Behavioral wellness through Feline Feng Shui

Feng shui is an ancient Chinese art of arranging objects, space, and buildings to achieve balance and harmony. But what does this have to do with cats? A lot actually!

If you’re experiencing any behavior issues with your cats such as but not limited to, scratching where they shouldn’t, not using the litterbox consistently, climbing on curtains, jumping on the counter, fighting with other cats or dogs in the home, attacking you, vocalizing at inappropriate hours, etc. Then the first place you should look is if your home is set up to be enriching to a cat.

When you go to pet store to buy an accessory pet such as a snake or a hamster, a good store will educate you on what the proper set up is for that animal to ensure it will thrive. This isn’t something that is often afforded to our dogs and cats and we take for granted that they will just be happy living in a human habitat.

Territory and territorial security is very important to cats, and if they don’t feel like they own anything and everything important to them is being shared with another being, you included, behavior issues such as what I listed above can start to pop up.

Cats need vertical spaces and lots of them! Ideally they should be able to traverse a room without ever having to touch the ground. This is especially important if you have multiple cats or cats sharing space with dogs and children. Cats should also have access to hiding places. As both prey and predatory animals, cats feel most safe and secure in their environment if they can either hide or observe their world from great heights where dogs and toddlers can’t reach them.

You can create vertical territory with cat towers, cat shelves, boxes, and clearing off bookshelves for the cat’s to use. To learn more about this topic and find some inspiration I recommend watching Jackson Galaxies YouTube videos on catification.