Frequently Asked Questions - Cat Ownership

Please email info@catwelfare.org for assistance.

The first thing you need to ask yourself is if you have observed responsible cat ownership by

• keeping your cats strictly indoors; and
• sterilising them.

These are the 2 most important conditions of cat ownership as they dispel all the reasons that HDB cite as to why cats are banned as pets in HDB flats -- that they are hard to confine, that they shed fur and defecate in public areas and that they caterwaul (during mating season).

By meshing your windows and gates, the cats will not be loitering in public areas. They will also be kept safe from falling out of windows. Sterilising them will eliminate the need to roam to find a mate and the caterwauling and fighting during the mating ritual.

Please do not, under any circumstances, abandon your cat in public areas as a result of receiving a warning. Pet cats often do not survive well on the streets as they have lost the instincts to fend for themselves. They also add to the community cat population in the estate and are thus in danger of being trapped for culling.

Do not let your cat roam outdoors
It is a myth that cats in particular need to roam to be contented. The curiosity in any animal, be it a dog, a rabbit or a hamster, would prompt them to explore if not properly secured. There are many examples of cat owners with cats that are perfectly contented to be indoors with the proper care and attention.

A large percentage of complaints that CWS receives about cats are in fact about roaming home cats than they are about community cats. These roaming home cats often loiter around upstairs along corridors and may defecate in inconvenient places or enter peoples' homes. They also reinforces peoples' perception of cats as hard to confine and out of control.

Provide a cat-safe home
Cats are climbers by nature and in high-rise Singapore the incidence of cats falling out of windows is high. Wire mesh (plastic, metal) sold in hardware stores can help prevent painful injuries or death to your beloved cats.

Sterilise your cat
Eliminate undesirable behaviour such as marking (for males) and caterwauling (for females). This also prevents unwanted litters from being born.

Feed high quality foods
Leftovers, food scraps are not meant for cats/pets. They require a good quality diet that will keep them healthy. There are many good brands available in reputable pet shops. Do check with them on recommended foods. Spending a little more on proper diet/better brand of food will prevent massive vet bills in the future. A healthy cat is a happy cat. Recommended types of food should be grain-free, free of colourings, sodium, artificial flavourings & by-products. They are many resources on the Internet that will educate the proper diets for healthy pets.

Provide a scratching post
To prevent your cat from scratching your furniture, provide a scratching post or board. There are also anti-scratch sheets that can be used on your furniture to protect them.

Never declaw your cat. Declawing is actually an amputation of the last joint of your cat's "toes". It is a painful surgery, with a painful recovery period. It can lead to physical, emotional and behavioral complications and the cat is also deprived of its primary means of defense and escape (by climbing) if it ever escapes to the outdoors.

Pets are for life
Please do not abandon your cats. They often do not survive well on the streets as they have lost the instincts to fend for themselves. They also add to the community cat population in the estate and are thus in danger of being trapped for culling.

Common household hazards

Strings and Yarns
Kittens and cats love playing with balls of yarn or dangling strings. But ingesting strings and threads can result in serious life-threatening complications that require immediate veterinarian attention or even surgery. Place strings, dental floss, sewing and craft supplies, rubber bands, and fishing line out of sight and out of reach.

Also carefully inspect cat toys and remove small eyes or tails that come loose and swallowed.

Electrical Cords
Hide electrical cords from view whenever possible with wire covers or tape them onto walls and floors.

Kitchen/Utility
Kitten/cats like to nap in warm, dry places. Therefore, shut all doors to washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers to avoid trapping them when you turn on these appliances. Always check before closing the doors of these appliances.

Use childproof latches to keep your kittens/cats out of cupboards where you store potentially dangerous cleaning products. Many common household products are toxic to cats such as bathroom essentials, mothballs, fabric softener sheets, cleaning compounds like bleach and batteries.

Ensure there are stove covers for hot stove that have just been switched off. An unsuspecting kitten/cat may walk on it and sustain serious burns.

