Everyday Cat Stress

Summary

Cats face several stressors, both major and minor, in their daily lives which can lead to noticeable behavioral changes. Jackson Galaxy discusses how life's big changes like moving or losing a loved one can stress a cat, but it's often the everyday environmental factors that get overlooked. Ordinary things such as loud noises, changes in routine, or even the owner's emotional state can cause a significant impact. This video dives into understanding these stressors and offers strategies to alleviate them, including consulting a vet when necessary.

Highlights

• Cats are sensitive to both major and everyday stressors. ⚠️
• Common stress signs include hiding, inappropriate elimination, and behavioral changes. 🚫
• Environmental factors such as loud TVs and household changes are often overlooked stressors. 📺
• Your stress can directly affect your cat's well-being. Stay calm, and your cat may too. 🌈
• Establishing a routine helps your cat cope with stress. 🍳

Key Takeaways

• Recognize everyday stressors like loud TVs or household changes. 🏠
• Understand that cats are sensitive to their environment and routines. 🌞
• Use desensitization and counter-conditioning to help cats adapt. 🎸
• Be mindful of your own stress as it can affect your cat. 🙀
• Routine, ritual, and rhythm can minimize your cat's stress. 🕒

Overview

In Jackson Galaxy's insightful video, he explores the variety of stress factors that can affect cats on a daily basis. While big changes like moving and vet visits are obvious stressors, he warns about the less noticeable, everyday issues. Loud noises from a TV, changes in household routines, and even the emotional tension of their humans can cause distress for these sensitive creatures.

Cats need stability and peace to thrive. Galaxy emphasizes that feline behavior changes such as hiding or refusal to eat are often linked to stress caused by their environment. He recommends desensitization strategies to help cats adapt to their surroundings and advises owners to be aware of their own stress levels as cats pick up on these cues.

