Cat Colony

This is about one aspect of the cat colony - the space that individual cats require and occupy when they have formed a colony. This topic comes direct from a colleague of mine; Valley Girl (VG). She lives in the USA and has recently been to Morocco where she photographed the feral and domestic cats. She likes cats and lives with Tootsie a polydactyl Maine Coon who is now quite famous.

VG asks the question as to whether cats in groups are more orderly than previously thought. She noticed how the cats of Morocco were orderly when looking for food from people and when resting. Here is a photo that illustrates that:

Cat colony - photo copyright valleygirl_tka

I am going to attempt to answer the question as to why cats form orderly "queues" and rest and sleep in an orderly manner. This comes straight from my head and no reference works have been referred to. Comments therefore would be welcome and I don't mind if they are critical.

Cats are essentially solitary animals. Lions are an exception, living in prides. The domestic cat is a domesticated and evolved African and Eastern European wildcat. These wildcats are solitary animals.

Given a choice, therefore, feral cats will live pretty solitary lives. The choice comes from availability of food and space. If the habitat is right the feral domestic cat will roam widely and be solitary. Some feral cats in Australia are like this. The live off native wildlife and the Aussies don't like it. There is sufficient prey to support feral cats.

The cats that VG photographed were urban, domestic, semi-domestic and feral cats. These cats mainly rely on food that originates with people. It might be waste human food or cat food provided by people or raw food such as fish etc.

Cat Queue - Photo copyright: valleygirl_tka

A typical scenario would be cats congregating at a fishing port. There is a ready and steady supply of food at one place.

The primary objective of the feral cat is survival and a food source takes precedence over everything including the natural urge to be solitary. Therefore the cat adapts its behavior and forms groups.

Where there are groups a hierarchy is set up, which creates some order. The natural urge for individual space competes with the need to be at the source of food. These competing forces results in a certain distance being maintained. The queues for food are probably based on the hierarchy that has been established. Multicat households are based on the same principles.

Survival beats all preferences, though. When I holidayed in Italy about 25 years ago I remember that the feral cats outside our hotel room stacked up like double decker buses at night when the temperature dropped. One cat would lie on top of another. This kept both warm. There was no space between them, obviously.

The cat will fill space to an area the size of about 9 square kilometres if the food source and circumstances allow. Cats also adapt very well when they have to and can live permanently indoors in an apartment, a fraction of an acre. The expansion and contraction of overall space dictates the amount of space around the individual cat.

My old lady cat likes a bit of space around her. She keeps a decent distance from my three legged boy cat. She keeps a distance from me when resting that is the same as that in VG's photo above. This might be the "minimum default individual space allowance" of the typical domestic cat when living in a group or cat colony. Cats that are a little outside the main group are probably outsiders, at the bottom of the hierarchy, wanting to get in.

A visitor's page: Feral Cat Colony.



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Cat Deworming

Cat deworming agents or drugs are poisonous to the worm and less poisonous to the cat but they are still poisons. Care needs to be exercised.

The reference material comes from the book shown adjacent left to these words. You can buy it on Amazon. It is the best book on cat health care anywhere.

Kittens

It appears that the general advice here is to have a good veterinarian check your kitten or kittens stool for worms as "a very large proportion of kittens are infested with ascarids"...but it cannot be assumed that the infestation is limited to ascarids. Certain deworming drugs are ineffective against certain worms so a proper diagnosis needs to be made at the outset. Ascarids are roundworms.

Kittens should be healthy and unstressed before administering deworming drugs - i.e. no diarrhea or signs of illness.

Kittens infested with roundworms should be treated at 2 - 3 weeks of age and at 5 - 6 weeks of age and beyond if still present. Treatments should be vet supervised in my opinion as kittens are too vulnerable.

Sid - he had worms and died of an unspecified illness - photo by rore

Adult Cats

The general modus operandi is to deworm when when worms are present and not as a precaution. Diagnosis is through inspection of the cat's stool through a microscope.

Any underlying illness or undiagnosed illness is best treated and resolved before deworming.

