Basic Care and Health Tips for First-Time Cat Owners
If you ever decide to buy a cat, you must remember that your primary responsibility is to create the best conditions under which the animal will feel happy. You will have to allocate time to care for it, think in advance where you will leave the cat on vacation, etc. Haste can lead to frustration, and as a result, the animal will suffer.
If your financial situation does not allow you to buy a purebred cat, then a purebred kitten can become your pet. Outbred cats are also gorgeous, and their nature is not inferior to relatives with a four-knee pedigree.
In case you want to be a part of cat exhibitions, you need a kitten with a good pedigree. You can buy such a kitten by contacting the local club, where you will be provided with all the information about the brood’s quality and the parents’ exhibition achievements. You can also visit an exhibition, where kittens are usually sold: there you will have the opportunity to communicate directly with experienced owners and make sure that your choice is correct.
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Contents
How to choose gender?
If you want to breed kittens, then, of course, you should buy a girl. However, it would help if you had kittens from parents with a good pedigree. Never keep an uncastrated cat in your apartment: it will never be happy without enough cats to mate with, and for many reasons, you will probably not allow it to roam free. It is impossible to keep an uncastrated adult cat because of the pungent smell of urine, which they mark all around, attracting cats’ attention. The cat must be neutered at six months of age.
There is a belief that castrated animals suffer, but this is not the case. For them, mating is a purely instinctive process, and if the need for it disappears, they begin to develop differently – the cats become more gentle.
Finally, all the issues are resolved, and you brought home a soft, fluffy ball. The kitten will not feel lonely and abandoned in an unfamiliar apartment for long if you occupy it with a game: it can be a small ball, a toy mouse, or even a piece of paper tied to a string.
How to organize a place for your Cat
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Cat’s house
It would help if you took care of the kitten’s bed. Unlike dogs, cats are not very happy with open space, but they love to rest in a cozy house. Now pet stores have a large selection of houses for cats – for example, wicker (comfortable in summer) or made of foam covered with a delicate fabric (suitable for winter).
Cat’s toilet
Be sure to arrange a special toilet area – a tray with filler. Until your kitten grows up, it is better to use a tray with low sides (not more than 5 cm) and buy a filler without fragrance, as the foreign odor may reflect the initial skills of using the tray, which the kitten received from the mother.
Cat’s feeding place
Kittens should be fed in one specially designated place. You will need two bowls: one for water, the other for wet or dry food. The kitten should have constant access to water. The water in the bowl should always be fresh. It has to be changed several times a day.
Cats, when free, instinctively eat grass, sometimes using it to cleanse the stomach. So do not forget to put your pet a box of sprouted grass. You can use special seeds, which are sold in pet stores. Domestic cats are happy to eat and houseplants – this is very dangerous because many ornamental plants contain toxic substances. Poisoning by houseplants can be fatal to the cat. Do not forget about vitamins, which are vital according to reviews on ThePets.net guide for many cats, especially old ones.
Cat’s Hygiene
Claws Care
Cats’ claws grow continuously throughout life. In nature, the kitty, running long distances and climbing trees, grinds them. The cat is deprived of this opportunity at home and therefore forced to rub them, scratching various objects. If you do not want your furniture, carpets, and curtains to be permanently damaged – buy a special column at the pet store for grinding cat’s nails. Most cats love to scratch it.
Another approach to address this issue is that you can trim their claws with special tweezers guillotine type. The claws should be trimmed away from the blood vessel – on white claws, you can easily trace where the pink thread ends. If the nails are black, opaque – cut only a thin curved tip of the nail. If the claw is cut too short, touching a blood vessel – it will injure the animal. The claws should be trimmed about once every two weeks. It is necessary to accustom an animal to this procedure from an early age.
Fur Care
Evolution has given the cat its own cosmetic tool – a rough tongue, with which the cat is constantly washed, combing the hair. But this is not enough – domestic cats should be combed regularly. By combing the cat, you prevent dead hair from getting into the stomach, where it can get lost in dense lumps and cause a dangerous disease – blockage of the gastrointestinal tract.
It is enough to comb a short-haired cat once a week, using a comb with thick metal teeth and a massage brush made of natural bristles. There are many more problems with long-haired cats: they need to be combed daily, especially during molting, because these kittens’ hair quickly gets tangled. Use a comb with liquid metal teeth and a special brush for combing the undercoat. To remove ticks, it is convenient to use tweezers.
If you take good care of your cat’s fur, you should bathe it in case of accidental contamination or before a serious show, where you need to show your pet in the best shape. When combing, you can periodically use dry shampoos, which will make it easy for you to keep your hair clean (especially for Persian cats). When bathing your pet, be sure to use special shampoos, as regular shampoo can dry out the skin or cause allergies.
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Teeth Care
Cat’s teeth need special care. In cats (especially purebreds), the formation of tartar is observed with age, which leads to inflammation of the gums and, as a result, to tooth loss. It is necessary to periodically examine the cat’s teeth at least once a month and if you find tartar to see a veterinarian.
How to Care for an old Cat
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An old cat needs special care. You need to follow the diet more carefully than before because it requires a full range of vitamins and minerals, and the body is no longer able to absorb as much protein and fat as before. You will have to comb it more often – it will be harder for the cat to wash. And the main thing your old cat needs is even more attention and affection. Take it in your arms more often, talk more, and simply love it.
As for the nutrition of elderly cats in general, it should be mentioned that their digestive system begins to work much worse and less efficiently with age. It loses its ability to adapt to new types of food. It is necessary to ensure that the animal’s diet is balanced and, in no case, monotonous, since the same food is not able to provide the body with all the necessary nutrients. It is required to ensure that the cat is getting enough clean and fresh drinking water. You can’t let the old animal overeat and feed it whatever it wants.
The appearance of old cats also needs to be carefully monitored, since the quality of the coat deteriorates with age, it becomes more prone to the formation of tangles.
Since older cats lose their former flexibility, they need help caring for those parts of the body that they cannot get to.
Bathing is stressful for cats, and it is doubly stressful for older animals, which can be very bad for health. Therefore, it is better not to take risks if possible, but to use more gentle methods of cleaning the coat (dry shampoo or sponge).
Since old cats move little, wool warms them much worse, and blood circulation is disturbed, they should be kept in a warm room and a cozy warm place.
Many problems in old age arise from a lack of attention at a young age. Therefore, the sooner you start taking proper care of your cat, the healthier and more active it will be when it reaches a respectable age. You can read more about cats on Americancat.net.
