What are NEW Cats need

Particularly if you already have an existing cat in your home, your new cat needs to come into your home with all its own resources. This will help the integration process by reducing the stress on your new cat and reduce the liklihood of upsetting your exsisting cat.

Basic Principles of natural cat behaviour. Cats are social species but -

• cats are solitary survivors
• they have a fundamental need to be in control
• they need free and immediate access to resources (food, water, shelter, litter tray) ata ll times. Therefore having food down all the time is more natural for cats. (However this does need to be monitored as adult cats who have not had food down all the time may eat far too much! and then you should go back to meal feeding)
• They have no ''hierarchy'' therefore its all about them!
• cats have very limited behaviour to facilitate cooperation
• cats need to have the ability to evade or aviod sources of potential stress, therefore they need enough space to move away, climb or hide
• cats will naturally only live with related individules (siblings or mother cat) as this is beneficial to them. They will not naturally live in a social group of unrelated individules.
• Access to privacy and isolation is considered as bliss!