13/01/2024
Cooperative Care, Lick Mats, Food Puzzles - Not Just for Dogs!!!
Some things to make your life easier and your cat’s life better.
Does your cat ever have issues with being destructive? Do they have a hard time at the vet or having their nails done?
The purpose of this post is to discuss some concepts and solutions you may not have thought of before that will help!
Mental Stimulation
What is Mental Stimulation?
Mental Stimulation is anything that makes the animal think. It is the other side of the coin for their physical needs. Some examples are: trick training, play, exploration walks, and food puzzles.
Why is Mental Stimulation important?
Mental Stimulation increases happiness and wellbeing. It helps your cat engage in appropriately directed natural behaviors, builds confidence, and gives a feeling of accomplishment. It helps alleviate boredom, anxiety, and frustration which are the cause of most problem behaviors!
Food Puzzles & Lick Mats
These tools help engage your cat’s brain to eat their favorite treats or even their daily meal depending on what you feed. It helps keep them engaged and stimulated without much effort on your part. It reduces stress and anxiety, making for a good tool to help treat Separation Anxiety. A food puzzle can be as simple as rolling up food in a towel so they have to push it around to get their meal or as complex as having locking mechanisms and drawers they must pull out to get their treats. A Lick Mat is something that they have to work at but isn’t exceptionally hard. It is an easy quick way to engage your cat and can be cleaned in the dishwasher. Lick Mats can also be used as a part of cooperative care when doing nails or when at the vet.
Cooperative Care
What is Cooperative Care?
Cooperative Care is all about making handling and husbandry procedures less stressful for all involved. It involves teaching the animal not only to tolerate but to opt in these experiences.
One of the most important aspects about cooperative care is that the animal can say “no”. When they indicate they want the procedure to stop they can do so using a non-aggressive and safe behavior. Example - they lift their head and move away from your target lick mat - things stop - their head goes back to the lick mat and things resume.
Doesn’t that seem counter intuitive?
Research has shown that allowing the animal to have control to opt out in such situations reduces stress and fear while also increasing their confidence and tolerance for handling, grooming, and veterinary exams.
But Why?
Because less stress means quicker and better recovery time.
It also means you are loading good experiences and associations with things that are necessary for their care.
So if you ever come across a time and place you are unable to offer low stress handling/care and things just need to get done - it will not be as stressful for them.
Doing Nails the Easy Way - An Example
Doing your cat’s nails doesn’t have to be hard nor does it have to be stressful for them. While early exposure to nail trimmings gives you a leg up and makes the process easier - it is not a necessity. You can do this with any cat with some patience.
Step 1 - The Introduction. I start by introducing the nail clippers I will be using to the cat. When they go to sniff the clippers I give them a treat.
Step 2 - Touching the paw. After some time when the cat seems comfortable, I will start to touch their paw while holding the clippers. Each time giving them a treat right after.
Step 3 - Holding the paw. Once the cat is comfortable with me touching their paw, I will lightly hold the paw. Reward them. Hold the paw longer. Reward. Hold the paw more firmly. Reward.
Step 4 - Pushing out the nail. In this part I reward the cat for allowing me to hold their paw and push out their nails. Once the cat seems comfortable and isn’t struggling, move on to the next step.
Step 5 - Clip the Nail. At this point in time we’ve built in a ton of trust and comfort. They are used to the nail clippers being near them and you handling their paws. Give them a treat and clip their nail. Reward after clipping. If they seem comfortable, do more but when they start to pull away it is time to give them a break. It is okay to just do one or two nails at a time and try again later in the day or the next.
Step 6 - Use a Lick Mat. Give them a lick mat to target while doing their nails. Now that they are comfortable with general handling and understand the nail clipping concept - use the lick mat as an easy barometer of how they are doing. It keeps them happy and occupied as you clip their nails. If they raise their head or move away - stop. When they put their head back to the lick mat - begin again.
This will make doing nails simple and easy for both you and your cat. The best part is that you can use this same method to even make the vet an easy and less stressful experience!
Summary
In conclusion - the same training and behavioral principles you use in dog training can be applied to cats with great benefit for both human and feline!
