional needs, cat behavior, cat psychology, cat-human relationship, communication, correcting scratching habit, environmental changes, human-cat relationship, physically struggling with cat, re-direction, replacing bad habit with good habit, substituting scratching object

Tags : addressing cat's emotional needs, eliminating inappropriate scratching, environmental change, negative effect of anger, use of re-direction

Never Forget Who Your Cat Is

By drsigne · Comments (0)

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Several months ago an emaciated, deaf, elderly calico I named “Delia” joined my large kitty family. I refer to her lovingly as my “ditch” cat because she was found in a ditch beside the road. Despite all my culinary efforts, she hardly eats anything, drinks a great deal, and remains skeletal.

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Categories : addressing cat's emotional needs, cat behavior, cat psychology, cat's need for attention, communication, providing emotional support, sick cat's needs

Tags : addressing cat's emotional needs

Hog-Tie Your Cat To Clip Its Nails?

By drsigne · Comments (0)

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Ed says, “It’s always a battle to the death” when he wants to cut his cat’s nails so he’s toying around with the idea of hog-tying his cat for that purpose. Poor cat. Ed, you need to be aware that while cats are independent and like to do things their own way, the problem you present is not your cat’s. It’s yours! Think about it a minute. If you knew that someone who wanted you to do something you did not want to do was planning to make it a physical power struggle each time, would you be eager to participate? I don’t think so!

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Categories : aggression, cat behavior, cat psychology, cat-human relationship, changing cat's expectations, communication, human behavior, human psychology, human-cat relationship, nail clipping, physically struggling with cat

Tags : changing cat's expectations, fighting with cat, nail clipping

Get New Post Alerts

A Cautionary Note About Catnip

Trust Is Not A Given

Growling Is A Purr Turned Upside Down

Hissing, Growling, and Scratching … Oh, My!

All That Dangles Is Not Safe

Cat Problems May Require You Both Change

Are You Consulting Your Cat on Toys?

But the Cat Scratches the Furniture!

Never Forget Who Your Cat Is

Hog-Tie Your Cat To Clip Its Nails?

Meet Dr. Signe Dayhoff