Is Christmas Bad for Cats?

This sounds like Scrooge talking but is Christmas bad for cats? Seeing that I am like Scrooge, I'll say, "Yes". But it's not all bad.

First there's the food. We tend to give our cat bits of Christmas food; heavens there is usually too much of it and lots can go to waste, so why not give it to our cat? This is probably not a good idea unless it is in small doses. It is giving our cat an unbalanced diet for a start. Although a bit of turkey surely wouldn't go amiss.

Then there is the noise. Cats have great hearing, much better than ours. The extra noise generated can be very disturbing. Then there are the visitors. A lot of cats don't like strangers (to them). They tend to go and hide. That is the downside. Is there is any upside?

Well cats don't recognize Christmas so for them it is just a little more disturbance to their precious routine and they like routine particularly when they get older. But some disturbance is welcome and some presents are welcome too.

A particularly nice disturbance is wrapping up the presents; nice and messy and plenty of paper to rummage around in and make more messy. Then there is the string etc. All great fun. As to presents, some cats go crazy for catnip. Timmy, a stray cat I feed, found some that Helmi gave me and he just goes mad over it and then zonks out as if he had taken a sleeping pill.

Here he is after a bout of catnip:



So, is Christmas bad for cats? Nah, not really, provided we are sensible and don't give out cats too much left overs.

See

• Homemade Cat Food
• Grain Free Cat Food
• Cat Food Recipe