A new solution to keep your cat safe outdoors

Cat are naturally active and love to do their own thing. I’s a continual concern for owners as to how to keep their cats safe outdoors, particularly when they have unlimited access to the big wide world. Unfortunately their tendency to wander leads to around 300,000 cat deaths on UK roads every year, a staggering number considering how much we take care of them when they are at home.

On top of the danger posed by roads, an outdoor cat also faces potential run-ins with other animals on neighbouring properties, dogs walking off the lead nearby, or bigger cats protecting their territory.

A cat’s natural prey drive will also drive them to explore further afield into tempting wildlife rich areas, such as woods or local parks. Not only does this pose a problem to preserving local wildlife, but can also cause your kitty to take unnecessary risks dashing across busy roads to catch prey, or getting stuck in buildings or trees as they hunt.

Enjoying the garden.

As a concerned cat owner, there are a couple of ways that you can keep your cat safe and sound. One solution is to set up a wire fencing system around your garden that is angled to stop your cat being able to escape. However these are generally costly, can ruin the look of your garden and be an eye-sore to your neighbours. Cats are also notorious escape artists and have been known to climb these fences to reach overhanging branches to make their getaway.

The other option is to try a CatFence, an invisible barrier system that trains your cat not to stray over a safe boundary you create. Providing a stress free and safe environment for your kitty. A CatFence is revolutionary system to keep cats safe outdoors. The fence was trialed by Feline Friends a charity in Derbyshire.

This unobtrusive barrier is a hidden fence consisting of a central control box that transmits a coded FM radio signal through a boundary wire that has been laid around the property. To train your cat not to stray over this set boundary, they wear a computer collar that houses a tiny FM receiver. As your cat moves towards the signal the collar emits an audible signal to indicate they should stop and turn back. If the cat continues towards the wire the collar gives a small “corrective shock” set to you cat’s individual requirements.

After completing the training cats quickly learn to understand the warning beep, and will immediately turn back into the allowed zone, thus avoiding correction.

Advantages of a CatFence system

A safe and simple training programme to keep your cat safe outdoors

As any cat owner will know, your cat is the king of its domain and will not do anything that it does not want to. This is why the CatFence system uses a form of training specifically designed for the needs of your cat.

Our training accounts for each cat’s natural personality, curiosity, and movement and starts in the home, where the cat is most comfortable. When your cat is ready, we take training outside to allow your feline friend to learn where it can and cannot go.

You set the safe boundary

You are in control of where you set the CatFence boundary to allow your cat to wander through your garden without a care, whilst keeping them clear of any potential dangers such as poisonous plants, neighbouring properties and busy roads. When setting the boundary you can also protect areas of your property from your pet such as a fish filled pond.

Tackle in house worries

There is the possibility that you live on a street without feline dangers, but you have a home sized scratching post. Cats need to scratch to get rid of dead cells on their claws, as well as to help them stretch out their bodies and paws. Unfortunately for you, your cat may not always use the expensive scratching post that you bought, choosing instead your furniture, carpets or curtains. If this is the case then your cat’s collar works with the special indoor system that allows you to cordon off parts of your home keeping rooms and furniture out of bounds. It can be set on almost any surface and can stuck to door frame if you want to section off a whole room from a feline fiend.

Let your cat know there is always safety at home. The CatFence containment system is the perfect way to ensure that your cat stays happy and healthy whilst still enjoying a life outdoors. If you have any concerns about how to keep your cat safe outdoors, due to busy roads or other potential threat, please call us for a quote on 01628 476475.

Links: https://www.feline-friends.org.uk/

Feeding a cat that is not yours, may not be doing the right thing

Cat owner or cat lover, we are all fond of cats. We appreciate it when they are around, we want to please them and make them happy. And what’s better for this purpose than a nice bit of food? But for several reasons, leaving cat food outside your house or feeding the nice cat that is coming to visit is perhaps not as good an idea as it may initially seem.

First, if the cat belongs to someone else, it might eat less at home. This may be interpreted as a loss of appetite by the owner, who then takes the cat to the veterinarian to have it checked over, causing unnecessary stress for both owner and cat. There are also the not inconsiderable financial consequences for the owner, as the vet may do tests because there is nothing obvious to explain this apparent loss of appetite. If the cat doesn’t eat less, then there is obviously the risk of obesity as the cat eats more than it needs and starts to put on weight. This not only puts a stress on the heart and the like, but also on the joints, resulting in painful arthritis sooner or later.

Second, if it’s not your cat, you won’t know if it has a health condition that is being controlled with a special diet. For example the cat could have a dietary sensitivity or diabetes, (which might be linked to obesity) and need to be on a specific diet to avoid problems. Feeding a routine food, may not have an obvious immediate effect, and the cat won’t avoid what might be tastier, just because it isn’t good for it in the long run. Such a choice could result in delayed complications, such as diarrhoea or a more serious crisis in the case of a condition like diabetes.

Some people like to offer visiting cats raw meat as a treat, after all, cats are strict carnivores, and feeding them with raw meat seems only natural.

Unfortunately, raw meat can carry disease, such as toxoplasmosis. This can be very serious, or may not appear to affect the cat very much (see Toxoplasmosis page here), but the cat can spread it to people including children, where the consequences can be much more serious. Feeding a cat that is not yours might not be the right thing to do, but feeding it raw meat is certainly not the right thing to do.

Finally, another sad potential consequence of feeding is that you may encourage cats to cross roads in order to come to visit and inadvertently increase the risk of them being run over. There are over 300 000 cats killed on the roads in UK each year and we don’t always know why they felt the need to cross this particular road. Getting food seems a pretty good reason, after all, many cats cross roads to head for fields where they can hunt.

So, what should we do about cats wandering in the neighbourhood? You should decide to do one or two things: First you should not feed any cat, and so avoid any problems linked to feeding them; next you can try to identify if the cats are owned or cared for? Where do they come from? Do they have to cross any road to come and see you? If they are owned, are they in good health and body condition? All this information and strong community contacts may give you the answers you need to make the right decision, and if it is not-owned, then it is better to take it to a rescue centre, where it can be fully cared for. Cat owners can also take measures to ensure that their cats are not put in “feeding- danger”. If they are on a strict diet, they can put a collar with the message “do not feed” on their cat. They can also talk to the neighbours and warn them about their cat’s special needs. Alternatively, if it is felt that it is better to keep it indoors, it must have plenty of stimulation and places to explore, so it doesn’t get frustrated.