Cat Behaviour

In Europe and Northern America, cats have always been kept inside for most of their daily lives, but this has not been the situation in Australia until recently. The newly found awareness of the damage that feral cats can inflict on our native wildlife, both in the cities and especially in the countryside, means that the responsible cat owner prefers to keep the family pet inside at night time or when the family is out. This article is written to help you and your pet cat make a smooth adjustment to a quality life indoors.

Surprisingly enough, cats do not adapt successfully and remarkably quickly to continuous or partial confinement to the household. You, however, must provide your pet cat with an indoor environment which replaces the interests previously enjoyed with outside living. The cat can be exercised on a lead outside just like a dog is exercised, and this is done with cats which live in units under continuous confinement, or you can restrict outdoor adventures to an hour or so, confined to your garden or backyard. Cats in households with backyards can be taught to stay at home during the daylight hours by letting them out before one meal (fed in the evening before sunset). An hour of freedom under your supervision will give you and the cat important bonding time together.

Cats love to climb and play, and lie in the sun or scratch a tree or chase balls and you must provide these needs if your indoor pet cat is to be emotionally and psychologically satisfied. Otherwise, cats confined to the house can become bored and develop strange behavioural patterns such as chasing their tails, eating fabric, attacking people or losing their hair through overgrooming. The cat kept continually indoors requires shelves and window ledges to lie on and sunbake, a scratch post to exercise its claws and to mark its territory or even an indoor tree (a tall thick post with platforms) on which it can climb and rest.

The indoor cat needs a lot of human contact including hugging, stroking, brushing and playing games. Cats especially enjoy playing inside cardboard boxes and paper bags and with ping pong balls, chasing the moving light of a torch and any small fast moving objects. Cats like to chew on grass and this requirement is easily satisfied by growing pot plants containing alfalfa, lawn grass or catnip. Catnip, catmint and catgrass are special cat herbs and grasses which are available from local wholesalers. Cats prefer these herbs and will therefore leave your much-loved ornamental potplants well alone.

Correct "Toilette" is particularly important to the indoors cat and urine spraying can be a most frustrating and difficult problem to cure once it has become established and so it is important to provide your indoor cat with the correct toilet facilities from the beginning.

Urine spray is more likely to occur in the anxious undesexed cat, therefore all cats should be desexed and you should eliminate those situations which provoke anxiety. Firstly, make the toilet area totally private, away from the feeding area and avoid the use of strong smelling cleaning agents (e.g. ammonia, chlorine, eucalypt). The tray needs to be cleaned twice daily and to contain fresh kitty litter or untreated sawdust. Secondly, provide small, enclosed, elevated and comfortable areas in which the cat can rest and feel totally secure. Finally, regular combing, stroking and petting will help prevent spraying in anxious cats. Remember than rewards or punishment are not effective in treating "spraying" behaviour.

Desexing alters the temperament rather than the personality of the cat and modifies the behaviour patterns which cause urine spraying and cat fights. The undesexed cat has stronger territorial instincts than its desexed counterpart and is more likely to wander from home to hunt and fight other cats. Desexed cats are less likely to wander and with the correct care are perfectly content with the indoor life.

Copyright © 2002 Rob Marshall, All Rights Reserved.