Category Accessory

What is Whisker Fatigue and Preventative Steps to Take – Katzenworld

by Accessory

21
Apr

Hi everyone,

As it’s been a while since our last post on Whisker Fatigue and we’ve had many new readers join us we thought it worthwhile to re-post this advice article

Our Necoichi bowls are a fantastic solution to Whisker Fatigue on which we will provide further details in this article.

First of all for those that missed the original post what is Whisker Fatigue:

“In basic terms, whisker fatigue is simply over-stimulation of the sensory system of the whiskers. What happens when the whiskers are touched too much, even if it is basic brushing against food and water dishes, is the cat’s brain gets an onslaught of sensory messages transmitted to their brain.” Dr Keyes from Cat Vet Tucson. A full article on this condition can be found here.

It is something we had never really thought about until we noticed that one of our cats would ignore her normally favourite food! But what are the exact signs to look out for?

  • Refusal to eat or drink from their usual dishes
  • Pacing in front of the food bowls and meowing like something is wrong
  • Pawing at food and water to try and pull it from the bowl
  • Acting more aggressive around food or treats when it is given to them out of the dish

After reading about whisker fatigue we tried many different types of bowls but none of them seemed to be quite right until we found the Necoichi extra-wide bowls!

It’s not surprising that this bowl from Japanese company Necoichi won the 1st place in the Global Pet Expo awards. Not just does it address the whisker fatigue problem but it also addresses the issue of cats liking to eat from the middle of the bowl! Thanks to its designed curve the food naturally gravitates towards the center avoiding the oh so common issue of a cat complaining that the bowl is empty while it’s still half full! 😉

Further to this, the bowls are made of ceramic which avoids the common issue we saw with wide bowls made of bamboo composite or plastic. With the bamboo composite or plastic no matter how hard we cleaned them they lead to the problem eater cat developing feline acne due to the bacteria living in the material of the bowls we used prior to the ceramic bowls.

And lastly, the raised design just makes it easier for cats to eat as well as reduce the risk of vomiting in cats that are prone to the latter!

“The use of an elevated bowl allows gravity to assist in moving food from the mouth to the stomach. Cats with other eating or swallowing problems may also benefit from an elevated food bowl.” Quote By Catherine Barnette DVM

The extra-wide raised bowls now come in 7 fabulous designs from Necoichi and we are very lucky to have been able to source these for our online shop alongside the rest of the impressive Necoichi range. And until the end of August you can get 12% off with the code Sakura (Discount can be applied in your basket / cart on the right hand bottom side or as a clickable link on the top of the checkout page) in our online shop.

The designs currently available for this bowl are Classic, Sakura 2022 , Modern Sakura, Fuji, Botanical Garden, Colourful Dots and Nala cat which features an image of the brands’ mascot Nala!

Of course, the brand also has more affordable standard sized and large bowls as well as water bowls for those that don’t necessarily require the extra-wide bowl to avoid whisker fatigue! This really does depend on the size of your cat and all of their bowls are whisker friendly designed. Our three-legged cat Nubia is especially pleased about this as it makes it easier for her to drink and eat at all times.

The full range can be seen here.

And if you have problems with spillage despite the special lip design to minimise this in the first place… why not add a Necoichi dining tray!

Thanks,

Marc

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What Are the Benefits of Raised Cat Food Bowls? – Katzenworld

by Accessory

25
Mar

Hi everyone,

Following on from our post last week on the benefits of extra-wide bowls, we are today looking at the general benefits of raised cat bowls.

It is becoming increasingly popular to elevate cat bowls. But is there any real benefit to doing so? Does elevating a cat‘s water bowl or food bowl make sense? The answer is yes!

And not just if you have a three-legged cat like our Nubia for whom it is generally easier to not have to bend down!

Of course, some cat owners choose elevated bowls just for aesthetics, but vets now recommend them to help prevent indigestion, vomiting, and strain in your cat’s back and neck.

Our brand of choice for our raised bowls is Necoichi – as they are made of FDA / EU / UK safety-approved porcelain that is also dishwasher and microwave safe they do offer the cleanest (and cutest!) way to elevate our cats’ food and water. 😀

Gravity helps move food from the mouth to the stomach when food is served in an elevated bowl. Because of this, elevated food bowls can also benefit cats who have eating or swallowing difficulties.

