Cat Parenting Dos and Don'ts with The Healthy Cat Guy

In this episode, Amy Castro chats with The Healthy Cat Guy, known for his viral TikTok and YouTube videos about feline care. They delve into essential dos and don'ts for cat parents, covering topics like litter box maintenance, spaying/neutering, the significance of play, and the importance of understanding cat behavior. Join them as they share invaluable insights to help your feline friends live their best lives.
Check out The Healthy Cat Guy's videos on TikTok
Check out The Healthy Cat Guy's videos on YouTube

Shoutouts in this episode:

Da Bird Cat Toy by Go Cat
ASPCA: List of Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants for Cats

Transcript

Pet Parenting Dos and Don'ts with TikTok's Healthy Cat Guy

[00:00:00] Announcer: Welcome to the Starlight Pet Talk podcast, where we'll talk about and explore ways to help pet parents and future pet parents learn everything they need to know to have a happy and healthy relationship with their pet. So, sit up and stay for Starlight Pet Talk Rescue Adoption and pet Parenting done right.

[00:00:24] Host-Amy Castro: If you're a fan of Starlight Pet Talk, you'll love our new line of merchandise. We have t-shirts, hoodies, and more, all featuring your favorite podcast, logos and Designs. Plus, we're offering a limited number of Starlight outreach and rescue items where a portion of the proceeds go directly to Animal Rescue.

[00:00:40] Host-Amy Castro: Our merchandise is the perfect way to show your support for your favorite pet, podcast, and animal rescue at the same time. So, what are you waiting for? Just visit our website at www.starlightpettalk.com to order your merchandise today. Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk. I'm your host, Amy Castro, and on today's episode we're going to talk about some dos and don'ts for caring for your favorite cat, and even maybe you're not so favorite cat, if you have one of those.

[00:01:07] Host-Amy Castro: As an experienced cat person, you know, I agree with. Every single one of the do's and don'ts our guests today, um, brought up as, as things that we should cover. However, I think that there probably are some things that will either be maybe a little controversial or even some things that new cat parents maybe hadn't heard about, and so we're going to address them all.

[00:01:27] Host-Amy Castro: My guest today is a guy that I discovered on TikTok. He's the Healthy Cat guy and he is a social media personality based in Chicago, and he focuses on cats, cat health, cat wellness, and cat behavior, which is obviously near and dear to our heart at Starlight Outreach and Rescue. Since I would say fully 85% of the animals that we rescue our cats, um, and sometimes if we're lucky, we get to see a little bit inside his life about what's going on with his two cats, Santo and Imo.

[00:01:56] Host-Amy Castro: So, thank you so much for being here with us today. 

[00:01:59] Heathy Cat Guy: Thank you so much for having me, Amy. We're pretty excited for 

[00:02:01] Host-Amy Castro: this. Yeah. Well, and I, I've been watching your videos for a while now and I just, I love the fact that they are common sense. It's not, you know, it's not some person with a PhD in cat biology that is giving this information.

[00:02:14] Host-Amy Castro: It's a real cat Dad. Giving real advice to real cat parents and it's, it's easy to understand. Um, I think it's something that's really beneficial for the people that watch the videos. So, I'm curious, how did you get started? Like, what made you think to become the Healthy Cat guy and start doing these, uh, these videos that are so popular?

[00:02:32] Heathy Cat Guy: Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for checking out my videos on TikTok. Uh, so, you know, I, I've always known a lot about cats. I, I know that I've learned a lot about cats over the past decade, having a couple of cats myself, and I've definitely made some mistakes in the past with my own cats that I think, you know, if I talk about it on TikTok, I can really help people not make the same mistakes that I've made.

[00:02:51] Heathy Cat Guy: I've seen other people make mistakes that, you know, it would be helpful if other people don't have to go through that. So, I did go ahead and create this account Healthy cat guy. Cause that's, you know, that's what I wanted to be known as. That's what I want to focus on. I think there's a lot of things that really, like you said, are common sense that also apply to humans, but people don't necessarily think about how it affects cats and how it's really the same for cats.

[00:03:16] Heathy Cat Guy: You know, some of the things, uh, that we'll talk about today in terms of like, you know, exercise and diet. You know, a high-quality diet for humans. Yes. Uh, exercising is good for humans and these things are good for cats too. But you know, obviously sometimes people don't think about the same things that are good for humans or really good for cats as well.

[00:03:35] Heathy Cat Guy: So that's part of what I want to 

[00:03:37] Host-Amy Castro: highlight on TikTok. Yeah, that's so true. That's, I mean, that's one of the reasons why we started this podcast is, you know, one of our, uh, five elements of our mission for Starlight Outreach and Rescue is education. You know, we want to keep. Cats and dogs in their homes, and sometimes it's just simple things that you thought, gosh, if somebody had just Googled that, they would've figured that out.

[00:03:57] Host-Amy Castro: It's not like the information is hidden per se. I mean, some of it's not as readily available, but I think people, especially with cats, they just don't think about it. They think about cats oftentimes as just being that easy pet that you just let in your house and it does its thing and as long as you make sure it's got food and water, that's all it needs and that's not necessarily the case.

[00:04:17] Heathy Cat Guy: That's a really good point. You know, I can't really say why people think that sometimes, but, you know, cat's personalities, when you compare them to like dogs, cats are a little bit less demanding when it comes to something that's wrong. Uh, if cats are, and especially like if cats are in pain, uh, they'll really, really try to hide that, uh, from you.

