Cats, like humans, often need to eat special diets. Often, your veterinarian will recommend special diets for your cat if your cat is pregnant or nursing, under the age of one, older, has a medical condition or needs to lose weight.

Many cat food brands offer special food for cats needing a specialized feeding program.

There are also many kinds of prescription foods available through a vet’s office.

If you have multiple cats and one needs special diets, it will be necessary to find a feeding system that works. Often, you will need to separate your cats during feeding time when one is eating a special kind of food.

Here are some reasons why your kitty needs special diets.

Pregnant and Nursing Cats: Cats that are pregnant or nursing will require special diets. Pregnant females need more protein and vitamins than a cat that is not expecting. Also, cats that are pregnant or nursing will eat a much larger amount of food, especially in the final stages of pregnancy.

When your pregnant cat gets larger in the last stages of pregnancy, she may not be able to eat as much at one meal. It will be necessary to provide your pregnant cat with several small meals throughout the day.

Many owners are now teaching cats to walk on pet leashes. This allows for the cat to go outside of the home and get exercise, as well as allows the owner to spend quality time with their animal.

Many owners are finding it a necessity to walk their cats so they can get more exercise without jumping over fences or running away.

If you decide to train your cat to walk on pet leashes, there are several easy steps to take in order to make the walks with your cat much easier.

Steps to make your cat walk on pet leashes

The first thing to do when preparing your cat to become accustomed to pet leashes is to make sure that you have the right kind of pet leashes.

A harness is the best thing to purchase as a collar will allow the cat to find a way to slip out of the pet leashes.

It is important to make sure that the harness is not too loose or too tight. In order to make sure that it fits properly, you can place two fingers between the cat and the harness. If you can not do this, it is probably too tight, and if you can fit more fingers, than the harness is too loose.

Even if you’ve had years of experience with adult cats, taking care of newborn kittens is a whole new world.

Newborn Kittens eat differently, sleep differently, and need time to adjust to changes both inside their bodies and in the outside world.

Learn about newborn kittens basic needs.

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

Another element of kitten-proofing your home is giving the newborn kittens 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 newborn kittens and the other animals some closely supervised time to get acquainted. If your newborn kittens have not been to the vet, keep it quarantined from other animals until you can be certain he doesn’t have any infectious diseases.

Cats may be cute, furry, and great companions, but they can also be responsible for making terrible mess.

This mess can leave stains and lingering odors if not properly cared for. But, with a few simple tricks, this mess doesn’t have to last a lifetime in your carpet or on your furniture.

Tips for cleaning cat urine

Cleaning Cat Urine

Cat urine is particularly stinky and it gets worse the longer it sits. This mess is because bacteria begin feeding on the organic waste in the urine, which converts it to gases.

In addition, the longer the urine sits, the more it seeps into the carpet and the underlying pattern or wood floor beneath. This, of course, makes mess more difficult to remove.

In the process of cleaning cat urine, fresh urine should be cleaned by first blotting it. To blot urine, an old bath towel should be used to soak up as much liquid as possible. This should be followed up by using paper towels until no more moisture can be seen.

Whether you have a kitten or a cat that you’re training to not be feral, litter box training can be a real chore.

Kittens that are with a litter-trained mother will usually be trained by the mother cat, but once they’re away from Mom, you get to take over.

But you can’t do what you do with children and use the litter box to show them! (You could, but ick!)

Here are a few things you can do to encourage litter box training.

Start young. The younger a cat learns to use the litter box, the more reliable they will be about it. Keep the kitten’s bed near the litter box, or move the litter box closer to the cat’s normal haunts.

One very good place for the litter box during the training phase is your bathroom, if you can leave the door ajar when you go.

The cat knows what you do in there, and if she sees you using the bathroom, she’ll come in and try things out herself.

Most bathrooms are tile, and cats don’t like going on tile; they instinctively want to bury their waste, and the litter box is the only place to do that.

If you have a cat that is expecting, there are several basics you should know. The birthing process requires more than just attention during the actual birth of the kittens.

In fact, preparations need to be made before the birth and after the birth, as well.

Preparing for the Birth of kittens

Before it is time for the cat to give birth to the kittens, it is a good idea to get the vet’s phone number for either his or her office and home, if available.

