How to minimise your cat wandering too far from the cat-flap

Wandering cat. Image: SVEN HERSELMAN.

I can think of two ways to minimise the distance that your domestic cat companion travels away from your home if they are indoor/outdoor cats. These are my tips:

1. Feed your cat well with high quality wet cat food and some dry cat food for grazing at night. It has been found and indeed suggested by a very well-known cat behaviourist, Dr. Jon Bradshaw, that when domestic cats are fed well and regularly, they have less inclination to patrol over large areas. Domestic cat will inherently patrol their territory if they are allowed outside because this is instinctive wild cat behaviour. But when well fed it dampens that desire. It shrinks their home range because one reason for having a home range is to have a territory within which they can hunt. The hunting desire is somewhat dampened when well fed although not eliminated because the desire to hunt is not directly linked to feeling hungry. This is also inherited from the wildcat ancestor.
2. Secondly, among the wild cat species of all kinds, you will find that the female's home range is considerably smaller than the male's. In fact, for the tiger, female home ranges are often encompassed by a single male home range. It's a kind of male harem. But the point is this: adopting a female cat should mean that they travel less distance from the cat flap.

RELATED: The misogynistic world of tiger property rights!

The above two points have, clearly, distinct advantages to the cat caregiver such as:

• Less desire to hunt native species which should please conservationists and indeed the owner.
• Less desire to roam widely. They might roam no more than 50 yards from the cat flap or even stay within the back yard.
• Improved relationships with neighbours potentially because there will be less desire to roam onto neighbours' backyards or back gardens.
• Less risk of injury through wandering onto roads and being hit by vehicles.
• Less risk of injury generally as there is less opportunity to encounter hazards.
• Less risk of being lost.

Picture of a calico American Curl with a blaze down the nose

The cat's name is Shiva. She is a calico cat; tortoiseshell-and-white, with a line down her nose demarking two colours (a blaze). She is also an American Curl. You can see the white on the cat's chest. The term "calico" is an Americanism. Like tortoiseshell cats the colour form is sex-linked and they are nearly always female. Males do sometimes occur but they are extremely rare. In 1989, at least one commentator said that calico cats should have a certain minimum amount of white fur: white feet, legs, underside chest and muzzle. This person thought that "once a cat has more than half of its body total in white, then it is a calico". On that basis this cat can either be a tortoiseshell cat or a calico cat. I think that is over complicating it and perhaps the best thing to do is to describe this cat as a tortoiseshell-and-white!

Picture of a calico American Curl with a blaze down the nose. Photo: Pinterest.

There are a number of variant forms which had been developed over the years such as dilute calico which is white with unbridled blue and cream and a fawn-cream calico. There are others. The calico cat is not a cat breed but a colour type.

The American curl is a breed which appeared in 1981 in Lakewood California. A couple, John and Grace Ruga found 2 stray kittens on their doorstep. One of the cats had strangely shaped ears and they kept her. She gave birth to a litter of four kittens, two of which showed the same curled ears as their mother and they decided to use these cats as the foundation stock of a new breed.

Like a lot of other cat breeds the American Curl started with a spontaneous genetic mutation in the random bred cat population and which happened to be noticed by somebody leading to a cat breed through selective breeding.

You can read more about the American curl and the tortoiseshell coat by clicking on the links in this sentence.

Can a neutered male cat still mate?

Yes, neutered male cats can still mate because they are driven to mate by 3 things including testosterone, but they can't procreate.

This question has been asked thousands of times and answered pretty comprehensively but I'm going to throw my hat into the ring. In this article I interpret 'mating' as the desire to have sex with a female.

It seems to me that there are 3 drives which make a male cat want to mate with a female and they are (1) it's in his DNA i.e. it is inherited, and (2) behaviourally he has learned to do it after mating with queens (unneutered female cats normally breeding cats) and (3) the presence of the hormone testosterone in his blood.

Gunner an unneutered male Sphynx cat. Photos: Helmi Flick. As he is hairless his testicles are very visible. Sorry Gunner, I realise it is a bit rude to talk about you like that.