[00:04:37] Heathy Cat Guy: So, I think that because cats don't complain as much, you know, some peoples oftentimes think, oh, he's fine. The cat's fine. Don't worry about it. He vomited two days in a row, but yeah, I'm sure he, it'll be okay. Um, whereas, you know, if your, if your kid vomited two days in a row, you know, we're, we're calling the doctor, we're going to the pediatrician.

[00:05:00] Heathy Cat Guy: We’ve got to figure out what's wrong, you know? Now obviously cats are not the same as children, human children, uh, but. You know, the warning signs of something being wrong may not necessarily be that different, you know, but we treat them differently as if it's as if it's not the same, but it kind of is. So, I think, you know, sometimes people think that cats are just fine the way they are, but obviously more can be done sometimes.

[00:05:24] Host-Amy Castro: Yeah. All right. So, let's get into some of those things that we definitely have control over as humans, cuz these are things that the, that cats can't do for themselves. So, the number one thing, and I don't know that you necessarily put these in order per se, but I think this is a huge one that I'm so shocked that people don't already know.

[00:05:41] Host-Amy Castro: You talk about cleaning the litter box every day, that that's a, that's a big do. Yeah, 

[00:05:45] Heathy Cat Guy: absolutely. Absolutely. So that happening every day is a really, really important thing for cats, for a number of different reasons. Uh, you know, cats unfortunately can get used to it being not cleaned every day, but it's really not a good thing cuz it's not healthy for them to make contact with, uh, things that are in the litter box.

[00:06:06] Heathy Cat Guy: You know, if they make contact with that, that bacteria can actually climb up their urethra and, you know, cause some pretty nasty UTIs. Uh, it also just makes cats really, really upset. You know, cats are very up, very fastidious about cleanliness. And just imagine it for yourself, you know, just imagine how you would like it if you had to go to, uh, a toilet that already had things in it and you had to use that.

[00:06:32] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, exactly. But you had to use it for days. You had to use it for days. That'd be, that'd be pretty, that'd be pretty tough to deal with, I think for a lot of people. And for some cats, that's what they're literally dealing with, you know, dirty toilet, dirty litter box. It can make them sick. And also remember that.

[00:06:49] Heathy Cat Guy: You know, if you're not paying much attention to the litter box, there's another couple of things that can happen. Way too much bacteria proliferates the litter box. You want to keep that clean, not just, not just scoop it, but actually clean it out. At least wipe it down every week or so. That way if the bacteria's not going too crazy, cats scratch the inside.

[00:07:10] Heathy Cat Guy: Of plastic litter boxes and sometimes that bacteria can stuck in those scratches and that that can multiply. So that may not be a very safe thing. Also, the other thing is that, you know, if you're not paying very much close attention to the litter box, that's how you keep an eye on, you know, what's coming out of them.

[00:07:28] Heathy Cat Guy: And if anything changes, especially with their number twos, you know, if they have diarrhea or something like that. That's something that you would want to know about. But if you're ignoring the litter box, you know, right, and your cat has a health condition that is obvious through what's coming in into the litter box, you might miss that.

[00:07:46] Heathy Cat Guy: So, you know, it's definitely important for a lot of reasons, a whole lot of reasons to really, uh, scoop the litter every day and clean it at least somewhat regularly. 

[00:07:55] Host-Amy Castro: That's such a, such a good point. I think people sometimes look at the, the box of litter. I, and I had a lady tell me this one time when she was having litter box issues, I asked her, how often does she scoop the litter box?

[00:08:06] Host-Amy Castro: And she said, scoop because according to the box it said, you know, fill it with three inches and empty it once a week. And that's kind of the way that, the way that she took it. You know, if, if for no other reason. The other thing I add to people to give them a little more encouragement on this litter box scooping is think about all the places that cat walks after it's been walking in that dirty litter box.

[00:08:25] Host-Amy Castro: Um, including your pillow. Yeah. So, keep it, keep it clean. Yeah. Keep it clean. Absolutely. Your second one is, is one that we preach about, uh, obviously a lot in rescue is, you know, spay and neuter and also consider microchipping. Now, one of the things that we do is every p every person that adopts from us gets the spay and neuter included in the adoption fee and the microchip, which is so important.

[00:08:48] Host-Amy Castro: Oh, that's great. That's why, is that something that you think, you know, from, from your perspective, is, is something that people need to be told, like, don't 

[00:08:54] Heathy Cat Guy: people know this already? Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's really, really important. So, and just in terms of the overpopulation of cats, you know, there are tons of cats that are outdoors.

[00:09:04] Heathy Cat Guy: You know, they basically don't have a home. Uh, when they get outside, they mingle, they reproduce. We've seen even more cats being out there. Uh, so that's obviously an issue. I actually got my cats santo and Imo, uh, through a neighbor. Because, uh, my, my former neighbor had a number of different cats.

[00:09:23] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, fortunately he, you know, he, him and his wife really took care of the cats in the neighborhood. They were outdoor cats and, you know, he, he took a lot of them in, into his home and took care of them, which is really great. What would've been even better than that is to trap neuter, release. That would be even better.

[00:09:40] Heathy Cat Guy: Uh, the reason why I say that is because, you know, for him and his wife, it was. An endless cycle of, oh, well we got to take care of this cat. This cat just showed up on the, on the back patio of the apartment building. We got to help this cat. Uh, so they, they would take it in, but of course, you know, it was an outdoor cat, so they would let it back outside every once in a while, and the cats would come back pregnant and voila, we've got six more cats in the building.

