Archive forNovember, 2009

Kitten Training Books – Key Points About Your Kitten



If you have recently adopted a kitten, there are some things you should know about cat behavior problems so that you can help your new kitty settle in properly. In doing so, you will be preventing the kind of avoidable frustrations that often beset new cat parents and that can result in a cat or kitten being returned to the shelter or breeder.

One of the first things you should consider when adopting a kitten is what supplies your will need. Before bring your pet home, you should be equipped with a litter box and litter, food and a few toys. It is also helpful to have a few kitten training books available for quick reference. These can be found at any pet store or local library.

Be patient and allow your kitten some time to become familiar with its new home. Cats and kittens are quite sensitive and aren’t always receptive to new sights, sounds and smell. Don’t be alarmed if your kitten hides under furniture for a few days. This is normal behavior and the best way to handle it is to relax and allow your new pet a few days to feel comfortable its new surroundings.

Be sure to research potential problems such as scratching before they become a problem. According to most common kitten books, each cat requires two or more scratching posts. They don’t have to be fancy, cheap cardboard ones will do, or your cats might prefer a kitty condo. In the end, it is more important that you have the scratching posts than the kind you have.

Another vital area is the litter box. You do not have to teach a kitten to utilize the litter box since they know to use it instinctively; although, they can be picky about the conditions of the litter box. Locate the litter box in an area away from any loud noises.

Also keep kids and other animals away from the litter box. You can by the same variety of liter that is utilized by the animal shelter or breeder. To keep down on odor, clean out the litter box frequently.

Don’t be in too big of hurry to introduce your new pet to other pets in your household. Keep you kitty in a bedroom or bathroom for a couple of days and let the other pets sniff him under the door.

You may hear some hissing and scratching for awhile, but don’t worry. It’s normal pet behavior. One way to introduce and old cat to a new cat is by feeding them together. That way each will associate the pleasure of eating with the other which will help them to bond.


Comments off

Cat Training – The Basics



If you have ever tried to train a cat or any pet, you have probably realized that it isn’t the simplest process. Training a cat is not the same thing as training a dog, as cats are not performance pets like dogs can be. There are three rules to follow when training a cat; reward, praise, and positive reinforcement. If you can learn how to use these rules and how to apply them to your cat’s training, you will be able to teach your cat simple tricks – and perhaps even toilet train it!

Basic cat training tries to encourage good behavior and discourage bad behavior. Anything you want your cat to do should be rewarding, enjoyable, and pleasant. Likewise, those things you don’t want your cat to do should be unpleasant, not enjoyable, and should never be rewarded. It is important to remember that reprimands don’t work in cat training. Punishment will only cause the cat to mistrust you and to repeat the bad behavior, when you are not around. Sometimes cats won’t align the crime with the punishment and act out with another bad behavior.

Training will require time and diligence. You should never stray from your routine. If a cat has a pleasant experience when he does something, and is rewarded with food or praise, you can bet he will repeat this behavior. So, help your feline friend achieve a desired behavior, such as litter box training, with this in mind. When litter box training, you can control what your cat takes in and determine where it comes out. A short time after eating, take your cat in an enclosed room with the litter box. Make him sit in the box. When he has used the litter box, provide plenty of oral praise and hugs, maybe even a little treat, and your little friend will get the point. Soon he won’t need to be kept in the box to achieve the desired result.

No one wants their cats to use their new couch as a scratching post. Of course, initially, they really don’t know any better, so make it an unpleasant experience. Cats don’t like to get their claws caught up in anything, so cover the bottom of your sofa with netting. The cat will realize this is not any fun and retreat to his scratching post. Once again, positive reinforcement with the good behavior is key.

As important as it is to reward good behavior, it is also as important not to reward bad behavior. If your cat does something you don’t like, don’t give him a treat to divert him from the bad behavior. He will associate the improper behavior with rewards and continue to do it. Instead, ignore him or ****** him with water. He will get your point. Also, keep in mind that sometimes a cat will behave badly to get attention. So be sure to schedule regular playtime with your feline and provide them with plenty of toys.