It is the last factor which is the most relevant and certainly the most relevant in this instance because it is the male cat's testes (testicles) in which testosterone is produced. Neuter (castrate) him and you remove the testes and you remove the testosterone although some of this hormone may remain in their body afterwards for a while. So, there should be less motivation to mate with a female once a male cat has been castrated.

But it's not true that there is no motivation because you will read stories on the Internet of male cats who want to mate with female cats even though they have been castrated. Certainly, male cats who have been neutered later in life may still want to mate with females although it is uncommon. It appears that they have a habit or a practiced mating activity which continues instinctively even though they're not driven to have sex with a female because of their testosterone.

And there must, it seems to me, be some inherited desire through their genetics to procreate and therefore that innate desire is present even without the hormone testosterone.

It also seems, though, that even young male cats who have been neutered at about 7 months old can retain their sex drive. And I have personal experience of this because my male cat regards me as his mother and when I wear an old dressing gown, he likes to have sex on my arm. He treats the dressing gown as his mother. It does feel a bit like a cat because it's woolly and about the rough shape of a cat! I know it sounds a bit ridiculous and bizarre but I let him do it. Given the opportunity he would do it at least once per day.

In short, he has a very strong sex drive even though he totally lacks testosterone and is about 6 years old so he's been without testosterone for 5.5 years. It seems that the two factors I mentioned above other than the testosterone drive have come into play for my cat. Instinctively, he wants or needs to procreate. He instinctively wants to mate with a female. This is strongly evident in his behaviour towards me.

And, it has to be said, it is not that strange for domestic cats to hump a person's arm or to hump something inanimate. The same thing happens with dogs. It entirely instinctive and we should not laugh at them or belittle them for it. Humans are no better when you think about it!

To get back to the question in the title, can a neutered male cat still mate? Yes, they can and I don't think that it is as uncommon as people think. However, they can go through the act of mating but they can't procreate because they have no sperm due to their missing testicles. That's obvious but perhaps it needs to be stated just in case it isn't that obvious.

The neutering operation is called an orchidectomy. Both testicles are removed and the cat can go home the same day. Neutering does not change the cat's personality except to reduce or eliminate the desire to roam and his sexual impulses. Clearly it does not entirely eliminate his sexual impulses but it presumably varies on a cat-by-cat basis. Also, males become less aggressive when neutered and this is partly because they are less territorial and a lot of their aggression is expended in protecting their home range.

Early neutering produces a cat which is slightly taller in size due to delayed bone growth plate closure. Early neutering might cause the inability to extrude the penis! For that reason, I insisted that my cat was neutered no sooner than 7-months-of-age. I wanted him to at least have a decent willie that worked for Christ's sake! It does and he has it out (it is erect) when he is humping my arm for around five minutes. He only humps my arm when I am wearing the same dressing gown.

He becomes very excited and makes a pleased squeak before he starts. He grips the cuff of the garment in his teeth in the classic mating position to stop the 'female' turning and slapping him when he removes his barbed willy. Yes, I am being a bit graphic but it is the reality of it. Oh, and he washes his willie after the mating. And then jumps back on my lap for a pleasant snooze.

Should male cats eat wet food?

This is silly question but Google seems to think that people ask it, but I can't understand why. Of course, male cats should eat wet cat food. Male and female domestic cats have the same basic dietary requirements except for when the female is pregnant (see: How do I know if my cat is pregnant?). This post is bound to be short as the answer is so obvious.

This male cat is from somewhere in the galaxy and does no eat standard cat food but Martian foods. :) Photo in the public domain.

Perhaps there is a more pressing reason why male cats should eat wet food: they are more likely to have a urinary obstruction and the more fluids they can ingest the better to help flush the system. In fact, dry cat food is probably more likely to cause a UTI (urinary tract infection) in male cats than females.

• 3 diabetic cats cured with an exclusive wet cat food diet

The response to the question is to say that male cats must eat wet cat food at least as a major component of their diet.