An elevated food bowl will help overcome the resistance of gravity, making it easier for your cat to swallow its food, regardless of whether it has a dental issue, neurologic issue, or an upper respiratory infection.

And let’s not forget about our golden oldies! Older cats that may suffer from arthritis find it much more difficult to bend down to the food bowl and let’s face it would YOU want to eat off the floor on all four? Nope! So why would we force our cats to do so!

Of course, we are not saying that you have to purchase one of our bowls but we would highly recommend that you avoid plastic or bamboo bowls as these can build up bacteria over time and their porous material makes it more difficult to clean them properly. Which can lead to problems such as feline acne.

But if you are happy to go for our top choice do check out our Necoichi brand section where you’ll find plenty of bowl designs from colourful dots, mount fuji, sakura to the classic paw print design. 🙂

Plus purchase the bowl tray at the same time with a selection of bowls and receive an automatic 5% off on the bundle which can be combined with our Sakura Season 12% discount code: Sakura

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Gus & Bella’s Mother’s Day Box of Love – Katzenworld

by Accessory

01
Mar

Gus&Bella have got a special edition box again, this time for Mother’s Day.

We will be forced to celebrate Mother’s Day socially distanced once again and 2021 seems like the perfect year to surprise every self-confessed Cat Mum, be this your partner, Mum, aunt, sister, cousin, friend, anyone! Just imagine how they would feel to receive such a special and thoughtful gift on Mother’s Day 🙂

I’m pretty sure that if cats could read, write, spend money and send things they would certainly order this box for their Cat Mums (and not solely because there is something in it – quite literally – for them too). But let’s face it, they need a helping hand from a human reading this, so just order it in the cat’s name and everybody will be happy!

As always, this box is full of amazing things for both human and cat (you will definitely skyrocket in the ranking of the cat’s favourite people once they realise it came from you).

Let’s start with the cat goodies first. Inside this box are two toys, food and extremely delicious treats! My cat Dirk kept giving me paw, without me giving the “give paw” signal, that is how much he loves the treats! A always, the 4Cats toy was a big hit as well and the was an interesting Jolly Moggy Ladybird toy. This one will especially appeal to kittens and younger cats, but even oldie Dirk was excited. This is the first toy he aver reacted to as soon as he heard it chirp. Yes, it chirps when you (or your cat) touch it! These sounds are often a bit fake, but this one was really good. It is a high-pitched chirp, just the sound you can imagine ladybirds making, and piqued his interest straight away.

Now on to the gifts for Cat Mums, although anything that makes our cats happy is already a gift in itself. I love the cute card that comes in the box. You don’t even have to write anything inside it, the recipient will automatically know their cat gave them this lovely present. There is a special blend of earl grey tea that smells and tastes amazing.
And there are two gifts that will put a smile on your face for a long time to come. One is a pink, scented, hanging candle especially designed for Gus&Bella. The scent is gorgeous, it really is. It’s called Rose Velvet & Oud and smells very luxurious, yet subtle.
The other is a super cute umbrella. I know spring is coming, we this is the UK after all! You can put this umbrella in your bag, just in case, and take it out as soon as you feel a drop of rain. After all, you’ll want to show it off!  It will make you happy it is raining and is sure to put a smile on other people’s faces too.

It really is a feel-good, spring is in the air gift box. Perfect for Mother’s Day!

To order yours or order it for a special Cat Mum in your life, click here.

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Christmas came early for Dirk: Gus & Bella’s Santa Paws box – Katzenworld

by Accessory

20
Nov

Regular readers of our Katzenworld blog will know about Gus & Bella’s Boxes, but for those who haven’t heard of them yet let me tell you a little bit about them.

Gus & Bella’s gift boxes contain gifts for cats and people, so they are perfect for cat owners! They contain a mix of toys, food and treats for your cat and trendy gifts for yourself. You can subscribe to get a box every month or choose to buy a single box, ideal as a gift. This year’s Christmas box makes an ideal gift for any cat owner, whether they have a kitten or adult cat. And rest assured if you have a fussy cat or if your cat has any food intolerances: these are catered for as well!

