Cats can make wonderful pets, but before you go ahead with cat adoption, there are a number of important things to think about. A lot of people who haven’t owned cats think they’re very independent and need much less care than other pets. This definitely isn’t the case. Here are 10 important questions to ask yourself before you adopt a cat.

1. Can you afford it?
Food, treats, toys, scratching post, bedding, litter boxes, litter, flea treatment, worming tablets, vaccinations, visits to the vet, pet insurance, cattery costs… it all adds up, and it’s not cheap.

2. Are you around enough?
Your cat needs regular, fresh meals and a constant supply of fresh drinking water.

3. Are you able to give your cat attention every day?
Cats need lots of human companionship. It’s not fair on a cat to leave him alone for long, frequent periods. Most cats are OK to be left alone while their owners are out at work during the day, as long as they get attention in the evening.

4. Are you willing to put up with some damage to your home?
A home with a cat is unlikely to survive completely unscathed. Your furniture may get scratched, your cat may do the odd pee or poop on the carpet, he may throw up on the sofa…

5. Do you have a safe area where your cat can play?
Your cat will need a safe area to exercise in (whether that’s indoors or outdoors). If it’s outdoors, it needs to be well away from busy traffic etc.

6. Is your home environment suitable?
If you have a dog or young kids, for example, you’ll need to ensure the cat you adopt is able to cope with them. Also, are there any areas in your home that would be unsafe for a cat (a workshop in the garage for example), and if so do you have a way of keeping the cat out of there?

7. Do you have enough time?
Cats need playing with every day. Long haired cats need grooming every day, short haired cats once every few days.

8. Are you OK with cleaning the litter box?
You’ll need to scoop out the box at least once every day and clean it out completely once a week.

9. Are you able to care for your cat if he gets sick?
This may mean taking some days off work, staying up with your cat overnight, giving him medication, cleaning his eyes, ears, nose etc.

10. Are you prepared for the commitment?
Lots of cats are now living into their late teens and even early 20s. If you’re 25 and single now, there’s a good chance your cat will still be alive when you’re 40 and married with kids.

If you are able to provide the right environment and enough time and commitment, cat adoption will likely be one of the most rewarding and pleasurable things you ever do.

Popularity: 80% [?]

Teaching your cat tricks is an enjoyable and rewarding way to encourage certain behavior or even fix a problem behavior with your cat. Teaching your cat tricks improves your relationship with your feline friend. Here are some tips I learned while working with my kitty.

Remember to be patient. Your cat is an individual, with his own abilities and preferences, just like you. He will pick up some tricks quickly, but may struggle with others. Make adjustments for his personality, and do not lose your temper if training does not go exactly as you planned.

If you are leaving food out at all times for him to eat when he feels like it, stop. Enforcing a feeding schedule has two main benefits: it increases the reward-value of food treats used for training, and also introduces some routine into your cat’s life, which most cats actually desire.

If you are using food treats, make sure your training sessions are just before mealtimes. Your cat’s natural desire for food at his regular mealtime will sharpen his focus and increase his desire to obey you, so he can get a treat.

Take baby steps. When training your cat, do not jump right into the harder tricks. Making sure he has a solid grasp of the basics will make learning the harder tricks that much easier.

Remember, cats have quite short attention spans and become bored very quickly. Try to keep your lessons short and interesting, and always end your lessons on a positive note.

Popularity: 83% [?]

Shelters also have healthy animals and they are not expensive. Adoption counselors in the shelter help owners in arriving at a decision on pets. Shelter adoption fees are usually much less than purchasing a pet at a store or breeder. And your new pet is more likely to be vaccinated, dewormed, and spayed or neutered. Shelter pets are a bargain. For an pet adoption fee between $60 and $100, you can adopt an animal that would cost several hundred dollars through other means.

Animal shelters and pet adoption centers do their best to accommodate dog rescues, and look forward to all dog adoptions. Every time a dog is adopted, one more dog is saved from possible euthanasia. Animal Control adoption regulations require that all currently owned pets be up-to-date on rabies vaccinations and animal licensing. Landlord approval is needed for tenants of rental properties. Animal lovers that we are, we knew that there must be a better way! In the beginning, we had a very small adoption fee, very few requirements for adopting, and our pets had virtually no vet care prior to adoption.

Pet adoption can be an informal or formal arrangement. Some owners will post adverts about pets to a good home, where by they just pass on responsibility to someone else, creating an informal adoption process. Pet adoption should always be something that people should consider when looking for a new pet. A quick look around the numerous animal shelters will uncover dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, in fact any animal that you can think. Pet adoption allows you to legally own a dog in an easy manner. Lots of wonderful, beautiful puppies and dogs are wanting of deserving pet owners to adopt them and give them a home to enjoy.