[00:10:10] Heathy Cat Guy: Uh, I went ahead and adopted, uh, two of the cats. Uh, from him from that particular litter. But, you know, cats get out there and it's just an endless cycle if they're not spayed or neutered. Also, microchipping is really important too, mainly because. What if your cat gets outside? It's, it's not impossible for an indoor cat to get outside.

[00:10:32] Heathy Cat Guy: I don't care how secure your house is. Right. You know, e even just going in and out, your cat can slip out. A screen could fail. A lot of these window screens are not as durable as people think they are. And cats fall out of window screens, right? It's relatively common. Uh, so microchipping can drastically, drastically increase the odds of being reunited with your cat.

[00:10:51] Heathy Cat Guy: If your cat ever. No gets lost somehow. So, it's, it's really important. Uh, as far it's been a long time. My cats are turning 10 years old, but, uh, my understanding is that cats are usually micro chipped and spayed and neutered. I, I'm pretty sure you can do that at the same time. Uh, so I, I think that's a really great thing to do.

[00:11:09] Host-Amy Castro: Yeah, that's basically what we'll do. I mean, sometimes we even will, um, you know, if it's going to be a while, like, like maybe we're adopting out a 12-week-old kitten, let's just say for argument's sake, but we wouldn't, wouldn't necessarily spay that kitten that young. So maybe it's not going to get spayed until it's four and a half months.

[00:11:26] Host-Amy Castro: You know, that's, that's a window of opportunity where the things that you mentioned could happen. And so, we will micro ship them. I think for the comfort of the animal, oftentimes people wait until the spay and neuter, but I have probably microchipped, I don't know, over a hundred cats and kittens, and very rarely does anybody, if you're fast, do they even have a reaction like, hey, what just happened to me?

[00:11:47] Host-Amy Castro: You know, you distract them in the right, right way. You do it quickly. And it's not really a big deal, but it can be a huge deal if they, God forbid, get out the window. And I've had that happen with my own indoor cats. The situation you mentioned with the screen, I forgot there was no screen in the darn window and I opened the window four or five inches.

[00:12:03] Host-Amy Castro: The next thing I know. Everybody's gone. Wow. That's got to be scary. It's not cool. It was scary. Luckily, they all were so terrified cuz they'd never been outside. They didn't go very far. But, uh, anyway, so, um, the other dude that I think you, that you have on your list that I think is really important is playtime with your cat.

[00:12:19] Host-Amy Castro: I, we get so many complaints from people about bad behavior, bad, and we've had some other cat experts on this show before who talk about, you know, Cat behavior's, not bad behavior, it's just cat behavior, but it's maybe unwanted behavior and I think that exercise is a key that most people are missing with their cats.

[00:12:41] Host-Amy Castro: So, tell us, what are we talking about here as far as play time with 

[00:12:44] Heathy Cat Guy: your cats? Yeah, exactly. Super important. And again, so like, you know, like you were saying with cats and, you know, and how they behave, we have to remember that they have certain instincts and these instincts drive them, uh, sometimes to want to scratch things and uh, catch things.

[00:12:59] Heathy Cat Guy: That's just what they like to do. Uh, so when you think about the evolution of cats from, uh, thousands of years ago, you know, when you see a cat, any cat at all, that cat is descendant from thousands or hundreds of thousands of generations of cats that were able to survive by catching things in the wild and having very good reflexes and being able to, uh, catch their prey, eliminate the prey, and eat it.

[00:13:26] Heathy Cat Guy: You know, that's what they're driven to do. And if they don't really have an outlet to do that, you know, they're going to scratch up your furniture, they're going to attack your ankles, and all they need is an outlet to release that energy. So, you know, feather toys, it, it really, honestly, when you think about it, it almost doesn't even matter what kind of toys you've got.

[00:13:47] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, just engage and playtime with your cat. Uh, that way they're not bored that way. Your cats aren't fighting with each other because they don't have any other outlet. And also, playing in playtime with your cat is going to massively improve your relationship with your cat. Also, it gives them something to be excited about, makes them happy.

[00:14:08] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, it feeds their natural instincts. So, it's a really, really important thing. You know, just like you, you play with your dog. You play with your child. Uh, it's important to play with your cat too. Super important. 

[00:14:19] Host-Amy Castro: Yeah. Well, that is a really good point because people, people don't hesitate whatsoever to throw a ball, throw a Frisbee.

[00:14:25] Host-Amy Castro: Play chase, whatever they do with their dogs. But you tell them to play with their cat and they're like, oh, you know, they, and you're so right, especially when you have multiples. I mean, you mentioned so many great benefits, but I know for us, you know, when people bring a new cat into the house, you know, they've got an existing cat, they want to adopt a kitten from us, or a young cat from us, that cat's going to have a lot of energy and it's going to want to play.

[00:14:48] Host-Amy Castro: And if your cat is older and maybe doesn't want to play as much, it's. It's going to be a problem if you don't work that energy out. It's also a great opportunity to get the cats kind of working together by playing with that feather toy. We've had many, uh, cats that have been a little bit standoffish with other cats when we've had them in Foster, and you get that.

[00:15:07] Host-Amy Castro: Uh, our favorite is De Bird. We really love De Bird. So, you get that bird going and that fluttering sound that it makes, and even my elderly cat used to come out of the woodwork and be like, hey, let's, let's play with that. So, it, you're right, it is so ingrained in their instincts, uh, for, you know, thousands of years.

[00:15:26] Host-Amy Castro: Yes. Yeah, exactly. So, let's move on. I'm going to save that. You have one other little thought there. I want to save that to the end. But let's move on to the to the don'ts, because I think these are of equally as important. And I know that one of the questions that we always ask people on our applications is how are they going to discipline their pet?

