There seems to be a kind of magic in raising cats. Once you raise the first one, you will want to raise the second one, and then more and more...especially the cute pet bloggers on the Internet, who often have seven or eight cats at home. , surrounding the owner, hugging him from left to right, as happy as a god!

It’s really hard for anyone not to be tempted by this temptation!

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But once the second and third cats are really brought into the house, there will be a lot of poop shoveling The official was immediately slapped in the face...

The multi-cat family you imagined: warm, harmonious, loving mother and filial piety, happy and harmonious

The multi-cat family in reality: Zuo Gou Punches, right kicks, restlessness, and love to bully

Of course, there are also some people who want to raise a "second child" for the following reasons:

I go to work every day and only go to work in the evening. Come back and leave the cat alone at home. Do you want to find a companion for her?

In response to this situation, the editor believes that normally, as long as we prepare toys for the cat, a space for free activities, and set aside a fixed time to play with the cat every day, it will You won't feel bored. So it is not necessary to introduce a second cat to realize the "companion" function. So if you really like cats so much, like the feeling of "thriving cats" in your home, and really want to form a multi-cat family, how can we balance the relationship between each cat? Is the psychological stress of cats in multi-cat households really greater than in single-cat households? How can we achieve "a bowl of water to be balanced" in practice?

Don’t worry, let’s take a look at the indicators to judge the happiness of a multi-cat family first! Happy families are always alike

How to judge whether a multi-cat family is harmonious and happy? That is, neither the people nor the cats living in the home are stressed or have health problems. Specifically, you can refer to the following standards:

✔ Cats frequently engage in friendly behaviors, such as licking each other's fur, sleeping together, and playing around.

✔ There are no hostile behaviors between cats, such as puffing and raising hair, chasing and fighting (scratching, punching, biting), preventing each other from eating or using the litter box, etc.

✔ Each cat has a certain private cat space, and there is a place to go when it wants to be alone.

✔ There are sufficient resources, so there is no need to compete.

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Unfortunate multi-cat families have their own misfortunes

In fact, raising The second cat is not simply a litter box x2 and cat food x2.

Because every cat has its own habits, they may not necessarily get along harmoniously. There will always be some trivial problems in daily feeding. For example, you have to break up fights; if one cat gets an infectious disease in the future , it can be easily transmitted to another cat; both cats need their own living space, whether the home is large enough, etc.

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Many behavioral and health problems may occur in multi-cat households, among which the more common ones are:

1. Diseases caused by stress. For example, idiopathic cystitis, obsessive-compulsive disorder (excessive licking of fur), obesity and diabetes, loss of appetite and fatty liver, neuropathic diarrhea and vomiting, feline nasal congestion, etc.;

2. Infectious diseases. Cross-infection is easy between people and cats, and between cats living in the same dense space. There are various types of pathogens such as viruses (calicivirus, feline AIDS, leukemia, herpes viruses), bacteria, fungi, internal and external parasites, etc.

3. Fight. Cats may fight due to illness, pain, competition for resources, lack of socialization, etc.

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4. Dietary issues. Every cat has a different personality and appetite. In a multi-cat household, it is easy for some cats to eat too much, leading to obesity; while other cats are malnourished because they cannot get enough to eat. Moreover, in this environment of competition for resources, cats’ personalities tend to become aggressive.

5. Reproduction problem. If you have a male cat and a female cat at home, and neither of them has been neutered, they are likely to mate during the breeding season, and what awaits you is litter after litter of kittens that you cannot raise or send out, creating a vicious cycle.

Pictures

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The most important issue is that as a parent, you Can a bowl of water be leveled? If one cat at home is obedient and the other is naughty, can you treat them equally without favoritism? If the first cat made us experience the feeling of being parents for the first time, then the second cat is a test of our humanity. Do we have enough time, energy, and money to deal with it?

How to solve these problems

1. Choose cats that are easier to get along with, such as:

✔ A female cat and her babies.

✔ Brothers and sisters.

✔ Kittens who are not related by blood, but spent the "socialization" period together.

✔ Neutered cats.

2. Leave a good impression during the first meeting

A survey conducted by a research team at Cornell University in the United States showed that cats Failure to make a good impression on each other during the first meeting is likely to lead to lasting hostility and increased frequency of fights.

So, it is absolutely undesirable to let the aborigines and the new cats meet directly without any preparation! (But as we live together longer, the fighting will gradually decrease)