I'm hoping this thread will be as interesting as I think it will be.
Anyway recently I have been thinking about how much things have changed in just 7yrs. You see I went off cats for 7yrs til Diego touched my heart with his paw and made me fall in love with cats all over again. Since being a member I have read about sooo many changes its rather unbelievable yet I think its more the US and UK that have moved forward leaving NZ behind the times.
Some of the things that come to mind right now, and I'm sure more will come, are this.
Nutrition
In my day, dry was preferred to wet food, healthier, cleans teeth and so on, I read now that dry is just a convenience to humans, not very beneficial and not normal because cats don't eat dry food in the wild. Yet I have to ask 'do cats eat canned food with preservatives in the wild?"
Next is cow milk, something that has been given to cats for centuries no causes loose stools and some other problems. Though I don't give my cats milk I do occasionally let them lick the ice cream plate, no problems.
Behaviour and Discipline
Now this might be a touchy subject as I notice here people are against the attempted discipline of a cat.
Again in my day and no this is not just me but everyone I know and vets.
It was/is common practice to rub a cats nose in its faeces or urine should the kitten/cat not go in the box. It would normally only take two nose rubbings before they got the message and used the litter box.
Water pistols are/were used when a cat scratches furniture, because its water and they don't like it, so they learn. It was recommended to me some years ago now, that if the water alone doesn't really bother the cat, to add a small amount of vinegar coz they hate the taste. Something that always worked.
Another thing was putting mouse traps under newspaper around pot plants to stop them digging in there. Now I never used this for my cats but I did test the theory by using a pencil to set off the trap. It does not catch the kitten/cat, rather it makes a loud noise to startle the pet and stop the habits.
Today I was reading a new thread about relaxing a cat by holding it by the scruff or using a clip to hold the scruff if you need both hands for whatever your doing. Now I am neither in favour or against this theory, as I never experience trouble trimming claws, grooming or giving pills. Yet the scruff is the place that relaxes a cat, you take a cat to the vet and it doesn't want to sit still during a check up or whatever. We as the pet owners are trying to hold it still maybe around the waist or wherever but the vet just grabs the cat by the scruff/nape of the neck and everything's ok.
Now I can imagine a lot of you are wanting to crucify/grill me about these things, so I wish to remind you in-case you missed my point. Times have changed in some places and not others. This is/was the general standard
in NZ and no one ever questioned it. It may have changed now not sure coz as I said its been a while since I had cats and now in a different country.
I would like to point out I have not used any of the disciplinary actions mentioned above since falling in love with cats again. Apart from the water pistol one which upset a few apple-carts here so I don't do it anymore.
You must be able to remember what it was like 10 years ago where you are no?? or is NZ more than just a decade behind the times??
Anyway recently I have been thinking about how much things have changed in just 7yrs. You see I went off cats for 7yrs til Diego touched my heart with his paw and made me fall in love with cats all over again. Since being a member I have read about sooo many changes its rather unbelievable yet I think its more the US and UK that have moved forward leaving NZ behind the times.
Some of the things that come to mind right now, and I'm sure more will come, are this.
Nutrition
In my day, dry was preferred to wet food, healthier, cleans teeth and so on, I read now that dry is just a convenience to humans, not very beneficial and not normal because cats don't eat dry food in the wild. Yet I have to ask 'do cats eat canned food with preservatives in the wild?"
Next is cow milk, something that has been given to cats for centuries no causes loose stools and some other problems. Though I don't give my cats milk I do occasionally let them lick the ice cream plate, no problems.
Behaviour and Discipline
Now this might be a touchy subject as I notice here people are against the attempted discipline of a cat.
Again in my day and no this is not just me but everyone I know and vets.
It was/is common practice to rub a cats nose in its faeces or urine should the kitten/cat not go in the box. It would normally only take two nose rubbings before they got the message and used the litter box.
Water pistols are/were used when a cat scratches furniture, because its water and they don't like it, so they learn. It was recommended to me some years ago now, that if the water alone doesn't really bother the cat, to add a small amount of vinegar coz they hate the taste. Something that always worked.
Another thing was putting mouse traps under newspaper around pot plants to stop them digging in there. Now I never used this for my cats but I did test the theory by using a pencil to set off the trap. It does not catch the kitten/cat, rather it makes a loud noise to startle the pet and stop the habits.
Today I was reading a new thread about relaxing a cat by holding it by the scruff or using a clip to hold the scruff if you need both hands for whatever your doing. Now I am neither in favour or against this theory, as I never experience trouble trimming claws, grooming or giving pills. Yet the scruff is the place that relaxes a cat, you take a cat to the vet and it doesn't want to sit still during a check up or whatever. We as the pet owners are trying to hold it still maybe around the waist or wherever but the vet just grabs the cat by the scruff/nape of the neck and everything's ok.
Now I can imagine a lot of you are wanting to crucify/grill me about these things, so I wish to remind you in-case you missed my point. Times have changed in some places and not others. This is/was the general standard
in NZ and no one ever questioned it. It may have changed now not sure coz as I said its been a while since I had cats and now in a different country.
I would like to point out I have not used any of the disciplinary actions mentioned above since falling in love with cats again. Apart from the water pistol one which upset a few apple-carts here so I don't do it anymore.
You must be able to remember what it was like 10 years ago where you are no?? or is NZ more than just a decade behind the times??