[00:15:44] Host-Amy Castro: Or how are they going to redirect behavior? And you had made a comment, you know, that, that, uh, you know, it's, it's really important not to hit or spank your cat. I think that's probably generally accepted that you shouldn't do that, but yet people still do it. Why is it particularly important with 

[00:15:59] Heathy Cat Guy: cats?

[00:16:00] Heathy Cat Guy: Yeah, so with cats, they just don't know what's going on, you know, so when you hit a cat, you know, especially, let's say for example, you, you leave for your 9:00 AM job. You leave at 8:00 AM uh, you get off work at five and then you get back home at six, and then you discover that something just got scratched up really bad.

[00:16:19] Heathy Cat Guy: Like, and it was something really expensive. Like it was the most expensive piece of furniture you've ever bought. And, uh, it's just really nice and now you're very mad. Okay. So, and now you want to confront your cat. And teach them, hey, you don't do this to my nice furniture. So, you know, let's say an individual actually did struck their cat.

[00:16:40] Heathy Cat Guy: So, what would the cat think? The cat would think, wow, I need to avoid this person. This person is scaring me, they're hurting me, and I'm going to stay away from this guy. The reason why they don't connect the dots between. You know what they did and why they're being hit. That doesn't make any sense to them.

[00:16:58] Heathy Cat Guy: That happened hours ago. Mm-hmm. And they don't see, they don't see the cause and effect of I'm being hit because I scratched up the couch. So, you can't really do that with cats. It's just not effective. What you can't do is offer positive reinforcement when they do something that you do want them to do.

[00:17:18] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, and there's other actions that you can take that prevent actions. But for example, uh, when you get them a scratching post and they scratch that instead of your couch. You know, offer pets, you know, saving very nice things like good cat, good case, stuff like that. Um, treats positive reinforcement will get the actions, uh, that you want your cat to take to actually become a reality.

[00:17:40] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, also another reason why you don't want to spank a cat is because you have to realize how small of an animal a cat is and how big you are compared to a cat. You know, hitting a cat can actually cause physical injury to a cat. Bruising, bleeding, we're way stronger than cats, you know, so if you hit a cat, that's just, I mean, that's basically just animal abuse anyway.

[00:18:04] Heathy Cat Guy: And it's not even effective in regards to teaching a cat anything. So really there, there's just no reason to, to ever do 

[00:18:11] Host-Amy Castro: that. I think, I think hitting in general is just, uh, um, whether it's, and I, I definitely agree with the time span in between, but I think even if you catch an animal doing something and you were to strike them in some way, you know, like you said, all it's going to do is drive them away from you.

[00:18:28] Host-Amy Castro: It's like, if, you know, if you went over to a cat who's scratching on the back of your sofa and you gave them a swat, they're going to run away. They're not going to stand there and be like, okay, so you know, they're, you do that enough, they're going to associate you, your hand and everything else with. With fear and now you're going to have a runaway cat, which is why we, well, you know, in in rescue, a lot of times when people talk about, I want to get a, you know, a kitten for my.

[00:18:53] Host-Amy Castro: Three-year-old to grow up with and it's like, okay, I don't know that being manhandled by a three-year-old is the best thing to make a, a good friendly cat. Mm-hmm. And you know, whether it's because obviously a three-year-old doesn't know how to be gentle. They, they can learn obviously, and sometimes when they're being supervised by parents.

[00:19:09] Host-Amy Castro: But unless you're going to supervise that all the time, it's probably not the best idea until a child gets older and realizes, you know, whether it's hitting the cat or whether it's, you know, pulling the cat's tail or whatever else it might be that the animal. It's not going to appreciate it. Yeah, exactly. 

[00:19:23] Heathy Cat Guy: And they have a mind of their own for 

[00:19:24] Host-Amy Castro: sure.

[00:19:24] Host-Amy Castro: Yeah, exactly. Your second don't, was don't neglect veterinary care. And I know that's somewhat controversial now because, not, not that, not neglecting veterinary care, but you know how much veterinary care is needed. Do I need to go every year? Do I need vaccines every year? Um, but I think this idea of, you know, consistency is 

[00:19:44] Heathy Cat Guy: important.

[00:19:45] Heathy Cat Guy: Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, there's so much that can change with the cat's health. And it can change very quickly. It's really good to have a leg up on stuff like that. And a veterinarian can really help you, um, you know, keep track of everything within your, with in regards to your cat's health, you know, teeth, um, kidneys.

[00:20:03] Heathy Cat Guy: These things can pop up. And if you don't have a veterinarian to help you with that, how would you ever know? You know? Um, for example, let's look at the causes of vomiting. You know when a cat vomits, it could be because they're eating too fast, which is not, you know, that serious of an issue. Or it could be because they have kidney disease, but how are you supposed to know?

[00:20:32] Heathy Cat Guy: You know, maybe they're eating too fast and have kidney disease, but you know, you really need a professional opinion Yeah. To figure out something like that. So, I would not, like, personally, I take my cat to the vet once a year. I take them every, uh, July. Um, but, you know, I'm thinking about doing that even more often now because my cats are, uh, they're going to be 10 years old.

[00:20:52] Heathy Cat Guy: This June. And you know, especially as cats get older, uh, they're more likely to run into health problems as they get older. So, you know, I think it's just a hugely important thing. Um, just like, you know, it's kind of like how we were talking about before with, oh, the cat's fine. They're good. You know, you would take your, you take yourself to the doctor every year.