Dirk and I received our very own Christmas box, the Santa Paws box. I don’t know who was more excited about it!

Dirk can’t wait to tuck in 😉

Obviously, unpacking it together is part of the fun. If you order the box for yourself then you’ll see on the website what is inside so it’s less of a surprise. I had no idea though, so it was very much like the anticipation of unwrapping a Christmas present.

Dirk could hardly wait. In fact, he decided to get inside the box first at the opportunity he got to check out his gifts.

So let’s check out the cat presents first. The box contains a lot of food and treats. Now that makes Dirk a very happy boy!

However, the first thing he went for was, of course, a catnip toy. He loves both catnip toys in this box and we had a great time playing with the teaser wand together (although Dirk would not have minded having the toy all to himself…)

As for my presents, well, Dirk was not overly impressed (can’t eat them, no catnip, he’s not allowed to play with them) but I am very happy with them indeed. I’ll be spreading some Christmas cheer and helping to keep others safe with the Christmas cats face mask! I also absolutely love the felt Christmas bauble. No problem if Dirk tries to knock this one from the Christmas tree and it looks so cute! I’ll need to get more, even if just for the lower branches of the tree 😉

Last, but not least if you ask Dirk, the box itself is a gift for the cat as well – even if he does not quite fit inside….

The Santa Paws box is available for pre-order here and ships 8 December

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Oliver: Is This our new Space Ship? – Katzenworld

by Accessory

10
Jul

Hi everyone,

It’s me Oliver here today with some news from Katzenworld HQ! If like me you are thinking this is a new spaceship it certainly does resemble it a little! 😀

But it’s far cooler than that… but let’s start from the beginning.

Renegade: Humans! Can you unpack our Catspad for us please?

Renegade: So it is unpacked… but what does it do?

Oliver: We are getting there humans. It looks setup properly now! 😀

Oliver: Rennie… I think the humans still need to a few settings on the app that belongs to this.

Oliver: Let me see if I can give the humans a paw.

Freya: Guys… I think you should just wait for the humans to set this up instead of being so nosey!

Freya: See guys… the Catspad monitors all kind of things like the water level in the reservoir of water below the feeding and water station!

Freya: And Rennie… remember where you stuck your head in earlier? That’s the food tank! Once the food is is put in there the humans can control when the Catspad dispenses food or even give you some crunchies on demand!

Oliver & Rennie: Did the humans just dispense the food? 😀

Oliver: They most certainly did! Time for tasty food!

Freya: That’s right. That’s exactly what they did. But of course there is much more to what this can do. 😉

So let’s have a look at the benefits of the Catspad:

A Healthy Diet

Feed each cat several small meals throughout the day; as recommended by vets. Program & schedule meals through the app.

Fresh Water

Encourage your cat to drink more and reduce the risk of health issues. The fountain provides fresh, filtered, moving water.

Perfect for Multi-Cat Households

The Catspad recognizes each one of your cats by reading their Catspad collar tags (included).

Monitor Health

Check in on your pets at any time. Monitoring eating and drinking habits is key to detecting potential health issues quickly.

Freya: The free app that comes with this allows your cat guardian to assign a specific feeding schedule to each of you cats living in the household! The way it works is that you attach the Catspad tag to an existing collar to enable the device to locate you and help your human create a profile through the app:

Freya: As you can see above it’s super easy to setup a profile for us felines. 😀 And these profiles are very useful… From profiles such as the one below your humans can easily see weither you are eating and drinking enough.

Freya: Or in the case of our grand gourmand Renegade if he is eating too much… ;o

And fear not since you can manage through the app how much one of us is allowed to consume you can also stop little gourmands from having too much food dispensed for them!

Oliver: That sounds all pawesome but what if there is a power cut?

Freya: Fear not… as the team behind Catspad has thought about this as well! It comes with an emergency battery in order to continue to work on it’s own for up to a month so your humans will have complete peace of mind that we will continue to have access to fresh food and water. 😀

Freya: And during this summer Catspad is offering 100 Euros off on the Catspad so why not ask your humans to head over to their store today!

Nubia: Ha… after all this talking the others still left me some food!

