Effect of Environment on Feline Behaviour

Introduction

Cats are highly dependent on their environment, which different to other animals. The inside of the home should be considered the ‘core’ of the cat’s territory. This is somewhere that cats expect to feel safe and where they can eat, drink and rest in privacy away from any enemies. Cats also need to be able to climb up high to vantage points where they feel safe.

It is important to provide cats with a home that meets their needs, especially if several cats are sharing the same home. Otherwise there is risk of the cats suffering from stress and behavioural problems like aggression, house soiling or indoor urine marking.

Any changes to their environment may have profound effect on their well being and behavioural problems may develop if this is not addressed appropriately, particularly at times of rehoming or owners moving house. Proper introduction to a new ‘core territory’ reduces stress and the likelihood of fear problems. Creating attachment to a new core territory also reduces the risk of the cat straying or trying to return to its original territory after a house move.

Adequate Environment for Cats

Cats are usually kept either outdoor, indoor only or indoor with access to the outdoors. In all cases, cats need stimulating environment to avoid boredom and unnecessary stress but if the cat cannot go outside, it is even more important to make sure that the indoor home environment is really suitable. For indoor cats (and those with access to the outdoors) it is advisable to provide each resources as one per cat plus one more. Resources include litter trays, food and water bowls, sleeping places, hiding places. It is important to allow cats free access to all the resources without the need for human intervention. Cats prefer to be in control and this should be allowed as much as possible. Indoor cats with access to the outdoors generally use a cat flap. It is often a vulnerable spot from the cat's perspective and it is important not to locate any resources near there.

The cat’s basic needs are for:

Space (including access to height)
Resources
Opportunities to perform normal behaviour (hunting, clawing etc.)
Privacy
Choice (the need to have alternative places to eat, rest, play and go to the toilet)

Space

Cats should be provided with lots of opportunity to climb and explore. For example shelves at different heights, cat furniture and access to the tops of cupboards and wardrobes.

Resources

Each cat needs several places to eat, drink, and rest. This gives them choice and means that cats that don’t get along do not have to compete for the same toilet or food bowl. Enabling the cats to live separate lives actually increases the chances that they will live happily with each other.

Food provision: Cats in the wild spend a large amount of time hunting and foraging. To keep them happy, it is useful to provide not only multiple food bowls in different locations but also more challenging ways of obtaining food, for example using play or food dispensing balls.

Water provision: Cats often don’t drink enough water to keep their kidneys and urinary system healthy. They can be encouraged to drink more healthy amounts by providing them with a recirculating-type water fountain. These are available commercially and include a filter to remove impurities that cats don’t like to taste. This makes the water more like rainwater. The water movement and provision of a running water slope make it much easier for the cat to drink.

Resting places: Choice over resting places is particularly important because cats move from one place to another every few days so that they can avoid parasites like fleas.

Latrines: Typically cats should be provided with one toilet per cat plus one extra. This is because in the wild cats do not share toilets and they prefer to have separate ones for urination and defecation. Fortunately, it is possible to provide outdoor toilets for cats so that fewer indoor litter trays are needed.

Opportunities to Perform Normal Behaviour

Clawing is often a problem because it is destructive and annoying for owners. It is important to give cats opportunities to claw so that it does not become a problem in the first place. Cats will tend to claw when they need to stretch back muscles after waking, mark boundaries of territory, sharpen claws or gain attention from their owners. Sensible places to position clawing posts are therefore close to where cats rest, near to cat doors and at the edges of the garden and in living rooms close to furniture or the television (where the cat may claw to get attention or a reaction from its owner). Cats have preferences for particular kinds of material to claw. Upholstered furniture is often used for claw sharpening and stretching. Soft wood is often scratched to leave a scent mark at a boundary. Owners need to experiment with providing the right surfaces to satisfy the cat’s clawing needs and encourage clawing by taking notice and praising the cat when it claws on an appropriate object.

Hunting and play are important for cats, especially in the early morning and evening. These are times when it is important to encourage interactive games using fishing toys, laser pointers and lightweight toys that can be rolled on the floor. Cats should never be encouraged to play with people’s feet or hands because this can create problems of aggression especially for cats that are kept indoors. At other times, the cat should be provided with a continually-changing selection of small lightweight toys to play with. It is useful to keep a selection of feathers, decorated ping pong balls, furry mouse toys and similar small items in a box and scatter a selection of these toys around the house daily. Real fur toys are particularly good because they act as a focus for cat’s predatory behaviour.