Once you’ve accomplished the basics in training, you can teach your cat to do many things. They have been taught to sit, lay, walk on a leash and, as mentioned before, even potty trained. Your well-behaved cat will be the envy of all.


Comments off

How To Care For Your Kitten



Even if you have had years of experience with adult cats, taking care of a kitten is a whole new world. Kittens eat differently, sleep differently, and need time to adjust to changes both inside their bodies and in the outside world. Learn about a kitten’s basic needs and how to help your kitten grow into a happy, healthy adult cat.

Make Your Home Kitten-Proof

What, exactly, does kitten-proofing entail? Particularly if you already have older cats, what more do you need to do?

For one thing, kittens are much more active and curious than older cats. Like human babies, they often satisfy their curiosity by chewing everything in site. For this reason, you should purchase all-natural cat litter and not the clumping clay variety that is commonly used with older cats.

Another element of kitten-proofing your home is giving the kitten a safe place to be. This need not be an entire room, but it does need to be quiet and closed off from other animals. After a few days, give the kitten and the other animals some closely supervised time to get acquainted. If your new kitten has not been to the vet, keep it quarantined from other animals until you can be certain he does not have any infectious diseases. Give the animals a few weeks to get used to each other and do not push too hard; before you know it, the safe room will be a thing of the past!

The First Visit to the Vet

The first visit to the vet should take place shortly after you have gotten your kitten, particularly if it was a stray and you do not know its medical history. This is particularly important if you have other household pets that could be infected if the kitten has any communicable diseases. Until you take the new kitten to the vet, you will need to keep him away from the other pets.

At the veterinarian’s office, your kitten will undergo a detailed physical exam. This will include looking at baby teeth to determine age, measuring temperature, palpating organs, listening to the heart, brushing fur for signs of fleas, and checking eyes and ears. After the physical examination is complete, the vet will perform several tests, such as:

Fecal float checks for worms

Blood Tests check for FeLV and FIV viruses

Depending on your kitten’s age when you first take her to the vet, she may be vaccinated. Vaccinations take place at 9 to 10 weeks of age. Kittens are given a booster shot at 12 and 14 weeks and possibly a Rabies vaccine, depending on local laws or if your cat is considered at risk.

Two procedures that may be taken care of at different times are spaying/neutering and declawing. Some vets prefer to spay/neuter at a younger age, as it may be better for the cat. You need to make a separate appointment for this. Unlike spaying and neutering, declawing is a more debatable procedure. You should aim to understand more about the benefits and disadvantages of this procedure before you make a final decision.

Social Growth

In his first month and a half of growth, a new kitten experiences tremendous changes. Typically, new cat owners will not bring home a kitten until week 6, when it has been weaned off its mother’s milk. For this reason, typically new kitten owners will be more involved in the social growth than physical growth.

If the mother was comfortable with humans, the kittens will usually learn that behavior and learn to socialize easily with people. However, if your kitten has not become accustomed to being handled by humans by the age of six weeks, it will be difficult to train this behavior later, and the cat may always be somewhat more skittish than others.

Be sure to teach your kitten at a young age that hands are not toys, they feed, pet and hold the kittens.

Introducing Canned Food

Kittens need many more nutrients than adult cats. However; with smaller stomachs they must each more regularly. A six-week-old kitten should have four daily feedings until he reaches 12 weeks of age. From 12 weeks to six months, she can take three daily feedings. After that point, feed your kitten once daily, like other adult cats.

When choosing food, keep your kitten’s health top priority. Do not feed your kitten:

table scraps or milk

dog food

adult cat food

All of these may be easy options for you, the pet owner, but the kitten will not receive the nutrients she needs. Instead, feed her a well-balanced diet of food made specifically for developing kittens. Begin with canned food, which is more calorie-laden for energetic kittens. Later on, you can start supplementing with dry food.

