The cat we keep at our home doesn’t go around in wilderness seeking prey to survive. It cannot completely make its instincts work in the conditions the human home makes available to it.

The cat we keep at our home doesn’t go around in wilderness seeking prey to survive. It cannot completely make its instincts work in the conditions the human home makes available to it. Regardless of that, most of the cat’s habits come into light nowadays too, despite the modified habitat. Cats fit well into our interior, but it is created to primary satisfy the people’s needs.      

Here are the peculiarities we should pay attention to: 

1. Everywhere goer

Cats need freedom of movement. It’s quite normal for a cat to go around and check each accessible spot at the home it inhabits. Cats take it as their territory just like you do. In the past cats used to move freely in human homes and buildings, they were even allowed in the religious temples, which not every human was allowed to get in. Cats move everywhere to chase small animals they eat. This has to do with the feline predatory instinct, as well as with the human expectations of mice and other rodents being hunted by cats.    

Unlike dogs, who move mostly on the ground, cats would like to get to the high and enclosed spaces like the wardrobe shelves and the dish cabinet. Restrictions are inevitable, but they must make sense.   

Just track out where your cat goes and clear the things on its routes away, especially the fragile ones. Gather the stuff you want to have by your hand on places that are open but inaccessible for your cat and put the rest in closed cupboards.

2. Drinking water from different cups

Cats do not necessarily drink water only from the bowl that is left beside their food. They find forgotten cups, try to drink water from the running tap and sometimes look for sources of water of other kind. This behavior is entirely rational and has taken shape during the evolutionary development. Whether or not cats eat an animal killed by them or by another predator, they avoid drinking water that is near the carcass. This way they keep clear of microbes and infections.

If your cat drinks water on other places and avoids the bowl intended for it, you should find another spot. Putting it up on a higher but accessible place is an option. This way you would satisfy the feline instinct to seek out clean water.

3. Carrying food out of the bowl

When cats carry food out of the bowl, they probably touch it with their whiskers and experience discomfort. This is because the bowl is too narrow. It must be wide and shallow to fit to the feline physiology. The cat’s whiskers are a vital organ playing an important role in the spatial sense of direction of cats.  Cats use them to assess the short distances and the scopes around them, like for example whether a hole is wide enough to get though. Cats have whiskers around their mouth, over their eyebrows and on their lower limbs. They are fitted with sensors (nerve endings) that send information to the brain about the surrounding objects. They help cats choose how to move and complete the whole picture of the rest of the senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch and equilibrium.    

Another reason for pulling food out of the bowl could be its wrong location, so you should find another place for it. Cats don’t like eating on the people’s passages and would try to have their meals left in peace.   

When you look for a more properly shaped bowl, you should bear in mind also the material which it is made of. The ceramic and glass dishware are preferable to the plastic and metal dishware. Plastic ones get scratches, begin containing bacteria easily and should be changed every year. The metal ones are more suitable than the plastic ones, but they get oxidized if they are not specially treated. 

4. Eating plants

Plants facilitate the working of the digestive tract. This does not, however, apply to all species. The co-habitation of cats and plants may be quite problematic for both. Some plants are venomous for cats and regardless of what your cat need, you don’t have to fully count on its botanical knowledge. The exotic plants people grow aren’t exactly what cats meet in their natural environment and they could get mixed up. 

You should make those plants inaccessible for your cat anyway. It could seem to be tricky to keep your cat away from the plants that aren’t intended for it and that depends on the number of the plants and the home specificities. The use of repellents is not a durable solution. You can hang the plants on the ceiling or put them on an inaccessible place; separate them with bulkheads or webs, as well as put them in a separate room, an illuminated recess or on a balcony.

5. Staying high up

Cats feel good when they can keep an eye on their territory. Thus, they are sure that they can react when hazard arises or prey pops up.  

Your cat needs to have a place like this. It could be a shelf or a higher panel and must be accessible and free of any objects. If you decide to buy special furniture, you’ve got a choice of two types of constructions – wall and floor ones. The wall ones are easier to fix, but they are more inconvenient to mount.  In case of floor furniture, you should watch out that they don’t shake, which often happens, because the construction is to raise the cat to a higher level. This fault is not unlikely to happen and your cat, however, isn’t a squirrel and would rather have a solid ground underneath.

6. Climbing up

Cats use each opportunity to climb up and show exceptional skills in activities like that. The necessity to climb up is a base feline instinct and physiological need, which cats can’t carry out in our homes the way we created them for our sake.  

Painted surfaces, floors, doors as well as hardboard furniture or painted wood don’t fit to the feline physiology, because cats can’t dig their claws when climbing and control their movement. The only suitable material for cats from this point of view is textile and that’s why cats focus frequently their attention on it.      

Whether cats would try to use our furniture or would climb up the curtains, there are no many alternatives among our human objects. What should be done? Each piece of carpet, well fixed on the right place on the wall could work perfectly. If you buy complete furniture for this purpose, try to imagine how your cat would interact with it. If such an experiment is successful, it would partly reduce the claw-sharpening into your furniture, because now your cat would take care of its claws also when climbing.

7. Claw-“sharpening” into furniture

Claw-“sharpening” into human furniture occurs practically by every cat. This way cats keep their claws fit, which is essential, because the whole feline locomotor system is based on them. Their trimming or filing is not recommended. 

In nature, cats keep their claws fit into the bark of various trees. They find an option to do that into the upholstered furniture whose upholstered furnishing fabrics are quite good for that purpose. Cats also  like carpets that are fixed on the floor. Pieces of wood or objects wrapped in sisal that are tossed to them are often ignored. 

It could seem difficult to reorient our cat to the accessory, specially purchased for it, because our furniture is simply more suitable for the purpose. While sharpening their claws, cats need not only a surface to dig them into, but also various angles and a support while they’re sharpening and pulling their claws.  It isn’t enough only the surface for cat claw sharpening to be suitable. And it isn’t sure, however, that your cat will step on the accessory according to the way defined in the manual, although it could be the case from time to time.  

Making extra slip covers for the upholstered furniture parts, which your cat keeps regularly its claws fit into, is an option. You should fasten them tight, because your cat will push its paws through to reach the convenient tight manufactured upholstery.

8. Need for privacy

Cats are territorial animals and for domestic cats the territory falls in with the home that they inhabit. In addition to taking every inch of their territory as their own, cats need privacy and places, which belong only to them. They are social animals who seek human company, as well as independent animals who need privacy, and sometimes they need to be self-sufficient. Cats use their shelters to relax. 

Sleep occupies an important place in the cat’s life. Cats spend 15 percent of their time sleeping and 50 percent napping. Apart from loving the human bed, cats search for warm places close to the heating source or places where they would feel safe. You can easily help your cat do so by putting an appropriate mat or a bed on the places it uses.