Implementing the 'three R's - routine, ritual, and rhythm,' alongside environmental enrichment like 'catification', can help alleviate stress for felines. Galaxy also discusses available products that can assist in reducing stress levels, such as flower essence solutions and interactive toys. If needed, he encourages consulting with a vet regarding medication to ensure a cat's health and happiness.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction: Understanding Cat Stress The chapter titled 'Introduction: Understanding Cat Stress' addresses common reasons why cats experience stress. It points out that cat owners often inquire about the causes of stress in their pets. The chapter highlights significant stressors such as moving to a new home, the loss of a pet or human family member, visits to the vet, and traveling in carriers. These situations represent major changes that can lead to stress in cats.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Identifying Everyday Stressors The chapter is about everyday stressors and how they may be impacting us without us even realizing it. It compares identifying stress in our lives to recognizing stress in a pet, like a cat. The idea being that just as we can identify the signs of stress in our pets, we should be able to identify these signs in ourselves. "Let's get catified" suggests a playful approach to understanding stress signals, possibly leading to methods or practices to de-stress.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Signs of Stress in Cats This chapter discusses how to identify signs of stress in cats, exemplified by changes in behavior such as hiding in unusual places instead of showing up for routine activities like dinner. The text emphasizes sudden behavioral changes, such as inappropriate elimination, as indicators of stress in cats.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Immediate Steps to Take The chapter "Immediate Steps to Take" emphasizes the importance of addressing pet behaviors that are potentially connected to underlying health issues. It stresses that behaviors such as consistent litter box usage highlight the animal's comfort or discomfort, which might be rooted in fear, anxiety, or physical discomfort. The chapter advises that immediate veterinary consultation is crucial to rule out any medical problems, urging readers to prioritize their pet's health and well-being by seeking professional advice without delay.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Major and Everyday Stressors This chapter discusses the concept of stress in cats, highlighting both major and everyday stressors they may face. It emphasizes that physical distress can be a significant source of stress, suggesting that any condition that physically compromises a cat can initiate a stress response. Examples provided include urinary tract infections, dental issues such as bad teeth or abscesses, and gastrointestinal upsets. The importance of being proactive and planning for these potential stressors is also mentioned, aiming to minimize their impact on a cat's well-being.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Environmental Factors: Loud Noises The chapter discusses the impact of loud noises and everyday stressors on cats. It emphasizes the importance of being aware of these stressors, as they can cause significant stress to cats, similar to how cats react to being placed in a carrier for vet visits. The video mentioned provides tips for helping cats adjust to carriers, but the main focus is on everyday stressors that might be overlooked but still affect cats' well-being.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Impact of Routine Changes The chapter discusses how routine changes, such as the arrival of family members and noise, can overstimulate cats. Some cats may become playful and want to join in the activity, while others prefer to retreat and stay away from the commotion.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Seasonal and Routine Changes This chapter highlights the energetic and space-consuming nature of kids compared to adults and even pets like cats. It discusses how children can be unpredictably loud and how they occupy space differently. Additionally, the chapter touches on the impact of construction or remodeling in a household, suggesting that it disrupts space and routine, especially if it's a significant area like a kitchen.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Challenge Line and Desensitization This chapter discusses the challenges of dealing with strangers entering the home frequently, bringing noise and unfamiliar scents. It emphasizes the importance of being observant of these changes and how they can affect the stress levels of pets, particularly cats. The author mentions that they offer private consultations, which can include a walkthrough of the home via video to better understand the issues contributing to the pet's stress and edginess.
• 05:00 - 05:30: Managing Human Stress The chapter discusses the impact of overstimulation in everyday environments, particularly in homes. A scenario is described where the loud volume of a television in a living room, combined with the noise from children's cartoons, contributes to heightened stress levels. This example underscores the importance of being aware of environmental stressors and how regular exposure might make them go unnoticed. Video walkthroughs are highlighted as a method to identify and address such stress-inducing factors.
• 05:30 - 06:00: The Three 'R's: Routine, Ritual, Rhythm This chapter discusses the concept of the three 'R's: Routine, Ritual, and Rhythm. It focuses on understanding how different beings, like cats, experience environments differently. The sensitivity of a cat's hearing is highlighted, emphasizing how sounds, such as music or loud talking, can cause stress. Readers are encouraged to be mindful of environmental factors that might affect animals, such as the volume of TV or conversations.
• 06:00 - 06:30: Catification and Base Camp The chapter titled 'Catification and Base Camp' discusses various solutions for environmental overstimulation in cats. The speaker mentions that solutions will be provided towards the end of the video but encourages viewers to watch the whole video unless they are solely interested in the solutions. The chapter markings allow viewers to skip ahead if they wish. The speaker also notes that most viewers of the video are not subscribed.
• 06:30 - 07:00: Products to Help Reduce Stress The chapter discusses various products that can help reduce stress. The narrator initially engages the audience by reminding them to subscribe to the channel, like the video, and leave comments for interaction. Following this, the focus shifts to the topic of stress and how cats, whether in colonies or as indoor pets, navigate their lives and environments in a structured manner. This structured lifestyle of cats serves as a metaphor for addressing stress by seeking order and routine in one's own life.
• 07:00 - 07:30: Medication and Holistic Solutions The chapter discusses the impact of significant changes in routine on both humans and animals, using the example of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, people and pets had to adjust to being at home constantly, affecting their behavior and need for a new structure. Initially, the abrupt change was unsettling, but over time, adaptation occurred, illustrating the necessity of understanding both medication and holistic solutions in managing change.
• 07:30 - 08:00: Conclusion: Monitoring Cat Stress The conclusion emphasizes the importance of monitoring and anticipating changes in a cat's environment that could lead to stress. These changes might include alterations in the owner's routine, the introduction of new people like a partner or a child, or the addition of new pets to the household. The need to be proactive about these changes and address them effectively is highlighted, with further steps promised to be covered later.

