About Cat Behavior Problems

Series Summary

Cats have been domesticated pets for centuries, providing companionship to people as far back as 9,500 years ago. Despite the stereotype of cats as solitary animals with no need for human presence, many cats have a very social relationship with their owners, providing and receiving affection on many levels. In fact, some people suggest that human owners provide a sort of surrogate mother figure for cats and kittens and that adult domesticated cats live in a sort of extended kittenhood. In this free video series on pet care, a practicing veterinarian discusses caring for cats and kittens. Get information about common cat behavior, and find out how to deal with undesirable aggression, spraying and other social impairments. Learn to properly care for kittens, and get tips on socializing them from an early age to ensure a great feline personality. Understand the peculiarities of felines, who can be quite personable and affectionate pets.

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about cat behavior problems. Cats can develop behavior problems for lots of different reasons. Cats are pretty unique. When they're young, anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks of age is where they really need that positive social interaction with their litter mates, with humans. The reason is because that's when they form those impressions for the rest of their lives as far as how to interact with their environment. Behavior problems can come in many, many different forms in cats. And a lot of times can start off young. One behavior problem in particular would be aggression. Aggression toward people, aggression towards litter mates or house mates can be a big problem. Other types of behavior problems include urination, that seems to be a big one that we have to deal with all the time with cats, especially males, they can urinate outside the litter box as in marking their territory especially if they live with another cat that they're just not 100% comfortable with. And so with behavior problems again, they can manifest in many different ways. Talk to your veterinarian clinic about that. They can guide you through the process of dealing with behavior issues. There are a lot of books on the market that will describe and help you deal with behavior issues in cats. There are behaviorists, feline behaviorists that you can contact that can guide and help you through that process. In fact there are some that will even go to your house especially if you have multiple cats that are interacting in one environment and they can guide you through the behavioral process to try to help fix things. And a lot of those types of things are based around making them comfortable in their environment, positive reinforcement, lots of toys and a lot of cats will do well that way."