New Year’s Resolutions for a Happy and Healthy Cat

Every year, humans around the world make New Years’ Resolutions — it’s a tradition that started centuries ago and has continued over time. Resolutions are a promise and commitment that we make to ourselves on the first day of the New Year, often to start doing something good or stop doing something bad. But what about your commitment to ensuring your cat has a happy and healthy life?

Here are a few things you can do to enhance your relationship with the feline in your life and ensure your cat remains happy and healthy throughout the New Year.

Annual Vet Check

Has your cat had a check-up recently? If not, it’s time to book one in. Annual health checks are an important part of keeping your cat healthy. It’s not just about preventative care such as deworming, parasite prevention and vaccinations (although these are important) it’s about spotting problems in the early stages, because early intervention extends your cat’s life.

Microchip Your Cat

Make sure your cat is microchipped – it’s your best chance at being reunited if your cat goes missing. A microchip is no bigger than a grain of rice and is injected underneath your cat’s skin, between her shoulders. Collars and pet ID tags (with a name and phone number) are a good idea for outdoor cats, but they’re not a substitute for a microchip, which is a permanent, implanted identification tag.

Image: Julien GONG Min via Flickr

Feed the Best Diet You Can Afford

Learn to read the labels on commercial cat foods so you know exactly what you’re feeding your cat. Cheap kibble and canned cat foods are often bulked out with fillers, carbohydrates and grains that don’t cater to a cat’s specific nutritional needs and may in fact lead to health problems as your cat gets older. Cats need a meat-based protein diet, which is why we feed our cats a raw food diet. If you’d like to learn more about raw feeding, check out our raw feeding articles.

Consider an Indoor Lifestyle

The outside world is fraught with dangers for cats, including road traffic, cat fights and the risk of FeLV and FIV, parasites (fleas and ticks), poisons and human predators. As long as you meet all of your cat’s needs, including mental stimulation and exercise, indoor cats can live a life that’s just as happy and fulfilling as an outdoor cat. It’s also a much safer option.

Make Time for Play

Interactive playtime is a wonderful way of strengthening the bond between you and your cat. It also gives your cat a workout – strengthening muscles and keeping weight issues under control. Play is great for channeling energy in the right direction, it stops your cat from getting bored and can help prevent destructive chewing and scratching behaviour. You don’t need expensive cat toys to play with either – once of Charlie’s favourite toys is a scrunched up aluminium foil ball.

Image: Lottie via Flickr

Lastly, keep reading all you can about how to care for your cat – there’s a lot to learn but there are many valuable online resources available to help you. As you increase your knowledge about cats; your cat will be the ultimate winner.

What else can you do to help your cat live a happier and healthier life? We’d love to hear your New Year’s Resolutions for your cat.