A pet cat is perfect for anybody who loves it so much. I mean, even if your cat’s already eating your own food on the table, you still think it’s cute. And even if it climbs into your closet to lie down and make furry your beloved suede bags and shoes, you still think it’s sweet. It’s not surprising if only avid fans of pet cats can relate to these. But fan or not, you can’t really say you like everything your pet cat does. It’s got to display a few behavior problems from time to time. The thing is, we should stop passing them off as cute deeds. The not-so-likable behaviors of your pet cat can actually be corrected. The following are some of the most usual cat behaviors that owners should train their cats to stop doing.
Gnawing or chewing
Not just once did I hear of a cat chewing the electricity bill or of a cat leaving tooth marks on his owner’s soft leather footwear. And I remember, even our former pet cat loved punching fang holes into my mother’s indoor plants.
Gnawing and chewing are part of a growing cat’s habits. What you can do is dust the usual things your cat chews on with pepper. You should also call your cat’s attention every time it chews or gnaws on things. You can surprise it with a clap or by angrily raising your voice a bit. Other cat owners try to take their cat’s attention away from their indoor plants by growing and putting a catnip plant indoor as well.
Clawing and scratching
Our living room couch’s leather isn’t that smooth any more thanks to our kittens’ love of scratching furniture as a pastime. They would climb onto the arm and headrests just to stretch their front arms while clawing away on the leather cover.
What you can do to avoid a similar scenario or in our case, to stop your cat from creating more such scenarios is to declaw your cat. If you don’t know how to cut its fingernails, you can bring it to a pet clinic and let them trim your cat’s claws for you. You can also provide a scratching post and panels for your cat.
Litter box missing
Cat poop and pee are probably the most annoying pet poop and pee. That’s because they could really stink so much for days! So if you keep your cat indoors, and it suddenly chooses your carpet or kitchen floor over the litter box, it’s understandable if you would want to ground it (by probably ignoring it for a day perhaps?).
Cats miss the litter box for many reasons. They may be stressed, they don’t find their litter box appealing enough, or they may have a urinary tract infection (for urine-spraying cats). What you can do is make sure the litter box has enough litter. Also, be sure to change and clean the litter box regularly, probably every weekend.
Just remember though, that you shouldn’t hurt your cat when it exhibits behavioral problems. Just be patient when it comes to training your cat. Its intelligence doesn’t really bear that much weight on its training anyway, so you just need to make it a habit to train your cat, and you’ll be rewarded with its good habits in the long run.