Everyday Cat Stress Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 one really common question that I get why is my cat so stressed like what is causing the stress in my cat's life what do cats get stressed out by and I think that's a great question and I'm glad that you guys are putting it in the comments below these videos because then I answer them like this you know there are very defining stressful things in any cat's life whether that's moving to another place whether that's the death of an animal family member a human family member going to the vet getting into a carrier going for a drive you know those big big big changes so that
• 00:30 - 01:00 is a given but what about the everyday stressors what what about the parts of your life that are you know just stressful and you wouldn't even know it but of course you guys know what your cat looks like when there's stressed so then it's a simple deduction right right you don't know what your cat looks like when they're stressed oh all right well then let's get catified [Music] what does it look like when your cat is stressed what is the warm warning sign
• 01:00 - 01:30 to you that oh well I got to look around and figure out what may have caused this your cat is doing something they didn't do before this is something sudden and it can be something as noticeable as where is he you know Chester usually comes down here for dinner he's us the first in line for dinner where is he and he's under a bed under the couch up on top of the fridge he's you know looking around he's paranoid for lack of a better word then there's things like inappropriate elimination suddenly Chester's not going in the litter box
• 01:30 - 02:00 and he used his litter box since day one with never a problem don't forget all of these behaviors are connected in some way or another to fear anxiety and discomfort which leads me to this point which should be in neon lights neon lights when I say this go to the vet go to the vet do not pass go do not collect $200 in fact Fork out that 200 plus a little bit and find out what's going on if there is anything
• 02:00 - 02:30 going on because physical distress is stress if they're experiencing something that puts them off balance or in a compromised situation that raw cat kicks in I am in trouble it can be anything from a urinary tract infection to a bad tooth to an abscess somewhere to some upset in their belly anything so at the top of this I talked about the major stressors in a cat's life and things that we should plan for to the best of
• 02:30 - 03:00 our ability because we know it's going to stress them out like for instance this video over my head right here that's about how you can get your cat to be adjusted to a carrier so they can go to the vet and not be so stressed out that they pee and poop everywhere and don't come out from under the bed for a day but what about the ones that are just everyday stressors things that just actually might get by you because it's just you living your life and yet it's a constant you know water torture type of thing on your cat let's talk about those things
• 03:00 - 03:30 [Music] you're watching CBS the loudest channel on TV previously on NCIS cats can be overstimulated by things happening in the environment that again might get right past you so for instance that could be that time of the day where everybody comes home and the kids come home and and everyone yelling and screaming and we're we're getting ready for dinner and that moment that some cats will get all playful and like I want to be part of this and some will just retreat in the back with wide eyes
• 03:30 - 04:00 or wind up on a shelf or on top of the fridge or something it's up to you to be just observant in those moments kids in general I mean not only can kids of a certain age specifically be loud and unpredictably loud but they also occupy space in a way that grown-ups don't that even other cats don't and they will make a lot of noise Construction in the house if you're doing any kind of remodeling not only taking away territory because whatever room it is let's say it's the kitchen being modeled it's sort of off
• 04:00 - 04:30 limits you got strangers coming in and out all day long they're making tons of noise tracking in scents that are completely abnormal and to my point about you not even noticing this thing I do private consultations if you guys are interested by the way you can uh apply to have a consultation with me I'll put the link in the description I always ask for a video walkthrough of the home and any supporting video because I can't be there with you as to what's going on and in this one home which was very much about about stress and Cat being on edge
• 04:30 - 05:00 the client was walking me through the home and we get to the living room and in the middle of the living room the TV was on blast and it was not just TV being on blast but it was also she had like an 8-year-old watching TV so it was that 8-year-old cartoon crazy music and even I got over stimulated because you live with it day in and day out you just don't notice it but the volume of that TV was crazy this is why we do those video walkthroughs but what I'm trying
• 05:00 - 05:30 to say is with the sort of symptoms I told you about sometimes it really says okay how does a cat experience this differently than I do and in this case we got to remember cat hearing is incredibly sensitive they hear things and overtones in this music and the violins at the very top of that synthesizer overtone the echo of the snare you know whatever it is and that causes stress so check out the environment it can be how loud we talk it could be the TV it could be any of
• 05:30 - 06:00 the things I talked about so keep your eye out on that and yes I have solutions for what you might be experiencing with this part of things but I'm going to let you guys have all of that towards the end of the video so listen if you recognize that your cat has environmental over stimulation go ahead there's chapter markings on here you can go skip to the end but if you figure wait if it might be this it might be other things keep watching did you know that the majority of you guys who are watching this video right now are not
