- Can we pick up from spirits?
(clattering)
- Charles says, no, you cannot pick up anywhere.
(cat meowing)
(doinging)
- Hey guys, look who's here again.
Yay! - Yay!
- It's the cat daddy himself, Jackson Galaxy.
Host of My Cat From Hell, and now a person that tours.
Check out the link below for all the tour info
that you could possibly want.
So, as you guys may've seen, Jackson came by,
told me what a good/bad cat mom I've been.
- Good.
- Yeah, well, we gotta make it enticing, you know.
- Oh. - Like drama.
- Bad. - Bad cat mom.
That's how the internet works these days.
But, I didn't wanna keep Jackson all to myself,
so I tweeted out asking if you guys
had any questions for him.
And, Jackson's so kind as to just kinda sit
for the next 10 minutes or so, and answer 'em.
- For a fee.
- Question number one, this comes from Gail.
And, she asks, what is up with my
cat's obsession with eating plastic?
- It's called pica, P-I-C-A.
And, it's actually really dangerous.
There is no known cure for pica, which sucks.
In fact, there's no even proven method to moderate it.
- But, how do you know like, 'cause I see Charles
will like chew on a plastic bag,
like he'll chew on plastic, but he doesn't' eat it.
He doesn't ingest it.
- It's ingesting, it's a form of OCD.
It's something that once it starts, they can't stop.
When they're young, a lot of times it will start
with natural fibers, like wool,
and then it'll graduate to plastic.
I've had cats on my show that are eating crown molding,
that are absolutely killing themselves.
All you can do is pica-proof your house,
make sure that there aren't things around
to kill themselves on, because the thing is, they will.
They're gonna wind up with it in their intestinal tract,
you're gonna wind up making trips to the emergency room,
and it could kill them.
So, pica-proofing, you may wanna explore pharmaceuticals.
I use flower essence therapy,
I've got my own line of flower essences that we use.
- I'm glad that we started out with a light one.
Let me ask you this, T.S. Emilie,
great, great Twitter handle, like T.S. Elliot, I see you.
How can I stop my cat from chewing power cords?
Bitter apple spray does nothing,
he licks it off like sugar and then
continues his quest of cord annihilation.
- Yeah, I mean, that's kinda easy.
There are cord protectors.
They're just plastic tubes that you feed the cords through.
And, they're hard plastic,
cats can't do anything to them, done.
- So, that's not like you need to catify your whole house.
- No, just. - It's like look,
if you just want them to stop chewing the cords,
put the cords in a cord protector.
- Done.
- That's simple.
Well, this is one we kinda discussed.
Why does my cat keep knocking over his water dish?
- He's bored probably.
He looks at the water, he's like, ooh, reflection,
and he knocks it over.
I mean, really, no.
But, it is an indication to you that your cat is bored.
- Your cat's a little bit bored, or maybe also,
and I don't think a lot of people know this,
you have to change, if you have your cat's water
in a dish, it's not like a dog bowl.
A cat's water dish, you gotta change like,
or this is what I've heard, you gotta change it out
pretty frequently. - Oh yeah.
- Because their saliva's so thick and heavy.
- I'm a big fan, like you have over here, of fountains.
Running water is the bomb.
You've seen a lot of cats, just in the sink,
batting at the water coming out of the faucet.
Your cat is probably just trying to mimic that effect.
And, there's also, there's bowls
that are really wide bottomed bowls.
♪ Wide bottom bowls you make the rocking world go round ♪
- Here we go, this is a cute question.
Abby asks, can I train my cat to be more affectionate?
His personality is warm, he purrs with pets,
just doesn't physically do anything more with humans.
No head butting, no rubbing, no cuddles.
- You can't, you can't change your cat
from being who they are, no more than you
could change us from being who we are.
You're either a hugger--
- Oh, that's a life lesson, you know.
Some people are cuddly, some people like to cuddle,
some people don't.
- Yup, exactly right.
The most common one is, ah Jackson,
I want my cat to be a lap cat.
And, it's like, just, they will do what makes them happy.
And, as long as what makes them happy
isn't dangerous or, you know, one of my big things is,
if your cat is quote happy hiding under the bed
all day long, that's not happiness, that's safety.
- It's scared.
- And scared, and no confidence.
And, then we work on that.
But, not wanting to cuddle, and snuggle,
and purr, and everything, that's just who they are.
- Yeah.
- And, honestly, go and get another cat.
Adopt a cat.
You'll know, you get them in your lap
in the shelter, or wherever, and they start on you,
they're all Charles on you.
- Yeah.
- That, like you, right?
You've got Lady, you've got Charles.
They've got very different personalities.
You got a purrer and--
- Charles you can pick up like a baby.
- Yeah, he likes to drape over your neck.
- Yup.
- He likes to do all that stuff.
- Lady's just like (growling).
- Exactly.
- Heather asks, how do I stop cat A
from eating cat B's food if eating separately
causes cat B stress because it doesn't
like being away from his twin, cat A?
- The easy solution to that is a slow feeder bowl.
So, slow feeder bowls are bowls that have
raised ridges on them, and little dips and divots,
and that kind of thing.
