Practical behavioural first aid for feline patients

In UK, 4.7 million cats (43% of the feline population living in domestic homes) are living in multi-cat households. This is despite the fact that, except for littermates that have grown-up together, cats prefer to live apart and to have their own space (PDSA, 2019). Of these 4.7 million cats, owners report that 2 million of them are exhibiting behaviours that clearly indicate to owners that the cats do not get on. The report further highlights that 77% of cat owners would like to change at least one of their cat's behaviours — the five behaviours that feature most commonly being:

Yet, these behaviours are actually natural behaviours for cats that are dealing with stressors. Hence the behaviours that owners are describing as problematic are behaviours that are being expressed due to constraints on the cat's level of control over its environment and/or exposure to social or environmental stressors. This results in the cat expressing these natural behaviours, intended to help it to cope with or deal with stressors, due to the fact that the cat is living in an unnatural or artificial situation (Ley, 2016a). As a consequence, there is no shortage of feline veterinary patients that would benefit from the incorporation of behavioural first aid advice into a veterinary practice's daily routine (Rodan, 2016); in addition, there are no shortage of cat owners who would similarly benefit from such advice.