Our feline friends enhance our lives in many different ways. As a loving cat owner, you always want your furry pal to feel happy. It’s not hard to notice a problem with your cat. Sadly, locating the source of those behavioural differences can be a little more difficult. After all, you can’t just ask your pet to tell you what’s wrong.
There are many different reasons for potential behavioural changes, but they often fall into one of the following. Make yourself aware of the issues, as well as the necessary action, and you cat will be back to his or her best in no time.
Poor Health
Emotional health is often strongly linked to physical health. This is certainly true for cats. So if your pet is suddenly acting differently, it could be due to an illness or condition. You probably won’t be able to spot them yourself, but experts at Vetcare can. As with humans, a fast response will lead to a quicker solution.
It might take a little while for the treatments to kick in. Nonetheless, attending to those health problems is the only way to get your cat back to feeling normal once more. From an emotional and physical sense, that’s the least that your furry friend deserves.
Dietary Changes
Like humans, no two cats are the same. Some have more sensitive bodies than others. Unfortunately, even the smallest of changes can bring a massive impact. If the difference has become noticeable following a switch of brand or food, going back to the old idea may be all that’s needed.
Even if you’re feeding them, there’s a chance they could be getting fed by neighbours too. After all, no feline is going to turn food down. Try keeping it inside for a few days to see if that makes a difference. If it does, you might need to leave a note on its collar.
Bad Relationships
Cats are independent creatures, but that doesn’t mean that you should overlook the importance of the bonds they share. First and foremost, you need to know that your pet is comfortable when surrounded by all members of your household.
Meanwhile, adding a second cat to the household can be testing for both parties. Finding ways to successfully integrate the new pet into the home will work wonders for everyone. And if it didn’t work out initially, it’s never too late to try again. Selling one of the cats should only ever be a last resort.
Pregnancy
It’s not only the negative relationships that can change a cat’s relationship. Perhaps your pet has been a little too friendly with another and is pregnant. Learn about the signs with this guide from Care. If they match up to your cat’s recent changes, you’ve probably found the answer.
A lot of big decisions await over whether you’ll keep the kittens or not. For now, though, keeping the mother in great health is essential at all times. Her behaviour will probably change forever once motherhood arrives, but she’ll still be the cat you love.
Good things to watch out for! Cats are so good at hiding when they don’t feel well, so it’s important to try to figure out the cause of any sudden change in behavior.
Yep! And sometimes even the best cat guardian doesn’t notice subtle changes. 🙁
Our vet says we know our cats best, so if we think there’s something wrong, they’re inevitably is. Some can be very subtle changes though.
Yes… sometimes it’s not easy to spot.
Yes, like Cookie’s lump that has just been removed from her mammary area. It was right near her arm pit. She hates her belly being touched, so we asked vets to groom her belly when she went in for dental as she had a few small matts. They initially thought this was a matt too, but then discovered a slight matt with a lump underneath. I felt so guilty we hadn’t noticed it!! She’s shown no signs of illness or discomfort. Still waiting on histology results.
We felt guilty when the vet told us that Oliver had to have teeth removed but he was like you couldn’t have noticed this. Sometimes cats are good at hiding things. 🙁
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Any advice on how to integrate a tiny rescued kitten with a brother/sister pair who are 8 years old? We are experiencing serious anger issues here, and I fear for the little one’s safety.
Normally I would go with the separate room introduction and slowly getting them used to each other’s smell. Like take a clean sock and rub it over the cheeks of the existing cats. Do the same with the kitten. When take the sock to the other cat and rub over their cheeks to make them associate the smell of each other with a nice head rub. Leave the socks in the territory to again have the smell mix up.
Thank you so much for your advice, Marc. Meanwhile, we sort of accomplished the same with the older cats’ toy. They are perfectly fine together now, but we have another issue: the little one is eating their food instead of baby food, and the big guys are gobbling up baby food. Serving in different locations doesn’t help as they invariably find what they want. Any suggestions?
Hmmmm the problem is that baby food contains more nutritions than the adult food so your little one does need it.
There are options to install a microchip controlled feeder which only allows the little one to eat. Overwise it might be necessary to feed the baby food only for a while but keeping an eye on the weight of the older cats.
Also make sure the baby food is complete food! Meaning it contains added taurin and a few other minerals.
Thank you so much, Marc;, your advice is very helpful.
You are welcome. Let us know if you need anything else.
And of course if your kitten fancies a post on the blog you are always welcome to share stories. 🙂
I wanted to do a post, but I no longer have the access as a contributor to your site. As soon as you open it to me again, I’ll post her story.
Oh! It should still work. Can you try and go to Katzenworld.co.uk/wp-admin and if it doesn’t drop me an email and I’ll check it out – marc@katzenworld.co.uk
Will do, thank you.
Just did it, and it worked. I am submitting an article with some photos and a video. I hope it works!
Thanks! I’ll check it out later today. 🙂
Thank you, Marc.