And, you just take the food, and you sort of
paste it to the divots themselves,
and they gotta work for their food.
And, it becomes sort of the equivalent
of humans putting down their fork while they're eating.
So, it just allows you to register that you're full.
- Yeah.
- And, it also slows you down.
Both cats need the slow feeder bowl though.
- I take a lot of breaks when I'm eating
because I have a tendency to be like,
ooh, I'll eat everything that's in front of me
while it's in front of me.
And, if I don't chew, sit, just give myself
a slower pace, it's not giving my brain enough
time to register that I've eaten to 80%, full.
- Yeah, I mean, humans take 15 minutes
to start registering that they're full.
I had to learn that one the hard way too.
And, it literally is, put your fork down, you know.
- Yeah, enjoy your conversation.
Kimberly asks this, why does my cat
insist on giving me a bath at bedtime?
- My guess is this, and I'm just guessing,
but it's a good guess, your cat may be
what we call a bottle baby.
Which means that maybe you raised the cat
from the time they were very little,
or they were taken away from mom too early,
and they were raised by humans.
And, that licking behavior, it's like
the sort of kneading behavior that becomes
just it's own version of a little bit of an OCD.
Where they just have associated that action
with sort of this languid kind of, you know,
this is relaxing me, and that's
really probably what it's about.
- It could also be that, you know,
your cat just thinks you're a little stinky.
- Or, yeah, you're a little sweaty, greasy.
Is that possible?
- Have you taken a bath before bedtime?
- Have you taken a bath?
Because your cat could be sending you that message.
- Lynn asks, my cat is afraid of noise,
and hides in my mom's room all day.
What's his tea?
- What's his tea?
- Yeah, it's like-- - what does that mean?
- What's the deal, what's his truth, spill the tea,
let me know. - Oh my God, I'm so old.
- No, it's okay.
- Is that, no, it's a young person thing, isn't it?
- I'm barely a young person really.
And, yes it is.
- What I call anti-mojo, that's, your cat
is lacking in confidence, and they just
don't feel that sense of safety in their own space
to be able to explore it.
It's not a character defect, it's something that
you need to take an active interest
in growing your cat's confidence.
In which case, you should probably
buy my new book, Total Cat Mojo,
The Ultimate Guide to Life With Your Cat.
Available now.
- Ooh, I love the plugs.
This is a great question, how big's your startle?
Some people, if a door slams,
their startle's like, some people are like.
- If you're saying that your cat
is having sort of a PTSD reaction to those noises,
that's not a confidence thing, that is a PTSD thing.
And, you know, I've found that
human PTSD therapies work for cats.
Really small exposure therapy,
that you extinguish the reaction by basically,
let's say it's a slamming door,
you actually record that slamming door.
You record it and you start it at very low volume,
you make a positive association.
Treats that they love, you give it to them no other time
then when you're doing that therapy with them.
Slowly bring the volume up with that food.
That food is there all the time.
You'll extinguish the behavior.
- They should really call you Professor Kitty Bottoms.
- Hey, let's change it right now.
From now on I am Professor Kitty Bottoms.
- BeavyMcBeaverson asks, why does my cat
put his face a millimeter from the floor and meow at it?
Does he like amplification?
(crickets chirping)
- Now you got me.
That's one of those things where it's like,
and it's so funny 'cause--
- Is there an ant maybe?
- At my live gigs, I will say to people,
do not ask me a question that begins with
I have a cat who because we'll be at it all day.
And, that's just one of those things.
I mean, there could be a million reasons.
- There could be something under the floorboards,
there could be an ant that's crawling, light.
- There could be, and it could be spirits.
Honestly, I actually do believe that cats
are in touch with spirit world in a way that we're not.
Which actually makes perfect sense when you think about it.
- Charles, sorry.
- Charles, stop talking to the spirits.
- Yeah.
Okay, but sorry, can we pick up from spirits?
(clattering)
- Charles says, no, you cannot pick up anywhere.
- Well, we're gonna have a weird cut here, but spirits.
- I actually do believe that cats have
a line into the spirit world that we don't allow
because, of course, we're humans,
and we have a lot of excuse making, and whatever.
But, and that could be the case.
I've known cats who absolutely connect in to spirit,
who happens to be locked in to that area.
But, that said, you could have a cat who is older,
and has early onset dementia, and that kind of thing.
- I'm one of those people that could ask you
questions about cats, and talk about cats
all day long, so I have to cut myself off here.
But, if you guys wanna find out more about cats,
and use some more of Jackson's cat wisdom,
go ahead and check out his YouTube channel,
YouTube.com/JacksonGalaxy.
Or, his new book.
- Total Cat Mojo, The Ultimate Guide to Life With Your Cat.
- Is it available now?
- Everywhere.
And, Jackson's got a whole line of products.
But, you guys'll learn more about that
after you send me all of them.
- There you go.
- Yes!
Jackson, thank you so much for being here.
Guys, thank you so much for watching.
You know what to do, like, comment, subscribe.
And, let me know, you know, if you guys
want more kitty cat content because, frankly,
I will do this all damn day.
Like, love, mojo. - Like, love, mojo.