Now that you have learned the basics of kitten care, bring home your new kitten and enjoy the time you spend together. She will be an adult cat before you know it!


Comments off

Cat Training Methods And Hints



Cats are one of the most popular pets in today’s world. They don’t require lots of time or attention, but they provide all of the benefits that come with pet ownership.

A cat is a lifelong friend and should not be purchased as a gift unless the recipient is willing to provide a lifetime worth of care. In return, the cat will provide love and companionship for the entirety of its life.

Usually, you do not have to pay much attention or do special training to deal with cats. However, sometimes you may find out that you need to know special things about cat training. There are different kinds of cats, and some cats can be used to a lifestyle different from what the cat is experiencing in your home. If this is the case, you should look for information on how to train the cat.

There is a huge amount of information on cat training and kitten training to be found on the internet. When a new cat or kitten arrives in your home it is common for them to have a problem with the use of your litter box.

Cats can become stressed out and will sometimes decide to use other items as a bathroom. This can be rather frustrating. Patience and love can guide them as well as having another already trained cat in your home.

When you encounter such situation, cat training may be left as only option you have. Customers can help themselves for this training by using a variety of products available to them. Special litter in litterboxes can attract the cats more than your other items. Use of a spray bottle can also be considered to deter bad behavior.

If a cat smells the odor of its own urine, it is likely to be attracted to that area to urinate again because it has permeated the carpet or object.

Check online to look for how to clean cat urine off of objects that have been marked by kitty ***. Several chemicals exist that will break down the biological components of urine to get rid of the odor.

Cats are wonderful creatures as pet and with little training they can become your good friend. Here we provide some simple and easy ways to develop your pet as a loyal and loving member of your family , in turn you also learn to take care of your pet.


Comments off

The Joy Of Cat Care



The more excellent your cat care regimen is for your cat, the more joy you will get out of pet ownership. When you engage in cat care activities like feeding, petting, or playing with your cat, you are showing your feline friend how much you love them. Seeing your cat at his or her healthiest is its own reward, but there are benefits to cat care beyond just keeping your kitten in top shape. Cat care can improve your quality of life and make every day sweeter.

Succeeding at offering your pet the best possible cat care helps you maintain a positive attitude about your abilities, and can boost your confidence in other arenas. Mastering cat care can be a great first step towards overcoming challenges and difficulties in other areas of your life. Psychological experts agree that caring for a pet is a great way to improve your self esteem. When you see how much your cat care regimen matters to your pet, you will be able to appreciate how much of an impact your actions can have. This helps you feel confident and upbeat about your chances of success at work or school, and in the social sphere.

Cat care can be great for your social life. In addition to the confidence boost that taking excellent care of your feline companion can offer, cat care teaches you to expect and feel comfortable with positive interaction. When you bond with your cat, you are practicing the basic social skills that will help you win friends. Caring for your cat may even help make you more comfortable expressing love and affection, and it will certainly let you feel more confident about your feelings being reciprocated. When you pay careful attention to cat care, you are strengthening your ability to be responsible and trustworthy, qualities that will help you keep friends. Experts recommend pet ownership as a great way to help children learn good social skills, and adults may be able to see substantial social benefits as well.

Many people think that caring for their cat and enjoying their cat are two separate activities. However, the truth is that cat care is largely about showing your cat love and affection. That’s why it is called cat care: because it is how you show that you care about your cat. Cat care can be a satisfying part of your day every day because it lets you see that you’ve had an effect. When you groom your cat or clean its litter box, you will see a visible difference result immediately from your actions. When you spend a few minutes curled up with your cat on the couch, you will be able to notice a distinct attitude change in both your cat and yourself as you both bask in the calm glow of shared affection. Cat care can make your life richer and fuller on a daily basis.


