Six tips to make your cat's life more active

Care and care

To make your cat feel happy, you must follow the basic rules of caring for your pet.

Feed your animal correctly. A balanced diet is the key to your pet’s well-being. A well-prepared diet with a complex of vitamins and minerals will give your cat health for many years. The appearance of the animal will be well-groomed and beautiful. In pet stores today you can choose ready-made balanced food for any breed. You just need to monitor the amount of daily intake so that your pet does not develop obesity. Wash the bowl thoroughly every day and fill it with clean, cool water. Staying hydrated is very important, especially in summer.
Carry out preventive examinations at a veterinary clinic and follow the vaccination schedule. It is important to monitor your cat’s condition and respond in a timely manner to emerging health problems. If a cat begins to lose weight, becomes aggressive or, on the contrary, passive, or stops eating normally, these are signs of a disease. In this case, you should show your pet to a veterinarian. From the first months of life, it is important to vaccinate according to the vaccination schedule. Timely vaccinations will protect your cat from serious diseases in the future.
Keep the apartment and the cat's area clean. Cats are clean animals. To maintain cleanliness, you need to regularly clean the toilet of your four-legged friend. The bedding in the bed should be changed once or twice a week. Since cats are very sensitive to odors, you need to keep the house clean. Carry out wet cleaning regularly, especially carefully during the molting period of the animal.
Cats don't really like water, so bathing should only be done as a last resort. Furry friends are great at cleaning their fur themselves. The owner can only help with combing the fur, trimming the claws and cleaning the ears.
Any animal needs attention. Try to communicate with your cat as often as possible. Take it in your arms, caress it, stroke it. Cats love affection and stroking. It is better to stroke the animal from head to tail. The most favorite places for petting for many cats are the ears and the area under the chin. Children should be taught how to properly care for an animal. Do not allow your child to pull your pet's tail or play with it against its will.
Provide personal space. Although cats are predators by nature, they love to sleep and need their own space for privacy. A pet should have its own quiet place in the house where no one can reach or disturb it. Small boxes or special baskets are ideal for this. Cats also willingly rest on high cabinets. You can build a small bed on the windowsill; four-legged friends love to watch birds and cars outside the window.

By following the above rules, the cat will feel happy in the house.

Alarming symptoms

— The cat refuses to eat or eats very little. This happens when an animal’s sexual instincts awaken. But if there are no specific signs of sexual desire, refusal to eat is an alarming symptom. When sexual heat occurs, the cat screams, raises the back of its body, rolls on the floor, sometimes becomes more affectionate or, on the contrary, aggressive for no reason. — The animal does not exhibit hunting instincts: the cat does not try to play, does not react to rustling moving objects, etc.; the animal tries not to make unnecessary movements. — The cat has stopped “taking care of itself”: it doesn’t lick itself, doesn’t clean its fur. - Body temperature is increased. Not every animal will allow you to measure its body temperature with a thermometer, but when you hold a cat in your arms, you can feel that it is hotter than usual. The normal body temperature of a cat is 38 degrees Celsius. A cat's body temperature can be measured by inserting a thermometer into the rectum. - The stool has changed: it has become too liquid, an admixture of blood has appeared, or, on the contrary, there has been no stool for more than two days. - The animal is vomiting. It is common for cats, especially long-haired cats, to regurgitate hair that ends up in the stomach as a result of licking. But if a cat vomits frequently, especially every time after she has eaten or drunk, this is not normal. With all these symptoms, the animal must be shown to a veterinarian - a specialist will make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment.

Entertainment for cats

Pet stores offer a wide selection of cat toys. These can be small fabric mice, birds or toys with a winding mechanism. It is better not to buy many toys at once; two or three pieces will be enough for the first time. Be sure to buy a small ball; your cat will be happy to chase it around the apartment.

You should be careful when playing with a laser pointer. If light enters an animal's eyes, it causes rapid destruction of the retina. In addition, the pet perceives playing with a laser pointer as hunting, but, for objective reasons, it cannot catch anything. This leads to stress, self-doubt and dissatisfaction in the animal.

There must be a scratching post in the house so that the cat can sharpen its claws without damaging furniture and carpets. In the store you can purchase a multi-tiered sports complex, consisting of a sleeping place, a scratching post and many platforms. Some owners make such complexes on their own, and additionally attach shelves to the wall, along which the animal can easily climb onto the cabinet. To make it more interesting for your cat to climb up, you can put some food on the upper tiers.

Another way to diversify your cat’s leisure time is to have another animal in the house. Cats often get along well with other pets. Playing games together can make your pet even happier.

Why else can a cat be sad?

If the animal is healthy, but behaves unusually quietly, perhaps something has changed in the environment, and this is alarming it.
Perhaps the cat is afraid of someone or something. Maybe there is a new tenant in the house, a person or an animal? Did the newcomer offend your furry pet? Or maybe the cat was offended by the owner? Yes, this happens too. Cats, although independent animals, are completely bored without company. She can be angry with her owner for several days if he leaves her alone for a long time. In any case, if the cat is sad, it is worth giving her a little more affection and attention to her cat problems. Probably no one will deny that games are of great importance to a cat. Pets leading an active lifestyle have not only good health, but also a stable psyche, which plays no less a role in the life of cats than in human life. Of course, the owner may not even think about how to entertain the cat, entrusting it to the cat herself, but then he should prepare for the fact that upon reaching a certain age the cat will become less active.