Certain features of toys are very important:

Noise: toys that twitter or squeak when touched
Movement: toys that move rapidly and unpredictably when they roll
Texture, size and colour: bright colours, feathers, parts that sparkle or dangle, or toys that mimic real prey

Typically cats get bored with play after about 10 minutes unless the toys or games are changed every few minutes. In the wild, cats spend more than six hours every day hunting for, catching and eating their prey. In the domestic environment, all of this activity may be absent, especially for indoor cats. It is also known that well-fed cats continue to hunt wildlife but when they catch a bird or mouse they will take more time to kill it. This means that the wild animal’s suffering is prolonged. One way to replace this lost activity and reduce boredom is to provide cats' food through activity feeding. Activity feeders force the cat to play in order to get food, and help reduce obesity and frustration, especially for indoor cats but they also reduce the outdoor cat’s interest in predatory behaviour, and can therefore save local wildlife from being killed.

Activity feeders include:

Delidome: An electronic cat feeder that throws out small balls full of food every 1-2 hours for the cat to play with.

Empty plastic drinks bottles perforated with food-pellet sized holes and part filled with dried cat food. The food falls out as the toy rolls along.

Food bowls placed high on shelves for the cat to find.

Activity box filled with crumpled newspaper, small toys and hidden small dried food treats for the cat to rummage and find (freeze-dried prawns and smelly fish treats work well).

Privacy and Choice

Privacy is partly provided by giving cats plenty of choice. If cats can choose to feed or rest away from each other they are more likely to get along well. Some cats, especially those which are elderly or infirm, also like to have ground-level hiding places where they can run in and hide. Empty cat baskets or cardboard boxes are perfectly suitable.

Indoor Environment

The indoor part of the cat’s territory is somewhere that the cat should feel secure. In the wild this ‘core’ part of the cat’s territory is never invaded or overlooked by other cats because it is surrounded by an area that the cat patrols and scent marks in order to repel other cats. Indoor-only cats are unable to do this and they may feel very vulnerable if outside cats can look in at them through the windows. Even cats that do have outdoor access may not be able to maintain a suitable buffer distance that keeps other cats away from their home. It is therefore important to block views from windows that are overlooked, perhaps close to places where your cat has urine marked or shown signs of aggression or fear in the past. This is easily achieved using ‘glass etch spray’ which is used to make bathroom windows opaque. Light still comes through but the cat cannot see clearly what is on the other side of the glass. Other cats tend to hang around less when there is no chance to threaten the indoor cat. Changes may also be made outdoors to deter other cats from lurking and menacing the indoor cat. Spraying the door of the cat flap so that it is opaque and not see through may also be of benefit.

The indoor territory should only be available to the resident cat. To avoid problems of other cats entering the home, which can cause urine spraying or aggression between the resident cats, it is best to fit an electronic cat flap with personalised coded collar keys that allow only the selected cats to enter.

Giving indoor housed cats some fresh air

Harness and lead
Some cats can learn to walk on a leash and harness if this is introduced while they are young. However, cats should not be taken on walks in the same way as dogs because this can be terrifying and distressing for them. Walks should be confined to a garden within easy access of the house so that the cat can build up familiarity with the landscape and odour marks that are there. If the cat shows signs of fear or anxiety, walks should be stopped.

Outdoor pen
Indoor cats should ideally be given access to an enclosed outdoor area. Free access is via a cat flap so that the cat can choose when it goes in and out. A well-designed pen should mimic the outside world as closely as possible, providing a multitude of tree trunks, toys, scratching posts and high-up resting places. Introduction to the pen should be gradual, perhaps involving play or searches for food treats. The cat must always be able to return to the house voluntarily.

Outdoor Environment

Cats control access to their territory using scent marks and by watching and threatening their enemies from vantage points that they spend time at around the edge of their territory. In order for the cats to do this, the garden must be filled with hiding and climbing places as well as places for scratching. Otherwise the cat may use vantage points in the home, and could start to scratch and spray mark inside.

Making improvements to the outdoor environment has several benefits including increasing the space available to the cats and reducing competition for toilets, resting places and space within the home. It provides the cat with things to do so that it is able to carry out a wider range of its normal activities. The cat may stay closer to home because all of its needs are met locally and it enables the cat to successfully maintain the garden as a territory, thus reducing fighting with other cats.

Necessary provisions:

Outdoor toilets

Scratching places: Cats tend to leave claw marks at the edge of their territory to keep other cats out. Creating some outdoor scratching places will enable the resident cat to maintain its territory more effectively. These are simply made from softwood posts, which have been rubbed against existing scratching places to pick up claw marking smells. The surface is scratched with a wire brush to simulate scratch marks, as this often attracts further scratching. They should be positioned around the edges of the garden.

