Category Archives: Living with cats

Sun and cats, friends or enemies ?

Several of our friends (or their human) were these days in Phoenix, Arizona, for the 8th BlogPaws 2016 Conference. A brilliant sun and an overwhelming heat were also there, and we wondered :

Sun and cats, friends or enemies ?

The answer to this question is : a little both. We’re going to explain it to you :

Friends, because…

The heat of the sun allows us to compensate for the light temperature reduction of our body while we have a nap.
It also allows sick cats to save up their forces to fight better against the disease.
Sun rays (ultraviolet rays) allow us to synthesize the vitamin D, essential to facilitate the absorption of calcium and phosphor and fix them to our bones. If we are lacking vitamin D and sun, we can be suffering from rickets.

Enemies, because…

The heat of the sun can cause a dehydration and a heatstroke.
Sun rays can cause a sunburn, especially to cats with a fair skin or naked cats.
A sunburn can cause a dermatitis : the edge of the auricle (most of the time) loses its hairs, is irritated, and covered with crusts. An ulcer can form and gradually waste the ear away. Eyelids or truffle can also be suffering.
An excessive sun exposure as well as repeated sunburns can cause a skin cancer, especially to cats with a fair skin, naked cats, or old cats. Our friend Harvey made the experience : he underwent the partial ablation of the auricle of his two ears because of a cancer. He very well recovered from it as you can see here.

“It is in the dose that is the poison” said Paracelse in the XVIth century, and it also applies to the sun. Have rather your naps in the shade !

Our human can be attentive to the time we spend in the sun, especially at the most intense hours, so that our sunbathing don’t put our health in danger. There is also a sunscreen for cat : no, no, we’re not kidding ! If you live in a region known for its intense exposure to the sun and if you care about your ears, think of it…

Raw Feeding : from theory to practice

A little more than four weeks ago, we turned to Raw Feeding (model Franken Prey).

The theory of the Franken Prey model is the following one : the meat is roughly cut into pieces, and every meal represents artificially a whole prey (meat, giblets and bone) in the good proportions.

But in the practice…
– Pixie doesn’t like giblets.
– Zorro doesn’t like too much meaty bones (chicken necks most of the time).

If Claire lets us do, Pixie eats all the chicken necks, Zorro eats all the giblets, and our respective nutritional contributions are unbalanced.

How to do ?

Claire has to use trickery : to be able to watch that each eats correctly, she gives giblets and half of meaty bones in the morning, and the other half of meaty bones in the evening.

Zorro always comes to eat first while Claire is having breakfast. She cuts the half chicken neck in slices, and coats them with crumbs of crushed treats. She gives them to Zorro at the same time as giblets. When Zorro has finished, he receives then his ration of meat. Claire will do the same thing with the chicken neck for the dinner.

Pixie comes to eat when Zorro has ended. The first meal of Pixie is ground (meat and giblets). Miss cannot sort out and eats gladly her swill. When she has finished, she receives a piece of chicken neck which she gnaws and chews with great pleasure!

The meal of the middle-day mainly consists of meat : no need to watch. Once a week, Claire enriches this meal with a food complement (vitamins, minerals, trace elements and taurine) and a little salmon oil.

We like chicken, turkey, beef, and duck, but we like less rabbit. Claire wants to let us taste sardines : do you think that we’re going to enjoy it ?

The hunting instinct in cats

Our article is a little longer than usually to answer these three questions :
– How does a cat hunt ?
– How does a cat learn to hunt ?
– Why does my cat offer me his preys ?

A supple body, sharp claws, sharp teeth, an excellent coordination, no doubt, we’re made for hunting. It’s instinctive. Every playing moment is a training to capture a prey, no matter that the target is a string, a leaf, or the ankles of our human.

How does a cat hunt ?

Here is the A-B-C of the hunting cat :

Choose the good time, rather dawn or twilight.
Choose the good place.
Listen to to locate your prey, then let you lying in wait, observe, and wait. Sometimes for a long time.

When your prey appears, get closer very discreetly. Lower your body by keeping the tail well in the horizontal. Use every shrub, every crevice, every blade of grass to hide.
Focus your attention on your prey from the point of ears up to the end of whiskers.

Squat to jump up better. Rock a little your bottom to relax your muscles and guarantee a perfect jump. Capture your prey by a short and precise jump.

Celebrate your grip and evacuate the stress of the tracking by playing with your prey (optional, but highly recommended) before killing it.

Enjoy your meal !

How does a cat learn to hunt ?

It’s my mom Razemoquette who taught me how to hunt :

At the beginning, she brought a dead prey and ate it in front of my sister, my two brothers, and me.
Then, she put a dead prey in front of us, and let us manage to try to grab something to eat.
Then, she brought a half dead prey, killed it in front of us, and ate it with us.
Then she again brought a half dead prey, but this time, we had to try to kill it ourself.
We repeated several times every stage to train to be good hunters. We also continued our training during our kittens games : fights, ambushes, everything was good to develop our coordination and our capacity to react quickly.
And when Razemoquette considered that we were ready, and capable of holding us quiet when she asked to us for it, we were able to accompany him in the hunting to perfect our technique.

This is the way I taught how to hunt to Pixie.

Why does my cat offer me his preys ?

Because he loves you ! Poor humans, you are so little talented for hunting ! Sometimes I often mew noisily by coming back with a prey, as my mom Razemoquette did to tell us that dinner was served. I would like that Claire learns how to hunt, that’s why I offer her a prey from time to time to train and get fed. But she doesn’t seem to be hungry : she congratulates me and thanks me, then gives me friendly my prey back (outside !) so that I can eat it myself.

Never scold a cat which brings you a prey : it’s a mark of affection. Congratulate him, and thank him, because he considers you as a member of his family, and takes care of you by sharing his prey as a momcat does with her kittens.