Kitty Care

Many different people love cats and enjoy taking care of them. Some of these cat owners are experienced with taking care of their cat but some of them have just gotten a cat for the first time in their life and they do not know the first thing when it comes to kitty care. That's why this article will present the basics of kitty care, its food and how it can help and not help your cat’s diet.

As the reader well knows, the human body demands a high variety of foods to keep it going properly; the consumption of properly balanced meals ensures a healthier life. It is the same thing in the cat world, a good quality cat food will have a good balance in nutrition and basically have everything in it that the cat needs; it is when human food is mixed up with this that the problems start to appear.

A lot of people like to give their cat milk…first off, let me say that milk is a food and is not water and can never take the place of water. By itself, milk is very incomplete and cannot even begin to give the cat what it needs for a healthy life; adding raw eggs to a cat’s diet can lead to skin conditions and can result in the loss of hair and can prevent the cat from growing properly.

There are people that take after that old cartoons and give their kitties raw fish…this can lead to a loss of appetite, weakness, seizures and in some cases the cat can even die. There are many hazards to feeding your cat a raw diet of just meat or just vegetables! A good healthy cat that is getting a good balanced cat food does not need its diet to be supplemented with anything else, including table scraps.

Lets take a look at another aspect of cat care; one of people’s biggest fears in getting a cat is the fact that cats love to scratch. Scratching is something that is built into the system of a cat and you will never train your cat to never scratch at all; you can on the other hand teach your cat to scratch a scratching post instead of the furniture. If the cat is repeatedly going to the furniture to scratch, just squirt it with a squirt bottle and tell it "NO" in a firm voice…give it a lot of praise when it does use the scratching post and eventually the cat will get the picture.

Another unpleasant habit of house cats is spraying to mark their territory…it is both males and females that do this and really the only way to get them to stop is to get the cat spayed or neutered, there really is no other way.

When you get a kitten, the teeth should be clean and very white, they should meat evenly and the gums and the mouth tissue should be a healthy pink. If it is a pale color then that could be a sign of anemia or even internal parasites. There are some people that even brush their cat’s teeth…if you are planning on doing this, then get your kitten accustomed to having his teeth brushed on a regular basis, start out just using your finger and gradually start using a cloth or even a baby’s tooth brush. You can use a backing soda water mix or toothpaste that has been specially formulated for use on animals…try not to use human tooth paste because this can upset kitties tummy.

A very nice help in keeping the cat’s teeth clean is the use of dry cat food, when eaten this scrapes against the teeth and removes plague buildup; moist cat food does the exact opposite. But nothing can really replace regular dental care, whether it is done by the owner at home or professionally.

One last thing to be on your toes about is making sure that the cat does not eat the house plants. It would be best to look up on the internet a complete list of dangerous house plants that your kitty should avoid. Just a note, whenever giving your cat a pill, do so gently with lots of praise so that your cat does not hate you forever.