Hiding places and vantage points: Cats need some easily-defended vantage points in the garden from which they can rest and watch the activities of other cats. For example fixing shelves to fences and outside walls, wooden platforms into trees and empty shelves and windowsills in garden sheds so that the cat can sit on them. The vantage points need to face away from the house, otherwise invading cats may use them to stake out the resident cat's home. The line of sight back to the house needs to be blocked using the natural arrangement of trees and plants in the garden or pot plants, fences and other obstacles.

Some cats are hesitant to go out and will hang around the cat flap for long periods, or they will often rush in as if they are being pursued. These cats may benefit from having a few hiding places (e.g. plant pots) close to the exit of the cat flap. This also reduces the tendency for cats to spray around the interior walls close to the cat flap. It also means that the resident cat can sneak out into the garden without being watched by other cats.

Preventing access by other cats
In most cases, cats are not very concerned when other cats cross their territory because it is normal for this to happen. Problems arise when other cats lurk in the garden, using their own vantage points to observe and threaten the resident cat in its own home or when it tries to enter the garden. To prevent this from happening, plant shrubs or planters and other obstacles can be used to obstruct the view. Another option is to make vantage points uncomfortable for other cats to use, for example by knocking long [8-10 cm], flat-headed nails into the top of wooden fences or posts, spaced about 4-6 cm apart to stop cats sitting there. They will still be able to walk along and stand, but not be able to lurk and threaten. Alternatively fixing pieces of spiky plastic doormat or commercially available intruder-deterrent plastic spikes onto fences, posts and other places where cats sit may help. Broken glass or other hazardous deterrents must not be used as they may injure cats very badly.

Introducing a Cat to a New Home/Environment

The importance of properly introducing new cats to a home where there are existing cats is well known. Before introducing a new cat, it is important to think about whether the existing cats will accept it. If they are under stress already they are not likely to accept a new cat. Their existing problems should take priority. If introduction is not managed correctly, there is a greater probability of fear and anxiety problems, inter-cat aggression and inappropriate spraying in the future. It is also important to introduce cats correctly to households where there are no other cats, but where animals, children and the general routine in the household may be unfamiliar and stressful. The same is true when moving cats form one home to another.

No Existing Cats Present

Before moving the cat to its new home, some of the cat’s flank and facial odours should be harvested onto a clean cloth and placed into a sealed bag ready to use in the new home.
When transferring the cat, other items that will carry some of the cat’s facial and flank odour marks (bedding, resting places) should be brought with.
Prepare a quiet room in the new home with food, water, a latrine, and familiar items from the cat’s previous home. This will be the room into which the cat will be initially introduced, so it is best if this place has not recently been occupied by other cats.
Use the cloth to transfer facial and flank odours to furniture in this room of the new home.
Install a F3 diffuser (Feliway) in this room 1-2 hours before the cat arrives.
Install additional diffusers throughout the home at a rate of 1 per 50-70m2.
Allow the cat to explore the new room by opening the cat basket. The cat should be able to return to the basket if it desires. The cat should not be pulled out of the basket or coaxed.
Do not allow access to the rest of the house until the cat is completely relaxed in this first room. This may take several hours or even a few days. The cat should be relaxed, playful and approachable.
The cat should then be allowed free access to one or two additional rooms in the house every couple of hours until it has explored the whole house. The cat should be allowed to do this in peace, not with people rushing around or trying to distract it.

Existing Cats Present

General preparations for the arrival of a new cat

Start with the new cat in its own room, containing a litter tray, food, water and a several comfortable places to rest and hide. Installation of a Feliway diffuser in this room makes it seem more familiar and secure for the new cat.
The new cat should be allowed to become completely confident in this new room and with all members of the family before allowing it out of this place. This may take a week or more. The cat should be eating, resting, playing and approaching people normally and without signs of fear.
The resident cats should be provided with several extra places to get food, as well as places to drink and extra places to rest and hide. A Feliway diffuser will increase their sense of security.

