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วันอังคารที่ 17 เมษายน พ.ศ. 2550

Behaviour

Cats are the 'sleepiest' of all mammals. Most cats will sleep for about 16 hours a day. (I wouldn't mind that!)
If your cat rolls over on his back to expose his belly, he/she trusts you.
When your cats rubs up against you, you are being marked with his/her scent.
When your cat pushes his/her face against your head, it's a sign of affection.

Sometimes it can be hard to figure out if your cats are playing or fighting. Here are a few things to remember:
Playing is fairly quiet compared to fighting. Sometimes cats may hiss or make other sounds during play, but there is usually no loud wailing and howling.
There is rarely any injury in play (or if there is an injury, it's a minor one). When fighting, one or both cats usually ends up with an not-so-minor injury.
If one or both cats seem to avoid each other for a while after the 'event', it was most likely a fight. With play, cats aren't afraid of each other after it's over.
When cats play, they usually take turns in the offensive and defensive roles; when fighting, the roles don't shift.
Cats that play together more often that fight together will show friendly behaviours (like sleeping close to one another).
Scratching is one behaviour that causes many cat owners some grief. Scratching serves several functions for the cat, like claw maintenance, stretching muscles and tendons, and marking territory. Without declawing the cat, it's very hard to stop a cat from scratching. The easiest thing to do is to encourage the cat to only scratch certain items. It's important to start this early because cats will develop favourite scratching places. From day one, go around the house and make all the potential scratching places 'un-appealing' (covering furniture in plastic, using double sided tape or aluminum foil), but make sure to leave a few objects around that the cats are allowed to scratch. Cats have personal preferences for the types of objects they'll scratch, so try to have a variety. If your cat doesn't have much interest in the objects you've left for him, try putting catnip on them..you can either rub actually catnip on the object or spray it with a catnip spray. Adding a toy to a scratching post can also create interest. One thing not to do is take the cat and forcefully move its paws along the post. The cat will not like this and won't associate its natural scratching habits with the post.
All cats will misbehave at some point, but punishing them must be done in a way to stop the behaviour, not cause more problems. Punishments like hitting, slapping, and shaking will not break a habit and it's cruel. For any punishment to be effective, it's got to occur while the cat is in the act. A delay, even of a few seconds, will render the punishment ineffective.
There are a few things you can do to stop problem behaviour. Try a water pistol. The cat will become afraid of the pistol but not you, which is what you want. Another good trick is to shake a can filled with coins, marbles or anything else that will make noise.
Consistency is important when disciplining your cat. A common mistake people make is to play roughly with their cat one day, but get angry when the cat tries to do the same thing the next day. Cats will learn best with consistent rules and enforcement.

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