Blog Jaipals: kitten

Showing posts with label kitten. Show all posts

Monday, July 16, 2012

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Though not exactly as challenging when picking out baby food items, finding the right food option for kittens holds its own challenging degrees, dependent mostly on what is more convenient for kitten masters or what is most beneficial for kittens.

Once already weaned from the milk of mama cats, kittens will have to eventually go solid with food products, leaving many questioning which is better: canned or dry food?

Here are some points worthy of mention, in helping resolve the match between canned VS dry food.

Canned VS Dry - Taking Variables and Factors into Consideration

Convenience stands to be a highlight sported by dry kitten food items, since its serving requires the use of a feeding dish and a method of easily pouring certain amounts into it for a kitten’s consumption. With canned kitten food products, the same method of serving is still applied, but the shelf-life factor of canned kitten food products isn’t as long when compared to their dry counterparts.

In this regard, dry food items for kittens stand to be more practical for “kitten parents”, and their use also extends as a method of getting kittens accustomed to dry cat food products as meal staples when they grow up.

However, studies suggest that cats do tend to live longer and fuller lives with canned food varieties, which leaves “kitten parents” in a rut between convenience and what is better for kittens/cats.

A balance between the two can be considered as an ideal, with opting for canned food items as a primary staple then going dry food items to be served as treats or snacks for cats.

Understanding Kittens and their needs

Kittens can’t be considered as “small” or “miniature” versions of cats. They are growing babies, and as such they would need all the nutritional supplements they can get from food items.

Requiring more vitamins, minerals and protein sources compared to adult cats, opting for food items rich in protein helps kittens develop stronger muscles and healthier body tissues, as minerals and calcium sources helps develop stronger teeth and bones.

You can start kittens with dry kitten food items made for kittens, but as he/she grows, gradually alternating between dry and canned foods is a good idea, in establishing the staple canned food and for-snack dry food setup in cat dietary menus and habits.

Here’s hoping your role as “kitten parent” is one which brings your kitten to a full, well-lived kitty life.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

A New Addition to the “Pride”

As with most domestic pets, cats have their own roster of fickle sides, from a kitty’s penchant to get stuck on trees to a cat’s views over other cats, often defined by the inability to stand each other's company, yet persistent in know what the others are up to.

Adding a new addition to a household stands to be one of those fickle sides, with many multiple-cat owners having to deal with turf wars and cat fights during new-cat introductions.

If you’ve recently added a new kitty to your household, here are some tips in helping your resident and new cat get along with the least amount of hisses, posturing and stray fur.

The Isolation Area Phase – ideally, a new kitty has to be isolated from other cats for a time (generally between 10 to 14 days), a first step that ensures safety for the new cat from being mauled or ganged on by resident cat(s), as well as a precautionary measure to ensure that no diseases are passed on to resident cats.

A spare bedroom or any unused space in the house are good isolation spaces, ensuring that contact between the new and resident cat(s) are left at minimum degrees. Also, it is advisable to have a non-family member or home resident bring in the new cat to the isolation room.

Don’t spend too much time with the new cat, since studies have shown that cats respond well to environmental changes and so much with social invitations. The bottom line is to give the new cat time to get settled to the changes in his/her environment, without the watchful eyes of the resident cat trained on the new cat.

The Settling In Phase – after the isolation phase, you can gradually facilitate the settling in of the new cat.

One method would be to gradually get resident cats familiar with the scent of the new cat, without necessarily letting them physically see each other.

You can play with the new cat in its isolation area without the resident cat(s) seeing, rubbing your hands (ergo passing its scent to your hands) over and around its coat. The resident cat won’t respond well to the new scent in your hands, and the idea is to get the resident cat familiar with the scent, until a time when the resident cat doesn’t get hostile whenever he/she gets a whiff of the new cat’s scent.