Comments off

Cat Training For A Happy And Healthy Pet



For the most part it is not necessary to instruct felines. These animals are mostly independent, not requiring excessive supervision. Despite their tendency toward appropriate behavior, young cats and formerly feral adults might have learned to act poorly, particularly if they were once abandoned, born wild, subject to inattention or indifference, or maltreated.

An unexpected source of such animals is kittens purchased from retailers or “cat mills.” Fortunately, felines are generally fastidious, and most easily take to using a litter box.

The most important part that you must not forget in cat training is to reward the animal for behaving the way you want it to. Most owners just focus on punishment for their pet when they do something wrong, such as clawing on the furniture.

But, then the problem is that the cat does not understand what they did wrong or understand the point your trying to convey to them.

One of the things cats love to do most is scratch, they also need to do this. The reason is because it helps them remove the old layers of their nails. So its essential that you purchase your cat something to scratch on like a scratching post.

They may not use them at first because they will prefer their normal spots of clawing. The good news is though that you can train a cat to use them! One way to do this is to confine the kitten to one room that contains its scratching and climbing posts and with nothing else to scratch or climb on it iwll eventually use them.

If the cat continues to resist using the scratching post, you need to make it more attractive to the cat by putting treats on its various platforms and sprinkling catnip around the post.

However, any attempt to make the cat do anything it doesn’t care to do is doomed to failure, and a mistake tat many people commit during kitten training. Do not force the cat to place its claws onto the post in an attempt to force it to use the post, becuase this will ensure that the cat will never want to use the post again.

If you reward your cat properly in cat training, you can get your cat to obey some commands. These commands include “Meow,” “Sit Up,” and even “Fetch”- commands just like those dogs would receive. Make sure to reward the cat immediately for following a command or otherwise the cat will not associate the reward with obeying the order.

Using a clicker, as is typical of dog training, also helps; when your cat obeys a command, make it click and reinforce the instruction by giving the cat a treat.

While you are performing cat training it is necessary to use only rewards that are not damaging your pet’s well-being. Also, do not abuse them or harm them mentally or physically.

Such behavior could make your animal apprehensive or fearful, and damage your day-to-day interactions with the cat. However, learning good behavior is beneficial to the feline, and will make things more jouyous for both you and them.


Comments off

Kitten Care for the First Three Weeks



The first three weeks in the life of a newborn kitten is truly the most important for the development of the overall kitten health, personally, and character. Keep in mind that the kitten is is a lot like a newborn human baby. It eats around the clock and is of course totally dependent on the care giver for everything. You are very lucky if the mother cat is there to take care of the little kitten. If not you will need to provide a dry, warm place. You do not have to worry about being all fancy, just some clean rags or towels in a cardboard box will work fine. There is milk replacement if you need it. Available at most pet stores or veterinarians, you may need supplies like a eye dropper, syringe or even a small bottle may be found. Just follow the manufactures instructions and the kitten will begin to blossom.

Week one will see the growth of the kitten in a incredible rate. The birth weight will almost double. It is believed that the first few weeks of development does determine the personality traits of the kitten. While still growing in week two, the kitten will also start to begin opening the eyes. Most of the eyes of the kittens will stay blue for several weeks. But the vision will be blurred due to the fact that the pupils will not dilate and contract at first. It is a good idea to try and keep the kitten out of bright lights during this time. Their sense of smell is developing and it is common for the little kittens to hiss at smells that a new to them. The *** of the kitten is still hard to determine at this point. By week three the ear canals are open. This is the time that the kittens will start being social with humans and other kittens that are in their litter.

If the mother cat is not there, you will be responsible for the other parts of the care of the kitten. It is very important to bath the kitten after each feeding. Use a warm cloth and stimulate the urogenital reflex of the kitten. For the first three weeks the kitten can not voluntary eliminate the urine or the *****. The warm cloth will help to stimulate and also feel more like the mother cat. After the three weeks you can also start weaning a bottle fed kitten. It is suggested to take some can food and mix with the milk replacement to the consistency of a milkshake to begin the weaning process and start the kitten to eat from dishes.