Remove any ant, roach baits and other pest poisons from accessible areas. Do not overspray insect repellants in your home where your cat can lick or inhale it.

Plants and Flowers
Amaryllis, azalea, cactus, caladium, creeping charlie, dieffenbachia, ivy, lily flower, mistletoe, philodendron, poinsettia are poisonous to cats and other pets. The safest strategy is to remove them altogether and replace them with non-toxic plants.

Foods
Some common food items in our homes are harmful to cats, such as coffee grounds, onions, yeast dough, tomato leaves and stems, salt, macadamia nuts and alcoholic drinks. It is also a misconception that cats like to eat bones, especially fish bones. These are often hazardous as they can get stuck in the throat or gut. Keep them safely out of reach and never feed them to your cat.

Home Decorations
Always use water-based paints instead of oil-based. If your cat gets paint stains on its paws or fur, rinse them away immediately under a tap. Call your veterinarian for instructions on safely removing any stubborn substances. Do not use paint thinner on your cat's coat as it is lethal to cats.

Festive decorations such as tinsels, ribbons, ornaments, hooks, garlands, and blinking lights are all big temptations for a cat. Spray ornaments with repellent spray or place tin foil on the floor around the base of a standing decor such as a christmas tree.

A burning candle can ignite your kitten’s/ cat’s fur as it walks by. Never ever leave a burning candle unattended.

Cigarettes
Second-hand smoke is as toxic to cats as leaving them around to the played with and ingested!

Prevent High-Rise Syndrome

Cats are natural agile climbers but it is not always true that they have the ability to balance on narrow parapets or be able to land on their feet everytime. More deaths and injuries are caused by cats falling out of windows than people realise. Cats may be distracted when stalking moths, birds, or other moving critters. All it takes is one ill-timed pounce or missed step to send them over the ledge.

Even a leash or tether does not ensure your cat's safety. A panicked cat dangling by its collar or harness can be strangled, seriously injured, or squirm loose and fall anyway.

Every window that you plan to open needs to have a screen/mesh. A cat-proof screen/mesh has to fit the window frame securely enough to sustain the weight of a ten or more pound cat when they climb on them.

Options easily available include wire-meshed grills or nylon mesh from hardware shops. Bamboo sticks can also be used to narrow the gaps of existing window and door grills. You can simply attach them securely with plastic cable ties.

There are also magnetic screens available on the market that are mostly meant for keeping insects out. These may not hold the weight of your cat.

You can also have cat-proof window grills professionally constructed by contractors or grill manufacturers. The maximum grill spacing to specify is 5cm. Currently, there is also the option of the invisible grills as featured in Duxton flats made of tension wires for the more aesthetic-conscious.

Inspect all screens/mesh regularly to ensure that they do not get too worn-off by the scratching or biting of your cat. Once worn, do replace them promptly.

Protect your furnishings

It is important to satisfy your cats' innate need to climb and scratch as trying to stop it will be stressful for both you and your cat. Get your cat a cat tree or scratching post that it can call its own. You can also arrange your furniture or install cat ladders/shelves so that it can safely explore lofty spaces of your home.

That does not mean that your cat will not also climb or scratch your furniture and drapes. To signify that an area is off-limits to scratching or climbing, use sticky tape or cat repellent spray available in pet shops on these areas to correct the behaviour.

Also consider using a cloth cover to protect your furniture. Confine expensive drapes to off-limit rooms.

Keep valuables safe

Cats are curious. So you won't want to leave your antique vase sitting on the coffee table. Put away any breakable treasures that are remotely accessible to your cat or find a way to secure them such as using blue-tag or sticky tape. Put yourself into the mind of the cat, get down on the floor at her level, look around, and remove or secure anything you value.

A real cat-friendly home is one where the cats are valued more than the possessions in the home. While measures can be taken to protect your furniture and valuables, do remember that it is natural that a cat will climb and scratch. It is more important to keep it safe from harm's way by saving it from it's own natural curiosity!

