Cat Care Guide

Written and reviewed by Hugo Mellado · Last updated August 2026

Cats are easy to live with and easy to misread. They hide discomfort well, they ask for things indirectly, and most of the problems owners describe as behavioral turn out to be about the environment or about health. A cat that has the right food, the right litter setup and enough to climb rarely needs correcting.

Nutrition

Cats are obligate carnivores. They require animal protein, and specifically taurine, which they cannot manufacture in adequate amounts themselves — a deficiency damages the heart and the retina. Choose a complete cat food with a nutritional adequacy statement for your cat’s life stage, and never feed dog food, which is not formulated for feline needs.

Moisture matters more for cats than for most pets. Descended from desert hunters, they have a weak thirst drive and take much of their water from prey. Canned or otherwise wet food raises total water intake, which supports urinary and kidney health — a real advantage in a species prone to urinary crystals and chronic kidney disease. If you feed dry food, add wet meals, use a wide shallow bowl away from the food, and consider a fountain.

Keep away from cats

• Onions, garlic and chives, which damage feline red blood cells.
• Lilies — true lilies are lethal even in tiny amounts, including pollen tracked on fur. Keep them out of the house entirely.
• Chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, raw yeast dough and grapes.
• Cow’s milk: most adult cats are lactose intolerant.
• Human medications, especially acetaminophen and ibuprofen, which are toxic at very small doses.

Free-feeding dry food is the most common cause of feline obesity. Measure portions, split them into two or more meals, and weigh your cat every few months — half a pound on a ten-pound cat is a meaningful change.

Habits & Behavior

Scratching is not damage-seeking; it conditions claws, stretches the back and leaves scent marks. Give a tall sturdy sisal post next to where the cat already scratches, plus a horizontal cardboard scratcher, and the sofa usually loses its appeal. Declawing is an amputation and is opposed by veterinary bodies; trimming plus good posts is the humane alternative.

Litter box rules are simple and unforgiving: one box per cat plus one, unscented fine-grained clumping litter, uncovered if the cat has a preference, scooped daily, placed away from noisy appliances and never beside the food. A cat that stops using the box is either unwell, uncomfortable or unhappy with the setup — and straining, frequent tiny urinations or crying in the box in a male cat is an emergency, not a mood.

Cats live vertically. Shelves, a cat tree by a window and a perch above the dog’s reach reduce conflict in multi-pet homes more effectively than any training. Introduce new animals slowly, through a closed door with scent swapping first, then feeding on either side of a barrier, then short supervised meetings.

Purring is not only contentment; cats also purr when self-soothing or in pain. Slow blinking is friendly. A twitching tail tip, flattened ears and a low tail mean stop touching. Hiding for a day, sitting hunched with paws tucked, or a sudden dislike of being lifted are quiet reports of pain.

Care & Grooming

Short-haired cats do well with a weekly comb, which cuts hairballs and lets you feel for lumps, scabs and fleas. Long-haired cats — Persians, Maine Coons, ragdolls — need daily combing with a metal comb that reaches the skin, especially behind the ears, in the armpits and along the trousers, where mats form first. A mat that has tightened against the skin should be clipped out by a groomer or vet, not pulled.

• Nails: trim every two to four weeks, taking only the clear tip.
• Teeth: daily brushing with feline toothpaste prevents the painful dental disease that affects most cats by middle age.
• Ears and eyes: wipe gently only if there is visible discharge; dark, crumbly debris suggests mites.
• Bathing: rarely necessary. Cats groom themselves; bathe only on veterinary advice or after contamination.
• Shedding: increases in spring and autumn. A grooming glove or deshedding comb catches the loose coat before it becomes a hairball.

Games & Enrichment

Play should imitate hunting: stalk, chase, pounce, kill, eat. Use a wand toy to make the target move away from the cat and behind objects, let her catch it at the end, and then feed a small meal. Two or three short sessions a day, five to ten minutes each, are enough to change the temperament of a bored indoor cat.

• Rotate toys weekly and keep string, ribbon and hair ties locked away — swallowed linear objects require surgery.
• Hide portions of dry food in a treat ball or in paper cups around the room to create foraging.
• Add a window perch and, if possible, a bird feeder outside it. Cat television is genuine enrichment.
• Grow cat grass and offer catnip or silver vine; roughly a third of cats do not respond to catnip, so try both.
• A cardboard box, a paper bag with the handles cut off, and a tunnel cost nothing and are used daily.

Consider a secure catio or leash training for outdoor access. Free-roaming cats face traffic, disease and predation, and take a heavy toll on local wildlife.

Health & Veterinary Tips

Annual exams for adults, twice yearly from around age ten. Core vaccines in the United States are rabies and the combination protecting against feline panleukopenia, herpesvirus and calicivirus; feline leukemia vaccination is advised for cats with outdoor access or new kittens. Ask about testing for FeLV and FIV when adopting.

• Year-round flea prevention even for indoor cats; fleas arrive on clothing and on dogs.
• Spay or neuter reduces roaming, spraying, fighting and mammary cancer risk, and prevents unwanted litters.
• Microchip and register the chip. Indoor cats are the ones most likely to be lost when they slip out.
• From middle age, ask for blood pressure and kidney values; chronic kidney disease, hyperthyroidism and diabetes are common and manageable when found early.
• Watch water bowls and litter clumps. Drinking and urinating noticeably more is one of the earliest signs of both diabetes and kidney disease.

Go to a clinic without delay if you see

• A male cat straining in the litter box, crying, or producing nothing — a urethral blockage is fatal within hours.
• Open-mouth breathing, rapid shallow breaths, or breathing with the elbows held out.
• Sudden weakness or dragging of the hind legs.
• More than a day without eating, or repeated vomiting.
• Jaundice, a yellow tinge to the gums, eyes or ear skin.

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Next: read every cat article on Pet & Pet, or see how the routine differs in our rabbit care guide.