UK Version of Jackson Galaxy

In the UK, according to the Daily Star, we have an unknown cat expert who wants to become an recognised feline behaviourist with his own television show just like Jackson Galaxy in the USA. His name is Louis Denver, 29, and I have a feeling he has been watching Jackson Galaxy in action on his website.

He calls himself a “cat man" and says that he has built up his skills as a cat psychologist over time.  He lives in the north of the country in Lytham St Anne's, Lancashire.

Regrettably, he says things which tell me that he does not know enough about cats to be the UK's version of Jackson Galaxy.

Louis says the main problems facing cat owners are inappropriate elimination, loud meowing at night and spraying around the house. These are not the main problems.  Very few domestic cats spray around the house because spraying, as I'm sure Louis knows, is a form of territorial marking but although some rarely do this, 95% of domestic cats don't, especially if they are neutered.

Also, meowing at night is not in my mind a major problem.  You can see a list of the reasons for cat relinquishment on this page and they tell us what the major reasons are for a breakdown in the relationship between person and cat.

Louis says if a domestic cat misses the litter tray it is because the cat is territorially insecure and keen to mark his territory. Marking territory through spraying horizontally is not the same as peeing into a litter tray. The reasons behind both actions are completely different and unrelated.  You can read about how to stop peeing outside the box on this page.

Louis also states that cats try to be naughty. I would certainly dispute that especially as he implies that it is the reason for not using the litter tray which is completely incorrect in my opinion.

Louis claims to have learned everything he knows about cats from TV programmes and online tutorials. With respect to Louis, you cannot substitute actual cat caretaking over a long period of time with YouTube videos. To learn about cat behaviour solely from the Internet from words written and videos made is not enough.

He does have a good point when he says that cat caretakers need to play with their cats more often. And he doesn't like the mistreatment of cats which obviously tells us that his heart is in the right place.

I am not sure that the actually cares for a cat. That has not been stated in the article in the Daily Star.

The truth about treating cat ear mites

The truth about treating cat ear mites | PoC

If you click on the link above you will be taken to what I believe is a good page on this subject but it is not getting enough exposure from Google search and therefore I'm cross posting the page (in summary) on this website.  I apologise for duplication in what I'm saying about this but it needs to be done.



Essentially what I say is that a lot of people look for either a homeopathic home cure for cat ear mites or some sort of quick fix at home to avoid a trip to the vet. They are looking for ways to clean their cat's ears and kill the ear mites.

It is possible to clean the inside of the ear flap but only the part that you see. What about the beginning of the ear canal that goes to the eardrum?  Ear mites are going to be in that area and when you try and clean that area you are quite likely to do damage to the ear canal and even the eardrum unless you are extremely careful.

As cat ear mites are very irritating to the cat and as they also infest the cat outside of the ear plus bearing in mind what I have written about, I think that the best course of action is to take your cat to the vet and bite the bullet on the cost and trouble.

There is no sure way of fixing the problem at home and you can make things worse.  Do you want your cat to be in extreme discomfort for a very long time simply for the cost of a veterinarian visit?  The cost should not be that high because for a veterinarian treating cat ear mites should be straightforward but importantly effective with no risk to the cat.

Websites providing instructions on homeopathic cures for feline ear mites are fine but should be treated with caution and some skepticism.

Is the tuxedo cat a breed or not?

Binnie

I'm sure that most people know the answer this question because cats have been discussed on the Internet for about 10 years now.  The tuxedo cat is not a breed of cat.

This is a certain type of cat coat that is black-and-white with not much white so that the cat has the appearance of wearing a tuxedo which is formal dress wear the men: the penguin suit.

The classic pattern gives the cat a button of white on the chest but as shown in the photo the area of white can be more extensive.

A lot of the breed standards for a wide variety of cat breeds allow their cats to be black-and-white and some of these cats will be tuxedo cats.

It all depends on the breed standard as to what is allowed regarding the coat of the cat with respect to a particular cat breed.

