5 Cat Health Tips Most Owners Don’t Know

Five lesser-known cat wellness tips. Are you looking to learn more about natural pet health and wellness? You've come to the right place. Click the link to subscribe to Veterinary Secrets. For most of us that have cats, we spend a fair amount of time looking into what is best for our cat, how to keep them healthy, how to prevent disease. Well it turns out, and even I as a who have a cat, there's been a few changes and these are one which I would consider five lesser-known cat and wellness ones. Number one, food and feeding tips. First, I've talked a lot about the importance of minimizing to no kibble, really high in carbohydrate, focusing on the high protein cat foods. In particular, I've talked a lot about canned cat food. But in part of today's tip, it turns out that many of the canned cat foods, if you start to read the ingredient list, even though they say high protein, you know fourth or fifth ingredient in, it includes a carbohydrate. Actually, surprisingly, very few canned cat foods are carbohydrate free. This is one here, 98% grass-fed beef and organs. And I think majority of cat parents know, I mean our cats, they are obligate carnivores, meaning they need animal protein to survive. So their body is designed to ingest high protein, modern fat, little to no carbs. And that's the type of food we should be feeding our cats. But the thing is, and even I was the same, even when you think you're feeding good food, because it says high protein, it's got to be good, you need to take the time to look at the ingredients to say like, okay, right, I mean you see them in the store, you look in the shelf, turns out one of the foods I was feeding, fifth or sixth ingredient in, like it included potatoes. But there's no way of knowing that unless you took the time to read that ingredient list. And the reason why we're avoiding the carbohydrates, our cats lack array of the different enzymes to digest and break down those carbohydrates. The result is these high carbohydrate slash high blood glucose spikes. Our cats lack the ability to necessarily produce enough insulin to then store all that blood sugar. So we see an epidemic of cats becoming diabetic, cats that are obese, cats that have heart disease, degenerative joint disease, all in part relating to us, you know, choosing to feed them stuff like this, these high carb diets. So point being, the less carbs, the better, but really take the time to read the ingredient list. Number two, your choice of a food bowl. If you look at cats here, see his big wide whiskers, those are some big whiskers on Cassian. Well, if he is to eat out of a bowl, a bowl like this, first of all, he's like, what am I doing? Secondly, his whiskers are actually wider than this bowl. So every time he puts his head in, his whiskers are touching either end. That can be really, really irritating for a whole lot of cats, can really affect their behavior. His whiskers are there in part to give them a sense of, is this hole wide enough for me to right? So all of a sudden he's like, well, I shouldn't drink out of this bowl. I shouldn't eat this thing here because of my whiskers are touching it, which makes huge sense. So the, you know, the suggestion is have bowls, which are quite shallow like this and or wide, plenty wide enough such as this so that his whiskers don't touch the edge. Make feeding sometimes a little bit more enjoyable, especially an indoor cat who's inside all the time, like stimulate his brain. So one of the other thoughts is Cassian here, his treat is just a high protein treat. This is freeze-dried chicken. That's all he ever gets, right? So we're sticking with the theme of no carbohydrates. When Cassian and I go out in the morning and hang out, I have my coffee. He's inside his little catio. I hide little chunks of this freeze-dried chicken and he hunts around for it. And he's a great little hunter. See this? Okay. Show them how well you hunt. Hunt for your chicken. And so he hopped, he'll hop from place to place. Of course he's not hopping here. He's getting free food. But what you're doing is encouraging natural hunting behavior, where he's got to like search out, try to find like, where's my little treat? Something like this, the freeze-dried chicken is like something that's relatively low calorie, no carbohydrate. That's a great option and spread it around. It just makes things way more interesting for him. Of course, as I say that here is Cassian trying to hunt out the high carb food. Kitty, no. Then my last suggestion with making mealtime far more interesting, consider something like this, this licky mat. What I'll do is I'll spread a small amount of this canned food right into here. And he's got to do a whole lot more work getting it. And it just, it takes a little bit longer, you know, helps him clean some of the stuff off his tongue. This inexpensive enrichment behavior feeding tool, this licky mat, great option. Number two, let's talk about moisture. We need to encourage adequate moisture consumption. Probably the easiest thing, the use of canned foods, especially a good quality canned cat food. Cassian has to drink very little because he's getting the bulk of his moisture from this, the canned food. And our cats in the wild, they would get most of their moisture from their prey. They seldom have to drink, but we want to ensure their cats stay well hydrated. And not everyone has the ability or can afford just to feed, you know, exclusively canned food or homemade food. So other ways, yes, Cassian has a water bowl, a little bit wider. So his whiskers aren't rubbing against the edge, which can be irritating. So first and foremost, this water gets changed every day. And after I put it in, I just kind of swirl it around to aerate it and to make sure adding a little bit more oxygen makes it far more interesting, potentially a little bit more tasty, and it can help off gas any of the chlorine that's added in. The third thing I have to say, which was new to me that I learned about water and water bowls, is typically our cats, if they are going to be drinking, say from a water source, it's going to be a long way from their litter box. It's not going to be near where they're eating. So for me, usually I would just put his water by his food. It's convenient for me, but not necessarily how he as a cat would think. So the other suggestion is put the water somewhere else. So if this is where his food is up here, his water, I'm going to stick it down here. Here's your water Cassian, over in the corner, away from what? It's away from the litter box, just down there. So we're making moisture a priority, which we know is really, really important for cats, preventing feline and lower urinary tract disease, supporting normal kidney health, potentially delaying the onset, hopefully preventing CKD. But we're doing that by incorporating some of those things, ensuring that they get adequate moisture from their canned food, that we're giving a water bowl that's wide enough, not irritating their whiskers, that we're separating the water. So it's not near their litter, not near their food. Maybe even consider the use of a water fountain. Number three, environment and mental enrichment. So our cats, they're pretty darn intelligent creatures. They need to have their brain stimulated. Don't you look smart? And you are Cassian. So one of the suggestions is you're going to make some eye contact. Cassian, you're going to make eye contact? Of course, while he's not on camera, I know he's not. Cassian, Cassian. Okay. So the idea is you make eye contact with your cat, where he looks at you. You kind of blink really slowly, and then you look away. So he interprets that as, okay, that's someone who likes me, really loves me, is bonded to me, but not a threat. Although I think Cassian does not see us as a threat. He sees himself as the alpha cat. Avoid unscented litter. Your cat senses smell. It is much stronger than ours. But yeah, we have scented litter because it smells good to you and I. To him, not so much. If anything, it's like an overpowering smell. So this is actually a natural cat litter from the crushed shells of walnut. That's it. Nothing else added. Just crushed shells and that's his litter. And yes, it has some reasonable bit of odor control. Smells great to me in here, but it's not overwhelming to him. So get rid of your scented litter. A couple of other suggestions is number one, providing outdoor time. Cassian now has a harness, a leash. He's spending at least once, if not twice a day, gets to hang out outside. He's really liking walking around on the lawn. So that's just adding to more positive mental enrichment for him. Then secondarily, he's got some up high up places he can climb onto. Right. So we have some areas of the house and I've actually put some wood from outside across some of our shelves. He loves being up high. He can look down and climb. Like that's like, cats love that. And he's really appreciating that. So it's a good way to just to make his life much more enriching. And if we do that, we know his anxiety levels are lower, much lower incidence of serious disease, like way lower incidence of fetal and lower urinary tract disease. When we have cats that have low anxiety. Thanks so much for watching this edition of Entering Secrets. Click up there to subscribe. Hit the bell to sign up for notifications. Then you click that link directly in the box below. I can send you a copy of my free book.