More than once it will have happened to you, that you are quietly on the sofa and you see that your cat climbs on a shelf, in which you have some memories, and slowly, and sometimes looking at you, begins to hit it with its paw until it throws it into the I usually.
As much as it bothers us and we think it’s a bad idea, it’s not. Cats are not in the world to make us suffer, or to take revenge on us, as we have sometimes read or heard somewhere.
Cats do it for other reasons, which have nothing to do with being evil.
- gets in the way
It is true that cats are very agile animals. They walk between the objects that we have on countertops, tables or shelves. But, if for some reason, our cat is overweight, it may not be so easy to avoid these objects and inadvertently throw that object that has not allowed it to pass on the ground . - he gets bored
The cats that live with us at home get bored, if we do not remedy it on our part.
Environmental enrichment allows our cat, a natural-born hunter, to entertain himself with what we provide.We can for example
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- Hide bits of food around the house and stimulate him to find them as if he were hunting.
- Put shelves at different heights so that you can access them and be able to be from above observing what surrounds you
- Play with him with balls of silver paper and have him bring them to us. Yes, cats, like dogs, learn to bring us the balls so that we can play with them.
- Use interactive feeders to stimulate their hunting instinct.
- Teach them tricks to stimulate them
If at home we have not been able to stimulate them mentally, they will get bored.
This boredom can cause them to approach their food more often and eat more food, with the consequent weight gain. Or he may entertain himself by throwing things on the floor, just for the sake of seeing them fall and going to play with them afterwards.
- Pay attention to me
Related to the previous point, if your cat learns that you pay attention to him when he throws something, he will continue to do so. In the end, what they perceive is that people go from not paying attention to them, to paying attention to them at the moment they throw something on the ground. - It is only a game
As much pity as it gives us, cats play with their prey in nature. And as we have already said on more than one occasion, they keep many of their instincts intact. And precisely, this is one of them. - They don’t see it well
A cat’s vision up close is not as good as it can be from a distance . It seems unbelievable that a cat is able to see a small mammal in the middle of the garden in the distance, but when it comes to drinking water it does not see it well up close.
This is why many cats put their paws in the water before drinking to determine where the water is.
How do I stop my cat from throwing things on the ground?
- Play with him and pay attention to him. One of the main pillars that we must provide our cats is the game. Not only to stimulate the hunting instinct with toys instead of with our legs, but if we play with them we will improve our bond with them.
- Divert your attention. If you see your cat about to knock something off with her paw, divert her attention to something else, ignoring the behavior she is about to perform. You can throw a toy at him, get up and go to the kitchen (they usually know our movements perfectly and they know that going to the kitchen can involve food)
- Use water sources or place something that floats inside the drinker so that you can see the amount of water. You can use ping-pong balls for example.
What to do when a cat breaks something?
The most important thing of all. Don’t scold him.
In cats, it is useless to scold, yell, hit, use water sprays or similar behaviors.
I fully understand that at that moment, in which you have broken a figurine that you adored, the first thing that comes to your mind is to scream. But really, it doesn’t help and what’s worse, it can make the behavior worse.
In cats, any scream, noise, spray or similar can create unwanted behavior and create a moment of anxiety or frustration in the cat that determines unwanted behavior in the future.