History of Cat Food

History of Cat Food | PoC

The history of cat food as shown in the spreadsheet above tells us that just after the Second World War things started to take off. It was during the Second World War that the concept of dry cat food was first tried. It was successful because it was convenient and then during the era 1950 to 1970 and beyond there was a proliferation of pet food lines and products. The manufacturers of human food jumped onto the bandwagon.

A major development was to create extruded dry cat food which although first developed in the 1950s is still the same today. The great deficiency in this process, which makes attractive looking albeit inappropriate cat food, is that it requires carbohydrates to work. The high level of carbohydrates in dry cat food is not there by choice but by necessity and only because the process demands it. That is not a good reason why dry cat food is high in carbohydrates.

Domestic cats cannot taste sweetness and therefore they have no concept of the sugary taste. The domestic cat is unaware that the dry cat food that they may be fed full-time is not a replica in terms of constituents and ingredients of what they would be eating if they were preying on mice.

Not only is the high carbohydrate level potentially damaging to the cat's health, so is the lack of water which can leave a cat in a state of permanent mild dehydration.

The natural food of the domestic cat is as stated: the mouse and the mouse contains 70% water whereas dry cat food contains, as I recall, something in the order of 10%. It is known, these days, that the domestic cat does not compensate for this lack of water in his food by drinking more. No doubt the domestic cat drinks more than normal but not enough to completely compensate.

Although I am going on a bit about dry cat food, after all these decades of manufacturing it you would have thought that the manufacturers would have placed more concern upon the appropriateness of the food rather than focusing on the method of manufacture.

The 1950s was a time in America when there were the greatest number of new cat breeds. It also seems that this time, let's say about 10 years after the Second World War, when the domestic cat became more popular and an the cat fancy was at its height in the twentieth century. Just after this period the wild cat hybrids were first developed indicating an active cat fancy in their desire to expand the number of cat breeds.

An interesting development was the idea of marketing dry cat food as a food that can improve health with respect to certain illnesses. You will see from the spreadsheet that pet food to ameliorate health problems occurred for the first time in the 1930s. This was canned wet food for dogs.

Ultimately for cats this concept evolved into primarily Hills dry cat food for a range medicinal purposes.

It is interesting because, as mentioned, dry food is not particular healthy so the motivation in part to create this food appears to have been a desire to mask that fact.

Fewer Approved Drugs and Medications for Cats than for Dogs

Fewer Approved Drugs and Medications for Cats than for Dogs | PoC

This appears to be another example of discrimination against a domestic cat!  Apparently, there are more FDA (the regulatory body in America) approved drugs and medications for cats than for dogs. Vets use non-approved medications for cats in substitution.

The reason is that it is not commercially viable for the manufacturers to turn out drugs and medications for cats, requiring obtaining FDA approval, which I presume costs a fair bit of money.

I also presume that the reason for this is that the manufacturers do not think there will be a sufficiently large market for the drug that they had considered to produce because cat owners do not take their cats to the veterinarian anywhere near as often as dog owners take their dogs to the vet.

I'm guessing that that is the reason.  I have almost certainly simplified things but it is remarkable that there is a disparity in the number of available medicines between dogs and cats.  It can't be the case that dogs are less healthy than cats and therefore require more available treatments.  The only reason can be that the market for drugs for cats is smaller than that for dogs which leads me to the conclusion about. If I am incorrect then someone please tell me.

In the opening paragraph I state that there is discrimination against the cat.  This conclusion comes from the fact that if a person abuses a dog they are more heavily punished in the USA than would be the case if they had abused a cat.

Also, more unwanted cats are killed in the USA than dogs.  This happens at shelters.  My reading of the situation is that at animal shelters in the USA a higher percentage of cats are killed - because of inability to find an adopter - than dogs.

Although there is no hard evidence to support this, I have a feeling that the domestic cat is less valued as a sentient being then dogs.  Another reason might be the fact that the cat is more independent and therefore potentially less connected to human society.  There may also be more cat haters than dog haters for the same or similar reason.  The independence of the cat also encourages the lack of knowledge of the cat and ignorance breeds hatred.  What a person doesn't understand they fear and what they fear they kill.  That is an old native Indian saying, apparently.