The Catvocate^™ blog

Feeding the multicat household is difficult.  Cats in the same house may be eating different diets, eat at different rate, and get into fights around the feeding station.  What is a concerned cat parent to do?

To best understand this complex problem, we look to the natural feeding  behavior for cats and how that works in a group situation for our answer. Lucky for us, there is good scientific understanding about how cats act naturally.

Our furry felines may be born with hunting and chasing instinct like good ‘ole Tom but they are not necessarily born hunters that kill for food. Killing and eating prey are generally learned behaviors. That’s where mothers come in!

If you never realized how hard outdoor cats have to work to survive, you should now! Here’s an interesting fact for you….Did you know that one mouse equals approximately 10 pieces of dry cat food? Even eating an extra 10 pieces per day can result in a 10% weight gain over the course of a year. Considering that indoor cats receive food with minimal effort AND tend to overeat, it’s no wonder that more than half of indoor cats in the United States are overweight or obese!

Normal cat behaviors include play, investigation, observation, hunting, feeding, drinking, grooming, scratching, traveling, scent marking, eliminating, resting, and sleeping. Although this list sounds very basic take a moment to think about it. Are there any behaviors which your cat does not have the opportunity to experience? Let me guess…..did you answer hunting?

Marking, ugh.  So frustrating!  The burning question that everyone who has endured this unpleasant behavior in their home wants to know is “Why is this happening?�? Below are the four basic causes.

Is marking normal, you wonder? Rest assured, YES, it is! Cats are a lot like people. While they can share and cohabitate, they like having their own space, toys, and stuff.

A number of abnormalities appear to be common in cats with feline interstitial cystitis and may contribute to the disease. However, there’s a new school of thought that the “medically unexplained�? urinary condition may be a part of a Pandora Syndrome, named for the Pandora myth and coined by the world's leading researcher in feline urinary health Dr. Tony Buffington, a professor at Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He suggests that urinary tract disease is not all about the bladder but that stress has a significant impact on lower urinary tract health.  As Dr. Buffington suggests, we must look outside the urinary tract—as well as in the cat's environment—for diagnostic and therapeutic answers. Environmental enrichment is a technique used to reduce stress and improve welfare by increasing the physical, social and temporal complexity of the environment. It is also an important part of the solution to reduce the risk of recurrence of whatever clinical signs are present and may help reverse the consequences of Pandora Syndrome.

While FIC is very common, bacterial bladder infections in cats are relatively rare. In young to middle-aged cats, only one to three percent of cases of lower urinary tract disease are found to be caused by bacteria; the number hovers around 10 percent in cats over 10 years of age. Many cats develop recurrent episodes of clinical signs which can develop pretty quickly and often resolve spontaneously over 5-10 days regardless of treatment.

Behavior problems, particularly house-soiling, are one of the most common reasons why pet owners abandon or relinquish their cats to shelters and rescue organizations nationwide. Unfortunately, cats that end up in shelters are often euthanized.