Yes. They will benefit health-wise and you will gain when they stop trying to leave your home to mate, spray urine around the house and get into fights with each other. Also, you will not have unwanted litters of kittens on your hands.

A breeding pair can produce 3-5 kittens, 3-4 times a year. That would result in 9-20 kittens being born in a single year. With so many cats in the house, owners then feel overwhelmed not just by the sheer numbers, but by the time and effort it takes to take care of so many, as well as the financial cost of food, litter and veterinary bills. Many then decide to abandon their cats. Abandonment is a major factor in hindering the efforts of volunteers to control the cat population in Singapore.

Cats do not mate for pleasure. They have no control over their mating i.e. they are slaves to their hormones. Studies have also shown that it is actually a rather painful experience for the female cat.

It is more cruel to let the cats breed when we cannot find enough homes for their litters. Many cats, including kittens, have been abandoned by their owners who end up with more cats that they can handle. Most do not survive.

The question you should ask yourself is "Can I afford NOT to sterilise my cat?"

Your cat may have kittens and finding good homes for them will not be an easy task. If you do keep all of the kittens, the cost of food, litter and medical bills may prove to be a heavy financial burden.

Abandoning your cats or kittens when there are too many to handle is not an option. Cats that are abandoned often do not have the skills and instincts to survive on their own and you will be directly causing their suffering or death from starvation, being knocked down by cars or caught by pest control to be culled.

Sterilisation is a vital personal responsibility of a cat owner.

Under the Animals and Birds Act, anyone who is found guilty of pet abandonment can be imprisoned for up to 12 months, fined up to $10,000, or both.

The MUIS Fatwa Committee states: "Fundamentally, all mazhabs (Schools of Islamic Jurisprudence) allow the sterilisation of animals. After analysing the arguments and position of the different mazhabs and medical opinion from the Society of Prevention of Cruelty Againts Animals (SPCA), the Fatwa committee decides that sterilising cats on the basis of 'maslahat' (general good) is harus (permissible)."

Sol Hanna, President of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia says: "There is nothing in Buddhism that indicates that sterilisation creates unwholesome kamma. While the female cats may experience some suffering after the operation, this is relatively mild, and is inconsequential next to the wholesome kamma of preventing the future suffering of cats that are without homes and being destroyed by the authorities. Plus there is good kamma in helping all the tom cats restrain their lust!"

Please consider carefully before giving up your pet cat. The reality is that there are no enough homes for many of these cats. Also adult cats do not stand a good chance of being adopted.

Please remember that pet abandonment is a crime. It is considered a form of abuse because many pet cats cannot survive on their own. They are at risk of starvation, injury, even death as they do not have the survival instincts to fend for themselves against the weather, cars, pest control, abusive humans and/or other cats.

When you abandon your cats, you are also passing on your problem to a hapless caregiver who has to take care of your cat at their own expense and face the emotional burden when your cat suffers injury, death or being rounded up by pest control. There is a limit to the number of cats that an estate can tolerate.

If you must give up your pet, you can:

1) Put your cat up for adoption on the CWS adoption bulletin at http://www.catwelfare.org/adoptions

2) Consider short-term or long-term boarding options at shelters such as:

Kittycare Haven
80 Lim Chu Kang Lane 1 (inside Globe Eximport Pte Ltd)
Tel: 97958995 (Sia Ping)
Email: siaping@yahoo.com
Website: http://kittycareservices.blogspot.com/

Mutts & Mittens
11 Pasir Ris Farmway 2
Email: enquiries@muttsnmittens.com
Website: http://www.muttsnmittens.com

3) Surrender your pets to SPCA or AVA as a last resort.

The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore is the body overseeing the import and export of personal pets. Information about relocation of pet cats can be found on their website.

You can also consult and engage the following relocation expert to assist you in the matter:

Mutts & Mittens
11 Pasir Ris Farmway 2
Email: enquiries@muttsnmittens.com
Website: http://www.muttsnmittens.com

Pets are for life. Please consider your relocation plans before you adopt a pet.