Scientists are working exhausting to unravel considered one of life’s best issues: a home cat with a foul behavior of tearing up the furnishings.
In a brand new examine Wednesday, researchers have recognized a number of key components that seem to foretell undesirable cat scratching. These embrace having younger youngsters in the home, the type of playtime they get, and their total stage of stress. A minimum of a few of these features might be tweaked to maintain your cat’s clawing in verify, the scientists say.
The examine was carried out by veterinary scientists from Turkey, Portugal, and France; it was additionally funded by the French animal well being firm Ceva Santé Animale. The workforce had over 1,200 cat house owners in France fill out a web based survey, which included questions on their cat’s house atmosphere, day by day routine, and scratching behaviors.
Total, the workforce discovered that some cats had been naturally extra liable to scratching, akin to felines that had been described as “aggressive” or “disruptive” by their house owners. However there have been different exterior parts linked to undesirable cat scratching, notably having youngsters at house, taking part in with the cat for lengthy intervals of time, and customarily being extra lively at evening.
“It underscores the multifaceted nature of undesirable scratching habits and emphasizes the significance of comprehensively understanding each the person traits of the cat and its atmosphere to successfully deal with this habits,” the researchers wrote about their findings, published Wednesday in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.
Clearly, having younger youngsters or a grouchier cat aren’t issues that house owners can change on a whim. However some issues recognized by the workforce level to emphasize as a serious exterior issue for cat scratching that may be higher managed. An excessive amount of playtime directly, for instance, can turn out to be overly stimulating for a cat. Added stress might additionally clarify why having youngsters round is linked to cat scratching as properly, although the scientists say extra analysis is required to know for sure.
So discovering methods to cut back your cat’s stress ought to then assist reduce down on their undesirable scratching, they are saying. This could embrace ensuring your cat has loads of nooks and crannies to loosen up in with out being disturbed, in addition to excessive spots from which they will perch and observe their kingdom. You may wish to additionally area out your playtime into brief bursts of exercise that extra mimic pure searching habits. And from the survey knowledge, the workforce discovered that leaving out scratching posts in locations that cats go to continuously appeared to assist hold them from clawing different extra treasured furnishings.
“Our findings may help caregivers handle and redirect scratching to applicable supplies, which might assist foster a extra harmonious dwelling atmosphere for each cats and their caregivers,” mentioned lead creator Yasemin Salgirli Demi̇rbas, a veterinary researcher at Ankara College, in a statement from Frontiers, publishers of the journal.
Implementing these findings might shield your favourite possessions. Simply don’t let your cat catch you studying this—until you’re prepared to clarify why their favourite couch is all of a sudden off-limits.
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