Outdoor cats should be checked yearly or automatically treated as a precaution. Tapeworms need more frequent treatment.

Breeding mothers should be dewormed before breeding.

Medications

Please see a vet first. Where a worm is not listed the drug is not effective for that worm.

Epsiprantel - effective for tapeworms.

Fenbendazole - Effective for ascarids, hookworm and tapeworm.

Invermectin - prevents heartworm, good for hookworm.

Milbemycin oxime - effective for roundworm and hookworm, prevents heartworm.

Piperazine - effective for roundworm.

Praziquantal - for tapeworm.

Praziquantel with pyrantel - for roundworm, hookworm and tapeworm.

Pyrantel pamoate - for roundworm and hookworm.

Selamectin - as for Pyrantel pamoate.

See cat parasites and cat cough and cat heartworm and "Cat has a bug that looks like rice coming out of butt"and kitten health.



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Cat Cookie Jar

I think of two things when I read "cat cookie jar". A jar that is in the shape and image of a cat and a cat getting into a cookie jar! Well if it is not a cookie jar it is something as small as a cookie jar (for the cat) and it makes a good video.

Some cats (very, very few) like to shimmy and wriggle, acrobatically into a very small jar. Perhaps they find it comforting. Perhaps they are getting back into mother's womb! It certainly looks like it and I don't blame them. It can be pretty hostile out there.

Well first up is the classic cat cookie jar....

And next we have that little cat inside a jar. I am told the cat is a Himalayan (a purebred pointed Persian cat) that lives in Russia but can't confirm that:

Cat in a jar! Still taken from a video.

Here is the well known video. I don't actually like this but that is just me: From Cat Cookie Jar to Home Page

Cat In The Hat Book

Buy the CAT IN THE HAT book here. This is a book written for primary school children in the age range of six to seven that was created in response to a May 25, 1954 Life magazine article that was critical of school books for primary school children on reading in the United States.

William Ellsworth Spaulding (director of Houthton Mifflin's education division) invited Theodor Geisel, whose pseudonym was Dr. Seuss, to write a more effective and interesting book. The result was the Cat in the Hat book.

The commission to write the book came with what might be considered strict conditions, namely that it should be written using 225 words that children of this age range should know. Dr. Seuss actually wrote the book using 223 words that where on the list of 348 words that could be used. Dr. Seuss added 13 words that were not on the list of 348! He stuck pretty closely to the specification therefore. The limitations on vocabulary made it more difficult to write. It took nine months.

The first Cat in the Hat book appeared in 1957. The now famous cat was tall with you guessed it, a hat:

See base of post for copyright issues

I have not read the book but the story line or plot is said to be "Kafkaesque" meaning involved, complicated. Wikipedia describe it as chaotic and exuberant. The lives of a brother and sister left alone in their home on a rainy day (is that correct in a modern world?!) are brightened up by an anthropomorphic cat who turns the house into a "chaotic playground". The childrens' play is unrestricted. The story is interesting and above all it teaches reading.

The Cat in the Hat book was intially published by Random House but due to its success an independent publishing company was formed. It was called Beginner Books and Theodor Geisel was made the  president and editor.

A series of six books followed.

Note:

The picture of the cover of the book is reproduced under fair use adopting the arguments expounded by the Wikipedia authors in their article on the same subject.




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Cat Health Book

Healthy tabby cat? Photo by julicath/Cath (On- Off ;-))

I am going to keep this post short because there is no doubt in my mind what the best cat health book is: Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook - click on the picture of the book to buy it (or just hold the cursor over it). It is very good value indeed



Why is this the best (worldwide)?

1. Comprehensiveness
2. Readability
3. Ease of reference (you can find things easily)
4. Updated regularly

I'll press on though as there are other cat health books that I use and this is the list:

1. Your Cat
2. The Veterinarian's Guide to Your Cat's Symptoms
3. Veterinary Notes For Cat Owners

These are the "also rans" for me. It is a personal thing of course. But I think that you will probably agree that my top pick is the best. I use it all the time and willingly promote it.



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