[Music] hey everybody jackson galaxy your cat daddy here today to talk about a really serious
subject and that is stress what does it look like when our cats are stressed how do they
manifest it that's what we're here to talk about today cats are almost programmed to hide their
pain to be very stoic whether that is physical pain or whether that's emotional or mental pain
and believe it or not you know just as well as i do a lot of times when your cat is stressed only
because you notice they're doing something they haven't done before they're doing something that's
just a little off a little different because you spend so much time with your cats at home
now before i start anything i want you to remember the one golden rule if your cat
is doing something they have never done before go to the vet have them run tests and just make sure
that your cat isn't acting out because they're in pain that can always cause the kind of behaviors
that we we're going to be talking about there are three surefire angles to take a look at when
trying to identify stress in your cat starting with the aforementioned the physical manifestation
now this can go in two different ways it can be my body hurts something's going on in my body and
i'm acting out the other way around is something's happening in my home and i'm acting out and it's
manifesting physically because that does happen many times in cats so for instance if your cat
has lived peacefully without ever over grooming in their life and suddenly it's like a freshly
manicured lawn on their belly between their legs anywhere that lets you know that something
is going on now that can be allergies but it can be stress as well so look out for that but
other things like excessive vomiting or diarrhea these are things that also can be exacerbated at
the least from stress in your home i have seen stress play a part in feline lower urinary tract
disorders problems like irritable bowel syndrome which has become sort of a catch-all when when
something is happening digestively to a cat that we can't explain but a lot of times stress plays
a part in that as well it's important for me to keep nailing this point that your cat can have
intestinal problems because they have worms or because they god forbid have cancer but it can be
that they've always had a sensitive tummy and in times of stress boom things happen and again that
can be seen in excessive vomiting or diarrhea or the avoidance of food suddenly your cat's
not eating or on the opposite they're eating too much eating too fast and then throwing up what i
call the snarfin barf snarfing and barfing if your cat has never done it before and suddenly they're
doing it then clearly they're feeling threatened somehow they're feeling like i gotta do this
really quick and then they just throw up these are your beginnings this is something that when you
see it you go huh better go to the vet and then the second thing is what's going on around here
another physical manifestation of stress is what's called a displacement behavior the best way i can
describe displacement behavior is the equivalent of nail-biting for humans you get stressed
and that physical displacement is a go like this and i'm just i'm gnawing at my all right
you know people talk about stress eating that's a displacement behavior you know where i'm going
right now okay you chain smokers out there it's that kind of a behavior in cats what you might
see is your cat is walking across the floor and suddenly they just stop what they're doing and
they just start grooming they just you know dump it right i just stop what i'm doing and i start
over grooming and maybe i'll do that a number of times if it happens once or twice that's not a
thing that could be a little speck of dust that landed on your cat's butt but if it happens on
a regular basis all of a sudden you're noticing that your cat is walking and then suddenly over
grooming or their grooming takes on a much more determined vibe to it in reality i mean grooming
should be and we witness it to be a very languid behavior in cats so when you think
of a displacement it's i'm grooming because i want to get to that place not because i am in
that place and that's a displacement behavior so again this is about your eagle eyes this is about
your detectivism to notice these physical signs uh that your cat is stressed out the second pillar
that holds up the house of cat's stress would be territorial stress now whether that is stressed
because of something that is happening in the home or something that is happening outside the home
feral cats outside who are feeding near your home and making life miserable for your indoor cats or
whether it's something that's happening inside the home changes specifically that that happen inside
the home that's our territorial stress i feel good when i feel like i own everything and i feel
threatened and stressed when i feel like my territory is under fire what are some of the
symptoms of this territorial stress that you might see well start looking at the most territorially
significant areas when it comes to fear of something that's happening outside the house
the most common thing that i will see is what we call perimeter marking so that's peeing underneath
windows on doors under doors any doorway whatsoever any place where they could be
saying all right there are the barbarians at the gate they're coming this is the alamo and so i
have to pee around the perimeter of the alamo to keep those guys away to let them know in the most
desperate way possible this belongs to me this is not yours get off my lawn for the 20th time
some cats are what i call napoleon cats they are prone to sort of over owning things and so they
will do that on and off in their life but for a cat that has never shown this kind of stress
before the first place that you guys ought to be looking is outside your window outside your doors
i've seen these kind of behaviors kick up in the springtime when it's kitten season so that means
there's more intact toms and intact queens outside they're putting off those pheromones they're
peeing all over the place they're caterwalling let's see if i can do a cat or wall here
making all kinds of fighting noises and your cats know that it's happening i've also seen it happen
because of raccoons because of skunks because of all kinds of wildlife but really at the end
of the day it's about getting those cats or whatever other critters there are away from
that barrier away from that territorial wall so that your cats can breathe again
for instance if you're feeding feral cats all the power to you as long as you are doing tnr
trap new to return as long as you are feeding your ferals just move that feeding line far away from
your home take that feeding station and move it as long as your cats can smell those other cats
