Cracking the Code: Understanding and Transforming Cat Behavior | The Feline Wellness Summit with Molly DeVoss

  Do you understand your cat's behavior? Welcome to the cat dad show. My name is Scott Colby. I know I certainly don't understand my cat's behavior sometimes, but I've got a special guest. I'm going to share a clip of my interview with Molly DeVos. She's a renowned certified cat behavior specialist. And in this clip I asked her, what is the most misunderstood thing about cat behavior that you wish every cat owner knew?

Molly was one of my guests for the Feline Wellness Summit. This is a clip of that interview. If you want to listen to the entire interview as well as my interview with 20 other feline wellness experts, just go to FelineWellnessSummit. com and you can grab a free ticket. But for now, enjoy that clip with Molly.

Oh my gosh, that list is long for me.

Share a few, share a few.

I think that the most misunderstood thing is that they don't perceive the world like we do.

You

know, for instance, they live through their world through their noses.

To them, scent is everything. That's how they recognize the other cats in your home. Much more so than vision. So we're very visually oriented. And, you know, so we say like, Oh, that's your cat buddy. How come you can't tell it's them? But maybe that cat's scent has changed. Their scent is so acute. That's why we recommend using unscented litters because if you put scented litters in there, it's like when you go to the restaurant and that person next to you has put a half a bottle of perfume on that you don't like,

you know,

and it's so awful and it burns your nose and it's annoying.

So that's how they feel about really sense that we might consider mild. And that's just one example. There's so many different ways, you know, all of their sense, they see differently, they hear differently, they smell differently. So it's, it's, it's a totally different being. And I think sometimes we forget that and we don't understand, you know, where they're coming from basically.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even worse when you go into an elevator and somebody has too much perfume or cologne. So I know exactly what you're talking about. I'm so glad you brought up their, their sense of smell. Um, because it, you mentioned, it's not really something we may think about. I certainly don't. Cat parent for 21 years now, and I forget that I don't really think I think more of sight and hear what they hear

More

so than smell but you are right there.

It's so sensitive to them So I'm really glad you brought that up and I'm pleased to announce that I've started to use unscented Litter. And I didn't always use unscented litter because my initial belief was like, Hey, I want my litter box to smell good. So I'll have one that has like a scent to it. But as you mentioned, they could be very sensitive to that.

So

that's, that's common. In fact, I've gone to a scent free, everything in the home. And I was that person that had that, you know, the little plug in scent. Going on and lots of candles burning and things like that. And once I learned what that does to them, you know, their bodies are so much smaller than ours.

It's much more difficult for them to, to absorb toxins than ours. So while that stuff, you know, we go, well, yeah, I'd have to live to be 200 for it to really affect me. Maybe not so much with them. So I don't use anything scented air fresheners, things like that, unless it's natural, like, you know, boiling cloves or something like that on the stove.

And I've gone to just cleaning vinegars on the floor and, um, yeah, just keep it simple.

I love it because I'm learning this from some of our other guests. So I'm making all of these switches myself here, which is great.

Essential Needs for a Happy Cat

Um, you know, you talk about cat essential needs. What would you say? Three of the top needs that if we met them could prevent a lot of these behavior issues.

Yeah, good question. One is control. That is probably the most important thing in a cat's world. A cat has to feel in control in its environment. Why? Because they really are wild cats. You know, 98 percent DNA link to their wildcat ancestors and what those wildcats need, they need. We just have them in captivity in our homes.

And so I think we forget what they need while out there in the wild, things are predictable, you know, things happen kind of at the same time. They know their territory really well. They know what's coming and going. So they need that sense of predictability in a home that helps them to feel. In control when things get all crazy and willy nilly and people start, you know, yelling or doing things they don't normally do that upsets the cat greatly.

And, you know, they don't show their emotions real well. So you may go, well, that doesn't look upset about it. Cause it's not as obvious as when we get upset about something, you know, it, that's not true with cats. And then the other thing is, um, mental stimulation. And I'm going to wrap this all into one, both mental stimulation and problem solving and the ability to complete the hunting sequence multiple times a day, because out in the wild they'll spend six hours a day hunting on and off.