You can also use the new cat’s “bedspace” (blanket, shirt, or anything that the new cat spends a lot of time on) in reinforcing the new scent’s familiarity to a resident cat(s). One trick is associating the new scent with food, and this can be done by gradually positioning the new cat’s “bedspace” close to the resident cat(s) food area. The idea of this trick is to get resident cats comfortable with the scent being around, even to a point of linking the new cat’s scent with food treats.

The same methods can be done opposite with the new cat, also in ensuring that the new cat gets familiar with the resident cat’s scent.

The “Eyeballing” Phase – once the resident cat(s) have become accustomed with the new cat’s scent, visual contact is then in order, and gradual doses can be done in introducing new and resident cat(s) with each other.

One way would be to a rig tension grate over the new cat’s isolation space, allowing the kitty parties the chance to see each other, without giving them the chance to get into fights.

Chance meetings can be setup by positioning food bowls near the isolation area’s grates, something which can be setup for both new and resident cats.

The Meeting Phase – once the cats have become fairly accustomed with seeing each other, letting them meet up without any safeguards is next, and this meeting could last for 5 minutes to an hour, depending on the degree of tension between cats.

Facilitate meets gradually, and ensure that no fights will take place during meeting sessions. Once aggression levels during meets tone down (ideally with no aggression at al, even), you can leave the cats to be with each other’s company, though supervision will still be necessary.

Given time, new and resident cats will become used with having each other around, and by then, you can leave them unsupervised when within each other’s company.

Do well in keeping the points share here when introducing a new entry to your home’s pride, ensuring that a new addition seamless gets to become a part of the “tribe” in time.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Scottish Fold – Cat Breed

Scottish Fold is a breed of cat easily distinguished by its folded ears. These ears point forward and paired with its characteristically round face gives these cats an owl look that can look mean or intrigue most of the time. This cat breed was first discovered in 1961 and of course it was in Scotland (otherwise it wouldn’t be have “Scottish” on its name right?).

The folded ears on the Scottish Fold are a result of a dominant gene as was observed by the first breeding program for the breed back in 1966.

These cats come in a lot of fur color possibilities with Lilac, solid cream, and solid white among the most desirable.

These cats usually live up to 15 years and are considered medium-sized cats with adults weighing around 4-6 kilos.

Scottish Fold Temperament

Scottish Folds come with a very affectionate behavior towards their humans. Add a whole lot of playfulness, high intelligence and impeccable grooming and you have got yourself the perfect cat for any home regardless if there are other animals on it as they tend to have no problems with co-existing at all. So long as you give Scottish Folds some attention, the food it deserves and leave it to enjoy its slumber, you are in great shape with these cats.

To boot to the uber cuddliness features of Scottish Folds, these cats are known to sleep on their backs as if they have been shot dead with arms and legs spread out! They even love sitting with their legs stretched out while keeping their paws on their bellies as if saying, “I’ve had a great meal”. Lying tummy down with their arms and legs spread out are common as well.

And if you are a fan of Maru, you will notice him pushing his entire body while laying on his back by kicking other things with his hind legs. Now that’s intelligence in a cat at its best! More on Maru below.

Maru – Scottish Fold Youtube Sensation

Maru is probably the most popular Scottish Fold the world has known thanks to Youtube. In fact, Maru’s videos is one of the most popular Youtube videos around with Maru’s channel being the 7th most subscribed channel in Youtube Japan as of December, 2011! Think of all the wacky Japanese prank shows and game shows around just so you’d begin to understand how difficult it is to be on the top 10 of most popular Youtube channels in said country.

Maru’s Youtube videos have already been watched one hundred million (100,000,000) times already with an average video view of a staggering 100,000!

With that, it’s only natural that Maru has mentions from all over the internet and print media including mentions from Entertainment Weekly and the New York Times! Commercials? Naturally, his videos have been featured in advertisements as well.

That said, I’ll leave you in peace to check out these images of Scottish Folds and some of the videos of Maru to enjoy. Don’t you just wish you can give this cat a good squeezy someday?!

Scottish Fold Pictures