they have a very high chance of being stressed out by them likewise we might see cats start
hiding because of the stress of what's going on outside the house not all cats are going to take
that step and mark the perimeter they may just hide under the bed they may just avoid the windows
your cat who is just always watching cat tv out the window watching the birds suddenly
is not suddenly under the bed in the closet that can be a manifestation of a threat that they feel
unable and unequipped to handle so they're just going to hide and ride the storm out wherever
is nice and quiet suddenly you walk up to your cat sitting in the window and you go to pet them
and they're like what the and they turn around they bite you and they turn around they run away
and you're sitting there going why did my cat bite me why did this happen why do you hate me
and your cat was just totally freaked out because what they're thinking is i'm on duty right now
i am scanning the horizon with my little cat telescope looking at all of the threats that are
facing us outside in the world and suddenly out of nowhere somebody comes up to you and goes hey guy
what are you gonna do you know so just one little takeaway from that also
please don't take it personally please remember that whatever they're doing is reflecting
stress or anxiety usually the third thing to think about is also avoidance of those areas
any place where there's a window where there's a door just imagine that that is your cat at their
most exposed and of course the biggest territorial manifestation of stress that you're going to see
is when the territory changes when you move moving is an incredibly stressful event in humans
moving is the second most stressful thing that we go through second only to a death
in the family yikes but in cats because they define their sanctity their safety their mojo
by the ownership of their territory when we move that territory they are going to stress one way
or another unless your cat is the biggest mojito cat on the planet they're going to stress about
moving from one place to the next so check out this video right here about establishing base camp
and that is the best way to get your cat all mojo5 as they hit that new territory another thing that
you might see is an over ownership of space that is territorially really important uh when it comes
to the other people or animals in the house so for instance in good times a cat will come up to us
an area and maybe they will scratch a little bit on it maybe they will rub against it maybe they
will headbutt it they'll put their scent on those areas like the arm of a couch or a chair just to
say hey you and me we own this together we're compadres we are the co-owners of this home but
when they start going crazy about it because in this case they feel a threat from without
then they're going to start over scratching all of a sudden your couch is shredded and
you may find that they're peeing on the cushion of the couch on your bed itself this is a red flag
your cat is reacting to what's going on outside the house with such fervor that they forget all
sort of etiquette and they just go to what they are sure will work right in terms of claiming that
space so the final pillar here in the house that cats stress built would be what i call
the relational manifestation again we talked about physical we talked about the territory itself
changes in the territory threats from without and the threat of the change of the territory itself
this one is about well relations so a good example of sort of a relational dynamic that is causing
your cat stress is separation anxiety uh and this is a perfect time to be talking about this
you guys because we have spent more time at home in 2020 than we have spent at home before i think
we can all testify to that one way or another but there comes a point for a lot of us when we start
to go back to work hopefully for all you guys and when we start to go back to work our cats
start acting out wait a minute i was used to you being around i was actually gleaning confidence
from your constant presence in this house and from the fact that we had this rhythm and this rhythm
went on every day the way i knew it would i was predictable and suddenly you're gone
we have seen cats act out in ways like peeing and pooping on a bed because again this is that place
for us this is that holy place and i want to make sure that my scent is as strong here as humanly
or animalistically possible because i don't know when you're coming back you know long hours alone
when when they weren't used to it that's a real prime suspect here when it comes stressing cats
from a relational perspective another thing to look at is if you've added in a new animal or
human family member over the last couple of months and now you're noticing any of these symptoms that
i've talked about before let's say that you've just introduced a new cat family member and
suddenly your cat is getting aggressive or they're not using their litter box or they're vomiting
or they have diarrhea snarfing and barking all of the things that i have talked about before there's
your there's your suspect right there and that's the newcomer it tells you you need to back up
do the introduction the right way take a look at this video right here about introducing cat to cat
but what we sometimes don't think about is when suddenly there's a new boyfriend or girlfriend
or a husband or a wife or a partner or whatever all of a sudden there's a new grown-up human in
the picture that human takes up territory and your cat if they're feeling insecure about that that's
how they'll manifest their stress suddenly must i say it again peeing pooping vomiting
eating not much overeating over grooming all of the things that i have discussed already again
you gotta look at the genesis if your cat didn't do it all the time now they're doing it now we
know why so humans coming into the picture the birth of babies man let me just testify right now
if you don't prepare your cat for the arrival of a child this is how things roll downhill
right we have a new arrival in the home that new arrival comes with unfamiliar cries and smells and
sounds and as we go to explore and we get a little scared of it because we've never seen it before
maybe we'll do something like we'll have a mistake in the nursery now we're being shut out of the
mystery now our territory is getting smaller and that thing that thing that makes that sound and
those smells is a bad thing do yourselves a favor whether it is a cat a dog a baby a grown-up a
ferret uh you know i don't know a pot belly pig i don't care what it is that comes into your home do
the introduction right prepare your cat let them know that this is about sharing space and good
things happen from sharing space not bad things another thing to look out for is especially again