[00:21:11] Heathy Cat Guy: So, it obviously makes a lot of sense to take your cat every year. And really, another thing I want to point out about that is when you think about the lifespan of the cat, it's much, much shorter. It's much shorter than humans, right? So, when you're taking your cat every year, uh, in comparison, that's really a much longer gap of time for a cat than it is for a human.

[00:21:35] Heathy Cat Guy: That's like, that's like several years for a cat, really, when you think about it. That's a good point. Yeah, so I mean, it's just, it's really important to take your cat as often as you can cuz you never know how quickly something 

[00:21:45] Host-Amy Castro: can change. Yeah. I mean, think about how quickly they grow. You know, it's a, it's kitten season here and it's amazing to me.

[00:21:52] Host-Amy Castro: I've got, you know, little baby kittens whose eyes are closed and they had umbilical cords attached, it seems like just the other day. And three weeks later they're, you know, walking around and starting to eat canned food. And so, everything, everything in their body and in their lives is accelerated and never even really thought about it like that.

[00:22:08] Host-Amy Castro: And so, you know, the aging process, the disease process, all of that can be accelerated as well. Plus add to the fact what you said before, which is so so true, is that cats will hide things. Um, you know, and, and animals in general tend to hide things cuz you don't want to show weakness, you're going to get called from the herd.

[00:22:29] Host-Amy Castro: Yeah. But cats are particularly good at hiding behaviors and the way that you see it, like you said, is going to be in the litter box or things like throwing up. And so, you know, a hairball is not just a hairball and especially if it's not a hairball, you know, if it's food that's coming up or um, you know, nothing is coming up, but the cat's still acting like it's throwing up.

[00:22:47] Host-Amy Castro: I mean, there's something going on there that is worth investigating. 

[00:22:51] Heathy Cat Guy: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, definitely agree. And like oftentimes when a cat finally does show you something's wrong, you know, unfortunately it may be too late by then, um, by the time there's actual clinical signs that you can actually visibly see.

[00:23:06] Heathy Cat Guy: So yeah, it's always great to have an early indication if 

[00:23:09] Host-Amy Castro: possible. Yeah. And, and, and I think I, I've got a prime example of that, so I have a, a kitten that we got in as a, you know, well, we were still bottle feeding her. That's how young she was. And she and her siblings all have these terrible eye injuries or, you know, infections and things like that.

[00:23:26] Host-Amy Castro: Long in the short of it is she ended up having to have both of her eyes removed. So, I've always been so, and I've kept her, she's my baby and I've always been so focused on her eyesight and how she gets around and things like that. But never really thought about other elements of her behavior until, um, I noticed she got up on the kitchen counter and peed.

[00:23:48] Host-Amy Castro: There, happened to be a, a grocery bag, a plastic grocery bag up there. And she got up there and I'm watching what she's doing and she settles herself in there. I'm like, she's going to pee in that, in that grocery bag. Well, sure enough she did. And when I got up, the urine was in the bag and it had flood in it.

[00:24:03] Host-Amy Castro: And she, I, I had no, no clue whatsoever. And un you know, unfortunately for us in a multi cat household, it can be even trickier if we find something in the litter box that it's like, okay, who did it? Um, who's got the issue? But turns out she had, and I want to say she was under a year old, which is really young, but she already had a bladder stone.

[00:24:23] Host-Amy Castro: Wow. And had to have had to have it surgically removed. And so, you know, that's something that probably had been going on for a while. I just wasn't seeing the signs. And of course, now I watch her like a hawk and I've changed her diet. But yeah, things can definitely sneak up on you. And the next thing you know, you're, you've got an expensive surgical situation and you know, for your, for your pet, which actually leads me to my next, don't, because that's one of the changes that I've made is he said, don't feed only a dry food.

[00:24:50] Host-Amy Castro: You know, if you can do something else, do something else. Why is that so important? Yeah. So, this 

[00:24:54] Heathy Cat Guy: is su really important and. Relatively controversial too, I will admit. Uh, so in my opinion, there's a number of issues with dry food. The number one issue with it that I have is that it's dehydrated. It's dry, it's dry food, obviously, uh, it's got 10% or less of moisture in comparison to wet food, which is like 70% moisture.

[00:25:18] Heathy Cat Guy: So, uh, when we think about what cats normally eat, what is their, you know, what is their biological. Uh, requirement for nutrition. You know, they eat a diet high in protein and also high in moisture. You know, most of the moisture, they're evolved to get moisture from their food. Okay. That's super important to understand.

[00:25:40] Heathy Cat Guy: They're evolved to get moisture from the food that they are eating, and they do not have a high thirst drive. Even if they haven't, even if they are dehydrated, they still don't have much of a high thirst drive. People will sometimes say, well, I feed my cat dry food and I see them drinking water all the time.

[00:26:02] Heathy Cat Guy: They're not dehydrated. 

[00:26:03] Host-Amy Castro: Yeah, they've got plenty of water. 

[00:26:05] Heathy Cat Guy: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's a very, very common, the common response. Uh, the problem with that is that, so a couple of problems with that. So, cats. Have tongues that are inefficient at shrinking water. Their tongues are actually like, literally have spikes on them, and their tongues don't curl up in the same way that dogs do.

[00:26:26] Heathy Cat Guy: And their tongues are not efficient at delivering water to the inside of their body. That's just anatomically the way their, their mouth and their tongue is designed. Um, and second of all, these are desert creatures. That's, you know, that's where they're, where they originate from. There's not much water in these environments.

