Cat Care Basics.

Cats are good at appearing fine. By the time a cat looks ill, it has often been unwell for a while — which is why a boring routine and a watchful eye do most of the work. Feed the same way, keep the tray clean, play every day, and notice the small changes early.

This page covers the parts of cat care that actually differ from dog care: an obligate carnivore's diet, a low thirst drive, litter tray arithmetic, dental disease, and the household poisons that hit cats much harder than dogs.

Start with the life stage

A one-year-old cat is roughly a teenager in human terms, a two-year-old is a young adult around 24, and after that each cat year adds about four. Cats are generally considered mature from seven, senior from around eleven, and geriatric from fifteen — though plenty live into their late teens and early twenties, especially indoors.

Knowing the stage matters because the priorities shift: kittens need vaccination and socialisation, adults need weight and dental control, seniors need bloodwork. The Cat Age Calculator converts your cat's age in one step.

Feeding

Cats are obligate carnivores, which is not a marketing phrase — it is a metabolic fact. They need nutrients that only animal tissue provides, including taurine, arachidonic acid and preformed vitamin A. They cannot make these themselves, and a vegetarian or homemade diet that ignores this causes heart disease and blindness. Whatever you feed, it has to be a complete cat food.

Kittens need roughly two to three times an adult's calories per pound while they are growing. A neutered adult cat is the opposite problem: they need noticeably less than an intact cat, and free-feeding a neutered indoor cat is the single most common route to obesity. As a rough working figure, most neutered adult cats do well on about 20 to 25 kcal per pound of body weight per day. The food calculator works it out in grams and cups for your cat's weight and activity level.

Wet food is doing more than you think

Dry food is convenient, but it is roughly 10% water. Wet food is around 78%. For a species that evolved to get most of its water from prey, that difference matters, and it is one of the few practical levers you have against urinary and kidney problems.

A mixed approach works well for most owners: wet food as the main meals, dry as a small supplement rather than the foundation. If your cat will only eat dry, then hydration becomes something you manage deliberately — see the next section.

Body condition, not the number on the scale

Run your hands along the ribs: you should feel them under a thin layer, without pressing. Look from above — there should be a waist behind the ribcage. Look from the side — the belly should tuck up. A cat with a hanging belly pouch is normal; a cat whose ribs you cannot find is not.

Weigh your cat monthly on the same scale, ideally a baby scale, and write it down. Losing weight while eating normally is one of the earliest signs of hyperthyroidism, diabetes or kidney disease — and you will only catch it if you have a baseline.

Foods and household items that are toxic to cats

Cats are not small dogs, and several things that are mildly risky for a dog are lethal for a cat:

• Lilies — even a small amount of pollen, a leaf or the water from a vase causes acute kidney failure in cats. There is no safe exposure. Do not keep lilies in a house with cats.
• Onions, garlic, leeks, chives — damage red blood cells. Cats are more sensitive than dogs, and it accumulates across meals.
• Essential oils, especially tea tree, eucalyptus, citrus, peppermint and wintergreen — cats cannot metabolise many of these. Diffusers, direct application and even some oil-soaked collars can cause tremors and liver damage.
• Paracetamol and ibuprofen — never give human painkillers to a cat. A single paracetamol tablet can be fatal.
• Dog flea products containing permethrin — highly toxic to cats. Never use a dog product on a cat, and keep treated dogs away from cats for the stated period.
• Chocolate, xylitol, grapes and raisins, alcohol, raw yeast dough — same as for dogs, and just as serious.
• Milk and cream — most adult cats are lactose intolerant. It causes diarrhoea rather than being a treat.

Water and urinary health

Cats have a low thirst drive. They evolved to take water from prey, so they often will not drink enough to compensate for a dry diet. Mild chronic dehydration is a real contributor to urinary crystals, bladder inflammation and kidney disease — three of the most common problems vets see in middle-aged and older cats.

You cannot force a cat to drink, but you can make drinking easier:

• Offer several water bowls in different rooms, not one next to the food
• Use wide, shallow ceramic or glass bowls — many cats dislike their whiskers touching the sides
• Try a circulating fountain; moving water appeals to a lot of cats
• Feed wet food, or add a spoonful of warm water to it
• Change the water daily and wash the bowls — cats refuse stale or scented water
• Keep bowls away from the litter tray

The water intake calculator gives an indicative daily target, but the honest answer for cats is that diet decides most of it. A cat on wet food is getting most of its water from the food.

Two symptoms deserve same-day attention: straining to urinate with little or nothing coming out, especially in male cats, is a blockage that can be fatal within 24 hours. And a sudden increase in drinking and urination can point to diabetes, kidney disease or hyperthyroidism.

The litter tray

Litter box problems are the most common behavioural reason cats are surrendered, and in the overwhelming majority of cases the cause is setup, not spite. The rules are simple and non-negotiable:

• One tray per cat, plus one. Two cats means three trays. Always.
• Big trays. Most commercial boxes are too small. Aim for one and a half times the length of your cat, nose to tail base.
• Open and uncovered. Hoods and doors trap odour and give a cat only one escape route, which anxious cats hate.
• Away from food and water, and not next to a noisy appliance such as a washing machine.
• At least one tray on every floor your cat uses, and not all clustered in one room — a cat should never be cornered by another cat on the way to the tray.
• Scoop daily, full change weekly, wash with unscented soap. Skip scented litter and liners.

If your cat starts going outside the tray, the first call is to a vet, not a behaviourist — urinary pain, arthritis and thyroid disease all present this way. If the vet finds nothing, then look hard at the setup above.