Comments off

Cat Training: What You Need To Know



Cats are a very popular choice as a pet, and not without reason. Cats are fun, affectionate, and quite intelligent, as well as generally happy to live indoors, making them a great pet for city dwellers. But the question of cat training, or whether they can be trained is a compelling one. Theoretically cats should respond to training quickly and efficiently as they are very intelligent.

If you ask around, most cat owners will say that cats have a strong independent streak and do not try to please their owners the way that dogs do. Consequently, training cats takes more work as the techniques that work in training dogs do not work with cats.

The successfulness of cat training will depend on several variables. First is when you start your training with your new cat. Younger cats are more receptive to new behaviors, so you should consider beginning kitten training as soon as you get your new pet.

The second thing to consider is what does “cat training” mean to you. If you want to train your cat to come when summoned and to be housebroken and use a litterbox, then these tasks are easily taught.

When it comes to simple tasks such as these you should use praise to get your cat to obey. Call to your cat, then when it comes to you give some good praise and affection, using a proper praising tone of voice.

Pretty soon your cat will come when you call to them, as they will associate it with love and praise. Whatever you do, though, remain consistent, your cat will become confused if you change your behavior in the middle of training.

When litterbox training your cat, be prepared for it to take a while. This may not be what you hoped to hear, because the smell of cat urine is certainly not something you want lingering in your house, but it pays to be patient.

There are various different methods available to you- research to find one which seems like it will work for your situation- but, as I mentioned above, be consistent. Once you choose an approach, stick with it, so that your cat knows what is expected of it.

Different types of cat training may be necessary when undesirable behavior arises as the cat gets older. One frequent problem of this type is when the cat ceases to use the litterbox and instead relieves itself in corners.

Several methods exist to discourage this behavior, but it is recommended that the cat is medically evaluated first to assure there is no underlying physical cause for the behavior.

If the cat is healthy, cayenne pepper can be sprinkled in the inappropriate places where the cat tends to urinate. Since the pepper is irritating to the cat it is discouraged from returning to urinate again.

The best advice when trying to train your cat is to be patient and consistent in your approach. If you build a better rapport with your pet by trying to eliminate problematic behavior you will have a much more satisfying and fulfilling relationship with your pet, and be more likely to be able to teach them.


Comments off

Can Training Effectively With Positive Reinforcements



Cats are very independent creatures by nature and do not willingly follow directions given to them by humans. Their nature makes cat training difficult, but it is certainly not impossible. Though it may seem as if your cat is too independent and stubborn to change its behavior, you can accomplish training if you make a commitment to follow the right strategies and follow through with rewards and punishments.

Cats are extremely intelligent but they don’t get the idea of cause and effect like human beings do. In considering a behavioral problem with cats it is highly important to act directly or you will simply be too late. After all, cats will not see any link between your reaction and the behavior they display.

One of the best ways to enhance your cat or kitten training is to encourage a completely different behavior instead. This method works because cats are more receptive to positive reinforcements. For example, if you notice your cat playing and clawing at your brand new pair of slippers, encourage your pet to play with a toy instead.

As with almost all pets, cats will respond to cat training well if there is a reward tied to their good behavior. Purchase your cat’s favorite treats and be sure to reward your cat with one whenever good behavior is observed. It can also be helpful to reward your cat with your affection. Many times a cuddle or affectionate pat can be just as effective.

Though you may be thinking that your cat is disobeying you purposefully you must never harm them for any reason. Both your cat training and your relationship with your cat as a pet will be negatively effected by physical punishment. Make sure that you focus on training that reinforces positively, and at the same time is not cruel to your pet.

Training your cat isn’t going to be effortless, but if you try to train your cat armed with the correct methods you will succeed. Always be sensitive to a cat’s fight-or-flight instinct and try to be as non-aggressive as possible. Also give your cat plenty of positive reinforcement. Working this way will help your cat to behave better and will also help the two of you get closer.


Comments off