Signed by,

His Meowjesty Prince Renegade the Flash
&
Her Meowjesty Queen Freya the Snow Leopard
&
His Meowjesty King Oliver the Maker of Mischief
&
Her Meowjesty Queen Nubia the Disturber of Peace

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Oliver: Early bed time – pleeaassssse?!? – Katzenworld

by Accessory

18
May

Hi everyone,

It’s Oliver here. Do you think I can go to bed early today? Please…. I can? Woohoo 😀

Oliver: This bed is just too nice… I shall sleep all day!

Oliver: What you are saying I need to bath before going to bed???

Oliver: I can do that in here. 😀

Oliver: Now that’s made me a all sleepy again…

Oliver: zzzzzZzzz… Mices…. ZzzZzzz many presents…

Want to get your own? Click here.

Signed by,

Oliver
His Meowjesty the Maker of Mischief

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Oliver: What’s Wrong With My Tunnel! – Katzenworld

by Accessory

23
Apr

Hi everyone,

So I woke up from my nap the other day only to find that the silly hoomin doesn’t seem to know how to position my tunnel…

Come on… even a kitten would know that this is wrong!


Now I’ll have to use up so much energy to fix this…

Right this is better! MUCH better. 🙂 And for all you kats out there wanting your own – quick snatch your humans plastic card and click here to find it – and if you enter katzenworld10 during checkout you get an extra 10% off!

See you all again soon!

Signed by,

Oliver

His Meowjesty King Oliver the Maker of Mischief

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Dirk’s Very First Water Fountain – Katzenworld

by Accessory

03
Apr

Many cats prefer drinking running water over drinking still water. They drink from the tap or the shower basin or splash water from their bowl before drinking it. There are several theories about the reasons behind this. In all likelihood this behaviour is largely instinctual: in the wild, cats drink moving water as this is less likely to make them sick. Cats also have an excellent sense of hearing so it is easy for them to hear and locate the sound of running water from farther away.

Some cats happily drink from their bowls, but others insist on getting into the shower after you’ve finished or will not rest until you turn on the tap to let the water run… For those tap water loving cats, a water fountain may well be the perfect solution. Drinkwell’s big dog water fountain (shhh, don’t tell your cat this is for dogs too!) is excellent for multi-cat households or for those cats that like to play with their water or tip over their bowl: they won’t manage to do so with this fountain!

Dirk has never had a water fountain, but as you’ll see he proves even an older cat can learn new tricks 😉

What is this new thing???
Ah, I see, I can play with this

As you can see, Dirk quite enjoyed playing with this fountain, something he didn’t do with his water bowl. I initially left his bowl next to the fountain just in case it took Dirk a while to start drinking from it. He only drank from the bowl once after I put the fountain down so even though he hasn’t previously had a fountain he clearly prefers it over the still water. He mostly prefers to drink from the top, right where the water comes out but drinks from the bowl section of the fountain as well. I imagine cats that love tap water will drink more from the free flowing stream (and not just play with it as Dirk does!).

This particular Drinkwell fountain is plastic and is of course free of BPA. The is filtered and the constant water circulation in the bowl helps prevent bacteria growth. The water stream entices cats to drink more and thus helps prevent urinary and kidney diseases in cats. It does make some noise, but this did not deter Dirk and I didn’t find it annoying at all.

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Distracting Your Feline Friend From Your Keyboard? Try our Kat Zen Pads! – Katzenworld

by Accessory

27
Mar

Hi everyone,

It’s Oliver here today! As you can see my humans turned one of their storage spaces into a super comfy resting space for me using one of our Kat Zen World Cat Pads. 😀

Nubia: With all of your humans working from home you are sure to want to walk all over their keyboards but how are they going to earn money for your food and toys if you won’t let them work from home?