Enrichment and play

An indoor cat with nothing to do is a stressed cat, and stress shows up as over-grooming, cystitis, spraying and aggression. Cats are not low-maintenance; they are differently high-maintenance.

• Play twice a day, ten to fifteen minutes each. Wand toys, not laser pointers alone — a laser with no catch is frustrating. Always finish by letting them catch something physical.
• Feed the hunt. Puzzle feeders, scatter feeding and hiding kibble turn a two-minute meal into twenty minutes of work. This alone reduces a lot of boredom-driven behaviour.
• Vertical space. Cat trees, shelves and window perches. Height is security for a cat, and it matters most in a multi-cat home.
• Scratching posts, at least one tall enough to stretch full length, placed next to wherever they already scratch rather than where you would prefer.
• Windows with a view, and a safe place to hide when they want to be left alone — a box, a covered bed, an open wardrobe.
• Two of the big resources: litter trays, water bowls and resting spots should be duplicated in a multi-cat house so nobody has to compete.

Also, keep cats indoors or in a secure catio. Outdoor cats are exposed to traffic, fights, and infectious disease, and they kill wildlife on a scale that has made them a genuine conservation problem. Indoor cats live measurably longer, and with the enrichment above they are not bored.

Grooming and claws

Cats are fastidious, but they still need help:

• Short-haired cats — brush once a week, more in spring and autumn shedding seasons. This reduces hairballs more effectively than any remedy.
• Long-haired cats — brush three to four times a week, and check the armpits, belly and hindquarters where mats form unnoticed. Mats pull on skin and are painful.
• Baths — a healthy cat almost never needs one. Spot-clean instead.
• Nails — trim the front claws every two to three weeks if your cat does not wear them down. Never cut into the pink quick.
• Ears — check weekly, clean only the visible folds with a pet-safe wipe. Do not push anything into the ear canal.
• Eyes and nose — a small amount of clear discharge is normal; anything coloured, bloody or persistent is a vet question.

Dental care

Dental disease affects most cats over three, and cats are worse at showing oral pain than dogs — they keep eating right up until they cannot. Tooth resorption, where the tooth is gradually destroyed from the inside, affects a large share of adult cats and is very painful.

What actually works:

1. Daily brushing with enzymatic cat toothpaste. Never use human toothpaste; the fluoride and xylitol are toxic to cats. Start by letting them lick the paste off your finger.
2. VOHC-approved dental treats and diets — look for the Veterinary Oral Health Council seal.
3. Professional cleaning under anaesthetic when your vet recommends it. Cats need dental X-rays to find resorption below the gumline, which cannot be seen from the surface.

Watch for: dropping food, chewing on one side, pawing at the mouth, bad breath, drooling, or flinching when the muzzle is touched.

Parasite prevention and vaccination

"Indoor only" reduces risk but does not remove it — you bring fleas in on your shoes, and mosquitoes transmit heartworm. Your vet will set the schedule for your region; this is the typical shape of it:

Kittens follow a compressed schedule: a series every three to four weeks from about six to eight weeks old until sixteen weeks, then a booster at one year.

When to call a vet

Cats mask pain and illness, so the bar for calling should be lower than most owners expect. Contact a vet the same day if you see:

• Straining to urinate, or repeated trips to the tray with nothing produced — especially in male cats; a urethral blockage is fatal within a day or two
• Not eating for more than 24 hours, or not drinking at all
• Hiding in unusual places, or suddenly avoiding being touched
• Breathing with the mouth open, or breathing rapidly while resting — cats should never pant
• Collapse, seizure, sudden wobbliness or dragging a back leg (a common sign of a blood clot)
• Vomiting repeatedly, or vomiting blood; diarrhoea lasting more than a day
• Jaundice — yellow tinge to the gums, ears or the whites of the eyes
• Known or suspected contact with lilies, essential oils, human painkillers or any item on the poison list above

And book an appointment rather than waiting for: weight loss despite a normal appetite, a sudden increase in drinking, bad breath, over-grooming to the point of bald patches, a new lump, or any change in litter tray habits.

What it costs

Cats are usually the cheaper pet to keep, mostly because they eat less and need less grooming. Expect roughly $500 to $1,200 a year for an indoor cat, including food, litter, preventives and an annual exam. The first year runs higher with vaccination, neutering and startup gear.

Two lines catch people out. Dental treatment under anaesthetic typically runs $300 to $800, and cats are more likely to need it than dogs. A single emergency — a urinary blockage, for example — commonly lands between $800 and $3,000 and is the classic reason owners wish they had insured or saved.

The pet cost calculator breaks the annual figure down by category, and the cost guide explains the reasoning behind each line.

Senior cats

Cats are senior from around eleven and geriatric from fifteen. The three conditions that dominate old age — kidney disease, hyperthyroidism and diabetes — are all manageable, and all much easier if caught early:

• Twice-yearly vet visits with bloodwork and blood pressure, rather than once a year
• Track weight monthly. Unexplained weight loss is the single most useful early warning there is
• Watch water intake and litter tray output; both change before the cat looks unwell
• Switch to a senior or renal diet only on veterinary advice — the wrong diet does harm
• Lower the sides of the litter tray, or add a step, if arthritis makes climbing in hard
• Add ramps or steps to favourite high spots rather than taking them away
• Keep playing, but shorter and gentler. Muscle mass is what keeps an old cat mobile
• Keep the routine boring. Older cats cope badly with change — moving house or furniture is genuinely stressful for them

Most of good cat care is unglamorous: the same food at the same times, a tray cleaned today, ten minutes of play, and a vet who sees them once a year before anything is wrong. New kitten in the house? The Cat Age Calculator tells you what stage they are in, and the name generator is the fun part.