Health & Behavior


Cat Grass

Catscue Salad Bar

     If you have inside cats, and I hope you do … with the exception of any feral colonies you are caretaking … you’ll need to make sure they are happy and healthy by providing those things that are outside by bringing it’s equivalent inside.

     The first, and most important is cat grass.  This is very important for their digestion.  There are cat foods that incorporate greens if you don’t provide grass.  But please have either one or the other or both.

     I’m lucky, I have one of the greatest friends in the world who grows cat grass for me.  Sreekanth took on the job when I was complaining about how I could never get the grass grown to a decent level before my little terrors would tear it apart.  He is really a kind and generous soul and I’m blessed by  his friendship.

     If your home has the same problem I have, and you don’t have a friend like mine, pet stores do sell the grass already grown.   So stock up on greens for your little ones!

As I don’t buy my own cat grass seed, I can’t recommend a particular seed. Sreekanth uses wheatgrass seeds or a cat blend of seeds he gets online. But please do your research first, you don’t want to feed your cats anything that will harm them! Check our Plants Poisonous to Cats page for more info.

Another important part of bringing outside in for your cats is cat specific furniture for your Tree Dwellers and Ground Dwellers, check out our DIY page for cheap and easy ways to build your own!

Fleas

Ranger

Fleas can make everybody miserable!

The very first thing to do is vacuum, vacuum, vacuum!

Every day!

Tip: Spray Flea killer into the vacuum when it is still running before you turn it off. Just a little squirt, then when you empty the vacuum, spray inside the bag you empty it into – gotta make sure they don’t hop back out!

Then you are going to need to get rid of the flea eggs and prevent any more fleas from getting onto your cat. And removing the ones that are there, here is what has worked for us:

Get a flea comb and get to work on your cat’s coat now! I keep a tissue with alcohol on it and each time I see a flea on that comb, I cover it with the tissue before it can jump back on my cat and pull that flea off of there and flush it down the toilet.

Diatomaceous earth is a very fine white earth used in pools, but purchase the food grade earth like the one below, do not use the earth that you use in your pool. Sprinkle lightly on carpets and furniture and spray to let it seep down – or better yet, mix it with water and use a spray bottle to distribute. You can rub it into your cat’s coat, but be careful it doesn’t cloud up – they can’t breath this stuff or get it in their eyes. It’s OK if they lick it, the food grade earth that is – the filter earth can be toxic.

DiatomaceousEarth DE10, 100% Organic Food Grade Diamateous Earth Powder – Safe For Children & Pets 10 LBS

This flea trap is great! Plug it in at night and the fleas come in droves. It comes with sticky paper and that works fine for a while, but it does lose it’s stickiness and the fleas can hop right back out. Rather than buying new pads, we put a little soapy water in the bottom instead – you don’t need it too deep as fleas are so small. Just empty all those dead fleas in the morning and refill again at night.

The Pet Armor Home below is effective to spray on carpets and furniture. Make sure it is dry before your cats walk or lay on the area. It not only kills fleas, but it destroys the eggs as well, which is very important.

Fleas like high traffic areas, so they can catch a ride on whoever walks by. But eggs can be laid anywhere, be sure and pay attention to under furniture, in corners, basically everywhere.

The pump spray seems to have more in it than the aerosol.

All of the steps above require a lot of extra work, I know. But if you do not nip this in the bud, you will end up with a major flea infestation and that is NOT GOOD!

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