Shelter pets are a bargain. For an pet adoption fee between $60 and $100, you can adopt an animal that would cost several hundred dollars through other means. Shelters and rescue organizations agree that black cats are the last ones chosen from any litter. We can’t understand it - they are shiny, sleek awesome companions! Shelters also have healthy animals and they are not expensive. Adoption counselors in the shelter help owners in arriving at a decision on pets.

Rescue groups are also a good source for information about a specific breed and can give you information about reputable breeders if you desire. Rescues are very careful to make sure their adoptable dogs and cats go to the right homes. Each organization has its own application and screening process for potential adopters.

Popularity: 77% [?]

Cat training in 10 minutes…sounds mysterious…it is everyone’s dream yet it seems to be no one’s reality. This is because cat training in ten minutes just doesn’t exist. A cat like a human requires consistency, patience, and rehearsal to fully grasp the concepts behind necessary training. The behaviors of cats can be fun and playful, but at the same time-destructive and menacing. Unwanted scratches in the furniture, broken ornaments, ruined stockings…we all know the drill. The mystery reason behind why cats misbehave is the key to knowing how to stop it. So do you know the answer to the mystery?

While cat training in ten minutes or even twenty minutes may not exist, these tips will put you one step closer to your training dream. It is a well known fact that cats find trouble when they are bored. Sometimes they’re just looking for attention and other times they’re looking for something to spend their time with. your job is to make sure that their curiosity needs are met. The solution to this pesky problem is by giving your cat the behavior he desires. By spending more time with your cat, he will be less likely to destroy the house. It is important that you don’t spend time with your cat immediately following bad behavior because this will lead to an association between bad behavior and more attention. This association will in turn only lead to more bad behavior.

Secondly, cats are naturally nocturnal: This means they are most comfortable being active at nighttime. Activities are more exciting by the light of the moon, but at the same time he can find more trouble when he is not under your watchful eye. The way to fix this is simple. By giving your cat activities during the day, his exhaustion will kick in right as the sun will be going down so he will not be in the mood for any troublesome games. These activities could include so good “one-on-one” time. Playing with a mouse toy or a ball or yarn are great ways to tire him out because those involve physical activity. Also, just doing your own activities during the day that spark his interest will keep him from sleeping the days away. He won’t want to miss out on whatever you are doing! These simple tricks of outsmarting your kitty are great ways to train them. Again, this isn’t “cat training in 10 minutes”, but in the long run it will be more efficient and productive. These training tips for good cat care will ensure happy and peaceful life between you and your feline friend.

Some of the cat training tips: The Basics of Cat Training -Cats can be trained to do a number of things. So, whether you want them to stop bringing mice back to your front door, to use their litter tray correctly, or even to just use the toilet instead, cats can be taught how to behave; you just need to know the basics. Training a cat is obviously very different to training a dog. With a dog you teach them things such as “stay”, “fetch”, and “heel”. However, with a cat you are generally just training them to change their behavior slightly. You do not want them to do anything spectacular (though some trainers have been able to teach their cats to perform); you mainly just want to teach them how to behave in a more appropriate manner. Generally you need to understand your cat before you begin to train them and usually you should find that the following applies:

Cats Will Continue to Misbehave as Long as There is Reward-Firstly you need to understand that your cat does not know right from wrong. They do things because it is a joy for them to do them. An example would be scratching their claws on the sofa. They continue to do it because it feels good when they do it. They will only not do something if it is unpleasant to do. So this means that if you want to train your cat, you have to make the preferred behavior rewarding and any behavior you want to put a stop to, will need to be a negative experience.

Knowing When to Reprimand the Cat-A very common mistake which many cat owners make when it comes to disciplining their cat, is reprimanding them once the crime has already been committed. More often than not we are not with our cats when they actual misbehave and so we try to reprimand them by showing them the problem. The trouble with this is that the cat has absolutely no idea what you are reprimanding them for and so the punishment is not doing any good.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Why feeding a cat the correct diet can help with this health condition. Diabetes is a common disease found in cats. In the vast majority of cases, it is directly linked to a high carbohydrate diet of dry food (carbohydrates convert to sugar). Cats are by nature carnivores. A true carnivore is an animal that lives on a diet consisting only of meat. A cat may consume other products presented to it, but these products are not essential for good health and can actually cause damage to their health. True carnivores have difficulty digesting vegetable matter. The food you feed your cat should be appropriate to cats for the overall health of the animal and should come pretty close to what the animal would normally eat in the wild. In the wild, cats would be eating rabbits, squirrels and mice (meat). They would not go to a cornfield or a rice paddy to find a meal of grain.