What should you be wary of when choosing things for your cat to play with?

Those who are interested in how to entertain a cat at home should learn about dangerous objects for fun. Of course, it is convenient to play with a cat with ordinary objects. But there are things that can harm an animal. During the process, make sure that the cat does not swallow the small product. This can lead to intestinal problems and even death. What items should you hide so your cat doesn't get them? This category includes: feathers, paper clips, wire, New Year's tinsel, beads and sequins, needles, pins, etc.

Games with packages

Not only boxes, but also bags are very attractive to cats. Moreover, it doesn’t matter to the pet whether it is made of plastic or paper. To start the game, place the bag on the floor and then attract the cat's attention. Although, most likely, she herself will notice an interesting object. The cat will definitely get into the bag. During the game, keep her interested by rustling. You can put a tennis ball inside. When the pet takes it out, the bag, of course, will rustle. The cat will simply be delighted with such fun.

Can cats get offended and when do they do it?

An animal can become bored for various reasons. For example, older cats, no less than people, can suffer from pressure changes or joint pain. During such periods, the animal is not active and tries to hide away, often in a dark corner. Almost always, when the cause of the blues is illness, other symptoms of malaise are noticeable, the range of which depends on the pathology. These could be, for example:

digestive disorders - nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. They cause weakness and cause refusal of food;
frequent urination, with screams and howls while on the tray. You can also guess about problems with the urinary system by looking at the puddles that the cat leaves anywhere. What some owners consider to be revenge against them is, in fact, the results of a search for a place where it would not be painful to go “in a small way”;
strange behavior of the cat. For example, if he sits for a long time with his muzzle to the wall or resting his forehead against it, this is not a reason for laughter and jokes, but a sign that the animal is suffering from a severe headache.

What ailments can affect your cat, how to recognize and treat them, you can read in the material on our website.

Another group of causes of bad mood is insufficient care:

Poor quality feed can lead to the formation of tangles. For long-haired breeds this is a real disaster. An unkempt fur coat becomes overgrown with a huge number of mini felt boots. They cause skin itching, which intensifies and becomes permanent after the addition of a fungal infection. Sometimes tangles form if a cat, due to age-related joint problems, is unable to fully care for itself;
Cat chewing on chicken and other bones can lead to tooth loss and inflammation of the digestive tract. In some cases, this is followed by temporary discomfort, in others there is a real threat to life.

We have already written about what you should not feed cats on our website.

Ingrown or overgrown claws are both the result of destructive changes in the body and the lack of a normal claw post. The cat first experiences discomfort, and then pain. Due to his natural characteristics, he does not complain about his misfortune, preferring to quietly be sad on his bed. In general, it is impossible not to notice this problem - the animal acquires a clicking gait, which announces its approach long before its appearance. Some owners are sure that the animal must solve such problems itself. It's a delusion.

You can read how to trim a cat’s claws correctly, and what tools are needed for this.

The cat is offended

If the cat's sadness is not accompanied by signs of health problems, but the pet is clearly not in the mood, it may be offended by the owner who:

was absent for a long time;
didn’t “say hello” upon returning from work;
brought strangers into the house;
forgot to feed or change the water, ignoring the animal’s numerous requests;
I didn’t wash the “fragrant” tray in the morning, but for a predator to live the whole day in the aura of its natural aromas is extreme stress and inconvenience;
I didn’t treat you to what was lying on the table and smelled deliciously of meat;
had the carelessness to pet another cat or (God forbid!) dog;
drove me from my favorite chair, and even shouted.

On a note! When a furry person defiantly sits with his back to his owner and nervously beats his tail, this is definitely an insult and an expectation of compensation for moral damage.

Tennis ball game

Cats really like table tennis balls. You can come up with many games with it. Cats really like the sound that the ball makes when it hits the floor. Such an item will not damage furniture or harm the cat. At night, it is better to put it in the closet, since the sound of a tennis ball can wake up a person even in a deep sleep. But what about playing with a cat? Everything is very simple. The ball can be rolled around the room or thrown. It is especially interesting to watch a pet roll a ball on a hard surface. During the game, the pet makes sounds and bounces funny.

Games for the home hunter

How to entertain a cat who loves to hunt? Now let's look at this issue. As you know, cats are carnivores. Even if your pet doesn't go outside, give her toys that will help her use her natural hunting skills. Purchased products are suitable for such games. For example, it could be a small squeaking squirrel, animals filled with catnip, or a plastic ball with a bell. If it is not possible to purchase such things now, then you can use the items that are on hand. For example, these could be bottle caps (plastic or wooden), paper balls, etc. These items can be great toys for your pet.