Why Cats Are Afraid Of Water: Reasons For Fear, Rules For Bathing At Home, Is It Possible To Teach A Cat To Water Procedures, Video

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-17 22:26

Cats and water

The belief that cats are afraid of water is fairly widespread and persistent. Even renowned anthropozoologist John Bradshaw argues that aversion to water is genetically recorded in domestic cats as in the distant descendants of the Arabian cat living in a very arid area. The question of the relationship between a cat and water is especially acute when it is necessary to wash a soiled cat.

Content

• 1 Are cats afraid of water

  1.1 Photo gallery: breeds of cats that love water

• 2 Why Most Cats Don't Like Water

  • 2.1 Violation of thermoregulation

  • 2.2 Self-preservation instinct

    • 2.2.1 The aquatic environment is not natural for cats
    • 2.2.2 The smell of wet wool increases
    • 2.2.3 Possibility of contracting infections and helminths
  • 2.3 Stress
  • 2.4 Unpleasant odors in shampoos

• 3 How to train a cat to water and bathe at home

  • 3.1 Photo Gallery: Means for cleaning cat hair without washing
  • 3.2 Video: bathing the cat
• 4 Helpful Tips for Cat Owners

Are cats afraid of water

Modern domestic cats often play with sun bunnies in the water, launching their paws into it; They catch a stream of water flowing from the tap with their mouth and paws, and to be honest, they quite successfully catch fish from the aquarium, especially large and clumsy veil-tails.

Many cats enjoy playing with water jets

Moreover, absolutely all cats can swim, this is an instinctive skill, and it allows a cat to keep life in case of emergency, as a result of which it finds itself in the water. In a forced situation, a cat is able to overcome quite large distances on the water. Cats often use this secret skill to rescue newborn kittens from a flooded den.

If we turn to wild large cats - tigers, lions, jaguars, serval - it turns out that they not only swim well, but also enjoy being in the water, and also have benefits, because fish and small animals are caught in natural reservoirs. which are then eaten. The jaguar swims especially well - it has a relatively light weight and large wide legs. This skill allows him to diversify his menu. The wild civet also prefers a fish diet and swims and dives with ease, swimming several meters under water in pursuit of prey, and even has well-defined webbing between the toes.

Tigers, like many wild cats, know how and love to swim

The group of domestic cats is also heterogeneous in their relationship with water. Among the breeds whose representatives are not against swimming are:

• Maine Coon;
• Norwegian forest cat;
• Turkish van;
• savannah;
• bengal cat;
• Kurilian bobtail;
• sphinx;
• devon rex;
• other breeds.

Photo gallery: cat breeds that love water

Turkish van loves to swim

Maine Coon loves to play in the water

The Norwegian Forest Cat can go into the water and fish

Sphinxes are often bathed, so they are calm about the water

The Kurilian Bobtail is an island cat that is not afraid of water at all

Most of the "waterfowl" cats are large strong native breeds or close to them; this means that they are closely related to large or forest wild cats, which are not afraid of water at all. They are distinguished by unpretentiousness, a very high level of intelligence, liveliness of character and energy. As a result, they often exhibit behavior that is unusual for most domestic cats.

It would be more correct to say that cats are not afraid of water after all. For the most part, they tend to avoid immersion in water and wet wool.

Regardless of the breed, if the need arises, the cat will enter the water and swim

Why most cats don't like water

If you look at the very immersion in water, as well as its consequences from the point of view of a cat, knowing some of the features of its physiology, then this behavior looks quite reasonable.

Violation of thermoregulation

Most cats, in addition to the guard hair of the coat, also have an undercoat. The undercoat is a large number of shorter and thinner, often spaced hairs, the main function of which is to trap air. Therefore, the cat is constantly surrounded by an air layer of a comfortable temperature for it.

Cats' dislike of water is due to the peculiarities of the structure of the coat.

When the undercoat gets wet, the cat loses this air gap (and with it the feeling of comfort) and does not see an opportunity to somehow improve its condition, since such a coat structure is its main means of thermoregulation. To shake off, removing excess water from the fur, as dogs do, only large wild cats are able to. Therefore, most cats try to keep their coat from getting wet.

The instinct of self-preservation

The ancient instincts of the cat do not tell her to enter the water, without having special reasons for this.

The aquatic environment is not natural for cats

Staying in the aquatic environment requires additional efforts for the cat - you need to constantly paddle with your paws so as not to drown; breathing is difficult; there is no support. The cat is a perfect hunter: quiet, impetuous and accurate; but being in the aquatic environment, she cannot use all these qualities and understands that she herself can become easy prey for a larger animal.

The smell of wet wool increases

After getting wet, the sebaceous glands of cats intensify their work in order to quickly restore the part of the secretion lost during bathing, a thin layer covering the hair and skin and carrying a protective function. Some of the large sebaceous glands located in the chin and back of the body contain in their secrets odorous substances that are individual for each cat, which are used by it to mark the boundaries of its territory. The activation of the release of an odorous secret occurs simultaneously with the intensification of the activity of all sebaceous glands, since the glands constitute a single system. The strong smell unmasks the cat when hunting, and is also able to attract predators to it, so this is another good reason not to go into the water unnecessarily.