[00:26:45] Heathy Cat Guy: Uh, so that's why they're evolved to actually get the water from their food instead of actually drinking it. Now, when you give cats dry food, they will drink more water than cats that eat wet food. Absolutely. And people think that when they see that, that's enough. But cats cannot base the water that they're missing out on.

[00:27:07] Heathy Cat Guy: They cannot supplement that just by drinking water because they don't have enough drive to actually drink it. And there, there was a study that was done, uh, like I, I quote this from a vet one time that said that cats that eat wet food consume twice as much water as cats that eat dry food. When you add up the moisture that they get from drinking water and eating food, wet food, cats consume twice as much water despite all of the water that you see.

[00:27:39] Heathy Cat Guy: Dry food cats. Drinking. So that's my number one issue with it. But there's also other things. It has a lot of corn, way too many carbohydrates. Um, you know, some dry foods are better than others, but really, uh, you know, a lot of vets have said that the worst wet food is better than the best dry food. And I think that's probably true.

[00:28:01] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, now I, there are some important things to know, obviously, you know, say for example, you live somewhere and there's like two different colonies of outdoor cats that you're helping to feed. Uh, and there's like 20 cats, you know, it's pro may make more sense to just feed them dry food. It's obviously more economical.

[00:28:20] Heathy Cat Guy: It may be difficult to feed a bunch of cats, uh, wet food. I totally understand that. You know, wet food is clearly more 

[00:28:28] Host-Amy Castro: expensive and those cats will have access to other, you know, they're going to catch a mouse, they're going to catch a Yeah. Lizard, whatever. And we, you know, and those creatures are probably, I mean, don't get me to line about mouse anatomy, but I'm guessing, you know, 70% water in an, you know, in an animal's body, that's a lot of, a lot of moisture in there.

[00:28:46] Host-Amy Castro: That's right. Um, that they're, they're getting to make up, which your inside cat's not going to have access to. Yeah, 

[00:28:52] Heathy Cat Guy: absolutely. And you know, I mean, all cats should. Have a water fountain that's really re really important no matter what you're feeding your cat. Uh, they should have a water fountain. Um, but it's like, you know, they're never going to be able to fully supplement the water that they're missing out on by having just a water fountain.

[00:29:11] Heathy Cat Guy: So, um, I, I always encourage people, you know, if you're able to incorporate at least a little bit of wet food or a properly prepared raw food diet into their. Into their diet. That would be a hugely, massively beneficial thing because, you know, the leading cause of death in cats in the United States, uh, I believe is kidney disease, you know, and, um mm-hmm.

[00:29:32] Heathy Cat Guy: You know, dry food is a dry food is a major contributing 

[00:29:34] Host-Amy Castro: factor. It's a contributor to that for sure. And I apologize, I did skip over the water fountain, so you mentioned it. Why? I, I, I mean, I can, I can attest to the fact that when I switched from just having a bowl of water to the water fountain, everybody thought it was the most fascinating thing.

[00:29:50] Host-Amy Castro: But why do cats like that so much? Yeah, so 

[00:29:52] Heathy Cat Guy: think about, uh, you know, where cats evolved from when, whenever they did find water in the wild, it's usually going to be, you know, a river or a stream, something with moving water. And, you know, cats are attracted to moving things. Mm-hmm. That's kind of how their eyes work.

[00:30:07] Heathy Cat Guy: So, um, you know, cats really strongly prefer moving water rather than water that's just sitting still. Also, cats, I, no, I'm not 100% sure about this, but cats may be a little bit suspicious of sitting water. They're, they instinctively know that. You know, if there's an animal nearby that has passed away and that animal is decomposing, that decomposition could reach water if that water is not moving and you know, actively flowing.

[00:30:37] Heathy Cat Guy: So, their instinct may be a little bit suspicious of still water. But, um, I've had some, definitely some good success with, um, Giving my cats water fountains. They definitely, they really, really like it. I've had a few over the years. I've got, I've got a new one now that's really nice and quiet. I had one in the past that was really loud, but I like, I like this new one.

[00:30:56] Heathy Cat Guy: I've got, it's pretty cool. 

[00:30:58] Host-Amy Castro: Yeah. And there and there are so many different kinds of fountains that are available now. The one thing that I will say, just from my personal experience with the fountains that we have, and I'm going to tell tales on myself is that if you're not going to stay on top of the fountain and keep it clean, just, just cuz it has a filter inside doesn't mean that it's going to stay clean forever.

[00:31:17] Host-Amy Castro: Especially if you've got multiple cats that you're probably better off with a bowl of water that you clean and change every day than a fountain that you're going to let get disgusting because, um, like I said, I will mine, I have to keep a. Like an eye, like a hawk on it. Because if I get complacent and I think, ah, I haven't changed that in a while, I'll open it up and it's.

[00:31:40] Host-Amy Castro: It's not something I want my cats drinking. Let's just put it that way. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. So definitely need to keep 

[00:31:45] Heathy Cat Guy: it clean. Yeah, that water, like flowing water, that can cause mold. But there's also something called, uh, biofilm. I'm not an expert on it, but it's basically like residual saliva and water mixed together and it's kind of gnarly and I wouldn't, you know, wouldn't want that circulating for too long of a time.

[00:32:02] Heathy Cat Guy: So definitely want to keep an eye on that for sure. 

[00:32:05] Host-Amy Castro: So, our, our last couple of don'ts here that I think, uh, especially one is very near and dear to my heart, but don't let your cats roam outside unsupervised. Now I live in the country, so I will say that, uh, although my personal pet cats, I. Live indoors and they stay exclusively indoors.