in a multi-cad household if you're not providing your cats enough in terms of territorial resources
and that's catification bedding and cat trees vertical stations around the home cats super
highways if you're not giving them enough places to go then you might start seeing that
that they're going to start stressing about their ownership of that territory and start fighting
with the other cats that's why you always heard me say on my show all these years build shelves
vertical world get them up you know because that's the first place i'm gonna go to disperse that sort
of stress is to just give them more places in the world to get to when it comes to cats and dogs one
surefire way to stress out a cat is to let your dog just go because let me tell you something and
being a guy who has seven cats and three dogs i've seen plenty of this a lot of dogs just love to get
into a litter box and a lot of times they invade that space where a cat's still in there or when a
cat's just getting out of there and the dog rushes in that's going to cause stress believe me you
know one of those things that cats need to do is be able to go and use the litter box without the
threat of being either attacked or in this case you know having a dog nose in there next to you
dogs that are not trained whatsoever around cats is a constant problem it's just incumbent upon you
as a dog guardian to make sure that your cats can walk across the room and not be chased by
a dog and of course there is the sanctity of the litter box so just again if you want to forestall
relationship problems and the stress that it induces in cats make sure if you say stop
they stop and make sure they know also that they shouldn't start in the first place
those are the three pillars of the house that cat stress built we have the physical manifestations
the territorial manifestations and the relational manifestations of course all of these things are
kind of fluid right one feeds into the other feeds into the other like i said before a cat can feel
sick and then they express things like hiding or aggression because they don't feel well likewise
they could be feeling something territorially threatening to them and then they will attack
or pee or throw up or get sick all of these things can happen because they're stressed by
a relation or the territory you see what i'm saying what is the common thread in terms of your
diagnosis is your ability to step away the thing that i can bring to your home that oftentimes you
can't bring to your own home is that i don't have the attachment to the story itself i don't have
that emotional reaction to what's happening your cat pees on your bed you're gonna get
mad i'm gonna look at it as a clue so the best thing that you can do is just try and i know
it's not easy you guys but if you're seeing something in your cat that they've never done
before and that could be what you perceive to be destructive behavior that's your moment to step
back out of that storyline and remember one thing this is a manifestation of my cat's stress this is
a manifestation of my cat not feeling well of my cat to some degree or another suffering and that's
where we gotta come at it from put yourself in there pause for a second and remember that you are
there as their guardian and guys i'm saying this loudly because i know it's a tough task i know
that you see your cat as a family member and as a friend and when your friend pees in your bed or in
your gym shoes it's hard to back up and take that step but i'm asking you for the good of not just
your relationship but your cat's well-being try to take that step if it's something that makes you go
huh what was that that's your clue that something is happening outside of your cat to make your cat
feel like something is not safe so that's you know when you start to take action and finally you guys
again i've talked about this a million times as well play with your cat play is not just about
having fun which of course it is but it's also about releasing energy out of their system in
another example another video that i made about life during the coveted quarantines i talked about
the fact that we are now inhabiting our home all of us at all the same time so now the cats are
not the only ones that are home now everyone's home the kids are home from school you're home
from work everyone's home and your cats start manifesting those stress behaviors suddenly
i don't know why but my cat just peed uh in the middle of the room all of these humans and all
these cats are putting out energy bouncing off the walls energy energy energy your cat's like
oh i'm it's just a balloon i'm just filling full of this energy that's what cats do and that energy
has to come out and you don't want the balloon to pop because the balloon a lot of times has pee in
it or aggression in it so how do we bring that balloon back down we play with our cats and we
do it on a really structured basis so your cat's body knows that i arc up but the play brings me
back down again i arc up and it brings me back down again another sort of cure for this is making
sure that you're adhering to what i call the three r's and three r's are routine ritual rhythm the
more we repeat uh activities every day day in and day out and that a lot of times is about play and
it's about feeding and it's about when we leave the house and when we come back and what we do
with each other and with our cats we create rhythm routine and then we repeat that routine
it becomes a ritual we're invested in it and then that becomes the rhythm of our life and
cats are slaves to the rhythm as we all are nobody likes anarchy but for cats territorial sanctity
is really about that rhythm i want today to look like yesterday and i want yesterday to
look like tomorrow all right you guys those are the three ways to look at cats stress
and what i ask you to do is look at it look at it as an observer try to look at it as me coming into
your home like i said before i know that's not easy but think about the alternative and that's
a stressed out cat who's going to do damage to you to your home to the other cats to you know
your aunt edna who comes and visits everybody so let's not let that happen all right you guys thank
you for watching this video because this means you care enough about your cat family members to
do something about their stress so thank you for that on behalf of all the cats don't forget to
subscribe don't forget to make sure you get these little belly notifications here because then the
next time i have a video like this that is for the good of your cat you will get that alert all right
you guys until next time let me know what other kind of videos you want to see in the comments
and we will talk again that's a promise all light and all love and i'll mojo to you [Music]
meow