Keep your cats happy and healthy — especially in the middle of summer — with these easy-to-follow cat care tips. Learn the best cat hacks to avoid letting your furry friend suffer from a heatstroke, dehydration, or sunburn.
10 Cat Care Tips To Keep Your Furball Chillin’ This Summer
Although cats are clever animals – they know how to keep cool on hot days by limiting their activities – this is not enough. Cats love the sun and sunbathing, but are prone to heatstroke, dehydration, and sunburn. Keep them safe with these 10 cat care tips.
1. Water, water, and more water
Place a couple of water bowls in different corners of the house, but make sure they are at least a foot away from the food bowl. As much as possible, keep the water in the bowl topped at all times. Your cat will also love cool treats like an ice cube
Cats normally get more water from their food, so instead of giving them dry food, switch to wet ones. If your cat isn’t used to a pure wet diet, you can mix both dry and wet food. It’s a must for your babies to have easy and immediate access to water, especially if you’re planning to leave them for hours.
2. Give them a bath
Cats are independent and bathe themselves. However, certain breeds like the Maine Coon, Bengal, American Bobtail, and Abyssinian will love a cool bath. So remember, with the right breed, showering and bathing is an awesome way to keep their bodies cooler.
3. Give Mr.Kitty a haircut
It is not really necessary to give your cats a haircut. But, just like humans, grooming can keep them feeling fresh and cool. Some cats like the American Curl may require one since they have matted hair. It’s good for you, too, since it can help reduce shedding — which means less cleaning for you!
4. Provide shade
This is a really useful item for providing shade for cats & dogs in a garden on hot summer days.+large box 4 bed pic.twitter.com/KI3XJqEyc3
— Mrs Cherry Steel (@SteelCherry) April 2, 2016
Do you have a cat that freely roams outdoors? If so, provide them extra shelter for hot sunny days. Trees and shrubs provide natural shade, but you can also make purchase cat tents or even reuse old play tents and playhouses.
5. Turn the fans on in the house
To keep cool air circulating inside the house, use fans. You can also turn on the AC but never point these directly to your cat.
6. Let them lick a frozen bottle
Our kitten, Gears, and her new favourite toy. A frozen water bottle. pic.twitter.com/fJn4iS1F9U
— NeiloGD (@neilogd) January 24, 2017
Put bottles of water in the fridge and freeze them. Take them out, wrap them in a towel, and place them in an area where your cat likes to hang out and play with his toys. This way, after getting rambunctious with the playmates, they can relax and lick the bottles.
7. Keep the room ideal for cat relaxation
Block out the harsh sun’s rays and maintain the coolness inside the house by drawing the shades or drapes on the windows. Just a word of caution, though, cats tend to have a penchant for climbing curtains. Another ideal setting for cats is to place them in rooms with tiled floors since these materials are more likely to be cool.
8. Rub down
Give your cat a rubdown with a mixture of alcohol and water. This is relaxing and provides a temporary cooling effect on the cat’s body without harming or drying out your kitty’s skin.
9. Comb and brush
Most cats stay relatively clean and rarely need a bath, but you should brush or comb your cat regularly! pic.twitter.com/PsSgSTut0H
— Normandale Vet Hosp (@normandalevet) August 20, 2015
For long-haired cats, getting their hair combed or brushed weekly is essential to keep them from matting. Detangling also removes dirt from hair and gives a cool feeling afterward.
10. Apply sunscreen
Believe it or not, cats do get sunburns. This is common on cats who have white-colored ears, light-colored noses or are bald like the Sphynx. You can use a specially formulated sunscreen specifically for cats.
Here’s one of the fun cat care tips you and your fur baby will love: make them popsicles! Do you want to know how? Then here’s the video to watch:
As pet parents, you can keep your kitties happy by letting them have some sun, but you also need to make them healthy and safe this summer. These 10 cat care tips will ensure both of you are disease-free and have a grand time this season.
Do you have some cat care tips? We’d love to know more about them by sharing your thoughts below!