[00:32:23] Host-Amy Castro: We do have a couple of barn cats that were basically feral cats that came from animal shelters. They can't be picked up or you can try picking them up, but I'm not going to, um, you know, over the years they've gotten to the point where they'll let me touch them, but that's about the extent of the handling that they'll, that they'll accept.

[00:32:40] Host-Amy Castro: But in general, better for cats to be indoors. Why is that? 

[00:32:44] Heathy Cat Guy: There's so many dangers. For cats outdoors and cats are also a danger to other animals too. So, uh, cats can be, you know, cats are prey and they can be preyed upon, so, uh, cats can get hurt from people. Cats can get hurt from cars; cats can get hurt from stray dogs.

[00:33:07] Heathy Cat Guy: Uh, kittens can even be kicked off by eagles and hawks. There's so many, there's so definitely, yeah. There's so many, uh, threats to cats out there. I would be worried to death if my cat was outside. Um, if you live in an urban area, like I, you know, I'm in Chicago. Um, I, you know, it's funny, I really don't see very many outdoor cats where I live, but, um, you know, a cat can get hit by a car.

[00:33:33] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, anything, anything. So also, cats are, they're threats themselves to birds. Uh, they do. They do kill a lot of birds. I saw this study, uh mm-hmm. I forgot who re-released the study, but it was, uh, from 2013 and they estimated that the median amounts of birds that are killed by cats every year. Is about 2.4 billion.

[00:33:59] Heathy Cat Guy: And that's just in the United States. Wow. According to this study. Um, and that, that may seem like, how is that possible? Like there's no way cats are killing over 2 billion birds. But when you think about the fact that there's tens of millions of outdoor cats in the us, And, you know, let's, let's just say that they catch two birds a day.

[00:34:20] Heathy Cat Guy: That's, yeah. Then we're at billions of birds a year, which is a lot. Mm-hmm. Um, now some people may say, hey, well cats are, you know, they're balancing the ecosystem or they're supposed to do that. Well, that is their instinct. And yeah, they are supposed to do that, but we are facing an extinction crisis. For a number of different reasons.

[00:34:42] Heathy Cat Guy: And you know, having cats outdoors is not going to help that at all. So, you know better for the environment, for cats to be inside, it's better for cats, for them to be inside. It's a lot safer for them. Um, you know, you don't have to worry about them getting a disease or, you know, getting hurt by another animal or hurt in any other way.

[00:35:02] Heathy Cat Guy: So yeah, there's a whole lot of reasons to keep cats indoors, for sure. 

[00:35:08] Host-Amy Castro: Yeah. And for those, you know, I think for those people who, um, cuz we get pushback on that in, in our rescue cuz we do require cats to be indoors for those reasons. Uh, all of those reasons that you already stated, you know, but there will still be people that are push back, like, oh, don't they need fresh air?

[00:35:24] Host-Amy Castro: Don't they need access to grass? And it's like, you know, you can, you can get around that by, you know, Number one, starting to teach them to walk on a leash, which everybody thinks I'm crazy when I say that, but I, we have had kittens that we have trained to walk on a leash. I've got a friend who has a cat that walks on a leash every single day so it can be done.

[00:35:44] Host-Amy Castro: Or, you know, if you have the, the property in the space to be able to do it, you can build a cat. You know, and that way your cat's protected. And so are the birds and the other critters that it might take out, but it can still get that fresh air or access to grass or whatever you want to do. So, there's definitely ways to give them that if you feel that they really need 

[00:36:01] Heathy Cat Guy: that.

[00:36:01] Heathy Cat Guy: I personally don't have the space for a ca, but I've always been so understood. I've always been so fascinated by cats. Um, I like, I don't. I, I can't even have a cat, but for some reason, every few months I find myself looking at them online as if I'm going to find one. But yeah, 

[00:36:21] Host-Amy Castro: they've got some really, people are really creative in what they've come up with and when.

[00:36:24] Host-Amy Castro: Some of the ones I've, uh, I've seen 

[00:36:26] Heathy Cat Guy: they've got tubes and everything, like it's, it's really nice. Yeah. 

[00:36:30] Host-Amy Castro: Yeah. All right, so our last don't and I'm, I think people are sometimes when, or when, I was surprised when I first started hearing about some of them about all the things that are toxic to cats that people don't realize are sitting right in their environment.

[00:36:45] Host-Amy Castro: So, you know, I know I've become really sensitive to it with birds cuz we've started taking in some birds in the rescue and you got to be careful with candles and Teflon pans and things like that. But I never really thought about some of those things that might be impacting my cats especially. Being indoor cats.

[00:37:01] Heathy Cat Guy: Yeah. So we are, um, in the springtime now and you know, when we think about some of the holidays that we have in spring, like for example Mother's Day. Mother's Day, you may want to get some flowers for your mother, maybe some lilies, tulips, maybe. Well, that would be nice, but if your mom has a cat, you may want to consider something else.

[00:37:27] Heathy Cat Guy: For mom, that's really nice because that could really hurt mom's cat. Uh, you know, things that you may not even think about, like common plants like lilies and tulips. Um, POI is for pretty common for Thanksgiving and Christmas missile toe. And these are just plants. I'm just talking about plants right now.

[00:37:45] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, yeah, all very toxic to cats. Um, lilies are extremely toxic to cats. Like, don't even have that in the, in the room with them because the pollen. Breathe breathing in the pollen. That can be, uh, that can make them very, very sick, if not lead to an actual fatality. Um, cleaning products, a lot of common cleaning products are very dangerous to cats.