Possibility of infection with infections and helminths

Wet wool retains a large amount of contamination containing pathogenic pathogens - bacteria, protozoa, viruses and helminth eggs, which will inevitably fall into the mouth of a cat when caring for contaminated wool.

Pathogenic bacteria can linger in wet wool

This is a really risky situation, the outcome of which depends on the state of the cat's immune system, and the cat instinctively tries to avoid it.

Stressful state

Each pet is an individual with its own opinions and personal boundaries. This is especially true for cats, which are highly valued for the combination of independence and sincerity in their character. It is almost impossible to force a cat to do something under duress. And when a cat, against his will, begins to roughly dip into a container of liquid, he experiences real stress, since everything that happens is perceived by him as inappropriate behavior on the part of a person. The cat is accustomed to taking care of its own coat on its own and is sure that it copes well with this, he does not see the hygienic expediency of water procedures.

Do not be rude to a cat when bathing

But, unfortunately, people rarely take into account the presence of their own individuality in pets, and the use of violence against them is not considered barbaric, although this does not change the essence of the phenomenon.

Unpleasant shampoo odors

An additional factor that will turn a cat away from water procedures will be the use of detergents with a pleasant smell for the human sense of smell. The sensitivity of a cat's sense of smell is many times higher than that of a human, and also in humans and cats there are distinct differences in the subjective perception of "pleasantness-unpleasantness" of smells.

Cats should be washed with specially formulated shampoos.

In addition, human detergents are too aggressive for animal skin and dry out

How to train your cat to water and bathe at home

You need to teach a cat to swim from childhood; trying to interest an adult cat and switch his attention from water to something very interesting. Not every cat can be accustomed to water, especially if she has already gone through the traumatic experience of forced "bathing".

Bathing training should be gradual:

• you should study, observing what objects or phenomena that accompany the bathing process, cause rejection in the cat, and consistently accustom him to them;
• if the cat does not want to be in the bathroom, then with the use of toys and treats, you can ensure that he begins to willingly go there; the same - if the cat does not like the sound and the sight of water flowing from the tap;
• you can begin to train the cat to be calmly in the bath itself both in the absence of water and with its minimum amount, by lowering the toys there and inviting the cat to play;
• the bottom of the tub should be covered with a rubber mat to keep the cat stable;
• it is also recommended to take care of giving the cat the opportunity to quickly leave the bath at will, for example, by lowering the steps there - so the cat will not feel trapped and become more confident and positive.

When the cat calmly endures both the bathing environment and being in the water, you can start washing it:

• only specialized detergents for caring for cats are used for washing;
• when bathing a cat, it is important to protect its ears from water ingress; for this, tampons rolled from cotton pads can be inserted into them;
• the water level in the bath should not be higher than the cat's chest;

• if the cat does not like to be in the bathtub, a basin may become a compromise;

  

  If the cat is afraid of the bathroom, you can try to bathe him in a basin.

• water temperature - 38–39 ° С;
• be sure to praise and encourage the cat in every possible way for interest in swimming and playing in the water;
• bathing a cat using detergents is allowed no more than once every 2-3 months;

• after bathing the cat, wrap it in a terry towel and hold it on your hands for 15–20 minutes so that the fabric absorbs excess liquid, and only then let it go;

  

  After bathing, the cat needs to be wrapped in a towel

• if the cat is not afraid of the hair dryer, then you can try to dry it; otherwise, you shouldn't even try so as not to disturb the cat;
• during the drying of the cat, you should exclude the effect of drafts and low temperatures on it and, if necessary, dry the cat's ears.

Should not bathe:

• a pregnant cat;
• a cat within a month after vaccination;
• sick pet;
• the animal in the postoperative period before suture removal;
• in winter;
• if it did not work out to accustom the cat to bathing.

If a cat is persistent in his desire to avoid bathing in the shower or bath despite all the measures taken, he should recognize this right

You can add purity to your cat's coat:

• using sanitary napkins for animals with local pollution;
• you can remove dirt using water and pet shampoo only on contaminated areas; the cat will take it much better than a bath or shower;

• using dry shampoo or shampoo in mousses, gels:

  • the cat's hair is combed;
  • shampoo is applied;
  • followed by the exposure period of the shampoo specified in the instructions;
  • then the cat is combed again with a comb, first with large teeth, and then with small ones, dry shampoo particles absorb dirt, while not drying out the skin, and are removed with a brush;
  • when cleaning the cat's fur, it is better to put it on a newspaper or in a box, or use a vacuum cleaner to clean up the remains of shampoo;
• you should buy all funds only from a trusted manufacturer, since the cat will lick them.

Photo gallery: means for cleaning cat fur without washing

Gel shampoos do not require rinsing and make brushing easier

There are dry shampoos for both long-haired and short-haired pets.

A small amount of mousse shampoo lasts for a long time

Napkins are convenient to use when traveling

Video: bathing a cat

Helpful tips for cat owners

Cats are not afraid of water, they avoid wetting their fur, as this leads to a violation of thermoregulation and contributes to the infection of infectious diseases. The aquatic environment is not natural for most cats and they feel vulnerable in it. Domestic cats are not in danger, but they have strong instincts of wild ancestors, warning against being in the water. It is necessary to train the cat to bathe patiently and consistently, with the use of toys and treats, and use only zoo shampoos for washing. But if the cat categorically does not want to wash, this is his right.