• 06:00 - 06:30 subscribed to the channel I mean maybe you thought you were but you never hit that subscribe button so let me take your finger to it right now and there everything's better subscribe to the channel give it a like and also don't forget put comments in in the comment section let me know what you're thinking let's have a conversation because that's how I know what videos to make okay enough of me now let's get on to our next stressor cats do not like Anarchy whether they're outdoors in colonies whether they're indoors in your house they really base their life right down
• 06:30 - 07:00 to where the sun is around their world they really need that structure I mean here's a great example I mean during the pandemic everyone go went home all of a sudden we were home all the time we were working from home living at home all the kids were home all the adults were home and the animals were like uh you know this is very different it's that level of change first they had to get used to us being there and they wanted to just like climb in a hole or jump out a window for a while then they're like oh I can get like this and then we leave
• 07:00 - 07:30 again that's the kind of thing that we have to be aware of so changes in your routine which could revolve around a work situation or not work situation the comings and goings of new people like a new boyfriend girlfriend the arrival of a child the comings and goings of a new animal family member these changes are really important and it's it's important that we that we anticipate it and do something about it which I'll get to in a little bit so I just talked about changes in your routine but what about
• 07:30 - 08:00 changes in their routine and the cat routine now we can be talking about something as simple as changing food that all of a sudden you're trying to get them on the good stuff and they're like nope you know and of course I talk about that in my three-part food videos which the playlist is right there over my head but you want to do it slowly you want to do everything slowly a new cat litter new position of litter boxes rearranging the furniture and anybody in the uh in TV Land out there who has taken a couch from one side of the living room to the other all of a sudden
• 08:00 - 08:30 the cats are exploring that space and that couch as if it were a couch dropped from the Moon like where did this thing come from that's the world of cat change does not work well for them which reminds me if you are trying a new litter do not just take away a litter box and put in a new one you add another one you try that litter you see if they prefer it and then you slowly switch you know everything food same way all of these things take
• 08:30 - 09:00 getting used to and can be overcome with planning which I will get to later and here's one that you probably didn't think about but I was talking about position of the sun the change in Seasons the change of the clocks Seasonal effective disorder in animals is a real thing everybody and when the days get shorter and there's less sunlight since cats really depend on sunlight for their well-being that's a big change I I think that the time change thing is is really an example of how subtle to you it can get unless you
• 09:00 - 09:30 really start putting yourself in their pause for a second knowing that it affects you how does it affect a cat and just that awareness think of them just think to yourself is this affecting my cat that's all now Beyond just being aware you don't want to be walking around the house on eggshells either get them to be more confident around challenges and that's the thing we got to do you want to bring challenge to their lives and
• 09:30 - 10:00 have them be able to accept it and accept it with that sense of yeah I can do this so how do we do that well the challenge line is something that I talk about in a lot of my videos and it's this notion that if I can identify on one side of a line my cat's comfortable let's say that we're introducing your cat to a new cat um you know we're going to have meals on opposite sides of a closed door and if I'm feeding it 3 ft away on either side well the cats walk up they eat they walk away if I go 2T and n in challenge line because on the
• 10:00 - 10:30 other side of that line I'm not going to eat or I'm going to dive at the door and pause under the door okay let's start at three make sure that for the first couple of days every meal I know what to expect one paw over the line and you don't go over the line in a way that it feels like an ice bath you just one paw at a time it now another concept associated with challenge line is the concept of desensitization and counter conditioning and yes there's a video right there about how to acclimate your
• 10:30 - 11:00 cat to something that they're afraid of so what we do is in a very deliberate way we first expose it to them gently and at the same time we're desensitizing we're counterconditioning by saying not only is this not a really evil terrible monster under the bed but it's a nice monster under the bed if there's a good association with what scared them so just for instance let's say the sound of an ambulance going by and you just happen to live in
• 11:00 - 11:30 New York City like where I grew up and there's just ambulances going by fire engines going by it's the siren that sets them off so what we do is we get a recording of a siren and we we start it at very very low levels and it happens when we're either playing with them or we're feeding and then with every meal we challenge line it up and the good starts to be like oh wait a minute every time I eat I hear this cool sound you know it actually works that way it works with humans we call it exposure therapy
• 11:30 - 12:00 it works with animals just as well so think about that one and watch the video if your cat is afraid of sirens or ceiling fans or any of the other things that I talk about in that video on the other side of this whole thing don't feel like you have to baby your cats all the time because they'll never know what challenge is on the other side of that coin is they'll just get over it it's fine they'll just get over it they're going to have to get over it my kid watches loud TV that's not going to happen either because all that does is perpetuate that fear perpetuate that discomfort Fort and perpetuate the