[00:38:08] Heathy Cat Guy: Uh, people have these essential oil diffusers that make their cats sick. For example, I was talking about something, mistakes that I made when I first had cats. Uh, one of the things that I did that I regret is I had. A one-bedroom apartment at the time, and I had, in each room I had air fresheners that were plugged into the wall and mm-hmm.

[00:38:30] Heathy Cat Guy: That's basically about how tall cats are those air fresheners are right at nose level, so they're breathing that in. But those have a bunch of essential oils that are harmful to cats, and also cats don't like those smells in the first place. They're really, really overwhelming. They have a sense of smell that's 14 times stronger than us.

[00:38:50] Heathy Cat Guy: So, it's, it's, it's overwhelming to them and there's no way they like that. Um, and they don't like those smells anyway, and they're toxic to them. So, a lot of people may say, well, I've, I've, I've had those plugged in for a long time, and they're fine. Yeah. Yeah. So, they don't show any signs of clinical, they don't show any clinical signs of distress or anything like that.

[00:39:10] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, but over the years it can lead to asthma and cats and other breathing issues. So yeah, it's definitely something to keep an eye out on, eye out for there is, Like I, we don't have enough time, unfortunately, to go through all of them cuz there's so, there's so much stuff that's toxic to cats. The As P C A has, uh, a list of stuff though, like a full list of things that are toxic to cats and it's so important.

[00:39:36] Heathy Cat Guy: Like I, if, the one thing that I would say is don't ever bring anything into your home. Anything unless you know for sure that it's not toxic to your cats. Um, and it's really just a good idea to look everything up, like look it up before you bring it into your home and it possibly affects your cat because there's so much stuff, you know, you may not even imagine some of the stuff that can harm 

[00:39:58] Host-Amy Castro: your cat.

[00:39:58] Host-Amy Castro: Yeah, that's, that's good to know that. Uh, so I'll make sure we put a, uh, a link to that, A S P C A list up on our show notes for sure. Okay. So last but not least, your point about having fun with your cat and enjoying the experience of being a cat parent. So as the healthy cat guy, what do, uh, Santo and emo bring to your, bring to your life and vice versa?

[00:40:21] Host-Amy Castro: Oh, yeah, yeah. They, 

[00:40:22] Heathy Cat Guy: they, they definitely bring a lot to my life. So, um, you know, you can always say that I rescued them, which is true. But, um, you can also say that they, they rescued me too, so it's kind of like having a good buddy. Or a couple of good friends that are always going to be with you. So, we've lived, um, since I've gotten them in 2013, we've lived in two US states and two countries in, in, in the US and Mexico.

[00:40:48] Heathy Cat Guy: Um, they've been with me everywhere through the good and the bad that I've been through over the past decade and, you know, it's been a lot of fun. It gives me purpose to be able to take care of, you know, really special animals like this gives me joy to see them playing with each other and having a good time.

[00:41:06] Heathy Cat Guy: Gives me joy to, uh, see them healthy and doing well. It makes me happy to know that they are 10 years old now. It kind of seems like it wasn't that long ago when I adopted them, but it was that long ago and it really was a decade and my life really was extremely different. In 2013, uh, when I compare it to my life in 2023 and they've been with me the entire way, um, you know, if I ever have a bad day or if I ever, you know, go to work and do something real stupid, you know, I'm not going to come home.

[00:41:42] Heathy Cat Guy: And my cats are going to be like, hey, I know about that thing you did. I'm real disappointed. No, no, they don't say things like that. Um, they don't get an attitude, um, for no reason. Or they might, but, uh, 

[00:41:57] Host-Amy Castro: you, you just may not know the reason yet. I think they always have a reason, right? 

[00:42:01] Heathy Cat Guy: Yeah, yeah. That is true.

[00:42:03] Heathy Cat Guy: Very true. But, um, you know, they brought, they brought so much joy to my life. You know, I, I couldn't imagine, uh, not having them. Uh, so it's, it's, it's been a really, really great experience. And I, I think they like me too. 

[00:42:20] Host-Amy Castro: I, I think they probably do. Well, gosh, this has been great. I really appreciate your time and all of your great advice.

[00:42:28] Host-Amy Castro: Like I said at the beginning, I think sometimes it's, um, it seems like it should be common sense, but then there's a lot of things that we just, I think we take for granted that we don't need to research it, like the, like the toxic subs, substances when we really, when we really do. So, thank you so much for, for bringing that to our attention and.

[00:42:46] Host-Amy Castro: For those of you who want to hear more from the Healthy Cat guy, we're going to make sure we've got links up on our show notes to his TikTok because it's really awesome. I enjoy it a lot. And, uh, keep those videos coming, we really 

[00:42:59] Heathy Cat Guy: appreciate. Oh, absolutely. I'll definitely keep those coming. Uh, definitely have some pretty, uh, exciting new series that are coming on online, uh, this spring.

[00:43:09] Heathy Cat Guy: And yeah, thanks for checking out, uh, me on TikTok. I'm also on YouTube as well, and definitely appreciate you having me on the show. Okay. It's. 

[00:43:17] Host-Amy Castro: Great. Well, thank you so much, and for those of you who are listening, thank you for listening to another episode of Starlight Pet Talk. If you haven't caught up with our past episodes, make sure you do that because every Tuesday we come out with a new one.

[00:43:29] Host-Amy Castro: And if you have friends, family members, colleagues who are pet lovers, make sure you let them know about us as well. And if you don't do anything else this week, give your pets a hug from us. 

[00:43:40] Announcer: You've been listening to the Starlight Pet Talk podcast. We're glad you joined us to gain new insight on the many loving ways to adopt and care for your pets.

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