Introducing the cats to each other

Stage 1: Scent introduction:

Prepare several disposable cloths, each labelled with one cat’s name.
Use each labelled cloth daily to collect the scent from the face and sides of the body of the cat with whose name it has been labelled. Do this each day. The cloths must not be mixed up and should be stored separately in plastic bags or wallets to prevent scent transferring between them.
Whenever a person goes to greet, feed or play with the new cat it should be briefly presented with the cloth belonging to one of the resident cats to smell and investigate. The cloth should be wrapped around the person’s hand. Initially the cat may seem unhappy (it may back away, hiss or freeze). At this stage, it is important not to force contact as the cat may become aggressive.
If there are multiple cats in the household then the resident cats should be presented with the new cat’s smell in the same way, and the new cat with odours from each of the cats in the home.
With repeated presentation of the scent on the cloths each cat should come to ignore the smell and should start to react positively to it by rubbing against the hand wrapped in the cloth. When all cats are reacting in this way it is time to move on to stage 2.

Stage 2: Scent swapping:

After collecting the odour from the cats in the usual way (from face and flanks), the cloths should be put together in a single bag so that scent from them mixes.
This combined scent is then used in the same way as in stage 1.
Once you can see that there is a positive reaction to this combined scent you can mark yourself with the mixed scent by rubbing the cloth on your clothes. This way, when the cats greet they will pick up the combined scent when they rub against you to say hello. The cloth should also be rubbed against objects that the cats usually rub against, such as furniture and doorways.
As long as each cat accepts being rubbed with the scent from the others you can move to using a single cloth for rubbing the cats to collect their scent.
Once all cats are accepting this new odour and are actively rubbing against the cloth and the other objects that have been marked with the cloth then it is time to move on to stage 3.

Stage 3: Allowing the new cat to explore:

The new cat should be allowed to explore the rest of the house while the resident cats are excluded or shut into a separate room. This allows the new cat to learn all of the hiding and escape places so that, as the cats start to meet in person, it does not feel vulnerable.
Once the new cat is confidently using the feeding, resting and toilet places in the rest of the home then it is time to move on to the next stage.

Stage 4: Limited face to face introduction:

The cats need to begin to see each other in a way that minimises the risk of aggression. A glass door or mesh screen are best, but some child gates are made from mesh that provides a partial barrier. Mesh barriers are the best, because they allow the cats to smell each other. If neither is possible then a partly opened door may be used [open just enough that the cats can see each other but not get through].
Give the cats their food on either side of the screen or doorway at their normal feeding times, or distract them with a game.
It is also useful to rub the door or screen with the scent from the cats so that there is maximum chance of recognition of the smell.
The cats are encouraged to play and feed progressively closer to the screen as long as there is no aggression between any of them.
Once the cats are showing no aggressive or fearful behaviour they can be allowed to meet face to face after an initial meeting through the door or screen.

It is important to continue mixing odours between the cats and applying their “group scent” to yourself, other people living in the home and on common marking places in the house until the cats have begun to rub against each other or groom each other. At this point, Feliway diffusers and other environmental changes may be taken away gradually. The total time for the introduction process may vary from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, but there is no shortcut if harmony is to be achieved.

Environment in Potentially Fearful Situation

The normal feline coping strategy in fearful situations is highly dependent upon familiarity with the environment and the opportunities it provides for escape and avoidance behaviour. In this way, the cat is highly attached and dependent upon its territory for security, which also means that success in treating fear-based problems is substantially dependent upon the cat’s environment.

The core zone of the cat’s territory is where it expects to be safest. This is where it may meet familiar conspecifics. Recognition of the core territory is partially dependent upon pheromone odour signals. The cat expends a lot of time and energy placing face and flank marks within the core territory area, not only to identify elements of the environment as familiar but also to create an appeasing environment for itself. In a new home, these personalised signals will be absent and may even be replaced by the odours of other cats that were previously resident. The anxiety caused creates the conditions for establishing problem behaviour.

It is possible, by using synthetic pheromone analogues such as F3 (Feliway), to recreate or enhance core territory odours. This can increase perceived safety and familiarity in an existing environment, or make a new environment appear familiar and safe.

Normal exploration of a new environment follows a star-shaped pattern. The cat makes forays into the environment away from an initial safe place. Any fearful event will cause the cat to return briefly to its place of safety. Indeed, successfully learning about a new environment depends upon already having somewhere safe to return to. Without this the cat will experience considerable anxiety and fear, which may create long-term aversions to the stimuli the cat encounters during the first few hours in a new location. For example, a well-socialised cat might enjoy the company of children when they are in an environment that it understands, but the same cat may react fearfully to boisterous children when in a new environment. This kind of encounter can condition fear reactions that continue to plague the cat’s relationship with the children even once it has settled into the new home.

It is therefore essential that the cat accepts and feels safe in the new environment before encountering any potential stressors.