• 12:00 - 12:30 notion that when your child walks into the living room and turns the TV on it's going to be like World War III there's ways to get around that but we don't want a baby we don't want to get over it neither one of those are going to work you know what one everyday stressor I didn't even talk about is your stress if things are really stressful in your life cats are energetic sponges they just pick up on what's going on and they just put it right back out again and it
• 12:30 - 13:00 is astounding the way it works like I will never forget one of my early consults that I did when and I was going into someone's home and they couldn't figure out why the cat was peeing outside the box and you know in talking to them trying to just get a history all of a sudden the couple started fighting and I mean fighting and I find myself like I'm at a tennis match watching the two of them go but it was like a tennis match of horror and I'm just going back and forth and then I look down and there's the cat doing this same thing
• 13:00 - 13:30 and then she walked off and she peed on the wall just like that your stress is their stress job situation the things you bring home just take a moment when things are happening go take a beat the whole count to 10 whatever take a walk do something so you're not spreading the cancer your whole animal family is that way just be aware of how you manifest your own stress that's a big one man this is stuff that you have heard me talk about hopefully a lot if you have hung around this channel long enough the number one thing is the
• 13:30 - 14:00 concept of the three hours routine ritual Rhythm let's get that routine going let's invest it and then because it happens every day it becomes ritual and then we're talking about the rhythm of everyone's life the alarm clock goes up and then we have rituals that go along with that alarm clock we come home we go to bed same things happen with a cat based on playtime Meal Time cuddle time if the more structured you are those three hours and I promise you this is true are going to help save the day
• 14:00 - 14:30 and by the way all the rituals that are contained I mentioned play yeah man play with your cat playing with your cat takes whatever stress they're feeling and gives it this instinctual out I know that my body needs to do something oh that's right hunt catch kill boom boom boom run around that will also dispel your own stress as well play with your cat now in terms of environment catification giving your cats places to get away but not hide at the same time for instance I was talking about a
• 14:30 - 15:00 scared cat could go under the couch or on top of the fridge and those are their scared places what's the opposite of that what I call The Confident wear the only way that you're going to know where that place is on the vertical axis where your cat goes from this to this is by finding out I've written entire books on this me and Kate Benjamin two books catification catify is satisfy that's how important environmental enrichment is to your cat's lives so beyond just picking them up there's there's catification all over this Channel and
• 15:00 - 15:30 finally and especially if you're moving from place to place if you're traveling but you know anytime your cat needs that safe place to go that Panic Room that's called base camp and establishing base camp for your cat man that's good stuff and that means that in a room and often times it's your bedroom there is the things that really just resonate with your cat from a scent perspective from just a a place that's important like in the window on your bed litter boxes and
• 15:30 - 16:00 and scratching posts and cat trees all in this one space because then once we get them feeling ah in that one space we can take all the elements and start bringing them out to the rest of the house put new stuff in there to marinate and suddenly everywhere is base camp like I said before I know I'm a broken record here but there are so many videos on this channel that talk about that so beyond just words and books and videos what else do I have for you guys well
• 16:00 - 16:30 glad you asked I've got products that either I make or I curate on my shop that will definitely help with stress the first thing are these this is my my flower essence Solutions it's a line that I helped create with a vet 20 some odd years ago they work this one right here is stress stopper and it should be in everyone's closet man if your cat's going through it any of the stuff I'm talking about this will help bring that energetic temperature down a little bit and I encourage you to have it be beyond that nothing says I love you more than
• 16:30 - 17:00 treats and toys and I've got my own interactive toys freeze-dried meat treats and those are things that help keep those three Rs in check along with all the beds we sell just check out the store and you will see all different kinds of ways your cats will say thank you and look after all this if Holistic Solutions if all the things I'm talking about if there are natural supplements that could help your cat if none of those things are working there's nothing wrong with saying my cat needs
• 17:00 - 17:30 medication nothing wrong with that and if your cat cannot control their stress sometimes it's a little bit of nurture and sometimes it's just nature and some of us experience stress in a much more profound way than others so please don't feel self-conscious or in any way ashamed about going to your vet and talking about medication for your cat because whatever makes them feel better is something that you should embrace so yeah there are some big hardcore stressors in the world and there are just some just gnaw at you every day
• 17:30 - 18:00 like a loud TV let's just be aware and adjust and make sure that we're thinking about our cats in an everyday way and the biggest thing I can tell you is just watch their bodies their bodies will tell you everything you need to know remember aggression is fear is anxiety hiding fear anxiety discomfort go to the vet big neon letters anyway I'm talking about all this and it's making me stressed out and I got to go and um you know sit in my my base camp all right
• 18:00 - 18:30 everybody until next time we speak don't forget I want to see in the comments what you want to see and then you'll see it light and love and Mojo to you [Music]
• 18:30 - 19:00 meow