Chapter 7: Top cat, bottom cat: Challenges of the multiple -cat household
1) If a cat is particularly susceptible to stress, the introduction of a second cat may be enough to break down his coping system and lead him to urinate or defecate outside his litter box.
2) By spraying, cat mark his territory. Males most likely spray than females. Castration is likely to reduce or stop the spraying
3) Researchers found a direct realtionship between the numbr of cats in a household and the probability of spraying by one or more of them. one survey of 150 cats owners revealed that in a household with one cat, there was a 25% chance it would stray, with 10 cats, the likehoold jumped to 100%.
4) One way cats have of indicating dominance is to pay a lot of attention to vertical spacing. If you look at how cats arrange themselves, the most assertive or the top cat among them will usually be sitting up the highest.
5) Cats arranged in a series of planks up and down the walls in a florida animal shetler are found to be more peaceful and calm.
6) In a household of two cats, one cat will always be the boss and the other the subordinate cat.
7) The boss cat will usually 'punish' the subordinate cat to reestablish the distance in status and stablilizing the role relationship.
8) Owners must always feed the boss cat first, place the boss cat in the highest position first and play with the cat first. Then attend to the subordinate cat last. This make the two cats more happy.
9) Cats are different from dogs in the suboridnate cat's behvaiour is motivated more by avoidance or defensivenss than it is by submissiveness. As long as the cat personabiltity is not extremely fearful or extremely asertive, he can occupy a dominant role with one cat adn a subordinate role with another cat at the same time. The subordinate cat is more likely to avoid confrontation over a desired resource rather than submit to the dominant cat.
10) It is hard to determine whom in both cat is the dominant or suboridnate cat. A animal behaviorist, Penny Bernstein, used a cardboard box to test out the ranking of the cats.14 cats are used in this experiment. When she put the box down, two cats jumped right in, occupying the box first. This experiment show that both cats are dominant cats.
11) Always find out whom is the dominant cat in a household. Place the resting place in a higher position and encourage the suboridante cat to sleep at a lower position.
12) Some cat have a chaining behaviour, a ritual where they will do something that is the same everyday eg..drink water, eat, play and sleep at around the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment