Program Guideline to raise and maintain happy kittens and cats.

The Persian Cats.com has developed and published the following program which we believe makes the most beautiful and loving kittens you'll ever experience.

  All the Persian Kittens and Himalayan Kittens are born and raised in a cageless, clean stress free home, never isolated in any way, no pet tents of any sort. They are treated as members of our family, and cared for as if they were our own children. We at The Persian Cats in an effort to maintain the integrity of the breed and health of mother and her kittens, limit the amount of times actual mating occurs, and limit each mother to one litter per year. The kittens are played with everyday, we sing to them, include the kittens in all the family activities, bathe, groom, massage (yes massage--they all love it and it has been found to heal sick and shy kittens!) taught not to scratch, and are litter trained at 4 weeks. Under no circumstance is a kitten or cat at The Persian Cats ever hit or disciplined! There is no need to when a kitten and cat is in a stress free home and knows only love and positive reinforcement training. Both mother and father help raise their kittens, and are kept together the entire time. The kittens are well trained by the sixth week, and answer to their names! All kittens & cats are fed a healthy holistic & organic vitamin & mineral supplemented and raw diet, and only get purified water. (read more about The Persian Cats diet)

  All this makes an environment for a well adjusted, happy, healthy, playful and loyal persian kitten that can easily fit into a new loving home. Anyone following the above outlined care guidelines The Persian Cats has developed will have perfect, happy kittens, which we believe will mean less unwanted kittens. Anyone can apply the above guidelines to raising their kittens and cats, or any pet for that matter.

   In cases of rescued pets where the important first 8 weeks of development has occurred in probably undesirable circumstances, the kitten or cat has a high stress level, and it may manifest in various ways. Most commonly the nervous kitten/cat will soil outside the litter box. If this occurs--never-never punish your kitten/cat. This only prolongs the stress deprogramming process. The only successful way to stop an unwanted behaviour is to stop your cat while in the process of doing the undesirable act. In this case pick your kitten/cat and quickly put him in the litter box. Reward them with verbal praise when they do use the litter box on their own. If they insist on soiling outside the litterbox, they may be telling you they don't like where it's currently at-it may be too close to their food source, or the box is too small. I use an under the bed storage container that has wheels. This gives them plenty of room to search out a comfortable place to use the litter box, which is how they would do so in the wild. The size I use may not be feasible for most people's living situations, however a size that is at least twice the length of your cat, and as wide as him is good.

   I've found that if I touch my kittens and cats everytime I pass them and verbally acknowlege them, this helps to make them think they are in "feline safe" company. If you've ever seen nature shows about the big cats, you'll notice that when they come upon each other, they do this nonverbal touching. They can't talk so it's their way of saying "Hi."

   Another remarkable healing tool for cats is to do what I call T-Touch. I kneel on my hands and knees over my kittens and cats, and start by scratching uner their chins. I then just let them guide me-usually by their mood or reaction. If they are really up for a complete full body massage, I then gently caress the shape of their jaw, and move to their head. I then rub their chest and move to the front leg joints, and move down to their front paws. I then sit up a bit and go over their vertebrae. I then feel their belly. and try to follow a counterclockwise direction of massage. Sometimes I can feel a hairball lump, in the abdomen and soon after the massage, I've seen my cats either throw up the hairball or release it in the litterbox. I then massage the hind leg joints, and move down to their paws. I can't tell you how well every kitten/cat responds to this, and it goes so far in destressing them, and letting them know they are safe now with you. It can take no more than 1-2 minutes, and can has dramatic positive results in the behaviour of your cats I've not met a cat that did not enjoy it. It also has a relaxing effect on the human giving the massage. I also tell them how wonderful and beautiful they are as I'm massaging them.

   I once had a person call me saying his 9 week old kitten who was the smallest of 5 in a litter, would just look at the food on the plate, while his littermates ate like it was their last meal. He couldn't determine how long this kitten wasn't eating because the plate looked like a mound of kittens feasting, until he noticed some blood near the back end of this kitten. I dashed over and immediately noticed how emmaciated he was. I feared he was either in or about to begin "Fading Kitten Syndrome."

   It was the weekend, and no Vets were open, and we were not near any emergency vet hospitals. I first held him and talked to him and told him he was a good boy, and that I loved him. He was so listless, but I continued for about half an hour. I then spent the next several hours massaging him as I held him. We talked and watched TV. I even ate with one hand while the other hand held him near my heart. After the massage, we tried to force feed him, but he ate on his own-a little. I had to leave. I was fearful of a "bad news" phone call for the next 2 days. However on the second day I got a phone call that lite up my day--my spring actually, this kitten was eating on his own and had started to interact and play with the other littermates. It took nearly a week and a half before he was eating like the other kittens.

   Was it the T-Touch, the talking, my heartbeat when I held him? What's important is that I'm sure what I did had some beneficial effect for this kitten. Today he is a healthy and vibrant 5 month old kitten. I believe that the massage increases circulation, and thereby the metabolism, which inturn triggers the hunger response. The increased bloodflow is the actual healer. Though I can't or don't advocate this over professional treatment, I can only tell that the technique explained above has nothing but benefical results, and I do hope you'll take the time with your kitten/cat to bring happiness to you both...ThePersianCats.comTM©