Since a cats body is not made to consume a high carbohydrate diet of grains or vegetables, feeding a diabetic cat a high carbohydrate diet is the same as trying to put out a fire with gasoline. Carbohydrates are long chains of sugar molecules linked together. Your cat’s normal digestive process breaks up these chains into individual sugar molecules that pass through the intestinal wall and load up your cat’s blood stream with sugar. It is not recommend for any cat, much less a diabetic cat to eat any foods whose main ingredients is corn (meal), wheat, barley, rye, oats or rice. This also means no potatoes, carrots, beets, soy, peas, yams or beans. Feeding your cat this is little different than just pouring straight sugar into your cats bowl.

There is nothing magical about a diabetes-management diet for your cat. It is just a matter of finding foods that are low in carbohydrates.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Does your cat attack your other pets? Does it attack the new cat you brought home? Or does it fight with your pet dog? Animal behaviorists have different names for each of these behaviors. When kitty attacks your pet mouse, or the bird in the garden, it’s called predatory aggression. It is just following its natural instinct to hunt for prey. Unfortunately, it is difficult to stop this kind of behavior. The best you can do is put a collar with a bell on your cat. This will keep it from sneaking up on its prey. You should also keep your other smaller pets (like your pet hamster) away from your cat.

Fear aggression is yet another instinctive behavior. How do you recognize when kitty is frightened? It hisses, bares its teeth, and crouches low with its tail and legs tucked under its body. It flattens its ears against the head, the pupils dilate, and the fur stands on end. To the person triggering this reaction, it almost seems as if your cat has doubled in size. Just the same as a puffer fish doubling its size to frighten its enemies away. Push kitty any further and it may attack.

So, what can you do? For a start, you should not try to pet or console your cat when it displays this frightened yet aggressive behavior. Petting your cat in this situation not only could get you hurt, it reinforces in kitty that this behavior is okay. You do not want this to happen. Even though it seems uncaring, it is better to ignore kitty in this mood.

Where possible, you want to gradually desensitize kitty towards this trigger. Treat it like a phobia in a human being. Expose kitty to the fear trigger a safe distance away for short periods of time, and reward it with treats when it does not show aggressive behavior. Once it gets used to the trigger at a certain distance, gradually decrease the distance. Eventually, like a human being, your cat will stop being afraid.

The other kind of aggression which causes kitty to attack other animals is called territorial aggression. This mean that kitty will chase or fight with the new cat which you bring home. It is trying to protect its territory. If this happens, you will need to take their introduction to each other slowly.

First, you need to confine both of them to their own quarters. Let them hear and smell each other, but do not allow any physical contact.

Once they get used to each other like this, switch their quarters. Let kitty investigate the newcomer’s smell, and let the newcomer investigate kitty’s smell and its new home.

After this, place them in the same room, but at opposite ends of the room. Let them eat, in order to condition them to associate food with each other’s presence.

Slowly bring then closer to each other.

Finally, free them from their carriers and feed them, while making sure they cannot attack each other.

If they eat their food and remain calm at this stage, then you are successful. Be warned that this could take weeks and even months.

In the end, there is no single way of keeping your cat from attacking another animal. You need to be patient and use a complete process.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Finally, a litter box you don’t have to hide! With its Tuscany true hand finish, Hidden Litter looks like a real clay pot. Complete with an attractive high-quality plant, Hidden Litter will enhance the décor of any room. No one will know if your cat doesn’t tell

Product Description
No one will know if your cat doesn’t tell! The Hidden Litter Box (Tuscany Model) is the largest of the hidden litter boxes. The litter box to humans looks like a planter when turned around towards the corner of the wall. Your pets will be able to crawl inside the base of the planter and use it as a litterbox with great privacy. The base can also be lined with bedding to use as a pet bed instead. Vented design and filter controls dust and odor! Comes complete with plant, filter and moss just add litter. Durable polypropylene construction. Large capacity pot great for large cats and multi-cat households.

Product Features

I bought one and then another a few months later. They are easy to assemble and clean. The “pot” finish is authentic looking but the plant and wiry moss are not at all lifelike and tedious to arrange the first time. But my cats (2)(ages 8 and 9) love them, especially the privacy. I have them on small washable area rugs, one on each floor. I had previously bought one of the covered litter boxes you tilt to clean, but it was ugly and did not work well for me as it was smallish and I like to give my cats a deeper bed of clumping litter than was practical for that model.

I own one and must say it looks surprisingly good for a thin plastic pot with a fake plant. The pot is realistic as long as you do not stoop to examine. The plant is not bad either and you can always use your own plant. It was difficult to arrange the leaves and the stem had to be “un bent”, but with a little effort it does not look bad at all.

The pot makes a large litter pan which I really like. I put mine in a corner with the opening towards the wall and as long as you keep it cleaned out people do not seem to notice.

I bought this when the only alternatives where $500+ wood furniture that looked nicer than my bedroom set. So I ordered a second one for the upstairs hallway. This is the problem, it has been on order for several months now. I cannot believe they are still selling this when it is back-ordered for so long. So I recommend this, but I would buy it from the manufacturer unless you have time to wait.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Easily keep the cat-litter box clean with this roll-away litter box. The unit quickly self-cleans, while controlling dust and containing odors. Simply roll the litter box to the right until the top touches the floor, and then roll it back to the upright position. The unit’s internal mechanism deposits the clumped waste into the pullout waste tray for easy disposal. The system works only with clumping litter, and the waste tray separates clumped waste from clean litter, so clean litter is never thrown away. The litter box makes it easy to provide the cat not only with a clean litter box, but also with privacy due to the covered pan design. The litter box also helps save money–no more scoops, liners, or filters to buy. With a silver top and blue base, the litter box measures16-1/2 by 19 by 16 inches with a 7-by-7-1/2-inch opening.

Reviews from Purchasers:

I would describe this cat box with words like- LOVE_LOVE- FUN- easy, ETC ETC….
When I bought the first one, I saved the receipt. I thought for $30 I am taking it back if it doesnt work like a dream. I also gave it to my mom as XMAS gift, so I wanted to make her test it out. When we first got Ragdolls cats for each other as XMAS gifts, we agreed on loving the cats but hating the cat box.
We even tried the automatic cleaning ones and took them back.
This cat box would be worth $100 in my opinion. I cant believe how easy it is to use, less then 10 seconds to cleans the litter box, no removing the lid. Throw away the scoops as you will never need it once you own this cat box. No smell, no bags, no mess. Even for someone with a bad back it would only require bending over. You roll it upside down, and the cleaning is done.
You slide out the drawer and the solied litter is ready to goto the trash can. The only thing I could think people may need to adjust themselves to is using minimal amount of litter. Just fill the main section with 3-4 inches of litter. Dont try to even it out to fill up the right side of the box.
Since I have gotten one for my mom, I purchased one. 4 other people I have demonstrated my cat box too, have also purchased one and they say they love it!!!
Go get one today!!

You can buy this Item at Amazon.com by clicking the following link:

Popularity: 15% [?]

This self-cleaning box is meant to be used with Fresh Step crystal litter. It has a seperate sealed container that the waste is deposited into to reduce odor and make clean-up a breeze. One unique feature of this litter box is that you can choose the amount of minutes between kitty potty time and the automatic box raking. It even has a counter that keeps track of how often your cat goes!

Pros:

• Counter is great for cats with urinary/digestive issues, you can give an accurate report to your vet
• Comes with a hood for your cat’s privacy and to minimize smell
• Quieter operation than most automatic litter boxes
• Designed to be changed only once or twice a month

Cons:

• The litter that must be used is non-clumping which can be messy wifor cats with soft stool
• The disposable cartridge system can get very expensive (there is a non-disposable option as well)
• Most users say they have to tend to the box much more often than advertised

More Real User Feedback

The ScoopFree was my first electronic litterbox. With the SF, I didn’t have to scoop pee clumps anymore so I was scooping maybe twice a day removing the poop clumps. I could and did forget about the litter box — didn’t find myself checking it or worrying about it any longer. It is very simple to maintain. There was very little litter tracked out of the box so a lot less floor cleaning, too. And, the crystals dried out the poop so much that the odor control was also fairly good — not perfect but a lot better!

The cartridges will not last 30 days; we change after 2 weeks. Still no odor, no mess, no tiny bits of poo in the FS. Zip, nada. Trouble free, with the exception of dumping the litter every 2 weeks, and everything in it is as dessicated as a mummy on the Nile, so no problem.

I just think it is such a fantastic litterbox! So maintenance free! I have a maid who once a week will scoop the doodie bin out for me, otherwise it just works it’s magic and I never even touch it.

You can buy this Item at Amazon.com by clicking the following link:

Popularity: 16% [?]

LitterMaid Automatic Litter Box LM920

This model is your more “traditional” raking system for a self-cleaning litterbox.

Pros:

• No more scooping!
• The rake moves over the litter immediately after your kitty does their business so stinky surprises aren’t hanging around.

Cons:

• Self-cleaning mechanism is quite noisy
• Some users report that this litter box is low quality and breaks easily

You can buy this Item at Amazon.com by clicking the following link:

Popularity: 15% [?]