Also, be sure to know the hours the office is open. It’s also a good idea to get the contact information for a reliable 24 hour veterinary service as a back up.

It’s also a good idea to select a quiet and private location ahead of time for the cat to give birth. A birthing box can be created for this purpose.

To create a birthing box, line a box with a soft material. Also, place newspaper, towels or other forms of absorbent padding or materials nearby.

These materials will be used when the cat delivers the kittens. Be sure to introduce the pregnant mama cat to the birthing box ahead of time so she can become comfortable with it.

Many owners never put an identification collar on their cat. “Cats don’t like them,” they say. “

You don’t want to push the issue and get a bite or a scratch for your efforts.” Well, the dilemma with that is what happens if they get lost?

You are probably thinking that your cat is an indoor pet and therefore doesn’t need an id cat tags. The problem with that viewpoint is that no matter how careful you are cats are sneaky.

If a door is slightly ajar or a window is cracked open just a little, that cat will squeeze through to freedom. They are curious and love to explore.

But if a dog or other natural predator gets them, you know that saying “Curiosity killed the cat?” Chances are that will be the likely scenario and you would never know what happened to your family feline. ID cat tags make sense for your cat.

Uses of ID cat tags

Your cat’s veterinarian will most likely have identification id cat tags that you can easily hook onto a collar. These id cat tags will have the vet clinic’s office number and address. Most likely, these id cat tags will also have the date of your cat’s last round of vaccinations for rabies and other diseases.

When your Cat Eats One of the house plants

There are many common houseplants, both indoor and outdoor, that are poisonous to cats. Several of these house plants can cause your beloved cat to become quite ill, including vomiting, diarrhea, and convulsions.

In some cases, these house plants can cause your pet to have complete respiratory failure, kidney failure, or other fatal illness. For this reason, it is important to assist your cat immediately if it eats toxic house plants.

Here are some toxic house plants for cats

Lilies

Perhaps the most toxic and common form of house plants that can be fatal to your cat are lilies. Pretty much every form of lily house plants can cause death to your pet.

This includes the Tiger lily, the Easter lily, the Japanese show lily, the Rubrum lily and the Day lily. If your cat ingests any part of one of these house plants, even a small amount, it will result in complete kidney failure in about 36 to 72 hours.

After ingesting a lily, your cat will begin to show symptoms within a few hours. Symptoms include a lack of appetite, lethargy, and vomiting.

Cats are very susceptible to heat stroke. Think about it for a minute – they spend their entire day walking around inside a heavy fur coat, even on very hot days.

A cat that is not accustomed to the outdoors is particularly susceptible to heat stroke. If this happens, the cat runs the risk of having a heatstroke.

A cat that is acclimated to the outdoors is more likely to be able to handle excessive heat.

Nonetheless, all cats can have problems if the weather becomes to hot and they don’t have a means to cool down.

Signs of Heat stroke

Cats show many different signs of heat stroke. For example, a cat may begin panting rapidly.

Eventually, it may even become unresponsive. In addition, the cat’s gums may turn bright red when it becomes too hot.

If the cat begins to vomit excessively or have diarrhea, it may be due to heat stroke. To test for heat trouble on a cat, the pet owner can gently pinch the scruff of the neck. If the scruff stays in an upright position after being pinched, it is getting dehydrated.

You’re sitting in your favorite spot on the couch with your cat by your side. Then all of the sudden, you feel an itching sensation around your ankles.

You scratch a few times, but this irritating feeling just persists. You look down and see little dark dots just bouncing around. Guess what? Your precious kitty has brought a present into your home – fleas!

But wait a minute; you are diligent about treating your family pet for fleas. After all, you struggle with your ornery cat when it comes to baths, flea collars and topical flea treatments. What is the deal with all these hopping pesky critters nipping at your ankles?

Unless your cat is strictly an indoor family feline, chances are it has brought those fleas right inside from the outside! Your first course of action is to treat your yard with insecticide to kill any fleas and larvae.

How to eradicate fleas

However, that outside treatment alone is not going to eradicate those fleas inside your home. See, what happens is that these adult fleas drop off your pet and burrow into the carpet.