16. 04.
Kathrynn Kelley asked:
Everybody gets stressed out sometime in their lives. As humans we get multiple options on how to deal with stress.
However, most people don’t know that your house cat also gets stressed out, leading to any number of behavior issues. Here are a few helpful bits of information to understanding the everyday stress your cat can be dealing with.
#1: A New Family Member
Since cats are creatures of habit, it is extremely distressing when a new member of the family comes in your home. Whether they be human, like a new baby, or some other person moving in, or an animal, like a new dog, or cat being adopted into the family it can cause stress to your feline friend.
#2: A Move
Once again, a change in the status quo disrupts your cat’s routine. When you move to a new house or apartment, you move your cat into a completely new environment. For some, this is like a big adventure into a new place, but for some it can be quite scary and stressful.
The best thing you can do here is to bring along all of your cat’s stuff, toys, litter box, bed, etc. and put it in a room in which they can get comfortable before exploring the rest of the house.
#3: Holidays and Parties
Cats like peace and quiet. During big parties or the holidays when you have lots of people over, ringing the doorbell and playing loud music, your cat can get stressed out. In fact, most cat owners know that their cats are nowhere to be found during these occasions. The best thing you can do is provide your cat a place in which they can get away from it all and won’t be bothered.
#4: A Change in Routine
A change in your daily routinesuch as a change in employmentalso changes your cat’s routine. Your cat is used to you being around at certain times and not being there the other times. When you change this, it can stress your cat out. The best thing you can do is to break up your routine even more.
Instead of following your normal routine to get ready for work, jingle your keys a bit beforehand to desensitize your cat to the sound of you getting ready to leave. When you do leave, don’t make a big deal out of it; if you do, this will often cause the cat to get even more stressed with anticipation.
#5: Window Gazing
Being a cat owner you know that cats like to look out the window. However, if a strange cat passes a particular window and your cat can’t get to it, or that strange cat marks their territory around your house, this can stress out and even anger your cat.
This will lead to misplaces aggression. The way to avoid this is to block the cat from looking at that particular window.
Remember, that cats are creatures of habit, and disrupting their day to day lives will cause stress. You as a cat owner should try to minimize these stresses as much as possible.
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