Rennie: This is where these pads come in handy… just get your human to reserve a little area in their home office for you. Ideally in hand distance, so you can demand cuddles and treats during the day without having to move or step all over their keyboard to get attention! ;o

Oliver: Any space will do and be turned into a nice resting place with the Kat Zen Pads ! 😀

Oliver: And while your human works on the PC… you can get their attention by looking cute, cuddly and simply adorable! ;o

Kat Zen Pads – The Purrfect Cat Bed for Your Feline Companion

Signed by,

His Meowjesty King Oliver the Maker of Mischief
&
Her Meowjesty Queen Nubia the Disturber of Mischief
&
His Meowjesty Prince Renegade the Flash

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Keeping an eye on Dirk with the Ezviz C1C camera – Katzenworld

by Accessory

13
Mar

I’m sure most cat owners wonder what their cats get up to when they are home alone. I certainly do! Sometimes I find evidence he’s been playing as there are toys all over the room, other days I find no evidence of any activity whatsoever, apart from eating 😉

For everyone who is tempted to get a camera to keep an eye on their cats, I can recommend the Ezviz C1C camera. I tested version with the 1080 pixel camera (they also have version with a 720 pixel camera) which gives you a 130 degree view and super sharp images!

I won’t get into too much technical detail, you can find those here. Instead, let me tell you about my experience with the camera and why I think it could be useful – as well as fun – for cat owners. And for UK stockists please click here.

Set up of the camera and the app is really very easy and after that you can place the camera wherever you want. It has a long cable and also comes with a magnetic mounting kit, which make it easy to fix to a wall, bookcase, cupboard or the ceiling. Once you’ve done that, the fun can begin!

Being a novice with this type of cameras, I was really amazed by how sharp the video is and how much of the room you can see. In fact, I cropped some of the images for privacy reason 😉
The app is very user friendly and I found it very intuitive to use.

What is this thing??

With this camera you can also talk to your cat. This is more fun for us than for the cat I image… The first few times I did this Dirk was intrigued and went over to check out the camera. However, after a few times he only moved his head or ignored it altogether. So it’s a fun feature, but after testing it a few times I no longer really use it. This feature is more useful if you’d use the camera to talk to people as it is a two-way feature.

For me, I found it fun to use this camera and that is a good enough reason in itself! If you want to know how your cat is doing while you’re at work you open the app to look at the live feed. If he’s not active at the moment, but has been active while you weren’t looking then you can have a look at the video clips that have been saved. And the camera automatically goes to infrared night vision when there’s little light. Even in night vision mode the images are very sharp.


If you want to save video data you either need a micro SD card or you can sign up to use the Ezviz cloud.

However, this camera can also be genuinely useful. I am a cat behaviourist and I could imagine using this camera in a few situations.

For example, if your cat is no longer using its litter tray (and the vet cannot find a medical reason for this!) then you can set up the camera to monitor how the cat is behaving new their litter tray and how it is behaving prior to peeing or pooping somewhere else.

If your cat has separation anxiety, you can see how long this actually lasts. It’s horrible for us to leave the home while hearing the cat howl. You might feel guilty and worry the cat is feeling anxious all day. However, the camera might show you that the cat settles down again after a few minutes.

It can also be useful if you have more than one cat and there are some problems between them. We don’t know what happens when they are away and the cats might behave differently when we are home. At some point growing up, we had two cats named Boris and Binky. Boris was the dominant one and would chase Binky away or pick a fight. However, one night we discovered that at night Binky was actually the one in charge. This just goes to show that if your cats don’t get along it’s not always easy to see which one is being dominant and which one is the ‘victim’. If you monitor them with a camera while you are away you get a much clearer picture – no pun intended – of which cats shows what behaviour and how they interact when home alone.

Some cats live near a ‘neighbourhood bully’. If you have a camera you can keep an eye on cats visiting your garden or. If your cat has outdoor access as well you can keep an eye on their interactions with other cats. If you want to, you can activate a motion detection alarm which will tell you if someone is moving in the garden. I can imagine that the two-way audio feature could come in handy here: if you notice another cat is about to attack your cat then a sudden sound might startle it enough to run away. However, cats have territorial disputes, this is part of their behaviour. If you don’t want your cat to roam around the neighbourhood or other cats to visit your garden then install a fencing system (such as the ones from ProtectaPet).

Those are just a few examples of cases is which having a camera may be useful. Let’s be honest, for the most part it is fun. We all love seeing pictures or videos of our pets when we are away, we wonder what they get up to and most of us really miss them when we’re not home. I loved watching Dirk have his crazy 5 minutes on camera. For the most part though, it just confirmed that Dirk is basically asleep between 9am and 4 pm 😉

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